Breast Cancer Awareness: An Alternate Perspective From A Cancer Survivor

I would like to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month a little differently than most others. I have a different perspective. You see, I had breast cancer nine years ago. I rejected conventional medicine and went with an alternative approach.

I'm quite cynical about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Throughout October I see stories about brave cancer survivors who survived their toxic treatments and went on to run marathons. I see stories about new, expensive cancer breakthroughs on broadcasts lucratively sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. These are the same multinational corporations that manufacture plastics, pesticides and fragrance chemicals that actually cause cancer!

Whether you count by dollars or numbers of people employed by it, Cancer is one of the largest industries in the country. How is it that the companies that cause cancer also manufacture the cancer drugs? When it comes to Big Pharma, news stories aren't so much news as propaganda. Watch carefully this month: How many breast cancer stories will show women being healed by natural, non-patented medicine? None.

Why is it that the research we're asked to fund looks for new treatments (as long as they can be patented), but never at the carcinogenic effects of plastics, pesticides and fragrance chemicals? Because it would rock the industrial boat that funds the research. Their definition of "prevention" is earlier detection. My definition of "prevention" is not getting it in the first place!

So why did I choose to risk my life with alternative medicine?

Two women whom I loved very much died of breast cancer not long before I got it. More accurately, they died of their cancer treatments. One was like a mother to me, the other, like a sister. They were both seemingly healthy when the cancer was discovered. Indeed one had no tumor site at all. At her annual physical, the doctor found some cancer cells trapped in a lymph node. That's what lymph nodes are supposed to do. Her immune system was working well.

They gave her every test they could to find the location of the cancer, to no avail. Then they proceeded to bombard the poor woman with "as much chemo as we can give you without actually killing you." After that, they gave her radiation therapy.

Once she had no immune system left, the cancer that her body had been keeping at bay took over with a vengeance. It spread to her hip bone. More radiation. Oops! Too strong. The radiation killed her hip bone so she needed a hip replacement. More chemo. No more visits from her beloved grandchildren because she had no immunity to germs.

The bone cancer spread to her arm. She had a painful surgery for that. Then to her skull- exactly where her mobile phone antenna had touched her head. The last three years of life for this once-vital, beautiful woman were spent in pain, wretched illness and isolation. She never complained once. She just accepted it as her fate. I held her hand as she died.

My other friend was only in her late 30's when they found the lump. She was a healthy vegetarian who practiced yoga, meditation, and alternative medicine. One day when she was getting a chiropractic adjustment, the doctor said her thyroid felt a little strange and suggested she get it checked.

She did, and it was fine. But the new doctor felt a breast lump and prescribed a mammogram and biopsy. Yep, take a little sealed-up tumor, crush it, radiate it and poke it repeatedly with a needle. Then act surprised when it suddenly metastasizes like crazy. The doctor actually told my friend that she had likely had the tumor for at least ten years.

My friend wanted to do alternative cancer therapies. Her oncologist said she should only do them as an adjunct to conventional treatment. Within a year she had lost her breast and was almost killed by chemo and radiation. The natural medicines, which are much more gentle, had no hope of working on a body that was so ravaged and sickened. Within another year she had lost the other breast, had more rounds of chemo, and died shortly after that.

The next year I found my lump, and within six weeks I had six lumps. I consulted with an M.D. and several alternative doctors. I read a bunch of books they recommended. I prayed and fretted, then decided that, live or die, I was going with non-toxic alternative medicine.

I called my late friend's husband and told him the news. He said, "Whatever you do, don't let the doctors get their hands on you. My wife told me before she died that she was sorry she ever listened to them. I believe that if she had gone a natural route she would be alive today."

So here is my advice for Breast Cancer Awareness:

1. Question Authority- Don't automatically believe the doctors, or anyone else. That includes this article.

    

2. Take Responsibility for Your Life- People who will spend weeks researching the pros and cons of a new car, carefully studying the fine print on a contract, will never study their medical options! Your doctor doesn't have to live or die with the consequences of your treatment, you do!

