Lobular Breast Cancer – Prognosis, Treatment and Survival

Lobular breast cancer is uncommon and only accounts for around 10-15% of all cases of breast cancer in women. This type of cancer affects the lobules and ducts where milk is made inside breast tissue and although it is no more serious than any other type of breast cancer, it can occasionally affect both breasts at the same time.

More About Lobular Breast Cancer

Invasive lobular breast cancer is less easy to detect compared to other types of breast cancer as it tends to manifest as a thickening of the breast tissue rather than a definite lump. As a result, the cancer is more likely to reach an advanced stage before being diagnosed.

Diagnosis can very often be difficult with suspected cases of lobular breast cancer as they do not show up on a mammogram, but other tests can be done and these include ultrasound scans, needle core biopsy, and fine needle aspiration.

What Is The treatment For Lobular Breast Cancer

Treatment for lobular breast cancer is similar to that offered for other types of breast cancer. Surgery is usually the first line of treatment and this may include a mastectomy where the entire breast is removed, or a wide local excision to preserve the breast tissue. If the cancer is affecting more than one area of the breast, a full mastectomy will normally be recommended to help ensure all the cancerous tissue has been removed.

Following successful surgery, further tests will be carried out to check whether the cancer has spread into the lymph nodes in the armpit. If any cancerous cells are detected, you will be offered a course of chemotherapy. Other treatment may also be offered to reduce the risk of the cancer returning in the same breast, the opposite breast, or elsewhere in the body. This can include radiotherapy, although if you had a total mastectomy this is not usually necessary, and hormone therapy drugs.

• Early Signs of Breast Cancer

By Alicia Link

Seldom does a week go by when some form of breast cancer isn’t mentioned in the news, but when was the last time you heard anything about Paget’s disease? In fact, you may have never heard anything about it. This is not surprising because it’s quite rare. While the disease is very uncommon, it is very important to know the symptoms as it can be misdiagnosed as a dermatological condition.

What is Paget’s Disease?

Paget’s disease is a rare type of breast cancer that develops in and around the nipple and areola. This form of cancer should not be confused with other diseases named after Paget, which are unrelated. Typically, it occurs in women over the age of 50, but on rare occasions can be diagnosed in younger women. Most women diagnosed with Paget’s disease also have some form of underlying breast cancer, but it can also occur on its own.

What are the Symptoms?

The symptoms of Paget’s disease may resemble other skin conditions so it is possible that it can be misdiagnosed. A variety of symptoms may include:

Irritation or redness
Flaking or scaly skin on the nipple
Tingling or itching

Burning
Discharge from the nipple
A flattened or inverted nipple

Early on, symptoms of the disease can appear to subside, but this can be misleading as the disease does not simply go away on its own. Often there is a lump that can be felt under the nipple or areola area. It usually develops in only one breast.

How is Paget’s Disease Diagnosed?

If Paget’s disease is suspected, there are several tests that may be performed. The first step is usually a breast exam to check for lumps and changes in the skin of the nipple and areola. A biopsy may follow where a small amount of tissue is removed to check for the presence of Paget cells. If there is nipple discharge, a sample will also be tested for the disease. As there is a good chance that underlying breast cancer also exists, a mammogram is performed to make a complete diagnosis.

Treatment for Paget’s Disease

Treatment for this disease is typically surgery, either a lumpectomy or mastectomy depending on the presence of underlying breast cancer. Lymph nodes are checked for the presence of cancer cells, as well. Additional treatment (adjuvant therapy) may be given after surgery depending on the type of cancer and whether or not it has spread. Treatments can include radiation, chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Prognosis for Paget’s disease is similar to other types of breast cancer.

