Women’s Health Information

That’s a name that strikes fear into the hearts of many in today’s modern world and yet as recently as 50 years ago Mesothelioma was almost completely unknown outside of a small group of medical practitioners. Today it’s a word that is frequently heard on the television news as little people battle big multi-national companies for compensation for the dreadful disease that they now face.

Mesothelioma is also known in some parts of the world as Asbestosis because the disease only comes from exposure to asbestos fibers. It doesn’t have to be prolonged exposure and you aren’t safe from it just because you have never worked in the asbestos industry either.

Just one single fiber is enough to trigger the disease and more and more people who have never been near an asbestos mine or worked near an asbestos processing plant are succumbing to the disease.

Certainly the disease is most prevalent, and almost guaranteed, in anyone who has either worked at an asbestos mine or in a factory where asbestos related items were manufactured. The families of those people are also affected because fibers from the mine or the plant invariably came home on the clothes and in the hair of the workers.

Many wives of asbestos workers have contracted the disease after being exposed to those fibers while washing their husband’s work clothes. Children have been similarly exposed and many years later begin to display the symptoms in of Mesothelioma and subsequently succumb to the disease.

But the disease is not just confined to the workers and families of workers in asbestos mines and associated plants. Mesothelioma has appeared in growing numbers in the general population. That is because for many years asbestos was a commonly used ingredient in a variety of building materials and it was also used in insulation.

Fibro – a common building material used in homes in the period from 1940 through to the late 1960’s and beyond – contained a high level of asbestos. Fibro was used for roofs and walls in houses and public buildings. Many schools here in Queensland, where I live, have contaminated fibro roofing and huge numbers of houses were built around the world with that same material.

Asbestos was also used in material used for insulation. That insulation went into wall cavities in houses, around steam lines in naval ships and even in lagging around the boilers on steam locomotives.

Initially many of the places that it was used were quite safe. The building material was stable and unless it was broken the asbestos remained undisturbed. However, age has led to a deterioration in the fibro and the insulation and as the material has deteriorated asbestos fibers have been disturbed and are found in the air.

In other instances house renovations have uncovered the insulation that has contained asbestos and that has released the fibers into the air.

There is a case in record here in Queensland of a teacher who contracted Mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos particles and fibers as they settled on the school desks from a deteriorating fibro roof. She ultimately passed away but now all the children that she taught are facing a very uncertain future.

The sad fact is that today, and for many years into the future, the world is going to be living with Mesothelioma and it is going to begin appearing in people who have perhaps never even known that they had come into contact with asbestos or asbestos related products.

Stuart Livesey

Mesothelioma is a malignant form of cancer that develops in the mesothelium and it strikes over 3,000 people every year. The mesothelium is the protective lining that covers most of the body’s internal organs and this form of cancer attacks that lining.

The most common points of attack for this form of cancer are the outer linings of the lungs and chest cavity however it may occur in other areas of the body including the lining of the abdominal cavity and the sac around the heart.

And the attack comes from the asbestos particles or fibers that are inhaled by mine workers or process workers who work in the asbestos industry. Those same particles and fibers are also inhaled by anyone who comes into contact with asbestos that is used in insulation or building materials.

While asbestos is no longer mined except under the most stringent safety conditions what has already been mined and processed is dispersed widely in the community in the forms mentioned above. Unfortunately as the products that contain that asbestos deteriorate with age the fibers that cause Mesothelioma are released into the air that many of us are breathing.

Those particles and fibers can be taken into our lungs where they lodge and then lay dormant for years. Sometimes that dormant period can last for decades but almost invariably there comes a time when the disease awakes and begins to attack the host body.

Mesothelioma can start from just once particle and once it starts it quickly spreads, usually through the lungs. The symptoms that most sufferers display are not readily recognizable as Mesothelioma because they are common to a number of other disorders including heart problems because sometimes sufferers present with shortness of breath and chest pains.

Other symptoms can be mistaken for viral pneumonia, a persistent cough and some less common symptoms include fever, night sweats and weight loss.

In around 60% of people suffering from this form of cancer it is the right lung that is affected first. Why that should be the case is not and even less clear is the fact that around only 5% of sufferers present with the cancer showing in both lungs.

People suffering from the peritoneal form of Mesothelioma often display symptoms that include swelling of the abdomen, nausea, weight loss and bowel obstruction.

Up until now the only want of reaching an initial diagnosis was by having a chest xray and sometimes a CT scan or ultrasound may also be used however early detection may now be possible thanks to a new test developed in Australia.

