Calling all triple negative breast cancer patients in the UK
Comments
-
Hello linali
Thank you for your post. I have plenty of energy to spare, so I am sending it over the sea to Ireland!
I was interested to know that your son-in-law is coming over to England to work for two weeks. Where exactly will he be working?
I am sure you will have a very happy time with Oskar and I am sure he will be happy and excited to stay with you. I hope the weather will be fine and dry for you, so that you and Oskar can spend a lot of time outside. Do you have a park with swings etc. near you that will keep Oskar busy and amused?
I sincerely hope that you will end up with your invalidity. There must be somewhere you can go for advice. As I have said before, here in England you would go to the Citizens Advice Bureau and they would handle everything for you. I do not think they lose many of their cases.
It is a cold but sunny day in Exmouth, so I suppose the seafront will be busy.
Good luck on Tuesday at your appointment for pain injections.
I hope you are having a nice weekend and the same goes for everyone else.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
0 -
Hi Sylvia,
For the Vitamin D3 drops you can get them from Amazon.com. The ones I have are called Source Naturals. I put them into my morning smoothie after it is done blending, when I'm pouring it into the glass. Then I count the drops in and stir it.
There is another vitamin D3 that is supposed to be real good, and I ordered that too, but haven't used it. It has like 193 5 star reviews on Amazon. These are pills.
Here is the link - Vitamin D3 pill: http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-Softgels-GMO-free-Preservative-free-Soy-free/dp/B004N8TTBQ/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_3760901_b4_3_p
Vitamin D3 drops: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=hpc&field-keywords=source+naturals+d3+liquid
Have a great day!
0 -
FREE Nutrition and Recipe Book:
There is an amazing 330 page book you can download about nutrition that has some fabulous easy recipes. It is 330 pages, and all you have to do is supply your e-mail address. The book retails at $24.95 and you can opt to have it downloaded to your kindle, ipad, pdf file, etc. Here is the link. I've just learned how to use up all the veggies in the fridge with sweet potatoes!
Recipes start on page 262.
0 -
The Wonder of it all:
1. IF the sport of choice for the urban poor is BASKETBALL.
2. IF the sport of choice for maintenance level employees is BOWLING.
3. IF the sport of choice for front-line workers is FOOTBALL.
4. IF the sport of choice for supervisors is BASEBALL.
5. IF the sport of choice for middle management is TENNIS .
6. IF the sport of choice for corporate executives and officers is GOLF.
THEN THIS AMAZING CONCLUSION:
The higher you go in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.
Therefore, one might conclude, there must be a ton of people in Washington playing marbles.0 -
Hi Sylvia,
Just looking at your post above. Did you decide to take these tablets yourself or did your onc/surgeon recommend them to you. Just curious as to why you take some tablets every other day? I have to give Emma Vit D drops in her bottle every day so I'm wondering if you can get Vit D drops for adults now aswell...I'll have a look in the chemist.
I'm not taking any supplements now, have been advised not to while on treatment but will be taking them when I'm finished.
0 -
Hello InspiredbyDolce (Debra)
Thank you for your post and for the links with the vitamin D3 drops. I shall certainly look into them.
Thank you also for the information about the recipe book. I shall certainly have a look at it. It sounds as though it has a lot in it.
I am sure it will also be of interest to Mumtobe (Carol) as I know she is very interested in healthy nutrition.
Best wishes
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
Hello BernieEllen
Thank you for your post about how to help small businesses thrive at Christmas time. It is a tough world for them today.
Thank you also for the joke. It is a good way to start the week.
I hope you had a good and happy weekend.
Best wishes
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
Hello Mumtobe (Carol)
Thank you for your post.
The supplements that I take are what I decided to take and they were not recommended by my oncologist or breast cancer consultant. I do not discuss this kind of thing with orthodox doctors, nor my GP, because I know that the medical establishment are against vitamins etc. on the whole. This makes me laugh because so far no one, to my knowledge, has died from vitamins etc., but plenty of people have from prescribed medications!!