By Alicia Link

Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare and very aggressive type of breast cancer that can be difficult to treat. The name, inflammatory breast cancer, may cause some confusion. It is called “inflammatory” because with this type of cancer, the breast appears inflamed or swollen, red and tender. However, an infection of the breast will cause these same symptoms. Inflammation occurs when there is injury to a cell. The body responds by sending additional red and white blood cells and chemical substances to the area to help it heal. This is not, however, what happens with inflammatory breast cancer. In inflammatory breast cancer, the cancer cells grow and spread rapidly, penetrating and eventually blocking the lymph vessels just below the skin of the breast. When these vessels are blocked, lymph fluid backs up and redness and swelling occur. If there is a true infection of the breast, antibiotics will help the swelling and inflammation. If cancer cells are causing the inflammation, antibiotics won’t help.

Inflammatory breast cancer can be difficult to diagnose. It is less likely that a lump will be felt because of the way in which it grows and spreads. In addition, this type of cancer is not usually detected by mammograms and ultrasounds. Symptoms can include any of the following, but not necessarily all of them.

· Sudden breast swelling
· Breast may feel warm to the touch
· Itching
· Pain
· Inverted nipple or discharge
· Pinkish or bruised and thickened areas of the skin, sometimes looking like the skin of an orange

Symptoms often come about quickly, even within a matter of days or weeks. Unfortunately, by the time symptoms arise and the cancer is diagnosed, it has already reached stage IIIB (spread to lymph nodes) or stage IV (spread to other areas). Inflammatory breast cancer is typically diagnosed with a biopsy of the breast skin and tissue. As these can be symptoms of other medical conditions, a biopsy is usually performed after antibiotic treatment has failed. Once a diagnosis is confirmed, additional tests will help determine how far the cancer has spread.

Treatment for inflammatory breast cancer starts with chemotherapy, followed by surgery and radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is given first to reduce swelling and inflammation, as well as the size of the cancerous area. This makes surgery easier and helps improve the outcome of the operation. The recommended surgery for this type of cancer is a mastectomy. Chemotherapy may also be given after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells.

The course of treatment after surgery is radiation therapy. This helps lessen the chance of recurrence. If the cancer is considered inoperable, radiation may be used as the main treatment to help slow the progression of the disease.

Even with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, this type of cancer has a very high rate of recurrence. With this in mind, doctors may recommend further treatments with chemotherapy or other drugs. Clinical trials for new procedures or drugs may also be available.

While inflammatory breast cancer affects a very small percentage of women, it’s important to be aware of its symptoms. If changes in the skin of the breast occur, see a doctor right away and ask about this type of breast cancer. Research and new treatment options continue to improve the prognosis for inflammatory breast cancer offering hope for a future.

• Understanding The Right Approach Towards Breast Cancer Treatment
• What are the various types of breast cancer treatments

Breast Enhancement Surgery – What Are The Risk?

Breast enhancement surgery, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), was the fourth most popular invasive surgical procedure among cosmetic plastic surgeries performed in 2000. In a press release dated July 12, 2001, the ASPS says that breast augmentation was performed on 212,500 women last year.

Meanwhile, millions of women have been subjected to the ill effects of these modern day vanity contraptions that were bought in good faith.

Remember!!

Silicone gel implants were banned in 1992 by FDA.

If you have (or had) a ruptured silicone breast implant, you will be denied Health Insurance Coverage.

Saline-filled implants tend to have a higher rate of leaking and deflation than silicone gel implants, which means more frequent surgery to replace them.

More About Breast Enhancement Surgery

In a study published in the Lancet medical journal, Dr Lori Brown of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says: “There is emerging consensus that both the incidence and prevalence of breast-implant rupture are much higher than previously suspected.”

21% overall increase in cancers for women with implants, compared to women of the same age in the general population.

Can Breast Enhancement Surgery Cause Cancer?

Implant patients were three times as likely to die from lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia as other plastic surgery patients.The study is based on medical records and death certificates of almost 8,000 women with breast implants, including silicone gel implants and saline implants, and more than 2,000 other plastic surgery patients. ( National Cancer Institute (NCI), Boston University, Abt Associates, and the Food and Drug Administration, with Dr. Louise Brinton from NCI as lead author. )

For more information visit: Breast Actives

By Alicia Link

When faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer, treatment options are a lifeline and offer hope for a future. Ongoing research has expanded breast cancer treatment options to include a variety of effective, life-saving therapies. The most effective treatment(s) for you depends on a number of factors. Most important is the type and stage of cancer, which is as distinctive as you are. Once this has been determined, explore all of the breast cancer treatment options available before deciding which are best for you.

