I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

There seem to be a fair number of people who cannot tell the difference between news and entertainment.  Fox NewsCorp has an entertainment licence, not a news licence.  Beck and Limbaugh use their media pulpits for entertainment, and yet millions take them seriously.  Sort of like the folk who believe Stephen Colbert speaks on their (conservative) behalf, while he is actually satirizing them.

And yes, the ultimate insult was paid to Bob Dole by his supposed GOP colleagues, which tells us all how much the party has winged its way......way, way off.

Chick -- sorry I'm late in telling you how delighted I am that you are so boring!

Bob Dole was the Majority Leader of the Republican Party in the US Senate for YEARS.  He is responsibile for more GOOD legislation to help the diabled, his experience in WWII left him with a severe disablility.  HE IS A GOOD MAN.  I too diagree on some of his policies, but when THIS MAN, now 89, confined to a wheelchair, comes back to the Senate, almost directly from his hospital bed, to APPEAL to his colleagues, and they DENY him, the OBVIOUS - to welcome the WORLD to agree ( as most nations have) to the same standards available to the disabled in the USA ( ADA: Americans with Disabilites Act) because of this made up hooey about "problems with home schooling?"

ETA: Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi ooooooohhh...looks delicious

Can't even imagine what kind of a world this will turn into - without the leadership I've known growing up.  Moderate Republicans have fought for such good things - and worked so effectively "across the aisle" for everything.

ART - Athena, inspiring, and I don't know Gaudi - but thanks to Belinda's pics - I am now fascinated, esp. the mosaics, going to look up more about his work.

YOU ARE THE BEST GROUP OF WOMEN TO HANG OUT WITH....(ending a phrase with a preposition, in case there are grammarians amoung us) - remember when Winston Churchill was "corrected" by a secretary, and his reponse was "Impudence is something up with which I will not put."

I am home today. A day off to stencil a tee shirt for my grandson(done) make a jumper for my ganddaugher (the last of 4 and I am procrastinating). The first one was  a lot of fun the next two were fun and well this one will be done soon. I am making a pillow for my granddaughter whose room is being redone for Christmas. It is a simple 9 patch. For my daughters I have embroidered and needlepointed gifts underway.

No Christmas decorations up yet but I will start this afternoon.Whew.

Oh and my daughter will be brining her 2 year old out for a little while this afternoon.

And...there is still housework and laundry to do.

Friend just emailed me:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/health/extended-use-of-breast-cancer-drug-suggested.html?hp&_r=0

I feel bad for Bob Dole.  He did not deserve to be kicked like that.  But I suspect he made the effort to show up because he saw what is going on and knew it might happen.  Nice of him to try.   

Ouch Libby!  And they tell you exercise is good for you ... hmmmp.

Yeah for your boring news Chickadee!

Poor puppy dog!  Jake had one of those cones a few months ago.  It was pitiful ... he kept crashing into walls and getting stuck in doorways.  I found him a more comfortable cone than the one we got from the vet and thus had two cones.  Wanted to put one on both dogs and send them out to play bumper dogs.  But I haven't ... yet.

Been trying to get Christmas stuff done.  Found little gifts for hubby and the annual 'goofy' gift for daughter.  Cards next. 

Don't think there are copyright laws on prss releases once the embargo is lifted, if I'm wrong, somebody PM me & I'll delete it:  http://www.sabcs.org/PressReleases/index.asp

Embargoed for Release:
7:30 a.m. CT, Dec. 5, 2012
Media Contact:
Jeremy Moore (215) 446-7109 Jeremy.Moore@aacr.org In San Antonio, Dec. 4-8: (210) 582-7035
Extending Duration of Adjuvant Tamoxifen Treatment to 10 Years Reduced Risk for Late Breast Cancer Recurrence, Improved Survival
  