When I had my first DEXA scan to measure my bone density, at the hospital, I was told I could have calcium tablets prescribed on the NHS and that I should take bisphosphonates, brand name Fosamax, for five years and then come back for another DEXA scan. There was no way I was ever going to take bisphosphonates and I have not done so. The calcium tablets on the NHS come from calcium carbonate, and we humans cannot absorb it!! I told this to the nurse who did the DEXA scan and she said that she knew this was the case, but it was cheap and that was why it was prescribed. I said I could not see that it was cheap if it did not work!!! As for the bisphosphonates, they have terrible side effects and I certainly was not going to take them for five years without knowing whether they were working, and what they were doing to my body.
I did my own research and decided on Solgar calcium supplements, which are made from calcium citrate. They also have everything else in them for good absorption. I researched vitamin D3 and decided on a supplement from Holland and Barrett. I also take magnesium citrate from Holland and Barrett. That is how I am trying to deal with my osteoporosis. When I see my oncologist she just asked me whether I am taking my calcium and I say yes I am.
I think we should all have DEXA scans every year once we have had breast cancer treatment, as I believe it is quite common to develop osteoporosis after chemotherapy and even radiotherapy.
As for the other supplements, I decided not to take them every day in order not to overload.
Now and again, I have rest days where I take nothing at all.
The multi-vitamin/mineral supplement that I take has everything in it, except iron, which is why I take a separate iron supplement. I take the vitamin B supplements as they seem to energise me and because I do not eat meat.
I do hope this information helps. I am the sort of person that tends to make up my own mind what I do with my body. I tend to be very wary about orthodox medicine and even more so after reading the book Bad Pharma and reading the magazine What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY). I see a lot of people getting ill from the medication they are taking, especially statins.
I hope you are continuing to make progress and enjoying your days with baby Emma.
Fond thoughts.
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
Hello everyone.
I thought you would like to know that I have just received my latest e-mail from Chris Woollams of CANCERactive and, once again, it is full of information and certainly gives a person food for thought.
I was very pleased to know that his daughter Steph, who was running, with some team mates, on behalf of her deceased sister Catherine, almost managed her fund's target.
I was interested to know that Chris Woollams's book Everything You Need to Know to Help You Beat Cancer, now in its fourth edition, has just been launched. I read an early edition a few years ago and was very impressed. He said his aim was to have a book that would save people six months hard work searching the internet etc. I shall certainly read this updated edition.
Topics of information in this recent newsletter are once again about screening mammograms do women more harm than good.
http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=1420
I was cheered up to read that soon private firms will be launching a simple blood test that will catch breast cancer much earlier. The following quote caught my attention.
“But Big Cancer will not like this much, as they will cost but pence and allow women to be treated much earlier by non-invasive ablation, so they wont need any radiotherapy or drugs.”
Please take the trouble to read about ablation-an alternative to breast cancer surgery, on the CANCERactive site. This is all about heating tumours under local anaesthetic-hyperthermia is a way of killing cancer cells and the treatment can take as little as ten minutes. This treatment was developed some time ago, when scientists noted that sometimes when cancer patients developed a fever there cancer went into remission. There is much more information about this if you take the trouble to follow the link.
http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=3155
There is also information about intravenous Vitamin C in the treatment of cancer. There is an interview about this between Chris Woollams and Dr Julian Kenyon of the Dove Clinic, Winchester, UK.
If you want to read more about intravenous vitamin C and cancer treatment, the link is:
http://www.canceractive.com/cancer-active-page-link.aspx?n=470&Title=Intravenous%20vitamin%20C
It would be very useful if you do read all the above to post your comments.
That is all for today. I do hope it will be a good week. We shall be thinking of those of you that we know are going through treatment and wishing you well.
To Dulcie, I hope you are now back home.