While there are a variety of treatments available, each falls into one of two categories – local and systemic. Local treatments are those which destroy or remove cancer cells from a specific area of the body. Systemic treatments go beyond a localized area and fight cancer cells throughout the entire body. These treatments may be used alone, but are often used together in various combinations. Let’s take a closer look at the treatments in each of these categories and how they are used.

Local Treatments

Surgery
Surgery is typically the first local breast cancer treatment used. Surgical procedures are

Lumpectomy – the removal of the lump or tumor only. A small amount of tissue around the tumor is usually removed as well. Generally, a lumpectomy is performed when the cancer is found early, the lump is small and in only one part of the breast.

Mastectomy – removal of the entire breast. This procedure is usually performed when cancer cells have spread throughout the breast or into other areas of the body.

Radiation
Another local breast cancer treatment, radiation often follows a lumpectomy or mastectomy. It’s used to target a specific area and designed to destroy any remaining cancer cells left after surgery. A typical course of treatment is five days a week for up to seven weeks.

Systemic Treatments
Systemic treatments destroy cancer cells throughout the body by traveling through the bloodstream. These treatments are used to get rid of cancer cells that may have spread from the original tumor location to another part of the body. Different therapies may be used to accomplish this.

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is simply the use of drugs to fight cancer cells. There are many different chemotherapy drugs available that may be used alone or in combination depending on the type of cancer. Treatment time frames vary from drug to drug. Some are given daily for a short period of time, while others are given weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly over a period of time.

Hormone Therapy
In some types of cancers, hormones actually help the cancer cells grow. These are known as hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers. The goal of hormone therapy is to keep these hormones from getting to cancer cells. This is done by

1. reducing the amount of estrogen in the body and
2. stopping the estrogen from working.

This therapy doesn’t work with cancers that are not affected by hormones.

Targeted Therapies
Targeted therapies are newer breast cancer treatment options. They are drugs that can be combined with chemotherapy to fight a specific characteristic of a cancer cell. For example, a drug that targets a specific protein in a cancer cell may be used to stop the cell from growing. New and promising targeted therapies continue to evolve.

While this is not an all-inclusive list of breast cancer treatment options, it does include the most widely-used treatments available today. If you have been diagnosed with breast cancer, learn as much as you can about available treatment options including clinical trials. The more you know, the better equipped you are to select treatments that will work best for you.

By Alicia Link

Breast cancer radiation treatment, a relatively simple, effective, and well-tolerated therapy, is delivered using several different techniques. Usually, radiation therapy follows lumpectomy surgery, but it may also be used after a mastectomy. The purpose of radiation therapy is to kill any remaining cancer cells in the area where the tumor was removed, but not damage any surrounding healthy breast tissue. Radiation destroys cancer cells by disrupting their growth. The type of breast cancer radiation treatment used depends on the location, size and type of tumor.

The standard radiation treatment that follows lumpectomy surgery is external beam radiation therapy. A linear accelerator machine is used to direct a high-energy beam of radiation through the skin to the area where the tumor was removed, as well as the surrounding tissue. This procedure is painless and patients often compare it to an x-ray. Breast cancer radiation treatments are given daily, Monday through Friday, for five to seven weeks. Each treatment takes approximately 30 minutes.

Certain types of breast cancer require a special kind of external beam therapy called 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D CRT). In simple terms, this means that radiation beams penetrate the body at specific angles. This allows for greater concentration of radiation in the tumor area and less in the surrounding tissues, reducing the potential for cell damage.

For years, these have been the only available breast cancer radiation treatment options. This is now changing. Recent research indicates that shorter, more intense radiation treatment sessions may be as effective as the longer five to seven week regimens. For patients, this is a huge leap forward. Standard breast cancer radiation treatments are extremely inconvenient, especially if a patient does not live close to a treatment facility. It’s not uncommon for patients to drive hours every day to receive radiation treatments.

