Breast Cancer Ottawa

Breast feeding shown to significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer.

2010-03-30T06:23:00.000-07:00

A study shown in the Archives of Internal Medicine researchers, at the University of North Carolina, found that women with a family history were 58% less likely to develop breast cancer.

Hormone found in US beef linked to increase in Breast and Prostate Cancer

2010-03-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

In an article shown on the Natural News website Dr. Samuel S. Epstein of the Cancer Prevention Coalition warns that levels of hormones found in US produced beef have become dangerously high. Hormones are given to beef cows because it rapidly increases their weight so increasing their sale value.

Exposure to external hormones is well known to increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer, reproductive dysfunction and other health problems.

Source: Natural News

Pfizer Hid Evidence That HRT Causes Cancer

2010-03-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

The drug giant Pfizer has been found guilty of ignoring research findings that their HRT drug Prempro causes breast cancer. This information has been available since the 1970's. The drug is used to treat menopause, hot flashes and mood swings.

Recent research has also shown a link with lung cancer as well.

Source: Natural News

Use Homeopathic and Natural Treatments for Symptoms of Menopause

Researchers show mushroom effective against cancer.

2010-03-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Cordycorps mushroom, used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine, has been shown to be effective against cancer cells by researchers in the UK. The study actually looked at the effectiveness of the drug cordycepin, which is a synthetic pharmacological version of the mushroom but ultimately highlights the benefits of the mushroom.

Is Vitamin D the answer to Breast Cancer?

2010-03-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Doctors have known that low levels of vitamin D are linked to certain kinds of cancers as well as to diabetes and asthma, but new research also shows that the vitamin can kill human cancer cells.

The results fall short of an immediate cancer cure, but they are encouraging, medical professionals say.

JoEllen Welsh, a researcher with the State University of New York at Albany, has studied the effects of vitamin D for 25 years.

Part of her research involves taking human breast cancer cells and treating them with a potent form of vitamin D.

Within a few days, half the cancer cells shriveled up and died. Welsh said the vitamin has the same effect as a drug used for breast cancer treatment.

"What happens is that vitamin D enters the cells and triggers the cell death process," she told "Good Morning America." "It's similar to what we see when we treat cells with Tamoxifen," a drug used to treat breast cancer.

Tumors in Mice Disappear

The vitamin's effects were even more dramatic on breast cancer cells injected into mice.

After several weeks of treatment, the cancer tumors in the mice shrank by an average of more than 50 percent. Some tumors disappeared.

Similar results have been achieved on colon and prostate cancer tumors in mice.

People should take care not to read too much into laboratory studies, said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' senior health and medical editor. Positive effects in a petri dish or in rats may not necessarily mean similar results in humans, he said

It's also easier to treat cancer in mice than in people, Besser said.

Tips for Getting Adequate Amounts of Vitamin D

There is testing to determine whether patients are getting enough vitamin D, but Besser doesn't recommend it for everyone. If someone has repeated fractures or falls, his or her doctor may decide to do the test.

To ensure adequate vitamin D intake, Besser recommended that people check their diets and get enough sunlight.

Breast Cancer Study Heaps Glory on Aspirin whilst Natural Cures Go Overlooked

2010-03-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

A study funded by Cancer Research UK on the effects of aspirin consumption and breast cancer was recently released, prompting a premature media frenzy on the supposed benefits of aspirin. In the reports that followed sensational headlines, there was very little mention of the weaknesses of epidemiological data, even less attention given to the known side-effects of aspirin and no column inches whatsoever allocated to the more effective natural methods of reducing inflammation.

"This is the first study to find that aspirin can significantly reduce the risk of cancer spread and death for women who have been treated for early stage breast cancer," said Dr. Michelle Holmes of Harvard Medical School, who led the study. "If these findings are confirmed in other clinical trials, taking aspirin may become another simple, low-cost and relatively safe tool to help women with breast cancer live longer, healthier lives."

