1. Weekly intake of 3 wine glasses ups the risk of breast cancer relapse by thirty percent

United States scientists from the Kaiser Permanent Division of Research, Oakland, California, have claimed that women that have had success with breast cancer treatment must curb their intake of alcohol to lower the likelihood of the disease recurring. Obese and women after reaching menopause are especially prone to facing relapse as a consequence of alcohol. Several studies have ranked the degree of heightened risk from 4-7% per alcoholic drink or unit of alcohol that is the quantity present in a small-sized wine glass.

The recent study took into consideration 1,897 women who survived cancer with preliminary stage of the condition for three years from 1997 onwards. A comparison was drawn in between breast cancer relapse among women earlier detected having breast cancer that indulged in drinking with a set of women earlier identified with the condition that didn’t drink. The women filled in a survey on the intake of wines, beers and liquor in the previous year and their medical condition documentation were evaluated.

Subsequent to 8 years of being followed up, there were 349 cases of breast cancer relapse and 332 fatalities due to cancers and other reasons. From the drinking category that constitutes fifty percent of those involved, wine appeared to be the preferred option of alcohol intake in ninety percent of women.

About forty-three percent drunk liquor and thirty-six percent had beer. The general rise in risk was thirty percent in those women who drank 3-4 drinks weekly, with women in their post-menopause phase and the obese ones were at the maximum risk. The form of alcohol being consumed didn’t affect the risk.

2. Protracted Second hand Cigarette Smoke Exposure imminently raises Breast Cancer Risk

Being exposed to second hand smoke for drawn out periods of time and in increased amounts could raise the risk of developing breast cancer, even amongst those who never indulged in smoking cigarettes.

Researchers from the Northern California Cancer Center’s Berkeley Office during the course of their California Teachers study gathered comprehensive data through surveys done on fifty-seven thousand women for ascertaining if age, surroundings or extent of exposure has an impact on the risk of developing breast cancer.

The risk appeared to be restricted to exposure through maturity (in women twenty years or more) and essentially in post-menopausal women; early on exposure to second hand smoke prior to twenty years of age did not single-handedly raise the risk.

3. Seclusion and Stress all contribute to Breast Cancer Risk

Being socially isolated and associated stress could make a woman more susceptible to developing breast cancer. These were the findings that researchers from the University of Chicago found during the course of their study that examined environmental factors that could be contributors to cancer risk. The researchers discovered that several women residing in crime-inflicted localities would indubitably be dealing with a host of stress-eliciting factors inclusive of being socially isolated. Hence, Afro-American origin women were observed to have a sooner inception of breast cancer, though the entire occurrence is analogous to women belonging to other origins.

The study additionally indicated an underlying association in between social communication and disease wherein those rats that lived in seclusion had elevated levels of stress hormones, starting in maturity, becoming apprehensive, nervous and wary and then susceptible to cancers in later part of their middle age. In innate circumstances, the production of estrogen and progesterone from the ovaries don a major part in the innately arising milk-secreting and breast cancer tumors. During the rat study, there was innate development of the tumors when the ovaries had ceased to function thus depicting the part that seclusion and stress hormones play in cancer growth.

Employing microscopic bubbles, the doctors from the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust have evolved an innovative means of detecting cancer that has metastasized to the lymph nodes.

This method would mean the removal of malignant tissue present in the breast and lymph nodes in just one operative procedure, instead of the need to go in for another one –which is presently the practice followed.

With more than forty-five thousand women being detected with breast cancer annually, it turns out to be the prevalent form of cancer in the United Kingdom.

During the surgery for removal of the breast tumour, the surgeons additionally require checking if the cancer has metastasized or spread to the lymph nodes in the underarm area.

The lymph nodes being part of the lymphatic system carry out the drainage of the fluid from tissues present throughout the body back in the blood stream. Due to this, there is a risk of the cancer cells getting inside the system and the disease spreading.

The spread of breast cancer firstly affects the nodes present in the underarm area. This is observed to occur in nearly twenty-five percent of the breast cancer cases.

Conventionally the procedure followed is the removal of all those nodes that number about twenty in each underarm area in an attempt to eliminate any migrant malignant cells.

However, this could lead to severe side effects inclusive of lymphoedema – an excruciating swell up in the arm. This could be a long-standing condition occurring due to the disruption that has taken place in the lymphatic drainage system leading to the accumulation of the lymphatic fluid in the arm.

Earlier on, the doctors found that if they could detect in which lymph node the tumour has initially drained into, then they could check merely that single node – known as the sentinel node.

However till lately, this identification could only be done at the time of the surgery that is done by injecting a blue dye near the nipple area or the tumour, followed by a brief waiting time of a couple of minutes wherein the dye would seep into the lymphatic system and reach the first lymph node, prior to its removal for testing purposes.

Women then had to go through the niggling ordeal of waiting for close to fourteen days to be able to find if all the lymph nodes would require removal.

However, in this path-breaking technique, the team from Maidstone are infusing small bubbles – ranging in size of about a third of a RBC or red blood cell inside the body to assist in detecting the cancer. This is carried out prior to the surgery, so that better knowledge is gained as to whether the removal of the nodes is needed.

The microscopic bubbles are filled with sulphur hexafluoride gas that is trapped in a greasy casing to impede it from being absorbed into the system and thus help in better viewing during the time of the ultrasound scan.

