Giving back to the breast cancer community is what a breast cancer expert ought to do.
Who, exactly, is an expert in breast cancer? An expert in breast cancer is a professional dedicated to the study or practice of breast cancer. An expert can be a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a nurse in the hospital or one of the many physicians that focus their practice on breast cancer.
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Read More Angelina Jolie, BRCA mutation, Breast cancer, Breast cancer screening, Breast MRI, Mammography, Ovarian cancer
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The cancer is gone. Her surgery went well and she was at home recovering, drinking a cup of aromatic coffee while sitting in her favorite wicker chair amongst her treasured plants, beneath a canopy of leaves, basking in the sunlight of her special room.
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Read More Breast, Breast cancer, Cancer, Mastectomy, Radiation therapy, Surgery, Tumor
Susan reached that point in her life where she was no longer a young adult trying to make it through the trials and tribulations of life that are young children, a new job and a traveling husband. But neither had she made it to the stage where the kids are in college, she has a steady job and her husband has time to spend quiet evenings at home with her. Susan had just turned 40. She celebrated with two parties, one for her family and one for her friends. Chocolate cake and ice cream were had at home, while facials, mani-pedis and Chianti were had while painting the town red.
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Read More Breast, Breast cancer, Breast cancer screening, Cancer, Mammography
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I would like to end our talk with a story of angels, of faith and of love. It is my story. It begins with the love of my wife; it ends with her love and the strength, the support, and the life giving energy that she is to me.
My story begins with a spot – a spot on my shoulder. Each day I would look at this spot and then one day, it changed. I recall my wife telling me to wear sunblock on numerous occasions, but I am a doctor, so I could never get cancer.
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Read More Breast cancer, Cancer, God, Lymph node, Prayer, Religion and Spirituality, Sentinel lymph node, Surgery
The New England Journal Of Medicine recently published a paper demonstrating that people who eat nuts regularly, live longer. So, should we all eat nuts? Yes. Will we live longer? Maybe. People who ate nuts were less likely to die from cancer, heart disease and stroke. But nut eaters were also more likely to be lean, to eat fruits and vegetables, to exercise daily and to not smoke. Maybe the nuts were only partially responsible for the longer life. It’s hard to know.
The New York Times recently published a front page article about the Breast Cancer Gene and the dilemma many women have about testing for the Breast Cancer Gene. Angelina Jolie tested positive for a Breast Cancer Gene mutation and elected to have both of her breasts removed.
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Read More Angelina Jolie, BRCA, Breast cancer, Ovarian cancer
The Wall Street Journal recently published a front page article on a new class of drugs for the treatment of breast cancer: PARP-Inhibitors. Exciting!
What are PARP-Inhibitors, hence forth known as PARP-I? To fully understand we need to go back to the 1960s and recall what DNA is. DNA is basically a blueprint for our bodies. Molecules come along and read the DNA and then make the various parts and proteins of our bodies, stuff that we need to live. If the DNA gets broken, or if you prefer, someone spills coffee on the blueprint, then our cells cannot produce what we need and those cells die.
Our cells have two ways of fixing broken DNA, or if you prefer, cleaning up the coffee spill. The first mechanism is the BRCA pathway. Yes, the same BRCA pathway that can cause breast or ovarian cancer. If the BRCA pathway functions properly, then the DNA can get fixed and the cell goes on with its life. If the BRCA pathway is broken, then the cell uses another pathway, the PARP pathway to fix the broken DNA. It’s as if we could use Bounty, the quicker picker-upper, or a Cotton Towel, the Fabric of our Lives, to clean up the coffee on the blueprint.
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Raging hormones and a strong desire for back of the class naps. How does one teach high school kids about breast cancer?
My wife Imelda, who is my partner and counsels our patients about genetic cancer risk, and I had the opportunity to teach several students at Knoxville Catholic High School all about breast cancer. I taught these eager young minds about the science of breast cancer while Imelda taught them about the genetics of breast cancer. She covered topics such as who benefits from genetic testing, higher surveillance measures for increased familial risk and what lifestyle changes can be made to reduce that risk.
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Read More Breast cancer, High School, Teaching
The biotechnology revolution is going to change the way we treat cancer and all sorts of medical diseases. We, perhaps, are going to reach a day where breast cancer can be treated in one trip to the doctor’s office.
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Read More biotechnology, Breast cancerLast month I featured one of my YouTube videos on the blog to answer the question, “what is breast cancer?” This month, we are going to head into more detail about invasive breast cancer and how it defines a specific cancer such as type, grade, and receptors. By the end of this short video you’ll be better informed and your questions answered.
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