When it comes to convenience however, it’s hard to beat the new Mammosite® technique, which was cleared for clinical trial by the FDA in 2002. It is the shortest and most convenient breast cancer radiation treatment to date. Unlike external beam radiation therapy, the Mammosite® method treats cancer from the inside. This is done using a radioactive “seed” (much like a grain of rice) that is placed into a fluid-filled balloon implanted inside the breast. The “seed” stays inside of the balloon for 5-10 minutes at each treatment and is then removed. This treatment is given twice each day for five days and then the balloon is removed from the breast. While the five-year results of the initial Mammosite® trials look very promising, it’s too early to know if this technique will produce the same results as standard breast cancer radiation treatments.

Currently, these new treatments are available to a select few breast cancer patients. Availability will increase as the results of clinical trials continue to show that these are effective long term treatments. If interested, talk to your doctor about new breast cancer treatment options that may be available.

Today, the future of breast cancer radiation treatment is unclear. The 2008 Breast Cancer Symposium held in September revealed that effective local therapies, surgery and radiation, are crucial to long-term survival. However, the hope is that eventually systemic therapies, such as drugs, will be so good that local therapies, including radiation, will no longer be needed. For now, researchers continue to look for new ways to improve the effectiveness and safety of breast cancer radiation treatments.

Note: This website is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice and does not provide advice on treatments or conditions for individual patients. All health and treatment decisions must be made in consultation with your physician(s), utilizing your specific medical information. The links set out on this web site are provided for your convenience only.

A wide variety of alternative breast cancer treatments exist today. While “alternative” treatments are defined as practices that replace traditional treatments, most breast cancer patients use them in combination with conventional medicine. Generally, alternative treatments are not acknowledged by the medical community as standard medical practices and therefore, many patients do not inform their doctors when using these therapies. Examples of alternative treatments include acupuncture, massage, megavitamins, herbal supplements, nutrition, and magnetic therapy, to name a few.

Practiced for thousands of years, acupuncture involves the stimulation of specific points on the body using a hair-thin needle, or other method, to restore the body’s internal balance and energy flow. Acupuncture may be used for pain relief and to control side effects from chemotherapy treatment.

Massage involves manual manipulation of muscles and soft tissue. It is believed that massage enhances the function of those muscles and tissues involved, while promoting relaxation. It is often used together with other therapies. Available scientific evidence does not support claims that massage slows or reverses the growth or spread of cancer.

Megavitamin treatments usually involve very high doses of vitamins A, C and E. While the body requires these and other vitamins for optimal health, too much of a single vitamin may be harmful and even interfere with other treatments. A healthy diet, one that offers lots of fruits and vegetables, eliminates the need for vitamin supplements. More is not always better.

Good nutrition is always important, but for anyone fighting breast cancer, or any cancer, it’s crucial. Though there are many, one alternative nutrition treatment is the macrobiotic diet. This diet is strictly vegetarian and includes whole grains, vegetables, beans, seaweed and soups. This diet is promoted for both cancer prevention and treatment, though there is no proof that it has any affect on either. In general, a healthy diet—one that includes fruits, vegetables and protein—provides the reserves of nutrients needed to maintain a strong immune system and cope with the adverse side effects of treatments.

Herbal supplements are plant extracts and have long been used for a variety of health purposes. While they may be labeled as “natural,” it doesn’t mean that they are safe or even good for the body. The fact is that herbal supplements can act like a drug and may be harmful when taken in large amounts. There are few regulations in place to control the quality and safety of these products. In 2007, the FDA did initiate new regulations to help improve this, but many are not effective until 2010. Cancer experts often recommend that patients avoid dietary supplements altogether.

