Get Information - Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

A lump or any other significant changes in the in the breast if located in the mammogram maybe the initial stage of breast cancer or any other disease. Once the lump or other changes are located then the doctor does a proper physical examination. This includes queries about the woman's personal and family's medical history. Not only this, a doctor can also ask for general health signs and also inquire about the following:

Mammography
Mammography is x-rays of the breast. The doctor will ask you for it if you have any previous ones done to know about your history. Additional x-rays might be needed if there's a spot in the mammography which is not clear.

Palpation
Palpation is one of the main stages where a doctor can more easily determine whether it is breast cancer or not. By palpation, he can easily make out the size, texture and movability of the lump. Palpation is an important process in which the doctor carefully feels the lump and the tissues surrounding it. At time there are other lumps such as Benign which feel different from the cancer ones.

Ultrasonography
Ultrasonography uses high frequency sound waves through which it can be determined whether the lump is solid or filled with fluid. This test can also be performed with mammography.

The above are the basic tests which determine whether further tests are needed or not. However the doctor may ask the woman to keep a watch on any further changes in the breast. At times the doctor removes fluid or tissues from the breast to make a diagnosis.

Diagnosis Process
Needle or Aspiration Biopsy:
A needle is used to remove the fluid or small amounts of tissue in the breast lump. During this process it can be determined whether the lump is cancer lump which is usually solid or fluid filled cyst which is not cancer.

If during this process the tissues are removed from the lump then they are sent to the lab for analysis. During this analysis it is checked whether there are cancer cells in the tissues or not.

By Amsch Hilbert

How Safe is Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant?

Cancer, which was supposed to be an incurable disease, can now be cured if detected at the right time. The rapid advancement in Science and Medicine has opened wide vistas before us for the treatment of life threatening diseases including AIDS, Neurotic diseases and Genetic disorders. In many cases your doctor might suggest a Stem Cell transplant or a Bone marrow transplant as the possible solution for your disease. In this case a cord blood transplant may be a good option.

These stem cells are the blood forming cells of human body and are widely being used in transplants. These cells help in the production of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Earlier there were only 2 reliable sources of Stem Cells: Bone Marrow and peripheral Blood. But recently it has been found that Umbilical Cord Blood is also good and rich source of stem cells. The waste cord and the blood contained in it were usually discarded after the birth of the baby but now it has been discovered that this cord blood is an extremely rich source of stem cells which can be readily used in transplants.

During last ten years, over 4000 umbilical cord blood transplants (UCBT) have been performed worldwide. The interest in this mode of transplant has grown drastically, as this provides easy access to an alternative for treating cancer and serious diseases. The first cord blood transplant was done in 1988 on a young cancer patient. Seeing the tremendous success of this experiment, it became a regular practice with many doctors to recommend UCBT as the solution for the treatment of a disease.

On the other hand there are some critics of UCBT who think that many complications can arise after a transplant. One of the common problems that can crop up after an Allogenic Transplant (Stem cells retrieved from cord blood of an outside donor ) is Graft Versus Host Disease or commonly known as (GVHD). The consequences of GVHD can range from mild to severe and sometimes terminating. That is why there are chances that the doctor might not approve of Cord Blood transplant.

The Reasons for Disapproval are: Many times there may not be enough blood-forming cells in the cord blood as one needs a required number of Stem Cells for a successful transplant. Secondly cord blood cells take longer to grow and produce new blood cells and till the cells engraft, the patient is at a high risk for infection. Thirdly there is no scope of getting backup cells from the same cord blood unit. However, doctors may be able to use a different cord blood unit or a backup adult donor instead.

A Cord blood transplants is as dicey as a Bone marrow or peripheral blood transplant. The risk of infection may be higher after a cord blood transplant because of the longer time to engraft. The chances of developing GVHD is however low, but the risk is still there. As every patient's Case History is different from others, if you are considering UCBT for the cure of some problem do consult the experts in this field before taking a decision.

By Monica Kumar

Protect Healthy Cells from Chemotherapy

Doctors who treat patients with cancer have a balancing act. They give too little chemotherapy and tumors survive, but too much can be life threatening. Now researchers have found that in a series of lab tests, not eating for 48 hours gave healthy cells an edge. University of Southern California Associate Professor of Gerontology and Biological Science Valter Longo says, "The cancer cells have this oncogene, have these mutations that keep them always on. So, they basically are unable to obey the starvation dependent order. Starvation tells [healthy cells] to go into protective mode. The cancer cells, because of their characteristics of not being able to respond to that, just continue on their normal pro-growth track."

Longo notes that, "Virtually all cancer research is focused on...the killing of the cancer cells," but that he wanted instead to see if there was a way to give the healthy cells an edge.

Scientists know from experiments with everything from tiny worms to primates that a lack of food sends cells into a protective mode that can actually extend life. In fact, Longo says his former college advisor helped pioneer this concept of "calorie restriction." Longo describes it as "fasting, not completely, but partially for a long time."

Longo says however, "The cancer cells have these oncogenes, these mutations, that keep them always on (so that they) continue on their pro-growth track" even when the healthy cells have shut down due to a lack of food.

With the healthy cells in protective mode, Longo was able to use more chemotherapy. He wrote in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences he performed several different tests.

One test involved yeast cells that were both subject to starvation and genetically altered to mimic having the starvation condition. They were 1,000 times better protected against cancer-fighting agents.

He also tested normal brain cells and cancerous cells in test tubes and found that the normal cells that were denied normal levels of glucose were protected against several forms of chemotherapy while the cancerous cells were not.

In a third experiment on mice that were starved for 48 hours before chemotherapy, Longo says, "The animals were running around after at least a three-fold higher dose than the maximum...allowed for patients."

However, Longo agrees this research is just the first step, noting that since , "A lot of the cancer patients come in already with weight loss, the starvation is not exactly something that they (doctors) would prefer."

So he is now researching something, "that can do something ... almost as powerful without the starvation." adding that, a drug that mimics the starvation, "would be ideal."

Additionally, he's looking at diet changes short of starvation that might provide the same edge. He notes that, "Just a few changes, very specific changes in the diet and all of a sudden at least the animals in our case are now very resistant again to very high doses of chemo."

Either way, the research on diet is providing new food for thought in our ongoing war against cancer.

By Jack Penland