Lives in a Shoe

Circle

In 2005 I walked the Susan Komen Three-Day.  What an experience that was.  Darn near killed me but I bet George that I would walk every inch of the 60 miles.  It was in memory of my mom Mary Voda Daniels who died of breast cancer; it was in honor of my co-mother-in-law Linda Siegle who was diagnosed the same year I was and who also had a double mastectomy -- and who also has survived.  (She and I were born the same day, same year.  My son married her daughter.)  And it was in gratitude to my oncologist Ben Chue, MD. The Seattle PI interviewed me the following autumn -- entire article is here: 

 http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/health/article/Living-Well-Doctor-s-bold-step-paid-off-for-his-1186197.php#ixzz1YzvG3qyx

During the summer there was advance word about the promising clinical trials for a breast cancer drug called Herceptin.... And rightfully so. Herceptin appears to be a direct and effective match for many women with tumors that churn out too much of a protein called HER2. About 20 percent of breast cancer patients are HER2-related cases....The drug doesn't help every single HER2 patient -- common among medications -- but that didn't stop early buzz about the Herceptin trials in July when Catherine Daniels participated in a three-day, 60-mile walk for breast cancer.

"Everyone was talking about it," said Daniels, 58, a breast cancer survivor. "Every day."

Daniels got a chance to tell her story to fellow walkers. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2000...While browsing the Internet, she found out about Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, known for its integrative medicine approachD

 

Dr. Chue talked to George and me about Herceptin and asked us to consider trying it.  Before I'd met with him I had read the book Her-2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer and sort of understood in a foggy way.  Wasn't sure it was the best thing to do and asked him how this Her-2 thing is measured and he said "A scale of one to three."

I asked, "Where do I fall?"  "Three-plus," he said, "If you were my mother I would strongly encourage you to do this."  So I did.  And I'm alive now.  Don't think it would have this happy an ending without Herceptin because these tumors tend to be "aggressive and resistant to treatment".  As it was I had three tumors and the disease had spread to my lymph nodes.

Fast forward to the present.  My beautiful niece Leigh has done.the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and mentioned Mom and me on her webpage: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk/LosAngeles?px=6205640&pg=personal&fr_id=2060 

I got my credit card ready and was just about to go there and click my donation -- I was closing a news site when I read this about a "Holy Grail" treatment for breast cancer:

The new drug combines an existing drug, Herceptin, which revolutionised breast cancer treatment 10 years ago, and a new anti- cancer treatment. It is the first time two drugs have been used in this way.

My bolding.  Entire article is here: ://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273486

I've learned that many cancer treatments are introduced with a great fanfare (think Interferon) and then quietly fade away.  So we'll see if this one really is the grail or another tin cup.

Meanwhile, Leigh and thousands of other walkers are helping to cure this awful disease, one step at a time.  Thank you so much, Leigh and all of you.  Thank you.

Note for my family below: 

 

Portrait: Ankle with Hardware

Thanks to Madame Curie.

 
 

 

 

Have Cake, Eat it Too -- Still Impossible

USA Today -- The first comprehensive look by neutral experts: President Obama's health care overhaul law will increase the nation's health care tab instead of bringing costs down..Medicare cuts may be unrealistic and unsustainable, driving about 15% of hospitals into the red and "possibly jeopardizing access" to care for seniors.

Well, duh.

Good News/Bad News

Dementia May Lower Cancer Risk.  Eyecatching headline, right?  But maybe it kinda sorta didn't mean that, exactly. 

This effect, however, did not apply to minority populations. In fact, the opposite effect was observed in minority populations—those who started out with cancer at the beginning of the study were more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. However, the sample size of minorities starting off with cancer (29 individuals) was too small for the result to be considered significant.

Overall, the results of this study support previous findings that cancer and brain degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease may share common molecular underpinnings. However, Roe noted in an email to Reuters Health, "Since we found no associations between vascular dementia and cancer, we don't think that cancer is linked to dementia generally."

 

 

Dirty Babies Get Healthier Hearts

That's the headline from New Scientist.  A kid's job is to get down and dirty and work out the immune system.  "If my 2-year-old drops food on the floor, I just let him pick it up and eat it."

Duh.

AFFLUENT, modern babies live in a sanitised world. This has already been blamed for a high incidence of asthma and allergies, but might also up the risk of developing a host of other conditions common in rich countries, such as stroke and heart disease.

According to the "hygiene hypothesis", our immune system evolved to handle a germ-laden world. If we don't encounter many pathogens during infancy, it doesn't learn to keep itself in check, and turns on inflammation - normally a response to infection - in inappropriate situations. This reaction, the hypothesis goes, is responsible for the recent increase in asthma and allergies, both associated with inflammation.

The Solution is a Win-Win...

...and right in front of our pudgy noses.  Bad economic news?  Not to worry.

Americans increasingly obese. 

Peruvian gangs kill, sell human fat for European cosmetics.

 

Peru is a NAFTA participant.  We'll ship them our fat (solving the obesity epidemic); they will sell it to the EU countries; the EU countries will sell the cosmetics back to us.  We'll want to look our best with our new svelte figures, after all.

 

Solves our health and economic problems and lowers Peru's murder rate.  What's not to like?

 

Seasonal Flu Vaccine Boosts Chance of Catching Swine Flu?

Strange -- worth keeping an eye on.  Seems to me that fiddling around with the immune system is less predictable than some would like to think, particularly under intense time pressure.

From the Globe and Mail:

Distributed for peer review last week, the study confounded infectious-disease experts in suggesting that people vaccinated against seasonal flu are twice as likely to catch swine flu.,,

So far, the study's impact is confined to Canada. Researchers in the U.S., Britain and Australia have not reported the same phenomenon. Marie-Paule Kieny, the World Health Organization's director of vaccine research, said last week the Canadian findings were an international anomaly and could constitute a “study bias.”...

Dr. Rubinstein, who has read the study, said it appears sound.

“There are a large number of authors, all of them excellent and credible researchers,” he said. “And the sample size is very large – 12 or 13 million people taken from the central reporting systems in three provinces. The research is solid.”

Read the article here.

Leaked Letter re Swine Flu Vaccine...25 Deaths in America

From the London Daily Mail, full article here:

It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.

The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.

It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

• More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
• 500 cases of GBS were detected.
•  The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
• The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
• The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.