To linali (Lindsay), hoping all goes well tomorrow and waiting to hear that little Oskar has arrived.
To FernMF, I hope you have got back to a near normal lifestyle.
To Maria_Malta, sam52, and Michael, we are missing you on the thread and would love to hear from you. We know all three of you are busy working, but please pop in and say hello.
Best wishes
Sylvia
0 -
Hello BernieEllen,
I hope you will have good news about your truncal lymphoedema when you go for your appointment next Monday. Let us know how you get on.
Fond thoughts,
Sylvia.xxx
0 -
Thanks so much for that information Sylvia - I will keep it on file for when my treatment ends as I want to do the best for my body. Treatment is so great in so many ways but it does take its toll and I want to take good care of myself for the sake of me and my family!
0 -
Hi Sylvia,
Thanks for that. Our plans are slightly changed as my S in L fast boat was canceled so Kerry took yesterday off. He is helping a friend somewhere near London.
We will collect Oskar tomorrow. All set with lots of big empty cardboard boxes and play doh.
Fingers crossed that the injections work this time.
I went to my TD last night re my appeal for invalidity. Not sure what he can do and he thought it a bad sign that my new medical evidence wasn't considered strong enough.
I also recontacted Irish cancer.ie but they said that they don't take on individual cases etc etc etc and to be patient.
I feel strongly that mine isn't an isolated case and many people surviving cancer are being refused. I would have thought that they should be the voice of people with cancer in Ireland. I have found them disappointing in general.
It is so encouraging to see the new advances in TNBC and I hope that they will proven to be 100% useful.
I have put the link on my face book page to our plenary choir session. We are the ones in the yellow t shirts. Not a good look compared to the black sparkly glamour of our Galway friends!
There is also a web site and facebook page. Something to sing about, community I think.
I am hoping that the weather will improve as Oskar is an outdoor little boy. There are play grounds but they are all at least 8 miles away.
Sending the healing light to all those in treatment or with worries and fears.
0 -
Hi BernieEllen,
TThanks so much for your support it is good to feel that I am not alone. I also talked through my situation with my friend who works for the union. She felt the whole issue was actually making me ill, but as I said before it isnt in my nature to give up when I think a situation is so unfair.
Good luck on Monday with your check up. I hope that they find some relief for your lymphadema. Sometimes they recommend a compression bra if it is in the breast along with gentle massage for drainage. I am still waithing for another appt because I had to cancel as it was the day of the choir launch in Galway.
Thanks for all the smiles x
0 -
Hello Mumtobe
Thank you for your post. I was very happy to give you all that information. I think you have the right attitude about what to do post-treatment and wanting to do the best for your body.
Our cancer treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy enables us to stay alive and makes us stable. After that it is up to us to do everything we can to stay stable and try to prevent recurrence, metastases or a new primary by doing all in our power to keep our bodies healthy. There are no guarantees but all we can do is try. It is very difficult because we are in the dark about the actual cause or causes of our breast cancer. Common sense tells us there has to be causes, but what they are we do not know. There are a whole load of risk factors that are quoted at different times, but we are also told that the risk factors did not necessarily cause the breast cancer.
I think we all need to avoid negative stress, junk food and processed food, alcohol and cigarettes, too much animal and dairy foods, and too many chemicals in our household products and toiletries.
You have the right attitude and you have the motivation to look after yourself for your own sake and for your family.
Keep up the good work and do not be too shy to ask anything you like.
Best wishes.
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
Hello linali
Thank you for your post. I do hope all goes well for your son-in-law while working near London.
I think Oskar is going to have a wonderful time with you. It is strange how children love to play with cardboard boxes.