This new text measures blood concentrations of certain proteins produced by the Mesothelioma cells. In clinical research the new tests and a very level of accuracy and it may be that the blood test will show conclusively whether or not a patient as Mesothelioma.

Stuart Livesey

It’s interesting how sometimes people forget how important the recovery process is when women have a mastectomy. What happened to the bed side care, the time when support came around at a time when women needed it?

I remember being in a hospital bed next to a woman who had just had a mastectomy and the support she received was incredible. Support people were by her bedside offering her the support that she needed at a time when the removal of a breast or breasts is a sudden change in lifestyle. A woman’s life can be turned upside down, not just because she has cancer but because suddenly she doesn’t look like the person she once was…

The bedside support, the after care and not having to rush through a process when the after surgery care should be there. Women shouldn’t be shoved through the door like a machine, going in one side and out the other just to keep those hospital beds free.

The healing process should be allowed to happen without a woman having to go home with tubes still attached and while they are still groggy from the anesthetic. This is a very dangerous practice because anything could happen…

Why put the woman’s health further at risk when she could have a minimum of 48 hours to start the recovery process…

A friend sent me this in an email and asked me to send it out to as many people as I could. But instead I have chosen to put it up on Women’s Health Information because I believe that all women should have a say in how they want to be treated if they were in the same situation…

Mastectomy Bill in Congress

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important…please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you are reading this it’s because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go and vote on this issue and send the link on to others you know who will do the same.

There’s a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It’s about eliminating the “drive-through mastectomy” where women are forced to go home hours after surgery against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on. PLEASE!

Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

This takes about 2 seconds. Please pass this link on to your friends and family.

Thanks

Sheryl Crow undergoes breast cancer surgery

Grammy winner Sheryl Crow has announced she has had surgery for breast cancer and has postponed a North American tour scheduled to start next month.

The singer’s website says she underwent successful surgery on Wednesday and described the procedure as “minimally invasive”.

Doctors said her prognosis was excellent and she would have radiation treatments as a precaution.

“I am joining the more than 200,000 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year,” Crow said.

“We are a testament to the importance of early detection and new treatments … I am inspired by the brave women who have faced this battle before me and grateful for the support of family and friends.”

Last month, Crow, 44, and Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France cycling race and a survivor of testicular, brain and lung cancer, announced they were breaking up, after a two-year relationship.

Crow is calling off her March-April tour but intends to reschedule as much of it as possible.

The Missouri native was a school teacher before starting a singing career that led to a job as a backup singer to Michael Jackson and later to nine Grammy Awards.

Her hits include All I Wanna Do, Everyday Is a Winding Road, If It Makes You Happy and Soak Up the Sun.

- Reuters

Breast cancer survivors fatigued: study

Approximately one-third of women treated for breast cancer experience fatigue for the first five years after treatment.

For about two thirds of those, the fatigue will persist, the results of a long-term study indicate.

“The message is that most women are going to be doing very well but for those who have persistent fatigue, we think there is an underlying biological syndrome,” co-investigator Dr Patricia A Ganz told Reuters Health.

Dr Ganz from the University of California and her associates previously reported that 35 per cent of 1,957 women who were diagnosed with early-stage breast carcinoma between 1994 and 1997 experienced fatigue for the first five years after treatment.

For their current study, published online in the medical journal Cancer, they recontacted the same women in 1998 who were at least five years post-diagnosis.

A total of 763 women who remained cancer-free completed the second set of questionnaires.

The results showed that 34 per cent were classified as being fatigued.

Among those classified as fatigued during the first survey, 63 per cent continued to score in the fatigued range.

Further analyses indicated that depression, pain and heart disease were significant long-term predictors of fatigue, as was treatment with combined radiation and chemotherapy compared with either treatment alone.

“When we intensively studied the biological mechanisms of fatigue in smaller groups, we found that women with persistent fatigue have abnormalities in markers of inflammation,” Dr Ganz said.

“So it appears they may have some underlying predisposing inflammatory condition causing the fatigue that is triggered or exacerbated when they develop cancer.

“Like any other subjective complaint we have to believe the patient when she complains of fatigue. Then look for medical problems that may be amenable to intervention, such as anaemia or a thyroid condition. If they are on a blood pressure medication, try to put them on meds that don’t contribute to fatigue.

“And clearly a careful assessment of depression and management of pain are very important.

“If we can get that under control their energy may improve.”

- Reuters

Ovarian cancer therapy boosts survival
Leigh Dayton, Science writer
January 06, 2006

THE prestigious US National Cancer Institute has backed research showing that a 40-year-old method of treating deadly ovarian cancer increases survival by more than a year.

