Smart Bombs and Tea Leaves: The Future of Breast Cancer Treatment

October 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

self breast examOctober is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In the breast cancer world there’s always a lot of talk about “finding the cure.” I don’t know that it’s possible to find a cure for any type of cancer. I think that addressing cancer has to consist of a two-pronged approach: 1) Focusing on the causes so we can effectively engage in prevention and 2) Finding better (i.e. more effective and less devastating) treatment options for those who already have it. I firmly believe that prevention is the best long-term solution for significantly reducing the incidence of breast cancer (or any other type of cancer for that matter) and developing better tools and technology for early detection are also critical. There are many things we can do to lower our risk of developing cancer, but at the end of the day, if we’re not so lucky, having a wider range or treatment options would make a difficult situation a whole lot better and improve our odds of survival.

Despite all of the support and funding for breast cancer research and the advances in treatment achieved over the past 20 years, women diagnosed with breast cancer today still have limited and often devastating options for treatment. Depending on the type of breast cancer and the stage that it’s diagnosed at, women basically have three options: surgery to remove part or all of the breast, chemotherapy, or radiation –or some combination of these.

If you or someone you know has suffered through breast cancer treatment, then you know how hard it is on both the body and the mind. But there is a glimmer of hope that more and better treatment options are on the horizon. A number of recently concluded studies reveal new treatments for breast cancer with promising results.

The first study, sponsored by Genentech, tested a new treatment that targets and kills breast cancer cells while leaving healthy cells undamaged. Nearly 1,000 women with advanced breast cancer took part in the study, and according to researchers, the treatment stopped the progression of breast cancer for several months. This form of highly targeted treatment also appears to improve survival rates. Compared to another group who were given standard cancer treatment drugs, 20 percent more of the women involved in this study were still alive after two years.

This new treatment, called the T-DM1, is being dubbed “smart bomb” by researchers. Researchers combined Herceptin (the first gene-targeted therapy for breast cancer) with a chemotherapy that is normally too toxic to give on its own and another chemical that keeps the two substances bonded together until they reach a cancer cell. Once the cancer-killing cocktail comes in contact with a cancer cell, it releases the toxin to kill just the cancer cell.

The researchers in this study are confident that this double weapon will not be as damaging to the body as current treatments for breast cancer. Dr. Jennifer Ashton, an OB/Gyn and former medical correspondent for CBS News explains it like this: “Think of it like a heat-seeking missile with a nuclear warhead. So it travels around the body, does no damage until it meets the cancer, and then it deploys a massively toxic dose that wipes out [just] the cancer.”

While some of the women on T-DM1 showed signs of minor liver damage and low levels of blood clotting agents, most did not experience the usual problems of chemotherapy. The study’s leader, Dr. Kimberly Blackwell of Duke University added: “People don’t lose their hair, they don’t throw up. They don’t need nausea medicines, they don’t need transfusions.” You can view the ABC News story on this here.

Another study in England took a look at a more natural treatment approach for breast cancer. Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham and Russells Hall Hospital in Dudely examined the effects of a plant extract on cancer cells. The plant is called Virgin’s Mantle (Fagonia cretica) and it grows in the desert regions of Pakistan, India, Africa, and parts of Europe. It was chosen as the focus for this study because virgin’s mantle extracts are used to make medicinal tea in some of these places. In fact, a small hospital in Pakistan began using the herbal tea 40 years ago to treat breast cancer patients.

Though the treatment has long been regarded as folklore or placebo, the study found surprising results when the plant extract was combined with cancer cells in a lab. Tests showed that the extract stopped the growth of cancer cells within five hours and killed them off within twenty-four hours. Not surprisingly, women who take the tea report that there are no serious side effects –like those that result from conventional chemotherapy.

What causes the plant extract to be so effective? According to the researchers, the extract has a unique mechanism that can fix defects in the cell DNA that normally prevent tumor growth. When DNA is not properly functioning, cancer can flourish and even the effects of treatments such as chemo are less effective.

Researchers are quick to note that more research is needed to demonstrate if the plant extract is as effective at killing cancer in the body as it is in the lab and how it can be used to develop a new treatment drug.