Greatest additional benefit was seen in the second decade after diagnosis. Findings are directly relevant to women taking tamoxifen. Women on other ER-positive breast cancer endocrine treatments may benefit.
SAN ANTONIO — Ten years of adjuvant treatment with tamoxifen provided women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer greater protection against late recurrence and death from breast cancer compared with the current standard of five years of tamoxifen, according to the international ATLAS (Adjuvant Tamoxifen — Longer Against Shorter) study.
“Five years of adjuvant tamoxifen is already an excellent treatment that substantially reduces the 15-year risk for recurrence and death from estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, but ATLAS now shows that 10 years of tamoxifen is even more effective,” said Christina Davies, M.D., a coordinator in the Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
She presented the results at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held here Dec. 4-8. The results were simultaneously published in the Lancet.
“The main additional benefit from continuing tamoxifen treatment is to reduce breast cancer mortality during the second decade after diagnosis,” Davies said. “We already knew that five years of tamoxifen reduces breast cancer mortality in this late period by almost a third in comparison with no tamoxifen. We now know that 10 years of tamoxifen is even better, approximately halving breast cancer mortality during the second decade after diagnosis.”
Researchers enrolled 6,846 women with ER-positive breast cancer between 1996 and 2005. Half had node-positive disease. All the women had been using tamoxifen for five
-more-
Extending Duration of Adjuvant Tamoxifen to 10 Years Reduced Risk for Late Breast Cancer Recurrence, Improved Survival Page 2 of 4
years, and the researchers randomly assigned them to continue treatment for another five years or to stop immediately.
After about eight years of follow-up, the researchers observed 1,328 breast cancer recurrences and 728 deaths after recurrence. The treatment allocation had little effect on either recurrence rates or death rates during the period five to nine years after diagnosis. However, during the second decade following diagnosis, the women who continued tamoxifen treatment had a 25 percent lower recurrence rate and a 29 percent lower breast cancer mortality rate compared with women who stopped after five years.
Risk for death from breast cancer five to 14 years after diagnosis was 12.2 percent among those who continued use versus 15 percent among those who stopped — an absolute gain of 2.8 percent. The researchers observed the greatest benefit during 10 to 14 years after diagnosis.
Davies noted that continuing tamoxifen use can increase side effects, with endometrial cancer being the most life-threatening. Because endometrial cancer is generally curable, the cumulative risk for death between five and 14 years after diagnosis was 0.4 percent versus 0.2 percent. Because this risk is heavily outweighed by the reduction in breast cancer deaths, overall mortality was significantly reduced by longer treatment. In premenopausal women, for whom tamoxifen is often the endocrine treatment of choice, there was no apparent excess of endometrial cancer.
“Many women with ER-positive breast cancer take tamoxifen, or some other adjuvant endocrine treatment, but the current recommendation is to stop after five years,” said Davies. “ATLAS showed that protection against breast cancer recurrence and death is greater with 10 years than with five years of tamoxifen use. Women and their doctors should be aware of this evidence when deciding how long to continue tamoxifen, or any other endocrine treatment.”
The study was funded by Cancer Research U.K., the U.K. Medical Research Council, AstraZeneca, the United States Army and the European Union.
## #
The mission of the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is to produce a unique and comprehensive scientific meeting that encompasses the full spectrum of breast cancer research, facilitating the rapid translation of new knowledge into better care for patients with breast cancer. The Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Baylor College of Medicine are joint sponsors of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. This collaboration utilizes the clinical strengths of the CTRC and Baylor and the AACR’s scientific prestige in basic, translational and clinical cancer research to expedite the delivery of the latest scientific
Extending Duration of Adjuvant Tamoxifen to 10 Years Reduced Risk for Late Breast Cancer Recurrence, Improved Survival Page 3 of 4
advances to the clinic. For more information about the symposium, please visit www.sabcs.org.
Publication Number: S1-2 Title: ATLAS. 10 v 5 years of adjuvant tamoxifen (TAM) in ER+ disease: Effects on
outcome in the first and in the second decade after diagnosis
Christina Davies1, Hongchao Pan1, Jon Godwin2, Richard Gray1, Richard Peto1 and on Behalf of ATLAS Collaborators Worldwide1. 1Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU), University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom and 2Institutes for Applied Health and Society & Social Justice Research, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Body: Background: In ER+ early breast cancer, 5 years of tamoxifen greatly reduces recurrence throughout the first decade (years 0-9) with little further gain later, and reduces breast cancer mortality (BCM) substantially throughout years 0-14 (EBCTCG, Lancet 2011; 378: 771-84 – see Table). It is not known how 10 years TAM compares with the current standard of just 5 years TAM.
Methods: In 1996-2005 the international ATLAS trial randomized 6846 women with ER+ disease who had had 5 years of adjuvant TAM to continue another 5 years (to year 10) or stop at year 5 (control). Annual follow-ups recorded compliance, hospital admissions, breast cancer recurrence (including new contralateral), any other new primary cancer and cause of death.
Results: Compliance was 80%, as after 2 years 84% of those allocated continue and 4% of those allocated stop were still taking endocrine treatment (>99% TAM). With mean 7.1 woman-years follow-up (30,000 w-y in years 5-9, 16,000 in years 10-14, 2000 later), 1328 recurrences were reported (900 in years 5-9, 379 in years 10-14). Recurrence was significantly lower with10 than 5 years TAM (Table: logrank 2p=0.002, rate ratio (RR)=0.90 se 0.06 in years 5-9 and 0.75 se 0.08 in years 10+). So were both
BCM (2p=0.01, RR=0.97 se 0.10 in years 5-9 and 0.71 se 0.09 in years 10+) and all- cause mortality (2p=0.01, with no increase in non-BCM). Proportional risk reductions were homogeneous by country, age and stage. Kaplan-Meier risks in years 5-14 (K- M)were: recurrence 21.4 vs 25.1%, BCM 12.2 vs 15.0%. Uterine cancer K-Ms in those randomized at age 50+ were: incidence 2.6 vs 1.6% (2p=0.08), mortality 0.2 vs 0.2%. In pre-menopausal women (where AIs are not an alternative to TAM) there was no apparent excess of uterine cancer.
Extending Duration of Adjuvant Tamoxifen to 10 Years Reduced Risk for Late Breast Cancer Recurrence, Improved Survival Page 4 of 4
Discussion: Compared with just 5 years TAM, continuing TAM to year 10 safely protects further against recurrence and, particularly during the second decade, BCM. Combining results from ATLAS and the EBCTCG meta-analyses of 5 years TAM vs none (both had 80% compliance), in a hypothetical trial of 10 vs 0 years TAM with 80% compliance, 15-year BCM would be reduced by at least one-third. Hence, full compliance with 10 years TAM would yield even greater benefit (Table). Further follow-up of ATLAS will assess more reliably the apparently substantial mortality reduction in the second decade after diagnosis.

