Anyone who has been NED while doing alternative only?

abigail48

estrogen does cause cancer, at least once removed:  it causes cysts which can go bad.  but that's pharm estrogens:  birth controll pills & hrt & strong estrogenic foods & hebs probably:  soy beans gmo , fennell, pomeganet?  non-organic

Momine

Chef, thanks very much. This is an ongoing debate with my surgeon, and I plan to get it cleared up at the next visit. I am staged 3B, because of "skin involvement." However, there were no signs of cancer in the skin in the path report. It was based on the visible sign at DX of a stretch mark, down the side of my breast. However, I am very prone to stretch marks, and it could simply have been from the pressure on the skin of the growing tumor.

MelissaDallas

Abigail, cysts don't "go bad". In studies done on complex cysts cancer is only found in or around or about .3%. That is virtually statistically insignificant.

abigail48

that works for me given my history of non typical anything.  takes time I'd think however, 40 years for one poster very recently, for me 57 years.  most perhaps don't have that much time.  someone said if you live long enough you get cancer.  if you eat mostly vegetables, fruits, grains,( legumes (?) you'll probably live log enough

chef127

Momine,

My comment about skin invov is for non inflammatory.

you can read the article@...informahealthcare.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02841860600602953

sorry, I cannot cut&paste

M

Momine

Chef, thanks very much. I also note that the patients in the study had visible skin changes (as did I) but that their skin involvement was also "histologically proven." In my case, the latter component seems to be missing. 

abigail48

I couldn't access the link momine, could you cut & paste it?

chef127

Momine, 

Does that mean your surgeon 'assumed' you had ca in your skin?

Mine was obvious and the first surgeon I saw said "it appears you 'May' have IBC" b/c of the dimpled skin, but there was no mention of IBC on the path.

I always thought I was 111a til I read one of your posts that skin involvement = 111b, so I added that to my bio.You've enlightened me many times re: diet, excer, etc. thanx.

M

Moderators

Just chiming in here to give some information on estrogen. You can read more on our site.

Also, please cite studies or provide links to appropriate web pages when providing "facts". Thank you. Abigail, can you explain what you mean "cysts" gone bad? Or provide a source, please. 

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal

Most of the estrogen in women's bodies is made by the ovaries. Estrogen makes hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers grow. So reducing the amount of estrogen or blocking its action can reduce the risk of early-stage hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers coming back (recurring) after surgery. Hormonal therapy medicines can also be used to help shrink or slow the growth of advanced-stage or metastatic hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers.

Hormonal therapy medicines are NOT effective against hormone-receptor-negative breast cancers.

There are several types of hormonal therapy medicines, including aromatase inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor modulators, and estrogen receptor downregulators.

In some cases, the ovaries and fallopian tubes may be surgically removed to treat hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer or as a preventive measure for women at very high risk of breast cancer. The ovaries also may be shut down temporarily using medication.

It's important to know that hormonal therapy IS NOT hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT isn't used to treat breast cancer. HRT is taken by some women to treat troublesome menopausal side effects such as hot flashes and mood swings. HRT is used to raise estrogen levels that drop after menopause. HRT contains estrogen and can contain progesterone and other hormones. Hormonal therapy is exactly the opposite -- it blocks or lowers estrogen levels in the body.

In this section you can learn more about hormonal therapy: http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/hormonal

abigail48

I've explained many times on this forum/site what I mean by my cyst, the one on the right, gone bad.  If I knew how to cut & paste I wouldn't have needed to ask someone to cut & paste for me & probably others the study posted yesterday(?) by chef(?).  looks very very interesting & perhaps pertinent to my trouble.  yes I realize hrt & birth control tablets are the opposite of  hormone blocker therapy, ; I guess I knew this even before I came online here, with the fairly new taxole (?) but until I'd been reading here for awhile at least I hadn't known about the possible down sides.  when I told a friend that I probably had bc, this at the first sign of the cyst I'd had for 50 year,  in 2011, he said (when i said I'd not be consulting a doctor about it, "they have new remedies now"  & I remembered hearing about the yew tree medicine

MelissaDallas

Again Abigail, cysts don't turn into cancer. I want to state that clearly so that everyone diagnosed with a cyst reading this board doesn't think they are going to get cancer.

Can you get breast cancer in the same are of your breast that just happens to also have a cyst? Yes, but the cyst didn't cause or turn into the cancer.

abigail48

& mods, I would think everyone appreciates your input.  

melissa.  the cyst itself has turned into a tumor.  it was big enough to contain nearly the whole breast.  is the tumor cancerous, well there now is a hard lymph node under that armpit, & my cough which began 3 & a half years before the cyst started turning red , has gotten much worse lately.  I figure this will be what probably kills me, but the whole thing has certainly taken a lot longer than I thought it would.  someone here said recently cysts turn bad in only 3 or 3.5, not sure of the later figure percent of the time.

MelissaDallas

Not 3. POINT THREE.

abigail48

oh wow.  still not surprised.  how many people can say they've had lockjaw, I forget the technical name, & survived.  this in the 60ies, I think it's now, like a lot of trouble not as deadly

flybyknightrose

My Oncologist and Naturopath haven't used the term NED but have said I'm in remission. I did almost a year of Vitamin C infusions instead of chemo, changed my diet to avoid all sugar and prepared foods, and had external radiation. My radiologist told me that my chance of recurrence went from 50% to 3% by having radiation. I'm also taking Letrozole. I continue to have 3D mammograms or MRIs every 6 months. Everything looks good so far and I feel great.

Deblc

Flybyknight...great to hear !

