tumor size and travel in body

Polyana

Hi all,

Just wanna ask, it seems there is no true philosophy or theory for how cancer behaves. To my surprise, some who have a small tumor size less than 1 Cm or so, get mets without lymph involvment, and some who have bog tumors don't get anything. It seems it is not related to how big or small your tumor is, as well I read an article about lymph nodes involvment, and it said doctors will not take the lymph node out if they found them involved as it wont make a difference to the treatment options. Having said that my doc told me that I had 9 or 6 lymph nodes removed with only 2-3 involved would that make me happy!! He said yes, its better...

I want to ask: is it true that excercise is good for cancer patients? any studies support the say, and how?

What about meditataion and other therapies, are there any known true resources for its use and success

jdeking

I think research has shown that often times larger tumors are slow growing, therefore less likely to spread (depending on the grade of the tumor). Smaller tumors with high grades, especially when occurring in younger women tend to be aggressive and invasive.

Everything I have read and heard supports that exercise is beneficial to cancer patients. I would say as much as you can tolerate, whether that is a 30 minute walk every day, or more intense workouts at the gym. I know that exercise really helped when I was going through chemo. I tried to walk every day.

Meditation is always good and calming for the mind. As is yoga (if your body can tolerate some of the positions).

Luah

Polyana: Shoot, I just typed out a very thoughtful reply and lost it when I linked to something else!  I'll just quickly post a few studies on breast cancer risk and physical activity: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/42/8/636.abstract?sid=0b5bfe5c-c80d-437a-b83d-3009a5286c1b

the Nurses Health Study (scroll down the BC column) : http://www.channing.harvard.edu/nhs/?page_id=197

and http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20071207/weight-gain-after-breast-cancer-deadly

There are also several studies showing an additional, discrete benefit for women with triple negative tumours but that doesn't apply to you.

There is an alternative therapies discussion board here that you may want to check out. This is also a very helpful site to sort out fact from rumour: http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11570.cfm

And I will just add that yes, sometimes the way BC progresses or doesn't progress shows no rhyme or reason. Sadly for some and happily for others, the stats don't hold true. Bottom line, the chance of each of us recurring is either 100% or 0%.