 

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Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

There’s A Lot Of Room For Improvement In Early Breast Cancer Detection

October 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything on the subject so it seems like a good idea to re-visit it. If you’ve been following my posts here or are a subscriber of our Health & Beauty News ezine and have been reading it for some time you know that when it comes to cancer –which is often though not always, the end result of a prolonged state of imbalance or “dis-ease” in the body– I’m a passionate advocate for prevention.

We now know a hell of a lot more about the role of food and nutrition in preventing disease and the role that antioxidant-rich foods and nutrients play in protecting us from cancer. At the same time, there’s been a growing movement to create awareness and educate about the role of repeated toxic exposure in promoting the development of cancer –thanks in large part to the work of the Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. But there’s still a lot of work to be done in this critical area.

When it comes to breast cancer, there’s also a lot of room for improvement in the area of early and accurate detection. Thinking about some of my friends and loved ones who have faced (and thankfully survived) breast cancer, I wish that there had been better ways to detect the cancer much earlier so as to open the door to more treatment options with less devastating consequences. As I learned a couple of years ago while researching this subject, by the time a cancer tumor or growth is large enough to be detected by a mammogram, it has already been developing in the body for 7 or 8 years!!

I used to believe that until this aspect of breast cancer was drastically improved, women who are diagnosed would continue to be faced with limited and far less than ideal treatment options. But at last, there’s some good news to share on this! Some recently concluded studies are revealing promising new treatment approaches that, if they pan out, will at least offer some kinder, gentler treatment options. Stay tuned as I will share some of the results of these studies in an upcoming blog post.

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention, Health and Wellness Tagged With: ,

Pinkwashing: Think Before You Pink!

October 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Lately everywhere I go I’m seeing pink! Pink ribbons to be more precise. That’s because October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is a bittersweet pill to swallow for those of us who have been affected by this disease –either directly or indirectly (myself included). As someone who is committed to providing safer and healthier choices in beauty and personal care, and has actively supported local lobbying efforts of the Breast Cancer Fund and The Safe Cosmetics Campaign, I have a slightly different perspective on this issue.

On the one hand, it makes me glad to see so much support and resources being rallied and devoted to fighting this awful disease. On the other hand I’m concerned about companies (especially cosmetics companies) exploiting this issue to present themselves as caring and compassionate while they continue to profit from making products that might actually be contributing to the problem. You’ve heard of the term Greenwashing? Well now we have Pinkwashing!

In her book Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, author Stacey Malkan devotes a whole chapter to this phenomenon where she rightly points out that instead of creating a revolution in the way companies think about what it’s really going to take to reduce breast cancer, instead what they have created is a revolution in shopping. Many companies have jumped on the pink ribbon bandwagon but how many of them are truly really concerned with the problem versus using it as a convenient way to sell more products? How much of the money that they raise from the sales of pink ribbon products actually goes to the cause and more importantly, what are these companies doing to ensure that their products don’t contribute to the problem?

For me, the dilemma is not so much about the hypocrisy of companies that say one thing and do another as it is about how this behavior keeps the focus and the conversation stuck in the wrong place, and our complacency around it doesn’t inspire true leadership from companies who are in a position to make a real difference.

Malkan quotes Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund, who specifically calls out cosmetics giants Estee Lauder, Revlon, and Avon for their complete lack of leadership on the issue: “When new knowledge comes to you that your product contains problematic ingredients, if you were authentic in your support for breast cancer, you would be vigilant in addressing that.” Instead, these pink-ribbon companies continue to defend their use of hazardous and questionable chemicals while spending heavily to fight any form of regulation that would require them to either disclose their use of such ingredients or eliminate them altogether!

Next time you’re tempted to make a pink ribbon purchase or to support a pink ribbon company, do yourself a favor and visit the Think Before You Pink web site at http://www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org and learn what kinds of questions to ask to make sure that the organization or product is really committed to the cause. If you think you may have been pink-washed, share your story here so others can benefit from it. Thanks!

Filed Under: Cancer Prevention Tagged With: , , ,