cacner

cnn: ibuprofen reduces breast cancer risk

Can taking aspirin or ibuprofen reduce your risk of getting breast cancer? One of the largest studies of its kind suggests that the answer might be yes.

In the past, researchers have flip-flopped on the issue, so they recently combined some of the best data - from 2.7 million women in 38 separate studies - to look for solid evidence. And they found it.

Women who took aspirin had a 13 percent lower risk of breast cancer than those who didn't, while those who took ibuprofen had a 21 percent lower risk.

The findings were published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

While it might be tempting to try to reduce your own risk by popping these over-the-counter pain relievers, known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the researchers sound a note of caution: The pills can cause bleeding in your digestive tract. And some types of NSAIDs have been linked to risk of heart problems. Health.com: How aspirin can help your heart

"I would not recommend that women use NSAIDs for breast cancer prevention," says study author Bahi Takkouche, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. "NSAIDs may have very strong secondary effects. The results of this study just show that women who are taking NSAIDs for other reasons probably have a lower risk of breast cancer." Health.com: How to cut your breast cancer risk at any age

This type of study can't prove conclusively that NSAIDs are responsible for the lower risk of breast cancer. According to the experts, some other factor could be responsible for the reduction in cancer risk.

Palliative Chemotherapy

"Chemotherapy had been used with one of the two intentions: the hope to cure cancer, and the hope to prolong life. Palliative chemotherapy/care means chemotherapy which is taken without expecting it to be curative. In other words, palliative chemotherapy is a form of medical treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of the disease symptoms, rather than trying to provide a cure. This means that most of the time, palliative chemotherapy are only offered to patients with incurable cancer, preferably to patients with excellent performance status and a tumor sensitive to chemotherapy.

Just like treating cancer, cytotoxic drugs are also used in palliative chemotherapy. They attack cells during cell divisions. They could be phase specific and cycle specific. Phase-specific drugs kill cells only when they are given during a certain phase of cells’ cycle. By prolonging the treatment using such drugs, the number of cells killed increases because cells divide randomly. Cycle-specific drugs target cells during any phase of the cells’ cycle, thus the number of cells killed increases when the dosage of such drugs increase. Other Antimetabolites are given as well. These anti metabolites could interfere with the incorportation of nucleic acid bases into the DNA.Given the potential toxicities of the chemotherapeutic agents, it is important to educate patients about the side effects of the drugs consumed. The main challenge for both the doctors and patients would be balancing symptom relief and treatment’s side effects. It is also crucial for the doctors to maintain a holistic view of patients with cancer and help patients to achieve the best possible quality of life.

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"A group of Melbourne researchers has discovered an important piece in the puzzle of how breast cancer develops.
Through implantation of breast cells in mice, scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research have made two key findings related to the way the Notch pathway of proteins works in breast tissue.

Researchers Toula Bouras, Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman identified how the Notch pathway of proteins regulates breast development and function by prompting breast stem cells to switch on the production of breast duct cells.

They also discovered a link between an overactive Notch pathway and the proliferation of immature cells in the breast ducts that can develop into tumours.

''The discovery has really revealed a mechanism by which overactivity of the Notch pathway may contribute to breast cancer,'' Dr Visvader said.

''If drugs can be developed that target this process in an effective way, this offers hope for future generations of patients whose cancers have an overactive Notch pathway.''

Dr Visvader said the Notch pathway played an important role in the development of breast cancer, but more research needed to be done before the development of anti-Notch therapies.

The researchers' findings are in the latest international journal, Cell Stem Cell. AAP"

HPV vaccine required to obtain Green Card

Thanks God that when I applied for an Immigrant Visa this vaccination is still not part of it.

Recently, Federal officials added the Gardasil vaccine to a list of vaccinations that immigrants must have before they can obtain green cards. The cervical cancer vaccine is required of females ages 11 to 26.
The vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer and genital warts. But the vaccine is one of the most expensive and controversial, primarily because it is given at a young age.