Treating estrogen responsive cancer naturally

chatsworthgirl - check out this calculator to determine benefit of hormonal therapy based upon your age, tumor size, etc. 

http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/breastcancer/therapy/index.php

It calculates cancer death rate and tells you how many additional years the treatment is projected to add to lifespan. 

My doctor said soy dirivitives should be avoided. Tempeh or Miso in limited amounts was ok. She said studies show a negative effect in women who ate 80+ grams per day, but the study was on women that did not have  comprimised immune systems, so for me to stay at about half of that. I've just been avoiding it altogether.

I've been taking DIM for about 3 months now and plan to keep taking it. Some increase in hot flashes, but doable. None of the horrible AI effects.

Dear DANCETRANCER, that dinner sounds yummy.  I need to really pay more attention to what I eat.  My DH is a chef and he does all the cooking so I have to modify his habits too!  Gosh, I can't tell you how much you lifted my day!. Enjoy your dinner and thanks again.

kayb-how long had you been off of an AI (if you had taken one.....I'm sorry my memory is no longer really reliable LOL). I can always feel estrogen fluctuations too, based on sweats at night, hot flashes,etc.  Could you tell me if you still have your ovaries, etc.  I would really like to find an alternative and so if you are having a response, that would really interest me.  I have night sweats and hot flashes with changes up OR down in estrogen.

Kayb, thanks. My MO never mentions stuff like this, and when I ask about supplements, etc, she just says to eat healthy. Ill ask about this next time I see her, but don't expect a real opinion on it from her. So frustrating.

rosyFL, what's wrong with flaxseed?  I know it's estrogenic, but then it can also block the stronger estrogens and then we'd get it's weaker estrogenic effect taking the place of the bad estrogens.  Is there another reason why you are saying it's bad?  I use it all the time.

I'm on Coumadin and the cardio NP said NOT to avoid any of the veggies, just keep the amounts the same.

According to cancer math I will lose 9 months of life by not taking any hormonals.

It wasn't worth it to me to keep taking Aromasin. The onc disagrees.

purple...how small was your IDC?  I see it listed as < 1 cm.  For very small IDC's, the benefit of hormonal therapy becomes much more suspect, as you can see from your results of the cancermath site.  

If you read NCCN guidelines, this is what it says about that:

"given the favorable toxicity profile of the available endocrine therapies, the Panel recommends the use of adjuvant endocrine therapy in the majority of women with hormone receptor-positive disease regardless of menopausal status, age, or HER2 status of tumor.  Possible exceptions to the recommendation of adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with HR+ disease are those patients with node-negative cancers less than or equal to 5 mm or 6 mm to 1 cm in diameter with favorable prognostic features where the prognosis is so favorable that the benefits of adjuvant endocrine therapy are very small.”

I posted it earlier.

http://www.lifemath.net/cancer/breastcancer/therapy/index.php

http://www.preventcancer.com/press/releases/oct25_02.htm

This is dated information, but 10 years ago Evista was suspected of causing ovarian cancer

With all the risk of Tamox and the AI's, I'd rather have more life in my years than than the added 7 months to my life. There are many women that get new or recurring BC while on Tamox. If they guaranteed 100% that I would not get BC again and would not get endometrial/uterine CA, then I might try to grin and bear it; but I don't see the risk to benefit ratio as being worth it. My math showed that 95% of people will be alive at 5 years and 85% at 15. I'll take my chances at this point. Down the road if something changes maybe I will change my mind, but for now I'm staying au natural.

dogs

Similar studies found  similar results in women over70 regarding rads !

kayb,

There are myths circulating that estrogens in plants cause cancers to grow. This has been studied not to be true as some cultures eat many so-called plant estrogens and have less breast cancer. I almost don't want to get into the discussion because the belief is so entrenched about plant estrogens.

I try not to second guess myself or obsess about my treatment decisions anymore. It is what it is. Either way there are possible benefits and repercussions. All you can do is make the best decisions you can at the time. Worry and regret won't gain us one day of life but it can take away from the time we have. I'm learning to be very Zen about things these days. :-)

Very interesting study dogs.  Thanks for sharing. It's a 'print and save'.