"Of course, I am speaking as though true journalism were still alive. I rarely read the NYT now. It has become a haven for spineless liberals who feel compelled to give the conservative misinformation machine more time just to show how flexible they are, right wing hacks, and people who generally apologize for everything expect for an intelligent idea."

Oh? I wasn't aware CNN had bought the NY Times.

I have to admit, that's a pretty cute commentary on Athena's post "over there."

Yikes, Sunflowers, on the tamoxifen release (which I haven't yet read closely . . . will go back and look at it later). On the one hand, anything that reduces recurrence and increases survival is great; but on the other, I just really, really want to get off this shit sooner rather than later.  Dang, I was pissed when my new onc told me she wanted me to do a full five years of arimidex (instead of a combined total of five for arimidex plus the earlier tamoxifen).  So now new results are rolling in that may start pushing us to do 10 years, or more?  Dang again.  And I'm someone who's had minimal problems with anti-hormonals, which I guess gives me precious little to whine about, but whine I will. 

On other topics, no Christmas decorations for me this year!  I figure getting married to a Jew on December 28 gives me a pass.  (I tried to weasel out of it last year, but my daughter insisted.  This year, however, she'll be going straight from school to her grandparents' house and not coming back here til New Year's . . . so she has no say.)

I will, however, do some baking this weekend, as there'll be hell to pay if I show up back home without almond crescents and ginger cookies.  And I have the dreidel collection out on the coffee table.  To my amazement, the cats are leaving them alone for once: guess they're too busy trying to eat Eric's houseplants, LOL.

Linda

Blue - and your new name is a tribute to??????  tee, hee..

never saw that video clip you posted - when, where was it from?????  YIKeS...

My MO suggested I switch to Tamoxifen and I said "Are you kidding? You think I want to worry about uterine cancer now (I'm brca and have enough cancer to worry about).  Then she says to me "Why didn't you get your uterus out?"  Like where was she before and after my ooph (uh, giving me chemo and these hormonals) - she never mentioned it to me.  Am I suppose to recommend my own hysterectomy to my surgeon?

Ten years? Seriously?  I'm counting the days now and I'm on month 4.

I have a friend who has zero SEs on hormonals...save one, she is missing some hair on her crown.  But seriously, who are these women who feel nothing?

Sunflowers, I have mixed feelings about that article - quite frankly, I don't want to take Arimidex past the 5 yr mark. I'm achy and creaky (watching me try to get up off the floor is laughable to everyone not me), I have tendinopathy in my right wrist/thumb for which I sleep in a splint, and have now developed trigger thumb on the left - all of which are associated with AIs. As a result, my hand strength and grasp are impaired, I can't use that right hand to push my self up out of a chair or bed because that much pressure on it hurts like hell, and I'll only be 52 in January! I never thought I'd feel like shit this young and was looking forward to the end of my AI days.