I do hope the injections will work for you and I also hope that you will win the struggle for your invalidity. I cannot believe that cancer patients have to fight like this when their life is never quite the same as it was before diagnosis and treatment. Apart from long-lasting physical effects, and effects that may come on years after treatment, there is the stress of knowing that breast cancer is not curable and that it can come back at any time. I do not know why people can say that breast cancer is curable so there is nothing to worry about. I know that this 'curable' business annoys breast cancer patients on other threads. We are alive and stable but we have to live with the fact that we are not immune to a new primary, metastases, recurrence etc. We do not rreally know whether our heart has been affected or not or what chemotherapy and radiotherapy may cause in our body many years later. Then there is the never ending fatigue for many and how that affects their capability of working.
Like you, I do wonder about the big cancer charities and whether all the money that is collected is put to good use.
I shall try to look up the information about your choir on facebook later today.
Good luck.
Sylvia xxxx
0 -
I saw this on the TNS thread by Babs37 and thought you might like to read it.
Enjoy!
Sylvia
Stuff you didn't know you didn't know!
============================
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
Coca-Cola was originally green.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work:Alaska.
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this...)
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%
The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour:61,000
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David Hearts - Charlemagne Clubs -Alexander, the Great Diamonds -Julius Caesar
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4,
John Hancock and Charles Thomson.
Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what? A. Their birthplace
Q. Most boat owners name their boats.
What is the most popular boat name requested? A. Obsession
Q. If you were to spell out numbers,
how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?
A. One thousand
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes,
windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?
A. All were invented by women.
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
Q. Which day are there more collect calls
than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'.
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month,which we know today as the honeymoon.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.' . . .It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'.
Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle,of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill , they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING
IN 2012 when...
1. You accidentally enter your PIN on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries...
7. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.
12 You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~
NOW you’re LAUGHING at yourself!
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused!"
0 -
Hello everyone
I am just popping in to say that I was interested to see on the Calling all TNS thread a post about combatting cancer with baking soda (here in the UK bicarbonate of soda).
You will remember I posted about this sometime ago after reading information from CANCERactive. On the other thread it is about breast cancer being connected with fungal problems.
I do take a teaspoon of this in water from time to time.
You might be interested to know that a well known herbalist whom I contacted when first diagnosed beleived that breast cancer was connected to the yeast infection candida and he prescribed wormwood tablets and astragalus capsules to boost the immune system. I took them and felt they helped, but realised I had to have orthodox treatment to survive.
Best wishes.
Sylvia
0 -
Hello,have been a bit behind catching up on all the information.
Hope you are all keeping well.
Linali, may be we should try to approach the media to see if we can find out what is going on?
Bernie
0 -
Hi again, Linali have you ever looked up this site. I have just found it.
0 -
Hello Michael,
I have just been rereading all the information on the Janette Collins foundation. It is all so interesting and moving. Have you made any further progress? I feel as though we are not moving on much from the usual drugs and treatment. Have you any new informatiom?
Best Wishes,
Sylvia.
0 -
Good evening Sylvia
I actually wrote to HMRC yesterday, asking what was happening with my application. My dread is that they have lost the paperwork because it had the articles of incorporation.
I was interviewing a man this afternoon who had lost his wife to metastatic lung cancer, it had spread to her brain. She became sick in January and died two months ago. It was quite therapeutic talking to him even though I had to maintain a certain distance.
I think I may be heading for more treatment myself, I am waiting for my consultant's secretary to get back to me. There is a great tradition in Northern Ireland of ignoring requests so one needs to be on the case all the time. My friends son was telling me that he had asked for a quote for one of his clients who wants a solar panel roof for a project. That was three weeks ago and he is still waiting. The whole project is stalled. One would think that given the state of construction in Ireland that the suppliers would bite his hand off.
Michael
0 -
As a follow up to my last post, I wanted to let everyone know that the Janette Foundation web site is updated daily with the latest news/research on TNBC. It appears on the latest news page. I suppose I should try to get it to the frontpage. I think I have a quite week next week so I will work on it.
