Treating estrogen responsive cancer naturally
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chatsworthgirl - check out this calculator to determine benefit of hormonal therapy based upon your age, tumor size, etc.
http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/breastcancer/therapy/index.php
It calculates cancer death rate and tells you how many additional years the treatment is projected to add to lifespan.
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DANCETRANCER, thank you so much for posting that link! I have been on the fence for months about AI therapy. I have osteoporosis and just made my decision to NOT use ARIMIDEX.
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My doctor said soy dirivitives should be avoided. Tempeh or Miso in limited amounts was ok. She said studies show a negative effect in women who ate 80+ grams per day, but the study was on women that did not have comprimised immune systems, so for me to stay at about half of that. I've just been avoiding it altogether.
I've been taking DIM for about 3 months now and plan to keep taking it. Some increase in hot flashes, but doable. None of the horrible AI effects.
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digitalcowgirl - you are most welcome! That calculator has been very helpful to me, too!
Having a salmon pattie for dinner and a side of stir-fried veggies (bok choy, onion, red pepper) with turmeric...trying to stay on an anti-cancer type of diet as much as possible!
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Dear DANCETRANCER, that dinner sounds yummy. I need to really pay more attention to what I eat. My DH is a chef and he does all the cooking so I have to modify his habits too! Gosh, I can't tell you how much you lifted my day!. Enjoy your dinner and thanks again.
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Yay!!! Happy to help!
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kayb-how long had you been off of an AI (if you had taken one.....I'm sorry my memory is no longer really reliable LOL). I can always feel estrogen fluctuations too, based on sweats at night, hot flashes,etc. Could you tell me if you still have your ovaries, etc. I would really like to find an alternative and so if you are having a response, that would really interest me. I have night sweats and hot flashes with changes up OR down in estrogen.
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Hi all, I've been reading this thread but must have missed what "DIM" is. Can someone tell me what it is and does?
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Kayb, thanks. My MO never mentions stuff like this, and when I ask about supplements, etc, she just says to eat healthy. Ill ask about this next time I see her, but don't expect a real opinion on it from her. So frustrating.
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Dance,
I checked out the cancer math. Without therapy my life is shortened by 3 years. With therapy I get an additonal year and a half. Not much either way but then I would be 83 to 85.
I was 90% and 80% pr positive so it was AI's.
I did ask my med onc at the time of chemo what would happen if I did nothing at all after the mast and he said the bc would probably come back by my mid eighties. So if I would be in my mid eighties without doing chemo or radiation or AI's and with all of it I get to the same place anyway. The cancer math seems to concur. So did I do all that awful stuff to my body for a net gain of a year and a half?
By the way, I ran out of Arimidex on Saturday and can't get the refill until today, Monday. All the symptoms, anxiety, depression and weepiness were so much less on Sunday and by Sunday night were gone. I feel completely normal today.
I willl go back and read all the posts to pick up the various anti-hormonal natural substances that have been found here. If someone has a list I would be grateful.
Kathy
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rosyFL, what's wrong with flaxseed? I know it's estrogenic, but then it can also block the stronger estrogens and then we'd get it's weaker estrogenic effect taking the place of the bad estrogens. Is there another reason why you are saying it's bad? I use it all the time.
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I've taken flaxseed oil for years. It's part of my protocol.
Most of the integrative docs recommend it. They don't pay attention to the plant estrogen myth.
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I'm on Coumadin and the cardio NP said NOT to avoid any of the veggies, just keep the amounts the same.
According to cancer math I will lose 9 months of life by not taking any hormonals.
It wasn't worth it to me to keep taking Aromasin. The onc disagrees.
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My BC surgeon last week asked if I might wanted to try Evista! ( WTH?)
Of course I said : " but thats not really for tx, possibly prevention". She said : " We dont really know for sure !"
I said :
" I dont think I want to take anything with all my other health concerns, but I know I will kick myself if I have a recurrence "
She said :" Who can say if you get the recurrence that it wouldnt have happened if you were on arimidex or tamoxifen . We dont really know for sure !"
YES, I am quoting. This is a Harvard trained BS!Cancermath shows I live 0 mos longer taking it/ no change at all.
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purple...how small was your IDC? I see it listed as < 1 cm. For very small IDC's, the benefit of hormonal therapy becomes much more suspect, as you can see from your results of the cancermath site.
If you read NCCN guidelines, this is what it says about that:
"given the favorable toxicity profile of the available endocrine therapies, the Panel recommends the use of adjuvant endocrine therapy in the majority of women with hormone receptor-positive disease regardless of menopausal status, age, or HER2 status of tumor. Possible exceptions to the recommendation of adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with HR+ disease are those patients with node-negative cancers less than or equal to 5 mm or 6 mm to 1 cm in diameter with favorable prognostic features where the prognosis is so favorable that the benefits of adjuvant endocrine therapy are very small.”
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cancer math?
never been good at math.. but what is this about?
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I posted it earlier.
http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/breastcancer/therapy/index.php
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must have missed it.. thx
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http://www.preventcancer.com/press/releases/oct25_02.htm
This is dated information, but 10 years ago Evista was suspected of causing ovarian cancer
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Read this - mentions a study of women over 70. The severe SEs I had on Aromasin had me in turmoil. Should I got off the hormonals? This study convinced me to do so.
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With all the risk of Tamox and the AI's, I'd rather have more life in my years than than the added 7 months to my life. There are many women that get new or recurring BC while on Tamox. If they guaranteed 100% that I would not get BC again and would not get endometrial/uterine CA, then I might try to grin and bear it; but I don't see the risk to benefit ratio as being worth it. My math showed that 95% of people will be alive at 5 years and 85% at 15. I'll take my chances at this point. Down the road if something changes maybe I will change my mind, but for now I'm staying au natural.
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Thats sweet dogs and jogs ...they dont give care what they offer !
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dogs
Similar studies found similar results in women over70 regarding rads !
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RE: DIM
I went to my endo dr today and asked her about the DIM BReast Blend with iodine. She said no.I Have a goiter and am close to hyper.
I asked her about " ordinary DIM'. I am concerned because I know cruciferous vegs are goiterous and can stimulate a goiter.She looked it up and sais I could try it , if I got sme more baseline bloodwork and she would watch and see if it started me going hypo.My question is - has anyone with a goiter here taken DIM and IF SO , has it had an impact on the goiter or TSH ?
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kayb,
There are myths circulating that estrogens in plants cause cancers to grow. This has been studied not to be true as some cultures eat many so-called plant estrogens and have less breast cancer. I almost don't want to get into the discussion because the belief is so entrenched about plant estrogens.
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Purple: Yes, that's true and as I've mentioned on other threads the RO left the decision up to me! Which was nice ---He told me all the SE's and told me to do whatever I felt comfortable with. So I skipped rads ---too much worry about heart, lungs, bones, other cancers, etc.
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I try not to second guess myself or obsess about my treatment decisions anymore. It is what it is. Either way there are possible benefits and repercussions. All you can do is make the best decisions you can at the time. Worry and regret won't gain us one day of life but it can take away from the time we have. I'm learning to be very Zen about things these days. :-)
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So true Mini--
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Very interesting study dogs. Thanks for sharing. It's a 'print and save'.
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I'm not sure what you're claiming. What does individuality have to do with the effects of plant estrogens?
Could you be more specific?
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