Bringing Male Breast Cancer Out of the Shadow of Pink: Blog

Metastatic and recurrent breast cancer symptoms

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:37:18 GMT

Do you know the symptoms of metastatic and recurrent breast cancer to watch for?

http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/tc/breast-cancer-metastatic-or-recurrent-symptoms

Tykerb Targets Cancer Stem Cells

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:29:06 GMT

Drug Curbs Tumor Growth by Wiping Out Cancer Stem Cells

http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20071217/tykerb-targets-cancer-stem-cells

Ingredient Found In Green Tea Significantly Inhibits Breast Cancer Growth In Female Mice

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:24:37 GMT

To read more about this interesting research

http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/artemis/200805/5.html

Life goes on

Sat, 06 May 2006 05:29:29 GMT

So, here we are, five months later. We made it through the illness, the holidays, the death of my father in law in February and my hubby and I are still hanging in there.

I left you all hanging out in the parking lot after the trip to the radiologist. Sure am glad is was a mild winter!

Needless to say, it was a very long ride home. We were both really freaked and definitly going back and forth between anger and denial.

A few days later we were at the hospital for the biopsy. Since you came to this site you already know what the results were. Joey was such a trip. They had only used twilight sleep on him and he woke up just as the surgeon was finishing and actually asked to see the tumour that had been removed!

Talking about Soy Is Still a Puzzle - Nutrition Notes - MSNBC.com

Sat, 06 May 2006 04:48:52 GMT

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Soy Is Still a Puzzle - Nutrition Notes - MSNBC.com
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By Karen Collins, R.D.

MSNBC

Updated: 6:34 p.m. ET Nov. 26, 2005

Karen Collins, R.D.

A recent study of women in a cancer risk assessment program highlights the confusion people still have about soy foods.
Forty-five percent of the women who ate soy foods on a regular basis said that part of the reason they did so was to lower their risk of cancer. Yet seven percent of the women in the study who did not eat soy foods on a regular basis said that they were concerned that soy might increase their risk of breast cancer.

Story continues below ↓
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This difference in opinion is understandable because the evidence is still inconclusive.
Several types of studies suggest that soy could help lower the risk for at least some cancers. For instance, the low risk that Asians have for most cancers may stem from their lifelong use of soy foods. Laboratory studies also show that soy’s estrogen-like phytochemicals can bind to estrogen receptors. This activity could possibly block estrogen’s breast cancer-promoting effects. In other studies, soy phytochemicals inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells.
Soy also appears to protect a person in studies that compare soy intake between people diagnosed with cancer and people who are cancer-free. Those who ate the most soy, which ranged from several servings a week to once a day, had a 25 to 50 percent lower risk of prostate, breast and uterine cancers. In some cases, however, the link between soy consumption and lower cancer risk disappears when the analysis figures in the impact of weight control, vegetable consumption, limited meat intake and regular exercise.
Cancer survivors are often highly concerned about soy’s effects on cancer recurrence, yet the evidence on soy for this group is also inconclusive.
Grounds for concern?
Research presented at the most recent American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) international conference showed that the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) count, which can identify prostate enlargement or cancer, dropped in 34 percent of a group of men, after they ate soy protein daily for eight weeks.
Some researchers, however, worry that the weak estrogens in soy’s phytochemicals could stimulate the development of precancerous cells or malignant cells of estrogen-sensitive cancers like breast cancer. This is a very difficult theory to test, but a few laboratory studies suggest there may be grounds for concern.

Related coverage

Eating uncooked soy may lower cholesterol
Soy may reduce bone fracture risk

Part of why it’s so hard to identify soy’s influence on cancer risk may be that its benefits depend on when it is consumed. In several population and laboratory studies, much of soy’s protection against breast cancer comes when it is consumed before or around puberty. At this age, soy appears to affect how breast tissue develops. If women start consuming soy later in life, its benefits may be more limited.
For now, most researchers say it is reasonable for everyone to include soy foods as part of a balanced, mostly plant-based diet.
While cancer-prevention benefits are uncertain, these foods offer a healthy amount of protein, fiber, vitamins and sometimes calcium with little saturated fat. Although soy foods are often suggested for their phytochemicals like genistein, the impact of traditional soy foods such as tofu, soy nuts and soymilk are probably quite different from the effects of soy supplements or a bar containing corn syrup, vegetable oil, chocolate and soy protein.
When you consider any food’s nutritional value, you should focus on more than its phytochemical content.
Whether or not soy reduces the chance of cancer recurrence, most researchers think soy foods are safe for cancer survivors to eat anywhere from once a day to several times a week. For more proven cancer protection, however, cancer survivors and everyone else should concentrate on reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and eating a mostly plant-based diet centered around vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans.
Nutrition Notes is provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
© 2005 MSNBC Interactive

And so the Nightmare began...