The Journal of Clinical Oncology study analysed 4,164 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and found that women who took aspirin two to five days a week had a 60% reduction in the rate of metastasis and a 71% reduction in their chances of dying from breast cancer. Critics stressed that this study does not prove that aspirin has any effects on breast cancer. As with all epidemiological (population-based) studies, it only yields clues, not answers. Epidemiological data is not useful for making recommendations to patients, but to help researchers find the right questions to ask. These questions include:

-What sort of related behaviour is seen in women who take aspirin every day? Do they visit the doctor more often? Are they more likely to take other pills at the same time, eg. Multivitamins?

-What sort of social patterns distinguish these women who take aspirin every day? (eg. Are middle-class women, and those with better health cover, more likely to be the ones prioritising their day-to-day comfort and taking more aspirin?)

-Do women who take more aspirin smoke less? Do women who take more aspirin take less illegal drugs?

-How relevant is the anti-inflammatory effect of aspirin?

The validity of this last question is clearly worthy of discussion, especially as cancer is - like all chronic disease - related to inflammatory processes. It is therefore possible that the anti-inflammatory effect of aspirin may have helped reduce breast cancer. However, no data was released on the increased hospitalisation from gastric ulcers and other complications known to be caused by aspirin. Aspirin and related compounds were responsible for $5bn worth of sales in America in 2004, but drugs sold for their side effects totaled $4bn.

Predictably, there was no discussion of any natural ways to reduce systemic inflammation. The primary way to do this would be to optimise the function of the immune system, which means providing plenty of antioxidants, vitamin C and zinc. A further measure would be the introduction of omega 3 oils - fish oils and flaxseed oils - which have a reliable and measurable effect on all inflammatory conditions.

This study does provide interesting data for those with an interest in breast cancer. However, any benefit to patients from further study is likely to be diluted by the industry obsession with drug-based cures, whilst natural cures of equal or superior effectiveness are likely to be overlooked.

References:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...

http://www.efitnessnow.com/news/201...

http://john-ray.blogspot.com/2010/0...

Natural compound in marine sponges could halt cancer metastasis

2010-03-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

A research team at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research has discovered a natural compound found in marine sponges that reduces the movement of cancer cells. This could be an important breakthrough in stopping the often deadly spread of cancer throughout the body -- a process known as metastasis. What's more, the compound (dubbed sceptrin) is virtually non-toxic.

The research, just published in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal Chemical Biology, was headed by Sanford-Burnham scientist Kristiina Vuori, M.D., PhD, in collaboration with Phil S. Baran, Ph.D., of the Scripps Research Institute. The scientists tested the impact of sceptrin on multiple tumor cell types, including cervical, breast and lung cancer cells.

To encourage cancer cells to behave like those that spread in the body, the researchers cultured cancer cells with growth factor to stimulate their ability to move. The cells were then treated with varying amounts of sceptrin. The results? Remarkably, the sponge compound restricted cancer movement in all the cancer cell lines.

Sceptrin's effectiveness in halting cancer cell movement was found to become stronger in increased concentrations. Additional tests revealed that the compound has the ability to put the brakes on malignant cell mobility because it keeps the cells from contracting -- and the cells must contract in order to travel throughout the body.

The sceptrin research is significant because currently there is little that can be done to prevent metastatic cancer. When cancerous cells break away from a malignant tumor, they move through the bloodstream or lymph system and travel to other parts of the body, ending up in any organ or tissue. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the most common sites of metastasis are the lungs, bones, brain and liver.

Regular readers of NaturalNews will recognize that the sceptrin study is another step toward proving scientifically that there are effective natural therapies for cancer. For example, researchers have found that mango fruit halts the growth of breast and colon cancer cells (http://www.naturalnews.com/027992_m...) and tumeric and black pepper may not only prevent certain cancers but may also be helpful in treating malignant tumors (http://www.naturalnews.com/027831_t...).

For more information:
http://www.sanfordburnham.org/defau...
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/...
http://www.naturalnews.com/breast_c...