Momine

Chef, from reading the article you provided, it seems that current practice is to classify all BC tumors with visible skin involvement as T4b, which automatically gets you staged 3B. Histology is not part of the classification, simply the fact that you can see changes in the skin. After reading your article, I found a couple of other abstracts that question this approach. I will definitely ask my surgeon about this again. 

You say that your path did not show IBC, but was the skin involvement confirmed by histology?

Thanks again, it was very helpful.

Moderators

This may be helpful in the conversation regarding cysts:

Can benign cysts become cancerous?

Can Benign Cysts Become Cancerous?

Last modified on September 17, 2012 at 7:05 PM

Answer: Cysts are very common and rarely turn into cancers. But it's extremely important to find out whether what you have is just a cyst or something else.

If you feel a lump in your breast and you don't know what it is, have your doctor check it. Some women get what are called cyclical lumps—cysts that appear sometime before the start of the menstrual cycle, and later shrink or disappear. These are generally harmless. But, again, if you have them, you should be monitored by a doctor with breast expertise.

Even if you've had cysts in the past, if you find a new lump in your breast, don't assume it's a cyst. If the lump doesn't go away or gets larger, it's important to check it out further.

Ultrasound is the easiest way to see if a lump is a cyst or not. Your doctor may insert a needle into a lump to see if it's a cyst. In a simple cyst, the needle will drain off the fluid. A pathologist will check the fluid to make sure there are no cancer cells in it. If the lump is made up of breast cells, a tissue sample can be taken out with the needle and checked by a pathologist under the microscope.

In some women, the examination under the microscope may reveal epithelial hyperplasia, which is just a harmless overgrowth of normal breast cells. Another finding, atypical hyperplasia, is an increase in breast cells that have started to look different from normal cells. The atypical form is associated with a slightly increased risk of developing breast cancer later on.

Routine mammograms are important for all women, regardless of your history of cysts or other biopsy results.

Deblc

Mods, I just have to say that you are so on the ball with monitoring this site, don't know how you keep up with all the posts! Thanks for all the info

Momine

Ditto, kudos to the mods for timely and on-topic info.

lightandwind

My fibroadenoma turned in to cancer as well. It was there for many years. I thought it was just getting bigger, and so did the doc per initial findings. I almost didn't do a biopsy because of it. Good thing I did. Even when something is characteristic of something other than a malignant tumor, cancer can still be present. I've heard several stories of ladies on here talk about how their fibrocystic breast disease following calcifications ( which docs call precancerous), lead to a bc diagnosis. All I'm saying is a  lump can be diagnosed as a cyst upon imaging, w/o a biopsy, and there can be cancer in it that goes undiagnosed. Not trying to scare anyone, but for the record, it happens.

voraciousreader

Complex fibroadenomas can create cysts and they can slightly increase your chances of developing breast cancer.  However, fibroadenomas do NOT turn into breast cancer.  During the formation of cancerous tumors, the cancer cells can form cysts.  In my type of RARE breast cancer, often, the mucinous tumor creates a jellylike cyst that can be mistaken for a benign cyst.  By definition, breast tissue is often made up of lumps and bumps.  The vast majority of those irregularities do not need to be biopsied. 

lightandwind

VR that is just semantics. Yes only cancer is cancer, and cysts are cysts, but what I am saying is that the same mass thought to be benign because it had been diagnosed as a cyst or fibroadenoma, can contain cancer, as mine did.

voraciousreader

light...it is NOT semantics.  Fibroandenomas DO NOT turn into cancer.  They might slightly increase your chances of developing a cancer, but they DO NOT morph into cancer.  Presently, no one knows why they increase your chances of developing a cancer. 

lightandwind

For me, what my doc had diagnosed as a fibroadenoma many years ago, per biopsy, then grew, and they, years later still said it was a fibroadenoma. They then tested it for cancer, and it was positive. That is how I found out I had cancer.For me, my fibroadenoma turned into cancer.

voraciousreader

light...I completely understand what you are stating.  Like you, I had numerous cysts.  Did one of my cysts ultimately become malignant?  The science isn't there yet to tell you or me how the tumor cells were created. 

lightandwind

VR, Science cannot take away reality though. What happened happened. How they figure how it happens scientifically remains to be seen, I can accept that. 

But in the meantime, you just can't go around saying that it doesn't happen when it does. Women need to know that their lumps though they are diagnosed as having a benign cyst or fibroadenoma, that these cysts and fibroadenomas can change into a malignant lesion. How it happens? I don't really give a hoot. Just don't say that it doesn't...because that is false.  

voraciousreader

another provocative idea....I follow the research of some researchers at Sloan Kettering who study rare breast cancers, including mine, mucinous.  The last time I met with them, they told me that mucinous breast cancer cells were very interesting to study.  What they were trying to understand that when mucinous cancer cells showed up in the breast, they were more likely to be indolent.  However, when primary mucinous cancer cells were discovered in other organs, such as mucinous salivary or ovarian cancer cells, they tended to be more aggressive.  The bottom line is, science is far away from connecting all the dots.  Consider DCIS as well. No one knows yet with certainty how breast cancer begins.  Researchers do know that DCIS increases the risk of developing invasive cancer, but do NOT yet know which DCIS cells will become malignant.  

lightandwind

this gives some insight into how benign breast lesions become cancerous

http://www.moloncol.org/article/S1574-7891%2807%29...

SelenaWolf

Fibroadenomas and apocrine metaplasia are both benign breast conditions.  What the paper is pointing out is that apocrine metaplasia may develop side-by-side with more worrisome, invasive tumors, not that fibroadenomas or aprocrine metaplasia turns into a malignancy.  It's not the fact that aprocrine change exist in both benign- and malignant tumors - which it does - it's the fact that malignancy can exist side-by-side with a benign condition, and that it is problematic sorting out the two under those conditions.  But they are distinctively different.