The NCI’s endorsement of the technique - which delivers cancer-killing drugs directly to the abdomen - came yesterday as the seven-year study of 429 women with advanced ovarian cancer was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“The National Cancer Institute wants to make certain the results of clinical research are rapidly disseminated to healthcare providers and patients, to ensure life-enhancing cancer treatments are widely available,” said NCI director Andrew von Eschenbach.

The reason for haste is that ovarian cancer is the most deadly of all women’s cancers, with only 45per cent surviving five years after being diagnosed. This is because there are no symptoms until the cancer has spread and no reliable screening tests.

But a team of US investigators - led by oncologist Deborah Armstrong of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Centre in Baltimore, Maryland - found women receiving the treatment, called intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, lived an average of 65.6 months after surgery, 25per cent longer than those receiving standard drug therapy.

“There’s been a prejudice against IP therapy in ovarian cancer because it’s an old idea, it requires skill and experience … and it’s more complicated than (standard) chemotherapy,” Associate Professor Armstrong said.

The side-effects of IP therapy, including suppressed blood counts and neurological problems, are initially worse than those for standard chemotherapy.

But Associate Professor Armstrong’s team found that a year after treatment, patients who had received IP chemotherapy were on a par with those receiving conventional chemotherapy.

Specialist Peter Grant, of Melbourne’s Mercy Hospital for Women, welcomed the findings.

“This is very good news,” said Dr Grant, an expert with the National Breast Cancer Centre’s ovarian cancer program.

“Within the clinical setting in Australia this treatment will become a standard treatment offered to many women.”

The advantage of IP therapy is that it bathes the abdomen with a high concentration of potent anti-cancer medication, killing any cancer cells lingering after the tumour has been removed. Conventional chemotherapy works outside the abdomen.

Dr Grant said the new data confirmed the belief of many cancer specialists that a combination of surgery followed by IP and conventional chemotherapy would help most women with advanced ovarian cancer.

Indigenous women more susceptible to cervical cancer

A new report says Indigenous women are five times more likely to develop cervical cancer than other women in Queensland.

The information comes from a national cervical screening program that also shows early detections and treatments are reducing the number of new cases.

The program has shown a sharp decline in new cases of the cancer over the past decade.

Susan Greenbank from the Queensland Cancer Fund says there needs to be more awareness about the importance of screenings in Indigenous communities.

“Indigenous women may not know enough about pap tests or certainly not enough as non-Indigenous women and that may then lead to feelings of shame in regards to not knowing about the tests,” she said.

She says Indigenous women face more barriers to regular participation in screenings.

“They’re often mobile, so they may not be able to be followed up via telephone and then that makes following them up for treatment quite difficult, and similarly if they do require treatment that often would mean travelling to a regional centre, so, for example, travelling to Cairns, which is then taking the woman away from the community,” she said.

ABC News Online (AEDT)

Breast cancer takes the lives of many women world wide every year. Some funding is provided by the various health departments but at the same time some women miss out on important checks because they cannot afford the fees that come with a mammogram and in some cases an ultra scan.

How much should one place on someone’s lives. Of course not all health issues can be funded for research but surely funding research into a program that will help save lives should be of high importance. But unfortunately it doesn’t sit high on some agendas…

Perhaps some of the ministers should take pay cuts or donate their paid travel allowances to help fund some of the research programs that will save lives….

Hereditary breast cancer research funding ‘inadequate’

A world expert on hereditary breast cancer has called on the Federal Government to provide a multi-million-dollar funding boost for research and screening.

Hereditary factors account for up to 10 per cent of all breast cancer cases, and the disease often kills those in normally healthy younger age groups.

American Professor Mary-Claire King says there is grossly inadequate funding to address the problem of hereditary breast cancer and no national program for genetic testing.

“Inherited breast cancer hits particularly young women, the women that we lose to this disease, that we needn’t lose, are young professional women, are women who have decades and decades of productive life ahead of them,” she said.

ABC News Website 23rd November 2005

from the ABC News Website

Scientists optimistic about new cervical cancer treatment

Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) have found a successful treatment for cervical cancer.

Trials on animals have proven successful and researchers are optimistic the treatment could be used on humans.

A cancer biologist at the university, Dr Nigel McMillan, says the treatment, called gene silencing, kills cancerous cells caused by the human papilloma virus.

“It inserts a couple of genes in the cells of people that are called cancer-causing genes and using gene silencing what we’re able to do, is turn those genes off and what happens is the cancer just curls over and dies,” he said.