Bitter melon stops breast cancer cells from growing and spreading

2010-02-28T18:35:00.001-08:00

A vegetable commonly eaten in India and China called bitter melon (also known by the botanical name Momordica charantia), has been shown in previous studies to have a beneficial impact on blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It turns out that's not all the health benefits bitter melon offers. A new study by Saint Louis University scientists provides evidence the vegetable triggers a chain of events on a cellular level that stops breast cancer cells from multiplying and also kills them.

Lead researcher Ratna Ray, Ph.D., a professor in the department of pathology at Saint Louis University, noted in a statement to the media that she personally uses bitter melon when she cooks stir fry dishes. She decided to investigate the health effects of bitter melon extract after other researchers discovered how it can lower blood sugar and regulate cholesterol levels. In fact, bitter melon extract has been used by traditional healers in China and India for centuries as a natural treatment for diabetes. But Dr. Ray was surprised to find this vegetable was a powerful inhibitor of breast cancer growth, too.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the effect of bitter melon extract on cancer cells," Dr. Ray stated. "Our result was encouraging. We have shown that bitter melon extract significantly induced death in breast cancer cells and decreased their growth and spread."

The research, published in the March 1 edition of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, involved human breast cancer cells exposed to bitter melon extract in the lab. Dr. Ray cautioned that it is too early to jump to conclusions that the extract could help breast cancer patients -- but her findings are promising.

"Cancer prevention by the use of naturally occurring dietary substances is considered a practical approach to reduce the ever-increasing incidence of cancer. Studying a high risk breast cancer population where bitter melon is taken as a dietary product will be an important area of future research," Dr. Ray said in the press statement.

Dr. Ray and colleagues are currently conducting follow-up studies. They are looking at a number of different cancer cell lines in order to investigate how bitter melon halts cancer cell growth. They are also planning to test the vegetable extract in animals to see if it will delay or kill breast cancer cells. If that research goes well, clinical trials in human breast cancer patients could soon follow.

"Breast cancer is a major killer among women around the world, and in that perspective, results from this study are quite significant," Rajesh Agarwal, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado, Denver School of Pharmacy, and the Cancer Research associate editor for this study, commented in a media release. "This study may provide us with one more agent as an extract that could be used against breast cancer if additional studies hold true."

Bitter melon is widely grown in Asia, Africa and South America. Extracts of this vegetable are currently included in some dietary supplements in Western countries because bitter melon is known to contain healthful phytochemicals such as carotenoids, flavanoids and polyphenols, as well as vitamin C.

For more information: http://www.naturalnews.com/bitter_m...

Women being conned about breast cancer screening

2010-02-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Western medicine relies heavily on convincing people that they need some sort of drug or surgery to remedy their ills and gain health. Studies often contain manipulated facts and skewed statistics that paint a favorable picture of some new procedure or treatment while shrouding the truth about the risks involved. The alleged benefits of breast cancer screenings are no exception as women are continually tricked into believing that mammograms will greatly benefit them when the facts show that they are largely ineffective.

Using an approach called mismatched framing, cancer studies will present side effects in absolute terms while exaggerating benefits in relative terms. When two different metric systems are used to present one set of findings, the results are deceptive albeit technically true.

One statistic says that regular breast cancer screenings reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by 25 percent. While this sounds like a large amount, the truth of the matter is that out of every 1,000 women who get regularly screened, only one extra life would be saved. Apart from screening, four out every 1,000 women will die from breast cancer; with screening, only three would die. The reduction from four to three represents the 25 percent statistic.

However the other half of the story is that 20 percent of those 1,000 women who get screened will be unnecessarily treated with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Up to 500 of them will undergo a needless biopsy due to an inaccurate screening. These monumental risks are never mentioned alongside the glowing endorsements that deceptively use the 25 percent reduction figure to lure women into continuing with screenings.

Drug behemoth Pfizer did the same thing with its Lipitor drug, claiming that those with multiple risk factors who take it will be 36 percent less likely to have a heart attack. When evaluated in absolute terms, two out of every 100 people who take Lipitor will have a heart attack; three out of every 100 people who do not take Lipitor will have a heart attack. The absolute increase in negative side effects among those who take Lipitor versus those who do not is not mentioned in context with the 36 percent reduction claim.

