Alcohol

I think science has no clue. I know women that have had kids, breast fed, never drank and developed cancer. But I also know that my DH's ex-wife is a recovering alcoholic, had a kid and is 77 and never had cancer. I think cancer is genetic and environmental and though lifestyle can contribute to it, there's really no way to know if your genes plus a bad lifestyle will matter. NO CLUE. I think all of us that are newly diagnosed try and blame ourselves and figure out "what we did" to deserve this. STOP IT.

We are not to blame for getting cancer.

Other than cancers that may be directly caused by smoking, I don't think any other cancers are blamed on the individual in the way that breast cancer is.

A family member passed away a few years ago from colon cancer. This individual had horrible eating habits - if anyone might have had a diet that could have caused colon cancer, it was him. Yet the idea that he might have done something to bring on his cancer was never mentioned and people would have been appalled if it had been suggested. Interestingly, colon cancer is one of those rare cancers for which screening can actually stop the development of the cancer. Screening for breast cancer might find a breast cancer while it's still small and early stage, but screening does squat to stop breast cancer from developing. Yet with colon cancer, if a polyp is found and removed during a colonoscopy, a diagnosis of colon cancer quite possibly has been averted. So proper diet and screening actually can stop colon cancer in many cases - yet we don't blame colon cancer patients for causing their cancer. I'm not suggesting we do, but it highlights how differently breast cancer is treated.

While environmental and lifestyle factors may contribute to (although not directly cause) the development of breast cancer in a percent of cases, overwhelmingly breast cancer is caused by factors beyond our control. Yet the medical community and the media (and yes, even this site) latch onto those environmental and lifestyle factors, blow them out of proportion in terms of their actual influence on breast cancer rates, and make women feel responsible for "not doing the right thing" and thereby causing their breast cancer.

wallycat, I'm with you. Science and the medical community don't have a clue what causes breast cancer to develop in any one of us. In all likelihood it is a combination of factors that is unique to each individual, starting with our genetic make up. The blame game directed at women is a way to avert attention away from the fact that the medical community knows so little about why any one individual will develop breast cancer.

I remember the week I was diagnosed, walking into the grocery store behind four obese women, and while I never think like this when I'm thinking logically, I thought to myself, "Here I am with this monster growing inside me when I have maintained a normal weight throughout my life and these ladies who haven't---they probably don't have cancer."

Recently, a woman with carotid artery cancer who I've become acquainted with wrote me an email saying that she has removed all sugar from her diet because "sugar feeds cancer" and she hoped I was "doing the same." I wrote her back, and carefully told her that I'd not eaten sugar in over fifteen years, and while I prefer to eat this way and plan to continue, I didn't do it for cancer prevention in the first place and it surely didn't prevent cancer.

Momand2kids, you cracked me up about your mother drinking scotch and smoking Lucky Strikes! My mother survived advanced breast cancer twenty-five years ago (she had nine positive nodes AFTER neo-adjuvant chemo, which was fairly new at the time--and ten nodes was then considered Stage IV). She is now 81 years old and the only liquids that enter her body are coffee, wine and vodka. That's been the case since she was diagnosed, and as long as I can remember. She smoked through two of her three pregnancies (maybe that's my problem) and her favorite food group is sugar. She eats almost zero vegetables.

To Beesie's point, do you ever hear the suggestion that men have prostate cancer because they eat sugar, drink alcohol, don't exercise enough or eat too much red meat?

Jessie, I wish it were that easy. Yes, some cancers are fueled by estrogen. Your body will try to make estrogen, which is why the anti-hormonals/oopherectomy are standards of care. If you look at some of the links I posted on other "alcohol" threads, there are some theories that state intermittent hormone use can actually be beneficial. They just DON'T KNOW. Why some women respond to antihormonals and others still get recurrence even after being on the drugs that should protect them. They just DON'T KNOW.

I am certainly not advocating drinking or overeating or urging people to be reckless with their choices. What I, and I think many other gals who posted, seem to be saying is that if someone enjoys a glass of wine with dinner, then these studies should not deter them. In some cases (and there are studies that showed women who drank moderately had a higher survival after getting BC), the alcohol can actually be beneficial. Never mind the relaxation it can offer.

Yes, if alcohol "caused" your breast cancer, it is unfortunate, but it doesn't correlate that continued drinking means it will come back. No science to back that up. It would be great for those of us that enjoy alcohol to be able to turn back the hands of time, never drink and see if we would end up here anyway; we just can't.

