Five year breast cancer survival rates do not give an accurate picture of progress against breast cancer.

Shoot, this one was way to complicated for me to simplify. That said, read and be enlightened:

Because breast cancer takes many years, sometimes even decades, to develop and spread throughout the body, breast cancer survival statistics, particularly five-year survival data, do not accurately portray the impact of breast cancer, or the progress or lack of progress over time. Only mortality rates can give an accurate picture of the impact of the disease since it can measure death rate in the population over a lifetime.

It is often repeated that 98% of women with early stage breast cancer are alive at five years after diagnosis. However, an estimated 20% to 30% of women will have a recurrence of their disease, and may go on to die of the disease, but are included as survivors in these five-year survival statistics. We still do not know how to prevent recurrence and metastasis for most women or how many of the women reported to have survived five years will go on to have a recurrence.

In addition, survival statistics are skewed by screening programs. The more screening there is, the more breast cancers are found. But it does not follow that more lives are saved. Because breast cancer can be slow-growing, finding breast cancer through screening mammography often increases the time women know they have breast cancer, but may not have any impact on final outcomes. Again, following trends in breast cancer mortality rates, rather than survival at five years after diagnosis, is the only way to get an accurate picture of the toll of breast cancer and progress made.

 More about the NBCC can be found HERE.

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Mammography is not prevention. Getting regular mammograms does not prevent you from getting breast cancer.

If only superman or spiderman or any of those individuals were real. I figure to some people out there they are, similarly, some folks think mammography can prevent breast cancer. NO IT CANNOT. I repeat. NO IT CANNOT. Neither will it cure cancer. If superman was all the pieces to locating and addressing breast cancer, his X-Ray vision would be the mammography screening, his heat vision thingy would be Chemo, ice breathe, radiotherapy. I’m sure you see where i’m going here but even with all those abilities, superman can only address crime when it happens not before. He is not psychic. Bridging the gap with that analogy, most of what we know about breast cancer has to do with finding and treating the cancer, not preventing it. That said, I’ll let you read the spill from NBCC:

Mammography is a screening test to detect cancer already present in the breast. It does not prevent cancer, nor will it definitively detect the disease. Continuing with mammography screening is a personal choice, but it does not determine what causes breast cancer, nor will it cure the disease.

To learn more, read NBCC’s position on mammography screening.

Superheroes can save the day but they don’t prevent the crimes from being committed. Similarly, Mammography will not prevent cancer. It’ll only reveal it if it’s there.

What prevents cancer? do you know? Do we need to know what causes it first before worrying about what prevents it? Where is the world at with answering these questions? Your thoughts.

 More about the NBCC can be found HERE.

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Most women who find their own breast
cancer do so as part of normal routines (showering,
getting dressed, etc.) and not during systematic
monthly breast self-exams.

Another day, another very interesting fact. I read it and I came to the realization that there is a need to reevaluate my Pless the Bleast (Brest Self Examination) campaign.

About 80% of breast cancers not discovered by mammography are discovered by women themselves, but this is most often as part of daily living, showering, getting dressed, etc., not as part of a systematic, regular breast self-examination.

The results of prospective randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that routine breast self-examinations (BSE) do not lead to a decrease in mortality from breast cancer nor do they find cancer at earlier stages. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) no longer recommends health care providers teach the procedure to women. The National Cancer Institute states that “based on solid evidence, formal instruction and encouragement to perform breast self-examination leads to more breast biopsies and to the diagnosis of more benign breast lesions” and based on evidence “does not reduce breast cancer mortality.” Continue Reading →

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There are many unproven
and uncertain risk factors for breast cancer
cited in the media and among the public.

I hope that title grabbed your attention cause it true. Or rather it might be true. Or ok, who knows? There could be a million and one things out there that can increase ones risk of developing breast cancer. Todays fact tells us that a lot of claims out there are not certain and are still subject to further testing.

There is no evidence that avoiding cosmetics or household cleaning products will have any impact on an individual’s risk of developing breast cancer, though this is often promoted among groups and in the media. There is also no evidence that avoiding the use of plastic water bottles or underarm anti-perspirants will lower the risk of breast cancer. Continue Reading →

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Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) may increase your risk of breast cancer.

Yeah, looks like the NBCC is getting mad that we are “re-broadcasting” these facts with our own little twist. With each new day, the facts become super boring. Maybe not boring for Doctors out there that would actually find something like what we have today beneficial. Anyways, here goes;

According to the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Trials, estrogen-plus-progestin replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer, along with heart disease, stroke and blood clots.

The WHI clinical trials, launched in 1991, studied a group of 161,808 generally healthy postmenopausal women for the effects of HRT, diet modification and calcium and vitamin D supplement use on heart disease, fractures, and breast and colorectal cancer. Results from the trial on HRT, published in 2002, found that while the estrogen-only replacement therapy did not increase breast cancer risk, the risks far outweighed the benefits in the estrogen-plus-progestin arm. Overall, there was a 24% increase in the risk for breast cancer due to estrogen-plus-progestin.

