Breast Cancer DCIS & Mammogram Wars 2 articles - Weak ammunition? Will you stop having mammos?

More cannon fire on the web today about mammos vs no mammos.  I'll be having another before Christmas because I trust my oncologist.

I ask (beg) you that if you read either of these articles, read the whole thing.  Or print it out so you can mark the iffy parts and parts that don't pertain to you.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/faulty-research-behind-mammograms-breast-cancer

What If Everything Your Doctor Told You About Breast Cancer Was Wrong?

Mother Jones starts with a story about an angry post-surgery patient, Therese Taylor.  Her doctor said her biopsy was "indicative of cancer." The story goes on with a lengthy list of cancers to touch on, and the experiences of famous people.  Included are even numbers from studies MJ admits were not well organized or designed.  As you know, attempting to cover every possible argument can leave us with parts of a whole story.  And the heavy emotional opening ... well.

My questions:  DCIS is not palpable - your doc won't get it by touch and neither will you.  So if you don't have the mammogram, how do you know if you have the start of something else?

And hopping from one cancer to another can lead to over-simplification.

Cancers are not like rabbits or anything else, and the National Institutes of Health (the second) article does touch on possible, slightly possible migrating DCIS cells.


**

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_154216.html:

THURSDAY, Aug. 20, 2015 (HealthDay News)  

Early Stage Breast Cancer Far From a Death Sentence: Study

 -- Only 3 percent of women diagnosed with an early stage of breast cancer

 will die of their disease within 20 years,

 and more aggressive treatment does not improve that high survival rate,..

Despite the fuzzy title, in the next paragraph, we find they are talking about DCIS.  And that DCIS treatment does not increase life span, which is not really  "news."   I got the same information a couple of years ago when my DCIS was suspected  and confirmed. A cancer hospital interactive"decision aid" advised us then not to hope whatever treatment we selected, if any, would make us live longer.  DCIS can come back. I took the treatment they said would "prevent recurrence" for a certain number of years.  

 Study first author Steven Narod,is quoted as saying "The good news is that death is pretty rare,"    I hate this kind of "for the press" generalization.

I beg you to read the "fine print" in this article.  For one thing,  death rates were estimated.

And don't stop reading before you get to this statement, which is something I've never heard before - scary.  But it reminds me of something I saw in a video from MEDPage Hot Topics.    The doctor who impressed me so much, Lisa Carey, MD, of Chapel Hill said in MedPage Hot Topics Breast Cancer One told us that some breast cancer cells are looking more like other cancer cells ... Now Steven Narod is quoted:

" 'In all, 956 women in the study ultimately died of breast cancer. Of those, 517 never had invasive cancer in the breast after treatment seemed to cure their DCIS. That means that the cancerous breast cells from their DCIS had escaped at some point and survived in the lungs or bone, later developing into a deadly cancer', Narod explained."  "...seemed to cure their DCIS."  This contradicts everything we've read about DCIS not spreading to the rest of the body!  

That's all I can manage on these two articles.   Food for investigation!

I wish you health.

My apologies for the mistakes in the the original of this post.  MLF

BC - Triple Negative - The Midnight Special

If you haven't already, here's a new release (at least new to me tonight)

Scientists target molecular 'addiction' in triple-negative breast cancer

September 28, 2015

14

http://www.dana-farber.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/dana-farber-scientists-target-molecular-addiction-in-triple-negative-breast-cancer.aspx

OSTEOPOROSIS RX - Prolia, and my amazing dentist

This article made me think, but then everything makes me think about my osteoporosis right now.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/09/

osteoporosis-a-silent-assailant-turned-me-from-physician-to-patient.html

The writer, an MD, was sure she was taking care of herself until the incident, the snap, the pain. The procedure on her broken vertebra had her back at work quickly and going for long walks.  My spine probably is in danger, too - no spine scan possible for me due to screws from the past lumbar fusion.   She and I both have to be aware of the strain on our spines right above and below the "fix."

And I still have so many questions about my plan to take Prolia.


Fast forward to yesterday at the dentist.  (All dental work has to be complete before Prolia because of possible side effects to the jaw.)

The dentist spent the entire afternoon on one tooth that my previous dentist did not even plan to treat.  An old crown had to be very carefully cut off.  Sure enough, there was decay in a space below that crown.
(The rumor is that some other dentists just won't go to the time and trouble to find and fix that.)

The assistant and I got into a talk about osteoporosis medicine.  She mentioned that some osteoporosis patients have been referred to my dentist because they had the jaw osteonecrosis these meds can cause.  (Think a dragon chewing on your jaw.)  My dentist had thought up a wonderful fix for one of them.