These are just a few of the many alternative breast cancer treatments available. When facing a life threatening illness, such as breast cancer, a feeling of desperation may be experienced while searching for treatments. As a result, the patient may develop an “I’ll try anything” mentality. While it’s important to keep an open mind about new breast cancer treatment options, it’s more important to approach alternative treatments with caution. Be upfront and honest with everyone involved in treating your disease before starting any alternative therapies. Many of these may be safe, but there may also be risks involved when combining alternative and traditional medicine. Ultimately, the decision for any treatment is up to the patient. Choosing one treatment over another should be based on knowledge, not fear. Remember, knowledge is power.

Before establishing a treatment plan, it’s important to understand that there is no one right approach towards breast cancer treatment. A number of factors are used to determine which treatment approach is best, the most significant being the type and stage of cancer. Overall health is also factored into the treatment approach. A plan is designed to eliminate cancer entirely or get it under control for as long as possible.

The first step in identifying the right treatment approach is to have a basic understanding of cancer and how it works. It begins with a cell, which is what makes up every living thing. In very simple terms, our bodies are a structure of cells. Every cell contains genes. The genes are the commanders of the cells and tell them what to do. Each gene is made up of DNA that is unique to every person. If DNA is damaged or changes with age, it can tell cells to grow faster and act different than they would normally. These changed cells are cancer cells. As cancer cells multiply, they continue to change and each new cell is different. This is why treating cancer is so difficult and why no two people have the exact same cancer or treatment plan.

The most important factor that is considered in determining the best overall approach to treatment is the stage of the disease, or how widespread the cancer is in the body. Breast cancer stages begin with stage 0 – the earliest form of breast cancer where cancer cells are still in a duct and have not entered the breast tissue – and go up to stage 4 – the cancer has spread to other organs, usually the liver, lungs, bone or brain. The term staging is the process of figuring out how far the cancer has spread, if at all. A variety of tests may be done and can include a chest x-ray, mammograms, bone scans, CT scans, MRI, ultrasound or PET scans. Blood tests may help determine if the cancer has spread to certain organs.

After a breast cancer diagnosis has been made and stage of cancer has been determined, the right approach towards breast cancer treatment can begin and is designed to target the specific cancer to achieve the best possible results. Depending on the stage, treatments can be local or systemic. Local treatments target the tumor directly, while systemic treatments fight cancer throughout the entire body. Local treatments include:

Surgery – a lumpectomy, removal of the tumor only, or a mastectomy, removal of the entire breast

Radiation – targets a specific area and is designed to kill cancer cells

Systemic treatments are the use of drugs to destroy or control cancer cells that have spread throughout the body. Therapies include:

Chemotherapy – one or more drugs given intravenously, by shot or in pill form by mouth

Hormone therapy – the use of hormones or hormone-like drugs to stop the body’s natural hormones from working effectively

Biologic or immunotherapy – used to stimulate the body’s own immune system to better fight the cancer cells

Treatments are usually given in cycles and patients are monitored closely throughout. Once treatment has been completed, patients continue testing for periods of time to make sure the cancer has not returned. After a determined period of time without cancer, usually several years, patients reduce the number of doctor visits and testing until they are no longer needed. If the cancer does return, a new treatment plan is developed.

The treatment process is lengthy and can be a tough time for patients however, results are best when the plan is completed on schedule. Any questions, problems or concerns should be discussed with your doctor. The right approach towards breast cancer treatment should be determined by your doctor or a licensed professional qualified to do so.

• What are the various types of breast cancer treatments

Accurate breast imaging technologies have been a hot political issue in the world of medicine for the last decade. With the re-evaluation of the effectiveness of mammograms by the American Cancer Society in 2009, experts have begun to debate whether mammography is indeed a flawed technology, providing less than accurate diagnostic information in many cases. In addition, annual mammograms subject the patient to damaging levels of radiation and often steep health care bills. The heart of this issue is not modern medicine’s politics and practices, but rather how to detect breast cancer in the majority of women early enough to save lives.

Deborah Rhodes, a physician at the Mayo Clinic, became passionately involved in the field of breast imaging technology when one of her pregnant patients found a breast lump, which fortunately was benign. The patient posed the question of how she would be able to know if any future mass was benign or malignant? How confident was Dr. Rhodes that any tumor would be found on a mammogram in this young woman?

