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17 Male Breast Cancer Victims Have Ties to Camp Lejeune Marine Base

The AP reported Wednesday, that scientists studying the water at the base were "startled" after learning that 11 men with breast cancer and ties to the North Carolina base were identified over the last two years. Over the course of the next week, 6 more men with breast cancer who were aboard Camp Lejeune were discovered.

That is thanks to an article in the St. Petersburg Times last week about the 11 men with the rare disease. Of the six, five had suffered from breast cancer. One of the men received a double mastectomy when doctors discovered precancerous tumors.

Breast cancer survivor Mike Partain was quoted by The AP saying, "This male breast cancer cluster is a smoking gun," "You just can't ignore it. You don't need science to tell you something is wrong. It's common sense. It begs to be studied."

Mike Partain of Tallahassee, Florida, was born at Camp Lejeune. He was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. Mike has been an excellent contact for our reports here at Salem-News.com and worked long and hard hours to help locate the other men with breast cancer that is connected to Camp Lejeune

Quebec to re-do 630 more breast-cancer tests

Quebec will re-do breast-cancer tests for an additional 630 women who had biospsies within the last 15 months, Health Minister Yves Bolduc said Thursday amid a controversy over botched tests.

An exhaustive internal review could lead to even more retesting, all of which will be done at labs outside the province, Bolduc told a news conference in Quebec City.

Quebec initially announced last month that 2,100 tests would be re-done by the end of the year but that number has now increased to 2,730.

Pathologists raised alarm

A study released in May by Quebec's association of pathologists found that cancer patients in the province may have received inadequate treatment because of faulty testing.

But Bolduc said the latest round of tests is being done only as a precaution and that there's no evidence that any of the initial diagnoses were wrong.

Existing tissue samples taken between April 1, 2008 and June 1, 2009 will be reanalyzed "to reassure the population (and in) the interest of patients," said Bolduc.

The retesting won't be completed until the end of the year.

Bolduc says any women whose initial test results are overturned will be contacted immediately.

Class action

A Montreal woman is seeking permission to file a class-action suit against the provincial government for its alleged mishandling of the breast-cancer tests, including her own.

Marianne Tonnelier, diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2008, has filed a request to initiate the lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of thousands of patients.

Her lawyer, Bruce Johnston, said government inaction has put more than 2,000 Quebec women fighting breast cancer in limbo because they don't know if they're receiving the correct treatment.

The request alleges the Health Department knew about quality control problems in the province's pathology departments for at least a year and a half.

Quebec defends testing

Last month a committee of experts reporting to Bolduc said there was no evidence the initial tests were incorrect, but it recommended the samples be re-examined as a precautionary measure.

SOURCE : www.ctv.ca

UK's NICE reconsiders block on Glaxo cancer drug

The National Institute for Health Clinical Excellence (NICE), which assesses drugs for reimbursement on the state health service, had ruled in March that the treatment had limited benefits and was too expensive. [ID:nL4649364]

But elements of a Glaxo appeal against the decision have now been upheld in the light of new supplementary NICE advice for the assessment of treatments in small patient populations with a short life expectancy, the agency said on Thursday.

The move means Glaxo and other interested parties will have a fresh opportunity to make a full submission to NICE under the new end of life criteria, which were introduced in January.

Although Britain is only a minor market for Glaxo, the rebuff from the cost-effectiveness agency in its home market was a blow, since Glaxo aims to make Tyverb -- also known as Tykerb or lapatinib -- a key part of its expanding business in cancer.

Decisions from NICE, which has a track record of rejecting a number of other pricey new medicines, are closely followed by governments and healthcare insurers worldwide.

In a bid to bring down the cost of treatment, Glaxo has already initiated a programme in Britain to pay for the first 12 weeks of treatment, with the NHS only paying for those patients who still benefit from the drug after that.

Tyverb is the first once-daily pill for breast cancer patients who over-express a protein called HER2. It is used in combination with Roche's (ROG.VX) drug Xeloda and the two drugs together cost around 25,000 pounds ($40,000) a year. ($1=.6224 pounds) (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

SOURCE : www.reuters.com

Hutch researchers find women with migraines less likely to get breast cancer

Women diagnosed with migraine headaches have a lower risk of developing breast cancer.

That's the finding of a new study led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center researcher Dr. Christopher Li.

The research could lead to a new way of understanding how breast cancer works, Li said.

"If we can better understand what the biological mechanisms are, that could open new avenues for research into breast cancer prevention."

The study appears in July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. It confirms work that Li published in the same journal in November. That study was the first to find that women with migraines have a lower risk of breast cancer.

This time Li and his team increased their sample size and looked at a wider range of ages. They looked at health data from more than 9,000 women in five American cities: Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle.

They also addressed this question: Could it be that migraine-prone women are less likely to do things that increase the risk of breast cancer?