Michael
0 -
Hello Michael
Thank you for your posts. They are always interesting. I was sorry to hear that HMRC is still not being very responsive. They go along at a snail's pace unless you owe them money. I do hope you will receive a response soon and that they have not lost important paperwork.
I was most interested to read that you had interviewed a man whose wife had died of metastatic lung cancer that had spread to her brain. It is very frightening how quickly some people die once cancer has spread to the brain. It must have been very strange for you to be interviewing this man given the circumstances of Janette's death from metastatic TNBC. I can understand how it would have been therapeutic for you to talk to him, even though you had to maintain a certain distance. Both of you are in mourning for loved ones who have died this year.
I was most concerned to read that you might be heading for more treatment for yourself. Would you like to tell us what is happening? You know we shall all support you. You have been through such a lot this year with Janette's death that you have to be extra vigilant. Your body has probably been under a lot of stress. You need to watch your immune system. I do hope your consultant's secretary will get back to you quickly. I do understand how proactive one needs to be for one's own medical problems and that you have to be relentlessly on the case. I think we have the same problem in England as in Northern Ireland in that there seems to be no hurry to anything. In Devon they hurry even more slowly! Raymond and I have found it very difficult to adapt to the slowness of life in Devon. It is in such contrast to how fast everything was in Canada, especially with contractors.
Thank you for letting us know that the Janette Foundation website is updated daily with the latest news/research on TNBC. I shall be sure to look on a regular basis as information is vital and I shall also keep a look out in the media for any news on TNBC, other breast cancers and cancers in general.
At the moment I have a neighbour who has had leukaemia for over twenty years, but has always been treated orally. His blood problems were such, recently, that he has had to go back to chemotherapy with some intravenous treatment. He is very elderly so I do not think they will give him long term treatment, perhaps just a few weeks. One of the drugs they are giving him is cyclophosphomide and I was interested to know he was having it orally. He is also having a mono-clonal drug, rituximab, and I think the other one is fluadabine as intravenous.
I am also trying to support the husband of one of my friends as he goes through treatment for prostate cancer. He has had a lot of oral medication and then chemotherapy and is now having seven weeks of radiotherapy. That is a lot of treatment.
I am about to post an article on the thread that I saw in the Guardian on Monday. I would be interested to know what you think about it.
Thinking of you and wishing you all the very best.
Sylvia
0 -
Hello everyone
I saw this article in the Guardian on Monday and thought it was interesting enough to post.
Cancer can teach us about our own evolution.
By asking ourselves why cancer might exist, we can get a glimpse of life in a bygone biological age.
Medical science treats cancer as a disease in which rogue cells proliferate uncontrollably, running amok around the body. Therapy focuses on killing the cancer before it kills the host. Unfortunately, the emphasis on cancer cells as defective loose cannons is at odds with the stubborn way they outwit both the body's defences and the physician's armoury.
Cancer is such a ruthless adversary because it behaves as if it has its own fiendishly cunning agenda. Cancer cells come pre-programmed to execute a well-defined cascade of changes, seemingly designed to facilitate both their enhanced survival and their dissemination through the bloodstream. There is even an air of conspiracy in the way that tumours use chemical signals to create cancer-friendly niches in remote organs.
In the frantic search for an elusive "cure", few researchers stand back and ask a very basic question: why does cancer exist? What is its place in the grand story of life? Astonishingly, in spite of decades of research, there is no agreed theory of cancer, no explanation for why, inside almost all healthy cells, there lurks a highly efficient cancer subroutine that can be activated by a variety of agents – radiation, chemicals, inflammation and infection.
Cancer, it seems, is embedded in the basic machinery of life, a type of default state that can be triggered by some kind of insult. That suggests it is not a modern aberration but has deep evolutionary roots, a suspicion confirmed by the fact that it is not confined to humans but is widespread among mammals, fish, reptiles and even plants. Scientists have identified genes implicated in cancer that are thought to be hundreds of millions of years old. Clearly, we will fully understand cancer only in the context of biological history.
