Breast cancer news on my mind

Every so often, I end up with a browser full of open tabs on stories that interest me. Today I have three tabs open on breast cancer stories that I might as well blog about before either my browser crashes or I close it and lose all my tabs or I forget and close the tabs and forget about the stories. Three days later I'll say to myself 'what the hell happened to that story I meant to blog about?'

I'm so smart I could do this do all the time - lose the stories I wanted to blog about. Its my high level of technical skills that I have. Anyway here we go:

1. There is a new injection developed in the UK which would prevent 75% of the cases of DCIS from spreading. I find this interesting on two levels. First, "The same approach could be used to tackle other cancers, as well as other diseases caused by genetic flaws." And "Much more research is needed but, eventually, women with DCIS or genes that put them at high risk of breast cancer could be given a six-monthly jab to keep the disease at bay."

Positive progress? Yes!

2. More progress is that genomic tests are being developed to show which women will respond to chemotherapy for breast cancer. Very helpful in the world of overtreatment.

"In particular, the study tested two prominent genomic tests – MammaPrint and BluePrint – in order to ascertain if these tests indeed can offer better information about the molecular subtype of a woman’s breast cancer. The conclusion of the study revealed that, “when patients’ tumors were analyzed with these tests, 24% of the tumors were reclassified to a more accurate type when compared to traditional lab tests,” ....

Dr. Beitsch characterized the findings are significant, that they could improve the treatment approach for breast cancer: “These results should be encouraging to patients and their physicians. Physicians are now better able to determine whether a woman has the type of cancer that will respond to chemotherapy, or whether she can safely be treated with surgery and hormonal treatment alone.”"

More progress in my book!

3. However a less than positive article talks about how in England, the land of the National Health Service, that 450 deaths from breast cancer could be saved each year if the socio-economic factors that exist between the most affluent women and the 'most deprived' (what a lovely term) were removed. What this says to me is that the NHS isn't that great, reinforcing my previous opinions, if this disparity exists. I believe the affluent in England do go to private doctors and dentists to get the better care than the general population....

4. Finally, the downer article of the day. Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer under 50 (like me) are more likely to develop a second cancer in their liver or reproductive organs. One argument on this would be that younger women will live longer after diagnosis and then have more years to develop another cancer. But blah, blah, blah.

Now I can clear out my browser tabs and read more interesting articles - like how much snow we got and how cold it is out side. Can you say -20F windchills and a foot or so of new snow?