“Still No Consensus Regarding Treatment of Women With High Risk Breast Lesions on Core Biopsy” plus 2 more |
- Still No Consensus Regarding Treatment of Women With High Risk Breast Lesions on Core Biopsy
- Thermography - An Alternative Way to Detect Breast Cancer
- Symptoms and Treatments of Breast Cancer
| Still No Consensus Regarding Treatment of Women With High Risk Breast Lesions on Core Biopsy Posted: 10 Dec 2009 02:25 PM PST I wrote an article a while back on my blog called "What Your Core Needle Biopsy Diagnosis Means" to help patients understand why sometimes even a "benign" diagnosis may require a surgical excision. While writing that article, I spoke to many of my colleagues in breast pathology and breast imaging and found out that there is a marked difference in recommendations for surgery for certain core biopsy diagnoses dependent upon where in the United States a patient is diagnosed. We decided to partake in an informal survey of our colleagues and our results recently confirmed my initial impression. We published a Letter to the Editor in the American Journal of Roentgenology this past May which highlights this issue. First let me explain...there has always been, and likely always will be, some differences in the way certain doctors and medical institutions treat patients. I'm not sure that will ever change. This is based on individual doctors' and hospitals' years of experience and their interpretation of the literature. However, when it comes to core needle biopsy of the breast, there seem to be a set of diagnoses that we call the "gray" or "high risk" lesions in which the medical community cannot seem to come to a consensus regarding need for further treatment. The diagnoses I'm talking about include the following -- lobular neoplasia (ALH/LCIS), papillary lesions, flat epithelial atypia, and radial scar. Why no consensus? One main reason is the medical literature on core biopsy is full of conflicting data. Some studies say excise all of the above lesions, others say it's not necessary. How can this be? My opinion is that almost all, if not all, of the studies that have been published on these diagnoses are retrospective, meaning the doctors looked back at patients who had a diagnosis on core and then looked at what was present on their surgical excision. The problem with most of these studies is that they are not controlled studies and thus there is a "selection bias" and most had small numbers of patients that were studied. For example, a recent study as to why atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH) should be excised was based on eighteen patients! One of the eighteen patients developed a cancer so the study said there is an approximately 6% risk of finding a cancer on surgical excision if there is ALH on core biopsy. Thus, the study recommended all women with ALH on core biopsy should have an open surgical biopsy. While that percentage is approximately correct, do we want to base our medical decision-making for all women in the United States on one of eighteen patients?? I would hope not. We need much better prospective, controlled studies. The bottom line is this...first, if you have a core biopsy make sure your diagnosis is correct -- if need be, get a second opinion. Second, if you are recommended to have surgery, particularly if you have one of the above diagnoses, ask your surgeon why he/she is recommending surgery and what data that decision is based upon. Get as much information as you can before you make a decision to pursue surgery! If any of you is interested in references to all of these conflicting articles I would be happy to provide them to you. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger  |
| Thermography - An Alternative Way to Detect Breast Cancer Posted: 10 Dec 2009 01:57 PM PST According to the National Institutes of Health, one woman in 8, will be a victim of breast cancer in her lifetime. We know that our environment, with chemicals and pesticides and hormone-laden meat, are all contributors to this. But also, mammography using ionizing radiation is problematic. We are faced with the dilemma of how best to detect early breast cancer and do it as safely as possible without exposing our patients to risk in the process. No doubt you have heard of MRIs and mammograms for detecting breast cancer, but let us introduce you to thermography which gives women individualized breast cancer risk assessment and provides the earliest detection available. In fact, breast thermography has the ability to warn women up to 10 years in advance-before any other procedure-that a cancer may be forming, thus allowing for prompt and timely measures to prevent it from occurring. We know that breast cancer survival depends upon its earliest possible detection. Research has shown that if it is discovered in its earliest stages, the cure rates are excellent. Who is at greatest risk for breast cancer? Your chances of getting breast cancer increase if you have a family history of the disease although 75 percent of women who get breast cancer have no such history. Excess estrogen is the greatest single risk factor for breast cancer. Thermography can warn women if they have excess estrogen within their breasts and the risk factors can be decreased with proper diet and lifestyle change.What is Thermography? Thermography is; • Non invasive
This quick and easy test starts with your medical history being taken before you partially disrobe for the scanning to be performed. You do not have any contact with the equipment and your first 15-minute session provides the baseline of your 'thermal signature'. A subsequent session assures that the patterns remain unchanged.
When should women be screened? All women should be screened starting at age 20. Approximately one third of all breast cancers occur in women under the age of 45. Thermography provides a detection device that can give a warning signal far in advance of invasive tumor growth. Mammography, MRI, CT, ultrasound, and PET scans are only helpful once the tumor is actually there. But by then it may be too late. Early low-cost, non-invasive screening is the most important thing a woman can do with regard to her breast health. Thermography is the best method to do this. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger |
| Symptoms and Treatments of Breast Cancer Posted: 10 Dec 2009 01:25 PM PST Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women, especially in the United States. It is a real killer disease which takes lives of a whole lot of women of different ages if it goes undiagnosed. Women who are prone to breast cancer are those who use birth control pills, obese women, women who have undergone hormone replacement therapy, alcoholics, childless women, the list goes on. Genetic or hormonal aspects are the most significant factors of this disease. The most common indicator of breast cancer is a lump in the breast, some sort of oozing from the nipple or an alteration in the size or contour of the breast. The best way of detecting it is through mammography or self breast examination. Women who have been diagnosed with this dreadful disease do not have to worry too much about it now as medical science has undergone such wonderful strides and have come up with numerous treatments to fight breast cancer. The most common treatments that are available now are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and biological therapy. The selection of treatment is subject to what extent the disease has progressed. The doctor will help you to opt for the method that is best suited to your stage. Treatment can be systemic or local. Radiation and surgery fall under local treatments while chemotherapy, hormone therapy and biological therapy come under systemic treatments. Some times the cancer may have progressed to other parts of the body from the actual organ. Then it is known as metastatic cancer and will reveal other kinds of symptoms The most significant and innate therapy for breast cancer depends on your food intake. It is important to have food that does not have much glucose in them which will aid in destroying the cancer cells that thrive on glucose. There are many people who have overcome cancer through following the cancer diet. So if you are a victim of breast cancer, do not despair as there are now umpteen kinds of treatments available and you will surely be cured if you get the right kind of treatment that is best suited to you. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger |
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