Two relevant evolutionary transitions stand out. The first occurred over 2 billion years ago, when large, complex cells emerged containing mitochondria – tiny factories that supply energy to the cell. Biologists think mitochondria are the remnants of ancient bacteria. Tellingly, they undergo systematic changes as cancer develops, profoundly altering their chemical and physical properties.
For most of Earth's history, life was confined to single-celled organisms. Over time, however, a new possibility arose. Earth's atmosphere became polluted by a highly toxic and reactive chemical – oxygen – created as a waste product of photosynthesis. Cells evolved ingenious strategies to either avoid the accumulating oxygen or to combat oxidative damage in their innards. But some organisms turned a vice into a virtue and found a way to exploit oxygen as a potent new source of energy. In modern organisms, it is mitochondria that harness this dangerous substance to power the cell.
With the appearance of energised oxygen-guzzling cells, the way lay open for the second major transition relevant to cancer – the emergence of multicellular organisms. This required a drastic change in the basic logic of life. Single cells have one imperative – to go on replicating. In that sense, they are immortal. But in multicelled organisms, ordinary cells have outsourced their immortality to specialised germ cells – sperm and eggs – whose job is to carry genes into future generations. The price that the ordinary cells pay for this contract is death; most replicate for a while, but all are programmed to commit suicide when their use-by date is up, a process known as apoptosis. And apoptosis is also managed by mitochondria.
Cancer involves a breakdown of the covenant between germ cells and the rest. Malignant cells disable apoptosis and make a bid for their own immortality, forming tumours as they start to overpopulate their niches. In this sense, cancer has long been recognised as a throwback to a "selfish cell" era. But recent advances in research permit us to embellish this picture. For example, cancer cells thrive in low-oxygen (even zero-oxygen) conditions, reverting to an earlier, albeit less efficient, form of metabolism known as fermentation.
Biologists are familiar with the fact that organisms may harbour ancient traits that reflect their ancestral past, such as the atavistic tails or supernumerary nipples some people are born with. Evolution necessarily builds on earlier genomes. Sometimes older genetic pathways are not discarded, just silenced. Atavisms result when something disrupts the silencing mechanism.
Charles Lineweaver, of the Australian National University, and I have proposed a theory of cancer based on its ancient evolutionary roots. We think that as cancer progresses in the body it reverses, in a speeded-up manner, the arrow of evolutionary time. Increasing deregulation prompts cancer cells to revert to ever earlier genetic pathways that recapitulate successively earlier ancestral life styles. We predict that the various hallmarks of cancer progression will systematically correlate with the activation of progressively older ancestral genes. The most advanced and malignant cancers recreate aspects of life on Earth before a billion years ago.
Ancient genes remain functional only if they continue to fulfill a biological purpose. In early-stage embryo development, when the basic body plan is laid down (also in low-oxygen conditions, incidentally) ancestral genes help guide developmental processes before being switched off. Every human, for example, possesses tails and gills for a time in the womb. Significantly, researchers have recently identified examples of early-stage embryonic genes being reawakened in cancer.
The deep links between evolutionary biology, developmental biology and cancer have huge implications for therapy, and also provide an unexpected reason to study cancer. By unravelling the details of cancer initiation and progression, scientists can open a window on the past through which we can gain tantalising glimpses of life in a bygone age.
The link to this article is:
This is not an easy article to read, but I think what it means is that cancer goes back in time to before mammals even existed.
Some of this reminds me of the book we discussed in the past, The Emperor of all Maladies by Mukherjee.
That is all for now.
Sylvia
0 -
I just wanted to stop in and wish everyone a very nice Thanksgiving. Thank you to everyone in this forum who contributes, offers support and kind words and helps all of us through this process.
I wish all of you, my Sisters, a very special Thanksgiving.