A study conducted by BMJ, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet found that about 33 percent of papers published in medical journals fail to use consistent metrics when presenting study findings. The result is a misrepresentation of the truth by the illness industry, drug companies, and the doctors and journalists who aid them in their deception.

Sources for this story include: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health

Pomegranates may prevent estrogen-driven breast cancer

2010-02-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

Many breast cancers are estrogen-dependent. So a class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors (AI) that block the synthesis of estrogen are used by mainstream medical doctors to attempt to slow the growth of estrogen sensitive breast tumors. Unfortunately, as the Mayo Clinic web site points out, AI drugs -- which include anastrozole (Arimidex), letrozole (Femara) and exemestane (Aromasin) -- come loaded with side effects including hot flashes, severe joint pain, muscle aches, headache, fatigue, bone fractures and a potential risk of heart disease.

But now comes good news: there appears to be a natural alternative to AIs. Researchers say they've found a substance that could prevent the development of hormone-dependent breast cancer and halt the growth of estrogen-driven tumors -- pomegranate fruit.

Pomegranates contain phytochemicals known as ellagitannins that work much like aromatase inhibitors, according to results of a study just published in the January issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. And there's little reason to think any cancer treatment derived from pomegranates would have harmful side effects because the fruit has long been safely consumed as a food.

Shiuan Chen, Ph.D., director of the Division of Tumor Cell Biology and co-leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program at City of Hope in Duarte, California, worked with Lynn Adams, Ph.D., a research fellow at Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, and other scientists to investigate whether phytochemicals in pomegranates can suppress aromatase and thereby inhibit cancer growth. They screened and analyzed 10 ellagitannin-derived compounds in pomegranates. The results? The research team discovered these natural phytochemicals have the potential to prevent estrogen-dependent breast cancers. One particular substance found in pomegranates dubbed Urolithin B significantly inhibited the growth of cultured breast cancer cells in the lab.

"Phytochemicals suppress estrogen production and that prevents the proliferation of breast cancer cells and the growth of estrogen-responsive tumors," said Dr. Chen, the principal investigator, in a statement to the media.

Gary Stoner, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Ohio State University, commented in a statement to the media that additional studies are needed in animals and humans to confirm the ability of Urolithin B to stop hormone-dependent breast cancer. Dr. Stoner, who was not part of the study research team, also recommended additional studies to test pomegranate juice for its effect on estrogen levels, menopausal symptoms and breast density (dense breast tissue is a risk for breast cancer) and to see if it is a cancer preventive agent.

Until then, Stoner said people "might consider consuming more pomegranates to protect against cancer development in the breast and perhaps in other tissues and organs."

Fight Tumor Re-Seeding with Natural Remedies

2010-02-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

(NaturalNews) Researchers stated in the Journal Cell on Thursday, December 24, 2009, that tumors, besides metastasizing throughout the body, can actually re-seed themselves. They stated that this may be one explanation as to why a tumor reappears after being removed. The premise given is that circulating cancer cells can go back to their place of origin, recolonizing in the original tumor site. This process is called self-seeding. The repopulation of the tumor site with these aggressive cells enables the tumor to grow at a more rapid rate. The research team's focus in controlling these cells is our very immune system. A failed immune system plays a critical part in the re-seeding process. Tumor recurrence is the consequence of a failed immune system. Concentrating on the immune system is an integral part of preventing, not only metastasis, but also future recolonization of the primary tumor site. In doing so, all parts of a person`s lifestyle must be addressed which includes diet, exercise, providing the body with the needed vitamins and minerals, and taking the proper anti-cancer and immune strengthening supplements.

Breast cancer virtually "eradicated" with higher levels of vitamin D

2010-02-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

(NaturalNews) In a gathering of vitamin D researchers recently held in Toronto, Dr. Cedric Garland delivered a blockbuster announcement: Breast cancer can be virtually "eradicated" by raising vitamin D levels.

If you have breast cancer or if it runs in your family then get your doctor to do a blood test for vitamin D. The dosage we suggest is 1000iu per 25lbs of weight.