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January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month
By Gigi Chen, MD
It is estimated that last year about 12,710 new cases of invasive cervical cancer were diagnosed. Cervical cancer is typically diagnosed in the mid life of women, between 20-50 years of age. It is important that women older than 50 continue to get their annual checkups as 20% of women diagnosed are over 65 years of age.
There are many risk factors that attribute to cervical cancer including:
- Early onset of sexual activity, multiple sexual partners, or history of sexually transmitted disease increase the risk of cervical cancer.
Managing Cancer Related Fatigue
By Sarah Buenviaje, NP
Cancer Related Fatigue can be a symptom of your cancer, or a side effect from cancer treatment.
Normal day-to-day activities can be draining, and sleep may only provide a short reserve of energy.
Fatigue affects every part of us, our physical, mental and emotional being. Cancer patients experience fatigue most during and/or post treatment. This lack of energy causes a change in our daily activities, hobbies, work and our relationships.
Talk to your doctor about your fatigue. They can help to determine what is causing your fatigue and may be able to help manage this symptom. There are other things that you can do to help manage your symptoms.
“Breast Radiation in One Day With IORT”
By Sachin Kamath, MD
Traditionally, early-stage breast cancer treatment has been treated with surgery (usually lumpectomy) and six weeks of whole breast external beam radiation therapy, either with or without chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Not all patients who choose lumpectomy comply with the recommended follow-up radiation treatment because of factors relating to time, money, distance and access to a radiation center. Neglecting follow-up radiation therapy after lumpectomy can increase the risk of cancer recurrence. Fortunately, today there is another newer method of delivering radiation to the breast after lumpectomy—intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT)--that allows for a more expedited, convenient treatment schedule.
IORT has been performed successfully over the past several years with good results, but very few centers around the country could afford to have the specially shielded operating rooms that were necessary. With the advent of electronic brachytherapy technology, like the Xoft eBx system, IORT can now be more easily performed since a shielded vault is not required. With breast IORT, the radiation is delivered in a single treatment right to the target tissue (lumpectomy cavity) in the operating room at the time of surgery. The rationale for IORT is to deliver a high dose of radiation precisely to the target area with minimal exposure to surrounding tissues, which can be displaced or shielded during the IORT procedure. With conventional radiation techniques after lumpectomy there are some drawbacks. First, the tumor bed, where the highest radiation dose should be applied, can be missed due to the complex localization of the wound cavity even when modern radiotherapy planning is used. Second, the usual delay between surgical removal of the tumor and radiation treatment may allow for repopulation of tumor cells. These potentially harmful issues can be avoided by delivering IORT directly to the target tissues with IORT, leading to immediate sterilization of any residual tumor cells. With the Xoft eBx system, a typical IORT treatment for breast cancer can be completed in as little as eight minutes.
Google+ released 'pages' - helping us to stay better connected
Google+ is a social networking rival of Facebook. In only 16 days Google+ reached 10 million users. Today, G+ has 40 million users.
Google+ has just become more beneficial. For the past several months G+ has focused on connecting people with other people who share their interests.
Read more: Google+ released 'pages' - helping us to stay better connected
November is PancreaticCancer awareness month
This year, more than 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and nearly 38,000 will die of the disease. It is estimated that more than 200,000 patients worldwide die of pancreatic cancer each year. 95% of pancreatic cancers are exocrine tumors because they begin in the cells that produce enzymes for digestion. Less than 5% are endocrine tumors. This disease has claimed the lives of many public figures including actor Patrick Swayze, opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and recently, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple, Inc., Steve Jobs.
Pancreatic cancer can be difficult to diagnose. Many patients tend to have vague abdominal pain or back pain for a few months before the diagnosis is made. Other symptoms include weight loss, Jaundice (yellowness of skin), and blood clots. Risk factors can include smoking, physical inactivity, chronic pancreatitis and family history. Selected mutations involving breast cancer such as BRCA mutation and hereditary pancreatitis have been associated with familial pancreatic cancer.
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