0 -
Hello everyone
I am posting a few snippets of information that I have found in the newspapers this week. There was an article in the Daily Mail about ovarian cancer and was entitled 'Ovarian cancer deaths fall by 26% in 20 years'. The article is by Sophie Borland, Health Reporter.
Some of the points I picked up on is that death rates are falling due to earlier diagnosis and better treatment. Survival rates are also increasing, especially amongst women aged between 40 and 60.
Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common form of cancer amongst women with 6,500 cases diagnosed in Britain each year.
Survival rates have barely improved amongst the elderly.
Apparently ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose, but warning signs include bloating, loss of appetite and severe pain, which can be confused with irritable bowel syndrome or period pains, as well as needing to go to the toilet, and always feeling full.
What I picked up on as good news was that a blood test capable of detecting the illness was made available to GPs for the first time last year and the blood test costs £20. This news came as a surprise to me as I had never heard of this. I would have thought that our surgeries would have been getting in touch with us inviting us to come for this blood test. I would have thought this would have been good and sensible practice.
The link for this article is
Another article in the same newspaper, under Good Health, also appeared on Tuesday. It was entitled 'Found: The cells that make cancer run riot'. 'Startling new research suggests tiny groups of stem cells hold the key to how tumours grow and spread. Kill them and you could destroy the cancer'.
The article is by Steve Boggan and is a full page with lots of details.
Another article in the Daily Mail on Tuesday under Good Health, was entitled 'Are your bones older than you?' It is by Jo Waters.
The headline is 'Brittle bones aren't just a problem of old age. As these women discovered, the damage can start DECADES earlier'. There is a photograph of six women, four of whom have bones older than they are.
This article covers two pages and has a very detailed account of all the risk factors, including illnesses, medication, and a diet lacking in calcium-rich foods, as well as vitamin D deficiency.
Since we all know breast cancer treatment can lead to osteopenia and osteoporosis, I would strongly advise reading this article.
There is mention of the DEXA scan, that I have mentioned quite a few times on the thread. It measures bone density. During this test there is a T score. A score of -1 or above is normal. -1 to -2.5 indicates osteopenia and -2.5 or below, osteoporosis.
According to this article, a DEXA scan costs from £195.
That is all for today.
It is a strange week here in Exmouth. The weather has been awful and I cannot believe the amount of rain we have had. There is plenty of flooding in Devon and all around the southwest of the country. It has been a long day today and has felt more like a Friday afternoon!
Wishing everyone well.
Sylvia
0 -
Hello girls, thank you for your welcome to post here. I have been away on a self growth conference this weekend, it was wonderful this time it was about colours very interesting, have any of you had your colours done?
Sylvia, yes I did have surgery, two lumpectomies actually due to dirty margins, as for my grade it was quite confusing as grade two was the average of the three tests run and I had 33 rounds of radiation after chemo. guess I should update my profile lol.
I am going to sign up for that fitness pal too, soundss like a good way to keep accountable, just cant seem to drop those last 10 lbs.
Ovarian cancer is a scary one as it is hard to detect and when it is found it is usually at a much later stage. I will have to go and read that article later when I have some time.
Have a great day ladies
Kymn
0 -
That was an interesting article from the Guardian; very thought provoking.
It sounds as though your friend has CLL Which is pretty similar to NHL. I think I had Cyclophosphamide as tablets. I have a feeling it is an antibiotic. Much of the time my NHL has appeared in my skin and apart from being a bit unsightly and sometimes itchy it doesn't do much harm but I now have a swollen node in front of my left ear. I think if a blood test shows my platelets are low then it means that I need treatment.
I was interviewing a vibrant 90 year old today and he was smoking the whole time, it makes one ask "how comes"? The weather today was fantastic, warm and not a cloud to be seen.
Michael
0 -
Sylvia, thank you for the articles, very interesting and informative reading.
Michael, thinking of you and hoping for good results.
Kym, please tell us more about the conference.
Linali, hope you are well.
0
