Breast Cancer: News You Need To Know!
Happy Tuesday!! I'm going to Keller Auditorium to see Little Women tonite so I'm pretty thrilled that I'm getting off work on time tonite. I originally chased a different story than the Herceptin story, but it fell through. I'd tell ya all about it, but I'm "efforting" it for tomorrow.
In the meantime, here is additional information on the Herceptin study out of Texas. By the way, the doctor I interviewed for the story (Dr. Chui) hadn't done media interviews before. He did GREAT!!
Okay: the link...
And here is the study abstract:
http://www.jco.org/cgi/content/abstract/JCO.2005.04.9551v1
And here are the other two breast cancer stories that crossed the NBC wires. This is the NBC write-up that I'm basically ripping off the wire-service:
Radiation
A study from the University of Pennsylvania found women with early stage breast cancer who received radiation therapy to the left side of the chest were at a slightly increased risk for heart disease as many as 20 years after having had the radiation.
This was especially true for women with high blood pressure. However, left-sided radiation therapy was not associated with an increased risk of death from heart-related problems.
Researchers say that while radiation techniques continue to improve patients should closely monitor their cardiovascular health.
Nearly 1,000 women were studied. About half had right-side radiation, while the other half had left-side radiation. The women were followed from 10-20 years.
Steph's note: here is the full study!!
http://www.jco.org/cgi/reprint/JCO.2006.07.7909v1
Genetic Testing
An estimated 192,000 women in the US are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. 36 to 85 percent of women who carry a specific genetic mutation can expect a cancer diagnosis.
The question is: who would benefit most from genetic testing?
New research on more than 23-hundred African-American and Caucasian women found brca1 mutations were significantly more common in white women while the brca2 mutations were slightly more common among African-American women.
Overall about 4-percent of all breast cancer cases carried one or the other mutation.
Among breast cancer cases, brca1 mutations were found in 10.2 percent of Jewish women, compared with 2 percent of non-Jewish women.
Response time: regarding the posting below about who spends time with the kids and how it influences thier weight.. a friend jokingly writes:
because mom more likely to = fresh food, and dad more likely to = fast
food. Case in point: My husband to this day will not eat either hot
dogs nor mac & cheese after two years living with his dad post-divorce.
That's all his dad knew how to cook. He can't even eat homemade mac &
cheese, the thought makes him ill. He can, however, eat at Good Dog Bad
Dog, so methinks it's selective nausea. :)
Have a fabulous night!! sstricklen@kgw.com