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 06:42:12 GMT

We sat in the office another ten or fifteen minutes. Joey still wouldn't or couldn't say anything. We got the films and the report and walked out to the car.

We sat in the parking lot for quite a while. The radiologist had told him he couldn't be positive but he was 90% sure about the diagnosis of cancer. I can't really tell you at this point what was said but I know it involved a lot ofanger, crying and denial. In retrospect, I recognize the stages of emotion, but we were no where near the acceptance part.

A Slight Interruption

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 05:54:59 GMT

Nothing like a little bout of viral meningitis to slow things down and the fact that this story is incredibly hard to tell.

Slight interruption.... what was I thinking?!?!?! Five months later and life is sort of back on track.

Off to the radiologist...

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 07:42:43 GMT

Life moved at light speed after that night. Two day's later we were sitting in the doctor's office. The doc said not to worry but I want you to get a mammogram and an ultrasound and I'm going to make an appointment with a surgeon for you to have the lump removed. This was a Wednesday. Before we left the office the surgery had been scheduled for Monday. I burned up my cell phone that afternoon trying to get an appointment with the radiologist before Monday. I managed to get the mammogram scheduled for the next afternoon, in another city. We couldn't believe this was all happening so fast! Now I know why, but I'll get to that later.

On Thursday I picked up Joey from work and headed down the road. At this point the conversation was going back and forth between him saying, "I know I've got cancer and I'm going to die" to "I can't believe I have to have a mammogram, men don't have mammograms!" I spent the drive trying to soothe his fears and explaining what was going to happen.

We got there a little early and Joey sat there, white knuckled, while I filled out the paperwork. All I could say was that everything was going to be fine, don't worry. I've told you that he is a bit of a hypochondriac but I've haven't said that's he's usually a pillar of strength, that's he's a man's man, six feet tall, works out all the time, strong and muscular, normally the picture of health. I just knew (or so I kept telling myself) that he couldn't possibly have breast cancer.

The nurse called him to go back. I kissed him and told him again not to worry. I sat down for a few minutes and then went up to the window to make arrangements to have the results faxed to the surgeon and his primary care doc. While I was still standing there, he came back out. I was thinking, wow, that was really fast, until I say his face. I can't begin to explain the look of utter devastation. He was literally as white as a sheet, almost on the verge of tears and couldn't say anything at all. The nurse looked up and asked if he had had his ultrasound done. Then another nurse handed her a piece of paper and she just said, "Oh, I see." I knew then that his worst fears had come true.

So, where to start?

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:10:18 GMT

I've always heard that any story should start at the beginning. Sounds good to me.

So there I was, sitting in my office, doing my usual thing while waiting for dinner to finish cooking; reading email, playing games, shopping online. Joey (my husband) comes strolling down the hall telling me, "Bear (my nickname), I've got a lump on my chest I want you to look at, I've had it for a while and now it's starting to bother me." Joey tends to be a bit of a hypochondriac and I'm thinking it's probably and ingrown hair or something. He walks in and says, "Here, take a look at this." I can't see anything obvious and I'm thinking he's nuts but then he says, "Feel it." Hmmmm, he's got a lump about the size of a small egg near his left nipple. I'm still thinking it must just be a cyst or something and then he says, "And look what's happening to the nipple, it's turning inward." Now I'm officially freaked out! I know that an inverted nipple is a possible sign of breast cancer. My gut is telling me one thing but my voice, in what I hope is a calm tone, is telling him, "Don't worry Joey, it's most likely just a cyst, I get them all the time. "I'll call the doctor's office tomorrow and make an appointment for you to have it looked at."

Cancer Sucks

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:35:49 GMT

Cancer Sucks! Any way you look at it cancer is a devasting diagnosis. It becomes even more so when you are diagnosed with a form of cancer that you never even knew was a remote possibility for a man. I'm referring to Male Breast Cancer. Go ahead, ask a man in your life. I'd venture to say that 90-95% of them will tell you there's no such thing, breast cancer is a woman's disease. That was the overwhelming response I received when I started talking about my husband's diagnosis.

Welcome

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:25:19 GMT

Hello and Welcome,

While browsing through MSN today I came across a link under MSN Specials for "Wilba battles breast cancer: blog" http://whatsyourstory.msn.com/?src=msnhome&GT1=7343 which took me to a page with the ubiquitous pink ribbon and an option to read the space. It is a well written blog and I read a great deal of it but what really got me started today was the pink ribbon.

"Pink ribbons have helped to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer, but they've also perpetuated a deadly misunderstanding." ( http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/10/prweb293562.htm)

This space will be dedicated to raising awarness of Male Breast Cancer and my husbands personal battle with it.