    

3. Learn About Your Options- They're out there, but your medical doctor has not studied them. Even if she has, she is forbidden to suggest them! Educate yourself before you're ever in a health crisis.

    

4. Be a Difficult Patient- Demand thermography instead of, or at least before, a mammogram. Thermography uses no radiation, does not crush the breast tissue, and can detect cancers months or even years before a mammogram can.

    

5. Learn About the Fungal Connection to Cancer- It can save your life.

Wishing you and yours the best of health!

Siri Amrit Kaur Khalsa is a cancer survivor. She started Tigerflag Natural Perfumery to give people natural alternatives to toxic fragrance products. She wrote a paper describing her successful battle with cancer as a resource to help others going through the difficult process of choosing their treatment.

You may print or publish this article as long as you use it in its entirety, with credit to the author and Tigerflag Natural Perfumery, LLC.

Breast Cancer

Epidemiology

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and the second most common (after lung cancer) cause of death in this group. However, to some extent, it concerns men as well.Different countries in the world have varying incidence of breast cancer. The West Europe countries and the USA have the highest incidence rates, adequately 35-60/100 000 and 65/100 000, whereas the Far East countries have the lowest rate (i.e. in Japan it is five times lower than in the USA).

Risk factors

Risk factors point to increased risk, that is at higher probability of falling ill among specimens of a given population. The most important risk factors include:

1. Woman's age

Incidence of breast cancer increases with age.

2. Ethnic/geographical factors

These factors, although they have been taken into consideration for years, are extremely difficult to interpret. High breast cancer incidence occurs in the USA and in West Europe, low - in Asian, Far East and African countries. Breast cancer is usually developed in Caucasian women living in a quite cold climate in the highly developed countries. It is dependent upon the influence of the following factors: race, climate, nutrition style, types of the undergone diseases, lifestyle and culture style, family planning, age of the first pregnancy, number of children, breastfeeding's popularity, etc. Black and yellow women become ill more rarely.

3. Family factors

The more affected relatives and the closer degree of kinship to them, the bigger probability of suffering from cancer. The risk increases, if these tumours occurred in one’s mother and sister under the age of 35 . Genetically determined breast cancer, which amounts to 10% of all the breast tumours, most often being the result of BRCA1, BRCA2, p53 and ATM genes mutation. Breast cancer can also occur in the course of some inheritably associated syndromes, among others in Li-Fraumeni syndrome, Lynch II syndrome, Cowden's disease, Peutz-Jaeghers syndrome, ataxia-teleangiectasia, Klinefelter syndrome

4. Age of first menstruation and menopause

Appearance of first menses before the age of 12 significantly increases (by about 40%) the risk of breast cancer. Natural menopause appearing after age 55 increases risk of breast cancer twofold. Thus, the most important factor is the total number of years of ovulation activity.

5. Age of first pregnancy and delivery

Women who give birth to their first child in the age of between 20 and 30 have a lower risk of breast cancer. Nulliparous women are more exposed to breast cancer, by almost 50%.

6. Breastfeeding

Women with much lower risk of falling ill protected from breast cancer development by breastfeeding. Even relatively short time of breastfeeding gives some protection

7. Ionising radiation

High doses of X radiation (applied during routine "X-rays") can cause breast cancer. It is worth to stress that the contemporary mammography apparati expose a woman to a minimal dose of radiation.

8. Alcohol and diet

Excessive alcohol consumption for a long period of time increases the risk of breast cancer development, because the liver damage impairs estrogen metabolism (high estrogen concentration increases the risk of falling ill). It is suspected that one of the factors, which increases the breast cancer risk, is food with high content of saturated fat

9. Obesity

Obesity increases the risk of breast cancer development, as it is more difficult to find breast changes in obese people . moreover, fat cells produce estrogens

10. Exogenous hormones (hormone contraceptives)

It is believed that oral contraceptives (which include mainly estrogens), even if they are connected with breast cancer, act as a factor facilitating and accelerating the development of the disease, which has already appeared, rather than a factor causing genetic mutations and evoking disease. It is also believed that pills that are made only of progesterone and so called „minipills” don't increase the breast cancer risk. The pills may increase the risk in genetically loaded women or women using oral contraceptives for at least 8 years until first pregnancy. It is believed that preparations which include progesterone alone, don't affect the risk for breast cancer appearance. However, preparations that include progesterone and estrogens may influence the tumour appearance. The risk is growing for women taking hormone medications longer than 8 years.

