Eating Peanut Butter Could Prevent Future Breast Disease

[Common]

Girls who grow up eating PB&Js could be doing their breast health a favor.
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School found an association between regularly eating peanut butter and having a lower risk of developing benign breast disease in early adulthood. Benign breast disease is noncancerous, and occurs when there are changes to the breast or an injury or infection leads to lumps in the breast tissue. The research team did not investigate a link between peanut butter and malignant breast lumps or cancer.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3997715.html

[GrassrootsConservative]

I eat peanut butter to prevent myself from having to eat something that isn't quite as tasty as peanut butter.

Got some chocolate peanut butter and some cherry jelly from the store the other day, super delicious combination.

Too bad they don't make chunky chocolate peanut butter, that would be amazing.

/endrant

/edit: Hey what's the point of only researching benign lumps and not malignant lumps?

Seems super counterproductive if you ask me.

[Captain Obvious]

Eating peanut butter is supposed to maximize ejaculation.

... so I'm told.

[Dr. Who]

I eat peanut butter to prevent myself from having to eat something that isn't quite as tasty as peanut butter.

Got some chocolate peanut butter and some cherry jelly from the store the other day, super delicious combination.

Too bad they don't make chunky chocolate peanut butter, that would be amazing.

/endrant

/edit: Hey what's the point of only researching benign lumps and not malignant lumps?

Seems super counterproductive if you ask me.

You could mix chunky peanut butter with Nutella and chocolate chips?

[oceanloverOH]

I don't like peanut butter (I know - - who doesn't like peanut butter?) so I've never eaten much of it. And I have had a miserable condition called fibrocystic breast disease since puberty (lots of noncancerous fluid-filled cysts form in my breasts that must be needle aspirated; can you say OWWWWWIE). They've slowed waaaaaaaay down now that I'm past menopause. I wonder if I had eaten lots of peanut butter, if I would have gotten the condition anyway, or at least less severely.....? Interesting article, @Common, thanks for posting that.

[Cigar]

How about peanut butter on a tasty (.)(.) ... don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

[waltky]

Take breast cancer drugs for ‘15 years’...

Breast cancer: Taking hormonal drugs for up to 15 years can reduce risk - study
Sun, 05 Jun 2016 - Taking hormonal drugs for up to 15 years reduces the risk of breast cancers coming back, a landmark study suggests.

Taking hormonal drugs for up to 15 years reduces the risk of breast cancers coming back, a landmark study suggests. The trial, involving 1,918 patients, which had top billing at the world's largest cancer conference, showed the risk was cut by a third. Experts described it as a "big deal" that will change treatment for millions of women. But they warned there were risks, including osteoporosis. Globally, 1.7 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer around the world each year.

Double dose

Around 80% of the tumours are fuelled by the female sex hormone, oestrogen. Such cancers have a low but persistent risk of returning that lasts for years. It is why women already take drugs such as tamoxifen, to prevent oestrogen getting into breast cells, or aromatase inhibitors, which stop the body making oestrogen, for years after the lump is removed. The trial, carried out on post-menopausal women, doubled aromatase inhibitor treatment from five to 10 years. The data, presented to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), showed that cancer recurrence was cut by 34%. But many women on the trial had already taken other hormonal drugs before starting on aromatase inhibitors and benefited from 15 years of treatment.

Prof Paul Goss, one of the researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "[The study] will have an enormous impact, a reduction in recurrences is a very important finding. "Aromatase inhibitors are now readily available around the world and therefore our results will further improve the outcome of women with breast cancer globally." At the end of the study, 95% of women were still cancer-free if they had taken the extra medication, compared with 91% without. The study did not show an improvement in survival rates, as patients had not been followed for long enough, but scientists expect this to come as "night follows day". The results, which have also been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have been widely praised as significant.

'Substantial number'

Dr Nick Turner, a breast cancer specialist from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, told the BBC News website: "It is a big deal, it's going to be a change of treatment for a lot women. "Extended letrozole [an aromatase inhibitor] in years 10-15 has benefit in preventing a new breast cancer diagnosis. "But this won't be for everyone, many will be low risk and can probably safely stop at five years [of aromatase inhibitors], but then we're talking about a substantial number of women keeping going from five to 10 years [of aromatase inhibitors]." There were side effects to treatment including loss of libido, hot flushes and vaginal dryness. The treatment also increased the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures. Experts said it should be a decision between doctor and patient whether to continue.

