Need help for Mother in law

Hhhhjjp

Hello, I'm not sure if it's inappropriate for me to have created an account being that I am not the one with breast cancer, I do not mean to offend, or disrespect any of you wonderful women. However, my mother in law is having a hard time with her diagnosis, and She (we) want answers that she isn't ready to find herself so she had asked for my help. First of all she just underwent a left mastectomy for grade 2 DCIS, they also took 2 axilary sentinel lymph nodes where they found more cancer. They now say she is stage 3. Her husband (father in law) has leukaemia, and we have seen/heard ingesting canabis can slow down mastitis in other organs/even shrink tumours. Looking for any advice on complimentary diet or home remedies to go along with chemo

ETA foods to limit nausea from chemo/anxiet

Icietla

Welcome to BCO. We are very sorry about your Mother-in-Law and your Father-in-Law being ill.

Do you know what are the IHC findings as to her breast cancer tissue? -- Estrogen receptivity, Progesterone receptivity, HER2-neu excess?

Icietla

She should not be doing any supplementing or anything like that without her Doctors' knowledge and express approval. Some of that stuff can impair the effectiveness of Radiation treatment and Chemotherapy. Further, some of that stuff can be estrogenic and/or progestrogenic.

Her Doctors have available remedies and more remedies for most any side effects she may be suffering.

Hhhhjjp

thank you for your repl

Icietla

I will be typing more to you. It will take a while. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Icietla

!!! No matter the IHC characteristics of her tumor tissue, she should not consume any asparagus.

Many of us having hormone-sensitive breast cancer change our diets to avoid estrogenic foods and added sugar, and we want to include more things shown to be cancer-fighting or -discouraging. With the exception of soy lecithin, we try to avoid soy products -- especially soy protein. Except for low-fat, hormone-free dairy products in moderation, we try to avoid dairy products.

I use a Berkey water filter for all my drinking and cooking water. It has been shown to reduce progestrone [this was the spelling in the lab report] by 99.5%.

If she has low appetite during her Chemotherapy, she should be eating whatever she feels able to eat.

Here is an A-to-Z directory on a very helpful website. It makes specific recommendations about many foods for breast cancer patients. All of its recommendations are based on published research. Please notice that, as to any given food covered therein, there may be differing recommendations given for different types of breast cancer.

https://foodforbreastcancer.com/food-list.php

moth

I strongly disagree with the comments about soy based on recent evidence.

"Soy products have not been found to increase breast cancer recurrence and may actually reduce it" & "Soy consumption is not harmful"

Lifestyle modifications for patients with breast cancer to improve prognosis and optimize overall health

CMAJ 2017 http://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/189/7/E268.full.pd...

I am convinced the data points to maintaining a BMI at the lowish end, exercising aerobically regularly, eating primarily a plant based diet, reducing or eliminating alcohol.

But during active treatment, esp during chemo, it is really more a matter of what you can get down & keep down. FWIW, the anti nausea meds they prescribe now for chemo are way more effective than in the past and most people do get their nausea under control. Just communicate with your doctors if you need your medications tweaked.

I am in Canada where we are almost decriminalized and medical cannabis is easily avail and I was going to pursue it if my chemo protocols didn't keep nausea at bay but I ended up not needing it at all.

oxygen18

It can be confusing. Soy contains phytoestrogens, not mammalian estrogens. It seems to be ok, more than ok per the medical lit. All of my drs know I eat extra firm tofu daily and they all are fine with that. So I wouldn't worry about it. If you like soy, eat it, preferably organic though.

Icietla

Moth, I think we can agree that it is a controversial subject.

I do not have much confidence in the reliability of self-reporting as to (all) soy product consumption. I think most people are oblivious of how much soy is in the grocery stores. As only two product category examples, since my diagnosis, I have found only one (1) prepared salad dressing with neither soybean oil nor added sugar, and I have found only two (2) prepared crackers (both produced by the same company) with neither soybean oil nor added sugar.