Ok, I lied. It’s also of great interest for women  with menopause. If you are looking to change your gender, well I really don’t know if the HRT in question applies to you. I’m still wondering why you would want to do it in the first place. So yeah, this is another fact you should bookmark. The keywords here are Hormone Replacement Therapy, menopause and breast cancer. The three of them are interconnected.  Now you know.

I’m out!

 More about the NBCC can be found HERE. Todays Fact, HERE!

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In many cases, more treatment is not necessarily better treatment.

OK, todays fact will not be coated with my valiant attempt to explain what the subject matter is all about. It’s not just self-explanatory, its invaluable knowledge that I think everyone should know. THIS IS HUGE. Read for yourself;

Many of the advances in recent years have not been discoveries of new treatments, but rather discoveries that less invasive treatments are as effective as more invasive and/or more toxic standard of care. There is a growing recognition that more treatment is not necessarily better treatment. And, in fact, less is often better because of the reduction in long-term side effects, which are sometimes severe and occasionally fatal.

The fact goes further to give a scenario of how less invasive treatments are actually better. WARNING, it sounds very Doctory and you can read it all HERE.

If you are scared of reading it, I don’t blame you. The essence of the message is on here. As usual, I do not wish harm on anyone but if you know someone who knows someone who knows someone with breast cancer, its worth giving them this information. You could be assisting in improving their lives in the long run.

Day 15 y’all, it’s the half way mark and we still kicking. Enjoy what’s left of your weekend.

 More about the NBCC can be found HERE.

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Early detection is not the answer. Finding and treating all Stage 0 breast cancer, or DCIS, will not prevent all deaths from breast cancer.

I’m hella late on this post. Forgive me. Now that we have that out-of-the-way, what the heck is todays fact going on about? It was a WTF moment for me when I read it cause I’ve always promoted that phrase “Early Detection saves lives” but this is pretty much throwing my hounding and shouting out the window. I shouldn’t be surprised though. Life isn’t black and white. There is always a caveat to everything. Todays (well yesterdays actually) caveat comes in the form of the disadvantage of mammography.

The increase in the incidence of DCIS as a result of mammography has resulted in overtreatment for many women, without a concurrent decrease in the incidence of later stage diagnoses. We now know it is not just the size of the tumor that determines outcome, but that the biology of the tumor and its surrounding environment are important.

Although DCIS is a risk factor for invasive breast cancer, the natural history of DCIS and the likelihood that DCIS will progress to invasive disease is unknown. We do not yet know how to identify which DCIS will progress and which will not.

Well damn, there you have it. The grass really isn’t always greener on the other side when mammography is concerned. Do I have advice to follow this fact? Nope, I still have my WTF face on. That said, this don’t mean you shouldn’t pless the bleast by the way. Early detection does not only consist of mammography which as you are aware involves using x-rays, a method that we know has its shortcomings; the greatest of which is state above.

I’m going to need the doctors reading this to drop a comment. Enlighten us.

 More about the NBCC can be found HERE.

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The treatments for DCIS and invasive breast cancer can themselves lead to severe side effects, including death.

Sorry to be the harbinger of bad news but I only say what is sent to us by the National Breast Cancer Coalition, aka NBCC. Todays post is something many already know but it’s still a fact nonetheless. As the subject goes, many breast cancer treatments carry great risks of mobdiggity and even mortality. In case you don’t have a dictionary app and are too lazy to look up what mobdiggity means, well you are in luck cause it’s not a word. The real word is morbidity but doesn’t mobdiggity sound way cooler? Anyways, morbidity pretty much means being in a diseased state or in other words, breast cancer treatments can make you worse than you actually are. Read for yourself; Continue Reading →

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For the majority of people with breast cancer, treatment options have changed very little in the last 20 years.

Todays fact like a few others is best said by the NBCC. Ok, I lied, I’m sure there is something witty to say about it but i have a class in a few minutes so I thought I’d forgo the need to exert any brain processing power and just give it to you all verbatim. So here goes;

Progress in the treatment of breast cancer has been incremental, at best, over the last two decades. Treatment continues to focus on surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormonal therapy. Breast cancer treatments themselves continue to cause morbidity and mortality, and we still do not know which individuals need to be treated, and with how much, and which individuals would do fine without any disfiguring or toxic treatments. Continue Reading →

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We do not know how to prevent the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body (metastasis).

Ever had one of those days that you know your tummy is about to erupt if you don’t let one nice juicy fart out but you are in a library or a public place? I know I have. Then you resort to some covert stealth silencer mode thinking it will not smell. Well you let one loose and success, its silent but damn it smells like a dead rat. Your face turns red, you look to the person beside you and you say “oh my word, do you smell that? is that the trash can?”. What is the connection between this and breast cancer you ask?

For Starters, Continue Reading →

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