This began a journey of partnership between members of a number of disciplines, putting their heads together in order to adapt existing technologies for more accurate breast imaging. What these researchers came up with was a technique called Molecular Breast Imagining (MBI).

Although still in the testing phase, MBI uses gamma technology and promises to be a very important imaging option because of its accuracy for women who have dense breasts; its use of a radioactive tracer – which is taken up by rapidly dividing cells, leaving normal cells alone, and uses the molecular characteristics of tumors which highlight abnormal tissue irrespective of breast density; and its use of pain-free compression to obtain images. For more information about breast health and treatment options, download my complimentary breast cancer wellness guide here: www.breasthealthsolutions.org.

One crucial fact for women to know before they opt for a mammogram is that the higher your breast density, the lower the accuracy of your mammogram. This is a fact that has fueled the controversies over what age is most appropriate to begin screening women with mammography. Of women in the 40-50 age range, two thirds tend to have dense breast tissue, as do women using hormone replacement therapy, as well as one-third of women who are postmenopausal. As women age, the breast tissue tends to become less dense and more fatty, making mammograms more accurate for these women.

Breast density tends to be genetically determined. High breast density itself is a greater risk factor for breast cancer than having a mother or sister with breast cancer. Although this information is very important, it has not been widely discussed and patients are rarely informed of the health implications of their breast density.

Both tumors and dense breast tissue appear white on a mammogram, so it’s very difficult to distinguish between the two. According to Dr. Rhodes, mammograms find over 80 percent of tumors in fatty, low-density breasts but as few as 40 percent in extremely dense breasts. Even the much-acclaimed advent of digital technology has not shown an increase in accuracy over traditional mammography, except in the group of women under age 40 with dense breasts. In this group, mammograms still found only 60 percent of breast lesions.

We have essentially two groups of women—women who mammography works well for and women for whom it does not. This issue has been highly politicized. So much so that the findings of Dr. Rhodes team were initially rejected for publication by four major peer reviewed journals, and finally after challenging possible vested interest interference, accepted by the Journal of Radiology.

If you can detect a tumor when it is less than one centimeter, chances for survival are 90 percent. MBI can find tumors as small as 3 mm, and MBI finds three times more tumors than mammography can detect in women with dense breasts. In a recent comparative study of 1,000 women with dense breasts, mammography found 25 percent of breast tumors, and MBI found 83 percent of breast tumors. Needless to say, this is a huge difference in accuracy.

Other technologies that are currently available include ultrasound, which is noninvasive but has a high false negative rate, generating more biopsies that turn out to be benign. MRI generates over a thousand images, which makes it very sensitive, but very expensive to interpret. If used to screen the average young woman it would cost ten times what a digital mammogram costs. The health care system cannot afford to offer this method as a general screening modality. Either of these may be appropriate for you after mammography if you need or want further imaging and/or have other risk factors that increase your breast cancer risk.

Thermography is another technology that uses thermal imaging of breast tissue to show abnormal vascularity and heat patterns. This can be provide very useful information but may also miss small or slow growing tumors.

The fact of the matter is we desperately need new imaging technologies. The MBI imaging system, which has already been FDA approved, can fill in that crucial gap in accuracy for women with dense breasts. Experts are estimating five more years before it is widely available. MBI technology, as exciting as it is, still exposes the breast to radiation equaling the dose of one digital mammogram.

With that mind, there are a few things you should know. Know your density – ask your practitioner or get a copy of your last mammogram. If you are premenopausal, schedule a mammogram in the first half of your menstrual cycle when your breast tissue is less dense. Consider adding thermography as another screening modality. Screening should be individualized based on breast density and other risk factors. Discuss having additional imaging with your health care provider, especially if you feel there is something unusual in your breast.

Hopefully researchers in this field can help work towards the development of screening technologies that do not involve radiation to the breast. There needs to be more freedom and less politicization of women’s breast imaging by mainstream medicine. Thermography should be much more widely researched, so we have better understanding of its potential strengths and weaknesses.