Smoking, drinking alcohol and taking hormone-replacement therapy -- all risk factors for breast cancer -- are migraine triggers, so women with migraines have an interest in avoiding them. Also, the painkillers aspirin and ibuprofen -- both likely choices of drugs to blunt the effects of a migraine -- can lower breast cancer risk.

The researchers were able to show that behavior couldn't explain the difference.

Whether or not they smoke, drank, popped Advil, or took hormone-replacement therapy, migraine sufferers still came down with breast cancer less often than they would if they behaved the same way, but had no migraines.

A clinical diagnosis of migraine meant a 26 percent lower risk of breast cancer.

"It was reassuring that we were able to confirm what we had published previously," Li said. "We're seeing a consistently reduced risk of breast cancer."

Migraines and breast cancer are both related to the hormone estrogen.

Estrogen has a wide range of effects on the body. It is present in both men and women, but women have more of it. It promotes the development of breasts and other female body characteristics, and it helps build bones. Levels rise and fall through women's menstrual cycles.

The more women are exposed to estrogen, the more likely they are to develop breast cancer. For example, if a woman starts menstruating before age 12 she has an increased risk of breast cancer.

Migraines, which are more common in women than in men, follow the flux of estrogen in the body. They're often triggered by the onset of menstruation, when estrogen levels plummet. They also decrease during the second and third trimester of pregnancy, a time of high hormone levels.

Li's team is onto the next step. They're contacting some of the women from the previous studies and learning more about the effects of different kinds of migraine.

"We're trying to understand what are the types of migraine that are most related to reduction in breast cancer risk," Li says.

When Cancer Strikes a Family Twice

Two months after pro golfer Phil Mickelson's wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer, his mother has been diagnosed with the same disease, Mickelson's sister, Tina Mickelson, revealed to the San Diego Union Tribune on Monday.
Golfer Phil Mickelson tries to bring his best even if his heart is elsewhere.

Tina Mickelson did not return ABCNews.com's messages seeking comment about her mother, Mary Michelson. T.R. Reinman, media representative for Phil Mickelson, said the Mickelson family has declined to comment "although the family is very appreciative for the support."

Reinman said Amy views herself as "just one of 200,000 people diagnosed in the same year," with no more important personal story to tell than anybody else.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the second leading cause of death in Americans. So it should come as little surprise that few families have escaped the strain of a cancer battle. And it's not all that unusual for the disease to strike twice in family.

Clues to Ovarian Cancer

A woman's hormonal activity over her lifetime affects her risk of dying from ovarian cancer, according to a new study.

''From this study, it looks like having a higher number of lifetime ovulatory cycles and starting your period earlier, at a younger age, increase your risk of death after a diagnosis of ovarian cancer," says Cheryl L. Robbins, PhD, an epidemiologist at the CDC's division of reproductive health and the study's lead author.

Women who have been pregnant, for instance, have fewer ovulatory cycles over a lifetime than those who have not been pregnant.

This year, 21,550 new cases of ovarian cancer are expected in the U.S., and an estimated 14,600 women will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

Ovarian cancer is difficult to detect in early stages; only a fifth of all cases are detected when the cancer is still localized. Symptoms can include those often associated with less severe problems, such as abdominal bloating or swelling, urinary urgency, and pelvic pain -- and are thus often overlooked by women.
Study Details

While previous research has focused on risk factors for getting ovarian cancer -- including advancing age, obesity, and never becoming pregnant -- much less research has looked at risk factors that predict death once a diagnosis is made, Robbins tells WebMD.

For her study, she conducted an analysis of 410 women, ages 20 to 54, who were diagnosed with ovarian cancer and enrolled in the 1980-1982 Cancer and Steroid Hormone (CASH) study. After a follow-up with a median of 9.2 years (half followed longer, half less), 212 women died; 169 deaths were recorded as due to ovarian cancer.

Overall, the 15-year survival was 48% among the women study participants. Robbins and her team then looked at a host of reproductive factors including the number of pregnancies, use of oral contraceptives, breastfeeding history, age at first menstruation, whether the women had undergone hysterectomy, or whether they had their tubes tied.

The only reproductive factors that were statistically significant as predictors of dying from ovarian cancer were age at menstruation and the number of ovulatory cycles.

Those who had their first period before age 12 were 51% more likely to die from ovarian cancer compared to those who had their first period at age 14 or later.

In recent years, the age of first period has declined, Robbins and other say. For instance, Wright State University researchers recently found that girls born in the 1980s had an average age of 12.3 years when they had their first period. The study is published in the American Journal of Human Biology.

Women with the highest number of lifetime ovulatory cycles were 67% more likely to die of ovarian cancer than those in the group with the lowest number of cycles.

SOURCE : www.webmd.com