I'm blessed to have him - he takes the time the problem requires, and knows enough to create solutions.    Still, The discussion was uncomfortable.

 My oncologist's other patients have not had any of the scary side effects of Prolia.  And he does require a clearance showing all dental work is complete before the first injection.  I'm blessed to have him, too.

Recently, at my request, my dentist did a long and rigorous check of all my teeth, In two weeks, he'll be done working, and I'll be good to go with Prolia.

Yesterday, he remarked after recovering and rebuilding that tooth that my gum tissue is good.  That's probably thanks to the nightly ritual I learned from the L.A. periodontist.)  So that would help protect my jaw?  Right?


But, still, what makes those referred patients different from me?


Action:  I want to ask my dentist when I get the permanent crown and the last tiny cavity fix:


1.  Does he know if the jaw patients sent to him were taking bisphosphonates (like the advertised pill) or denosumab, like Prolia?  These two kinds of drugs work differently in the body, but both endanger the jaw and certain bones.  WHY?

2. If this necrosis is caused by lack of blood supply, how to I get more blood supply for my jaw? The internet hasn't been much help on that.  If he doesn't know?  What do I do?

I wish you health.

DIABETES - CELL RESEARCH HOPE?

Mt Sinai Medicine Matters emailed me a release on research into possible increase of cells that produce  insulin.

I don't intend to blog regularly on diabetes despite my "pre" status.  But they consider this groundbreaking.  Some recent research on these cells had pertained to Type 1.

The Big News part is:

Now they suspect this beta cell info may also be a help for Type 2.

Included is a clear, simple explanation of how this all works.

After flopping around on Google, I still don't have a link for you for today's release posted to me 28 September 12 a.m.  But you may want go Google it later today.

I wish you health.

BC - Do you really need a pre-op MRI?

ON JAMA Network through Twitter:

Use of Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Breast Cancer  A Canadian Population-Based Study

I'm taking this from the study abstract:

" Importance  Contrary to practice guidelines, breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is commonly used in the preoperative evaluation of women with breast cancer. While existing literature has found little benefit to MRI in most patients, potential downstream consequences associated with breast MRI are not well described."

I take that to mean:  nobody tells us the down side of taking this test.

"Conclusions and Relevance  Preoperative breast MRI use has increased substantially in routine clinical practice and is associated with a significant increase in ancillary investigations, wait time to surgery, mastectomies, and contralateral prophylactic mastectomies."

Do you need a test that can delay your surgery, trap you into additional tests, and urge an unnecessary mastectomy?  

There has been more on Twitter lately about over-testing.  I may be putting other links in from time to time.

I searched JAMA directly on Twitter today 9/24/15, and got directly to this study. May not work later.

http://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2443152&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social_jn&utm_term=241124969&utm_content=press_release|article_engagement&utm_campaign=press_release&linkId=17296643  Today,9/28  this link did get me back to the article.

 Sorry, but you'll have to cut and paste.


I wish you health.

TRIPLE NEGATIVE IN REMISSION? $ FOR CLINICAL TRIAL TO PREVENT RECURRENCE

"Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic gets $13.2 million grant for new breast cancer study"

After I tuned out last night, Twitter set the web on fire with what may be a light at the end of the tunnel for triple-negative BC patients who are in remission.  But read the article carefully:  

"The Department of Defense announcement of a $13.2 million grant this week to cover the cost for a 280-patient phase II clinical trial of vaccine in patients with breast cancer was good news for two Jacksonville organizations."

Under a photo of Dr. Keith Knutson, the article goes on to say:

 "The vaccine, which Knutson developed with the help of three colleagues at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., is designed to prevent the recurrence of the cancer in women who have been treated for triple negative breast cancer and are in remission." (bold mine)

This cost -  13 mil for 280-patient study is sobering.  May all who can enroll.

http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2015-09-16/story/jacksonvilles-mayo-clinic-gets-132-million-grant-new-breast?linkId=17106054

I wish you health.

Weekend pork-out diet? - Sign up for pre-diabetes.

If you haven't seen it mentioned on TWitter, see this "can't run/can't hide" article on line from the L.A. Times:

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-obesity-insulin-resistance-20150909-story.html

"Scientists asked six men to eat 6,000 calories a day

 in bid to fight obesity." 

  This is what happens inside us each time we overeat.  It's so dangerous that the experiment was conducted inside a hospital.  And the results were obvious almost at once.  And we continually pay.  It reminded me for the first time since I was diagnosed as prediabetic that I used to love a certain ice cream so much I'd have only that for supper sometimes.   It makes me flinch at photos of people sampling everything at the Bar-BQ festival.   I'm still learning to eat better.  

I wish you health.