Treatment

Breast cancer is treated locally or generally, although some patients may undergo both types of treatment. Local treatment consists in surgical removal or destruction of the lesion. General treatment (chemotherapy, hormone therapy) aims at inhibiting the tumour process or decreasing the size of tumour before operation and it is also applied in significant disease progression instead of surgery. Surgical treatment is the most common way to treat breast cancer. Patients in I0 and II0 clinical progression are qualified for the surgical treatment . The most often performed surgery is the modified breast amputation by Patey's way (excision of the breast gland together with the axillary lymph nodes, without removing the breast muscles). Some patients are qualified for breast conserving treatment.

Such possibility exists in the following cases:

- TisN0M0

- T1N0M0

- T1N1M0

- T2N0-1M0 (tumour not bigger than 3cm in a mammographic measurement)

- Possibility of removing the tumour with a margin of healthy tissue

- Satisying cosmetic effect foreseen

- Patient's consent to breast conserving treatment

- The lack of contraindications

The absolute contraindications include:

1. Multicentric cancer

2. Cancer relapse after the previous breast conserving treatment

3. Previous undergoing of breast irradiation

4. No possibility of getting the margin of healthy tissue

The relative contraindications include:

1. Pregnancy

2. Foreseen unsatisfying cosmetic effect

3. Connective tissue disease (collagenosis)

Breast Conserving Treatment (BCT) includes replacing tumour within healthy tissues and regional axillary lymph nodes. The following ways of breast tumour removal are distinguished:

- tylectomy

- removing the tumour with a margin of at least 2cm. If the margin from the muscles' side is smaller than cm, the tumour must be removed together with fascia,

- wide excision, lumpectomy

- removing the tumour together with the bulk unchanged tissues margin of 1 cm. This margin can be smaller from the muscles side, but then fascia has to be removed.

- excisional biopsy, tumourectomy

- removing the tumour without margin, but with the intention of removing all the bulk suspected tissues. After BCT surgery, all patients are exposed to supplementing radiotherapy. Breast gland is irradiated with a total dose of 50 Gy, 2 Gy per fraction (25 fractions during 5 weeks). Additionally, the site of tumour removal is afterloaded with 192 Ir with the 10 Gy dose.

Radiotherapy - uses high energy radiation to destroy the cancer cells and to prevent them from further growth and fissions. There are two kinds of radiotherapy: exterior (source of radiation is located outside the human body) and interior (special containers with the radiation material are placed in the tumour site). Another kind of radiotherapy is brachytherapy which involves placing thin tubes in breast. The radiation is directed through these tubes straight to the tumour cells. Nowadays brachytherapy is applied after breast conserving treatment. It happens that radiotherapy is applied before surgery to decrease the size of tumour and/or to facilitate the tumour removal.

Chemotherapy involves the application of medicines that are aimed at tumour destruction. In breast cancer chemotherapy is usually composed of a few types of medicines, which are administered either directly to vein or in the form of pills. Regardless of the way of administering, the medicines get inside blood and flow with it through the whole body, which also results in negative effects for this therapy (nausea, vomiting, hair falling out, neutropenia, menstruation disorder, earlier menopause).

Copyright 2006 Radoslaw Pilarski

Radoslaw Pilarski is a PhD candidate working on anticancer properties of Uncaria tomentosa - http://www.uncariatomentosa.com - at PAS, Poland. mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. - http://mlingua.pl - provides professional language translations.