'Compelling'

[waltky]

Inna summer, when it's hot an' sultry, womens come `round to Uncle Ferd's cabana umbrella fer free breast exams...

Researcher: Breast Cancer Deaths Decline in Many Countries
December 09, 2016 | WASHINGTON — A new study says the rates of breast cancer mortality are dropping across much of the world, but not everywhere.

Using data from the World Health Organization, researchers at the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, calculated mortality rates in 47 countries between 1987 and 2013. They found a drop in mortality rates in 39 countries. Declines in breast cancer deaths were most prominent in developed countries, with England and Wales experiencing the biggest drops.

Some rates are up

Results from South America were mixed. Breast cancer death rates increased for women of all ages in Brazil and Colombia, while rates declined for all women in Argentina and Chile. South Korea had the largest increase in mortality among women, with an 83 percent increase overall and a higher mortality in every age group. Cecile Pizot, an epidemiologist and the study’s lead author, said changes in South Korean society, which is quickly evolving from an agricultural society to a highly industrialized one, “might explain the considerable shift in cancer mortality.”

A woman walks under a canopy of umbrellas erected outside the Ministry of Public Health, part of a campaign aiming at raising awareness of breast cancer prevention, in Beirut, Lebanon

Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer for women globally: 1 in 4 cancers diagnosed in women is breast cancer, the International Business Times reported. “Comparing mortality trends between countries helps identify which health care systems have been most efficient at reducing breast cancer mortality,” Pizot said.

Age plays a role

Other findings in the study: In the United States, breast cancer death rates decreased 36.36 percent, from 22 deaths per 100,000 women in the years 1987-1989, to 14 deaths per 100,000 women in the years 2011-2013. Globally, Pizot said mortality rates went down more for women younger than 50 than for women older than 50. She thinks it’s because younger women receive more aggressive treatment. Pizot said it’s not clear what role mammography plays in helping to identify early breast cancers, the period when the disease is most treatable.

She said some countries in similar geographic locations and with similar socio-economic status had similar trends in mortality, even though some health care systems in those regions started using breast X-rays earlier than others. Pizot said future research should focus on risk factors, access to health care and the use of multidisciplinary treatment teams. Pizot presented the findings at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting held this week in San Antonio, Texas. The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which began in 1977, has grown to a five-day conference that draws researchers and physicians from more than 90 countries.

http://www.voanews.com/a/breast-canc...s/3630816.html

[waltky]

Granny says she still gonna take a occasional nip fer 'medicinal purposes'...

Alcohol Increases, Exercise Decreases Breast Cancer Risk
May 23, 2017 - One of the largest cancer prevention studies of its kind to date reached a sobering conclusion. Just one alcoholic drink per day can increase the risk of breast cancer in women. But researchers also concluded there are things women can do to decrease their risk of breast cancer.

The study by the American Institute for Cancer Research was a review of 119 prior studies involving 12 million women, 260,000 of who had developed breast cancer. Lead author Anne McTiernan is a cancer prevention expert at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.

Fitness enthusiasts run through dance exercises as they work out at Tropical Park in Miami, Florida.

In 10 of the studies involving 4,000 women of childbearing age who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said investigators uncovered a connection between alcohol consumption and increased risk of breast cancer. “We found that those women who drank an average of just 10 grams of alcohol a day had a five percent increased risk of breast cancer. So, five percent is a small amount but it was statistically significant so it gives us more confidence that it’s probably real,” said McTiernan. She noted, “Ten grams of alcohol is like a small glass of wine.”

In another subset of studies involving 35,000 post-menopausal women who developed breast cancer, McTiernan said alcohol was found to be a greater risk factor. According to McTiernan, “We found that there was a nine percent increased risk of drinking that same amount of alcohol, drinking 10 grams per day of alcohol. Again, small glass of wine, eight ounce of beer, one ounce of hard liquor.” McTiernan said the World Health Organization considers alcohol a carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent. It contains a metabolite called acetaldehyde that is damaging to DNA, according to McTiernan.