Some people enjoy alcohol more than others...socially, for stress, for taste, for enjoying with dinner as a food....so if someone doesn't enjoy it or feels they are abusing it, it is a good time to take stock. For those that treat it like a food, then stop reading the studies, LOL.

This article may help those who are overly stressed about exercise, booze, and what they eat: https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2016...

Jessie, I wish I had an explanation and an answer. I think what they find is that sometimes, the tumors/cancer acclimate to an environment with little to no estrogen and adapt. By adding in estrogen, it starves the cancer. Does it work all the time and for everyone? They don't know. Since they do know that initial estrogen depletion tends to promote tumor suppression, that has become the standard of care. They treat with what appears to work. Certainly, there are enough women on this board that had a recurrence WHILE TAKING the drugs that were supposed to prevent that from happening. Your point is very accurate---everyone is an individual and cancer refuses to play by rules. I think that is what many of us have surmised...make the best of the life you are given; try to look over your shoulder just enough but not to the point of removing what joys you can find. The rest is unknowable.

I went off Letrozole after 12 months.   I had terrible joint pain.  Some days I couldn't use my hands even they hurt so bad.  I just saw my MO about 2 months ago and she wants to put me on Tamoxifen.  She said all the AI drugs will have those same side effects. I am now even debating using the Tamoxifen.  Sometimes I feel like this is never ending.  Now I find out the implant they put in is a Textured implant.  In order to avoid getting Lymphoma I am now scheduling an explant.  I didn't want the implant to begin with.   Give me strenth.

jessie13...yes the non compliance rate of anti hormone therapy is about 50 percent due to side effects. I often wonder how that could be considered an effective treatment. We all need to speak upon for better options. Good luck to all

Carpediem- I'd switch MO's. I just had an appointment with mine to decide on Tamoxifen or Zoladex plus AI's. She gave me a ton of info on each, let me ask about side effects, and then she did give me a recommendation. I had been leaning towards Zoladex plus AI's based on reading studies, so I'm glad she recommended that. I also feel that I'm never rushed and I can also email her with questions and she promptly responds. I don't think you should ever feel rushed!

I start Zoladex this Friday, and then I go on an AI a few months after. I'll definitely be talking with my MO before then to understand which AI she recommends and why.

I am worried about bone loss and my MO is willing to give me a bisphosphonate in the future to combat it, assuming I tolerate the planned hormonal therapy.

Thank you OnTarget, I have learned more here than in my mo's office. I would think there would be specific things an mo would tell you at your initial meeting. ie your risk of reoccurance w/wo Htherapy, your estrogen level, how you will be monitored etc. I couldn't believe she said since I was asking about side effects she said I had a negative attitude. And then for my mo to say we would communicate via the hospital patient portal? She never mentioned my seeing her again. She just had me make an appointment for a bone scan after I asked about it. Her teaching fellow had the results of my genomic testing. (I paid out of pocket for that b/c I make too much money and then for no one to explain the results? WTH?) I had to ask for the results of testing and it was just handedd to me not explained. At my job, I do testing and have to present the results to my clients in the form of a written report that explains highlights test results and recommendations. Am I wrong to expect the same from my mo? I just feel like I am just one more patient with bc to her. I wonder how she is evaluated for job preformance. At the end of the appointment she sent in her nurse with four pages of se's. No discussion, just give a patient paperwork. That wouldn't be acceptable on my job. SMH

I have the good fortune of dense breasts. The surgeon is the one who wanted to check out my right side, after left side was confirmed. The day I arrived for a biopsy of my right, the Dr. who was going to do the procedure read my imagining (mammo and MRI) and she felt it may be LCIS and then I was blindsided by being told there was yet another spot they would like to check. I had 2 biopsy's on the right that day. One in the mammo machine, and the other MRI guided. Both came back benign (fibroadenoma), however BS asked to take some tissue out at my surgery to be triple sure, so I had a surgical excision too. It came back LCIS and sclerosing adenosis. That breast is quite behaved now. I trust the AI is helping that breast from doing something stupid! I try not to worry too much, but if the beast wants to show back up someday it will most likely set up in one of my breasts, and at that point, yes--- both will be coming off. I was given the option for BMX, but I was awfully scared of having major surgery and I wasn't quite ready to part with them. I'm much better informed now.