The injection of these bubbles is done on the area near the nipple or the tumour site. As the bubbles follow their course to the sentinel node analogous to what the blue dye does, their progress is tracked employing an ultrasound scan. On reaching the sentinel node, a delicate needle is used for taking a small amount of tissue sample being done under the influence of local anaesthesia.

In case cancer cells are detected, the removal of the lymph nodes is done during the same instance that the tumour is being removed. Within a span of a couple of minutes, the casing of the bubbles ruptures following which the gas is taken in by the system.

This method was employed from way back in the 90s for illumination of cardiovascular anomalies or liver tumours, however this the foremost occasion that it has been employed in the lymphatic system.

It is quite a disturbing piece of news to be given to women that have been through breast cancer surgery to be told that they would require another surgery due to the cancer spreading to the sentinel node. The additional stress of waiting for the outcome of the pathological tests and additional surgery could lead to immense angst.

This novel test seems to provide an option that could lower the requirement for further surgery and offer a lucid image of the treatment choices to the patients right from the beginning.

There are two breast cancer type:

• Ductal carcinoma
  It commences in the ducts or tubes that carry milk to the nipple from the breast. Majority of the breast cancers are of this form.
• Lobular carcinoma
  It originates in milk-producing parts of the breast known as the lobules.

Atypically, breast cancer could originate in other parts of the breast.

Several breast cancers show sensitivity to the estrogen hormone. This translates to the fact that estrogen leads to the growth of the breast cancer tumors. This kind of cancer is known as estrogen receptor positive cancer (ER positive cancer).

A few women develop the HER2-positive breast cancer. HER2 is a gene that aids in cell growth, division and restoration process. When there are excessive replicas of this gene, cells –inclusive of the malignant cells – proliferate quicker. Experts believe that women having HER2-positive breast cancer have a more belligerent disease and an increased risk of relapse as compared to those that did not have this kind of breast cancer.

Risk Factors:

During the course of the entire life span, one in eight women would be detected with breast cancer.

Unalterable risk factors comprise of:

• Age Factor and sex
  Breast cancer risk tends to rise in direct proportion to one’s age. Most of the advanced breast cancer cases are diagnosed among women past fifty years of age. Women are hundred times more prone to developing breast cancer as compared to men.
• Family History
  The risk of developing breast cancer is higher when close relations have had either cancers of the breast, uterus, ovaries or the colon. Breast cancer was noted among twenty to thirty percent of women that have a family history of the disease.
• Genetic constitution
  Some individuals have a genetic makeup that makes them more prone to breast cancer. The prevalent gene defects are detected in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. These genes generally are producers of the cancer-combatant proteins. However, if a faulty gene is passed on to the next generation, then the risk of developing breast cancer increases. Women having one of these flaws have an eighty percent probability of developing breast cancer during their lifetime.
• Menstrual Cycle
  Those women getting their menses early on (prior to twelve years of age) or who have a late onset of menopause (subsequent to 55 years of age) are at a heightened risk of developing breast cancer.
• Alcoholism
  Consuming past two drinks of alcoholic drinks a day might raise the risk for breast cancer.
• Pregnancy & Child Delivery
  Non-child bearing women or have had kids subsequent to thirty years of age have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Multiple pregnancies or getting pregnancy at a young age lowers the risk of breast cancer.
• DES intake
  Those women that consumed DES or diethylstilbestrol to avert miscarriage could raise the risk of breast cancer in over forty year old women. During the years 1940 – 1950, this drug was administered to women.
• HRT or Hormone Replacement Therapy
  Those women who underwent hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for some years or more, for allaying menopausal symptoms are at higher risk of breast cancer.
• Being Obese
  Being obese or overweight has been associated with breast cancer, though this link is still engulfed in major controversy. The conjecture is that obesity elicits the greater production of estrogen that could trigger breast cancer.
• Radiation Therapy
  Those who have earlier undergone radiation therapy during infancy or as a young adult for cancer treatment of the chest region are at higher risk of breast cancer. The younger the age when one got the radiation therapy, the greater the risk element – particularly when the radiation therapy was given during the onset of puberty.

Breast implant surgery, use of anti-deodorants or antiperspirants and using underwire bras do not raise the risk of developing breast cancer. There is no proof that directly links breast cancer and pesticides.

Breast Cancer Symptoms:

Breast cancer symptoms in its preliminary stages are generally asymptomatic. Hence, getting regular breast cancer screening are crucial. As the cancer metastasizes (grows), the symptoms could comprise of:

• Appearance of a lump – a hard, generally painless, swelling, thickening or lump having jagged edges in the underarms that have newly surfaced or unusual in appearance.
• A variation in the size, form or feel of the nipples or breast – for instance, reddishness, appearance of dimples or puckers that gives the skin an orange-like tone. Nipples appearing scaly or crusty.
• Spontaneous fluid secretion from the nipples in the absence of any squeezing or pressing that could be blood-filled, translucent to yellow, green in appearance and pus-alike.
• A color or feel variation noted in the skin of the breast or the darker toned part surrounding the nipples (areolar region).

Men also develop breast cancer wherein the signs comprise of lumpy formations in the breast along with pain and soreness experienced.
Signs of advanced stage breast cancer could comprise of:

• Pain and discomfort felt in the bone, breast.
• Skin ulcers – Reddish skin that further turns into blisters, open sores and eventually appears crater-like.
• Swelling noted in the arm adjacent to the affected breast.
• Reduction in weight.