Lowering risk

See also:

Low-dose Aspirin Might Reduce Risk of Most-common Breast Cancer
May 02, 2017 - Low-dose aspirin might help fend off breast cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center noted an overall 16 percent reduction in breast-cancer risk among the 57,000 women who took an 81-milligram dose of aspirin three or more times a week. The most striking finding, according to researchers, was the effect the aspirin had on the most common form of breast cancer, known as estrogen or progesterone receptor positive HER2-negative breast cancer. The risk of developing that subtype was reduced by 20 percent.

The participants, part of the California Teachers Study that began in 1995, filled out questionnaires that included their exercise, smoking and drinking habits, family history of cancer and medications they took, including hormone replacement therapy. By 2013, almost 1,500 women reported having developed invasive breast cancer. The reduction in breast cancer risk in the City of Hope study was seen in comparison to the results of other large studies investigating the possible benefits of higher-dose aspirin and other painkillers. The study's findings were published online in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

Investigators did not see a breast-cancer risk reduction among women who took regular-strength aspirin or other types of painkillers. They said that may be because some women only took the aspirin occasionally, for pain relief. Low-dose aspirin taken regularly has been linked to other health benefits, including reductions in the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. Investigators in the latest study only found an association, not a causal link, between the use of baby aspirin and a reduced risk of breast cancer.

Researchers noted aspirin reduces inflammation, which plays a role in the initiation of disease. They also said the painkiller is a mild aromatase inhibitor. Aromatase inhibitors reduce the amount of the female hormone estrogen circulating in the bloodstream, which fuels breast tumors, so they are used to treat some forms of breast cancer in post-menopausal women. At this point, researchers are not recommending that women start taking low-dose aspirin to protect themselves against breast cancer. They said more research is needed showing a definite link between baby aspirin and cancer prevention.

http://www.voanews.com/a/low-dose-as...r/3835030.html

[waltky]

Breast cancer survival 'unaffected by faulty gene'...

Breast cancer survival 'unaffected by faulty gene'
12 January 2018 - Young breast cancer patients with faulty BRCA genes have the same survival chances as those without, a study has found.

The researchers, who looked at almost 3,000 women, also found outcomes were the same whatever kind of treatment women had - including mastectomies. Experts say it means women can take time to decide if the radical surgery is right for them. The study did not look at preventative mastectomies. These are offered to women with faulty genes to cut their risk of developing cancer. Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes increase a woman's risk of breast cancer by four-to-eightfold and can explain why some families have lots of relatives diagnosed with breast cancer. The study, published in The Lancet Oncology, found 12% of 2,733 women aged 18 to 40 treated for breast cancer at 127 hospitals across the UK between 2000 and 2008 had a BRCA mutation.

Young woman gets breasts checked

The women's medical records were tracked for up to 10 years. During this time, 651 of the women died from breast cancer, and those with the BRCA mutation were equally likely to have survived at the two-, five- and 10-year mark as those without the genetic mutation. This was not affected by the women's body mass index or ethnicity. About a third of those with the BRCA mutation had a double mastectomy to remove both breasts after being diagnosed with cancer. This surgery did not appear to improve their chances of survival at the 10-year mark. But the researchers said surgery may still be beneficial for these patients to reduce their risk of a new cancer developing in the longer term.

What is the BRCA gene?

It has been dubbed the 'Angelina Jolie gene', after the actress revealed she underwent preventative surgery on learning she had an up to 87% chance of developing breast cancer. Everyone has the BRCA genes, but when a fault occurs in one of them it can result in DNA damage and lead to cells becoming cancerous. Around 1 in 800 women in the general population are thought to carry the mutation and 5% of women with breast cancer in the UK will have a faulty form of the BRCA gene. The faulty genes are also linked to an increased risk of ovarian and prostate cancers, as well as breast cancer.

Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, and her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed

Angelina Jolie had a preventative mastectomy, before she developed cancer. These types of surgery were not examined in this study. The study's author, Professor Diana Eccles, of the University of Southampton, said: "Women diagnosed with early breast cancer who carry a BRCA mutation are often offered double mastectomies soon after their diagnosis or chemotherapy treatment. "However, our findings suggest that this surgery does not have to be immediately undertaken along with the other treatment."

'More time to decide'