None of our current breast imaging technologies can provide everything we need in a screening tool. None are both accurate enough and safe enough, so it’s important to understand all of available options for a comprehensive baseline screening that is as close to accurate as possible. For this reason, I welcome you to download my wellness guide (www.breasthealthsolutions.org), which provides critical information about breast health diagnosis and treatment. It is my hope that this information can offer valuable guidance for women of all ages in their quest for better breast health, naturally.

By: Dr. Isaac Eliaz

• New Options for Breast Cancer Treatment

To successfully treat breast cancer therapies must be designed individually and strategically in order to outsmart the disease and restore a patient’s health. The problem is that many treatments are so invasive and aggressive that they can destroy the health of the patient along with the disease. However, new developments in breast cancer treatment are showing promise as less invasive options that can help a patient fight cancer and protect the integrity of their health at the same time.

New targeted radiation therapies kill cancer cells and protect healthy tissue

Radiation is the standard form of care after breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) for women under 70 years of age, and there are several options that are being studied and are currently available in some facilities. Intra-operative Radiation (IOP), for example, is a technique that applies radiation to the affected area during surgery. The radiation is focused directly on the surgical field and spares surrounding healthy tissue. This is a highly desirable option, as it can replace the typical 5-6 weeks of post-lumpectomy radiation usually recommended, but not every individual is a candidate.

Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) is another approach being developed that uses small catheters that are inserted into the cavity left by the lumpectomy procedure. There are several systems being used with different variations in equipment and technique. This is a form of brachytherapy, which uses radioactive seeds to deliver the radiation. Five days of this technique replaces six weeks of whole breast radiation, greatly limiting the exposure of healthy tissue to radiation. This can be a significant advantage, particularly for women with left -sided breast cancer, as the usual whole breast radiation technique can impact heart tissue as well as the lungs, ribs and skin.

Freeze cancer in its tracks

Cryotherapy is a technique that uses a probe to freeze the abnormal and surrounding tissue, and has been used for many years in treating cervical dysplasia and prostate cancer. Application to breast cancer lesions is a new development for this therapy, but it has the potential to become a less invasive option than surgical removal for treating early breast cancer. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center conducted a study last year using mice with breast cancer lesions and found that rapid freezing not only killed the tumors, but generated an immune response that helped stop further spreading. This result ultimately led to improved survival when compared to surgery. Cryotherapy treatment for breast cancer is currently available in a limited number of centers throughout the United States.

Microwave radar targets just the tumors sites

Another technique in development uses radar technology. The microwave energy from a powerful device is focused on the tumor, sparing healthy surrounding tissue. This form of therapy works by taking advantage of the fact that water molecules are more plentiful in breast tumors, compared to surrounding normal tissue, and that microwaves strongly excite water molecules. Computer algorithms combined with the heating effects on water-rich abnormal tissue allow an even greater concentration of energy at the tumor site while nearby tissue remains unaffected. This technology is in clinical trials in a setting where pretreatment of larger tumors would allow a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy. This is traditionally performed with pre-surgical chemotherapy. In a Phase II trial comparing chemotherapy with this technology, almost 80 percent of treated breast tumors had a volume reduction of 80 percent or more, compared to only 20 percent of tumors treated by chemotherapy alone. In addition, this method appears to sensitize tumors to the effects of chemotherapy. The device has been approved by the FDA for a Phase III trial and once this is successfully completed, it should be well on its way to being launched.

New Treatments, New Hope

These breast cancer treatment techniques are forming the basis for further highly targeted and strategic cancer fighting methods to emerge within mainstream medicine. The cross-field discussion amongst professionals in physics, engineering and medicine is generating much needed creative collaborations that are offering hope for techniques and equipment that can provide less invasive, more focused treatment with significantly less damage to healthy tissues

For more information about breast cancer diagnosis and treatment options, download a complimentary wellness guide at www.dreliaz.org/breast-cancer-report. Know that there are a number of treatment options available to help you gain the best possible outcome, and this knowledge is power.

• Something Every Woman Should Know: Your Breast Density