Getting screened for cancer is smart. Yearly mammograms for women older than 40, prostate exams for men older than 50, and skin cancer screenings for just about everyone are just a few of the recommended measures individuals can take to ensure cancer stays away -- or at least is caught in its earliest forms.

But aside from merely submitting to these screenings, there's something we can do to increase our screening smarts. We can stick with the same screening centers and not flip-flop from one location to another.

It's a bad idea to report to a different screening center every year. Being able to compare a current mammogram, for example, with prior images can decrease false alarms by as much as 44 percent. As with much of life, consistency is key. Think about it. When we find that perfect hairstylist, we're sold -- and heartbroken when he or she moves on and we have to start from scratch. A trustworthy car mechanic who knows our car inside and out? Don't dare let him leave town. The most loving child care facility? The search is over, and we pray our kids don't get kicked out. Screening is no different really. So make this your mission: find a good thing and don't stray. Of course, don't linger at locations that make you uncomfortable for any reason. Search until you find happiness. Then stay put.

Source: Woman's Day, May 8, 2007

Human touch with someone you trust and share a strong bond can bring immediate relief from stress, according to University of Virginia neuroscientist Dr. James A. Coan. The findings are based on the study of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans that measured the participant's response to a threatening situation when they were either holding the hand of a spouse, the hand of a stranger, or when they were alone.

"This is the first study of the neurological reactions to human touch in a threatening situation, and the first study to measure how the brain facilitates the health-enhancing properties of close social relationships," stated Dr. Coan.

For this study, the participants were women who expressed a high degree of satisfaction in the relationship with their husband. Holding their husband's hand while experiencing a threatening situation prompted the most dramatic decrease in stress level as reflected by the readings of a brain scan.

Based on previous studies that indicate beloved pets have the affect of lowering blood pressure and reducing stress for their owners, it seems logical that this current research finding will extend to include the close trusted bonds we share with both humans and pets. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that touch facilitates the healing process. This research offers scientific evidence that touch calms during times of stress and adds support to popular belief -- touch has the power to promote better health.

Before 2002, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was believed to prevent many conditions, and doctors routinely prescribed hormone pills. But when a 2002 study found HRT raises the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and other problems, the use of hormones plummeted.

On Thursday, researchers reported that the rate of breast cancer cases in the United States dropped more than seven percent in 2003 -- the year after the landmark study that caused a backlash against hormones. This backlash is considered the leading cause for the now-reported decline in breast cancer cases.

Now, even more women are expected to abandon the pills. And doctors worry that women with severe menopausal symptoms -- who need the treatment -- will deny themselves the benefits hormones can offer.

There are ways to take advantage of the benefits, however, and still minimize the risks. One gynecology group shares the following suggestions.

• Take the lowest dose for the shortest time -- two or three years if possible. Start out small and add more medication if symptoms do not decrease.

• Do not take hormones to try to prevent heart disease -- because they do not prevent it.
  

• Never take estrogen without progestin if you still have a uterus. This raises the risk of uterine cancer.

• Try periodically to cut your dose and wean yourself off.

For those who don't definitively need hormone therapy, it's important to discontinue use. But some women truly do need the treatment and should not abruptly stop their therapy in light of news that is not definitive in itself. As always, consultation with a physician is the best first step.

Previous posts on the topic of HRT and breast cancer are as follows.

• Different perspective on drop in breast cancer cases
• HRT use drops breast cancer rates drop
• Hooray for HRT!?
• HRT and smoking dramatically increases breast cancer risk
• HRT increases breast cancer risks

There may be another explanation for the recently announced decline in breast cancer rates. And it's not nearly as promising as the first explanation may be.

A day after researchers announced that the significant drop in breast cancer cases is primarily due to fewer women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), some experts suggest breast cancer rates are not dropping at all. Just as many women may have breast cancer, they say. They just aren't being screened for it.

"We have been aware for several years that the number of radiologists who specialize in mammography have been decreasing, and that there are places in the United States where women have difficulty getting access to mammography," Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, wrote on the society's blog just after the public announcement.

"If mammography use has reached a peak and is now decreasing, we may actually be diagnosing fewer cancers when they can be most effectively treated, Lichtenfeld said. "If you don't get a mammogram, you don't diagnose a cancer."

The research linking the decline in HRT to the drop in breast cancer came from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and was discussed at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio on Thursday. The research, based on a report by the National Cancer Institute, showed a seven percent drop in new breast cancer cases between July 2002 and August 2003, corresponding with the results of a 2002 Women's Health Initiative study.

With media reports citing HRT as the direct cause of the drop, some worry the public is getting the wrong message -- specifically women still taking hormones or those who have taken them in the past. While women not taking hormones are breathing a sigh of relief, others are in a panic.

Dr. Katherine Sherif, director of the Drexel Center for Women's Health at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, has spoken already with 15 patients worried about this news.

"What I have told them is that three years is too short of a time to measure the effects of a drug on breast cancer," she said. "Cancers take decades to develop, and conversely, withdrawing hormones could not result in a decrease in breast cancer in three years -- it's actually absurdly short." There are also concerns women will experience anxiety about other therapies using estrogen, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The study on HRT and breast cancer may be raising more questions than answers -- which could be a good thing. More questions prompt more investigation, more study, more research. And this will hopefully help us figure out one facet of the mystery of breast cancer.

Previous posts on the topic of HRT and breast cancer are as follows.

• HRT use drops breast cancer rates drop
• Hooray for HRT!?
• HRT and smoking dramatically increases breast cancer risk
• HRT increases breast cancer risks

High grade Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) is the most significant risk factor for prostate cancer. PIN is strongly predictive of adenocarcinoma and if its identified in a biopsy specimen then it warrants repeat biopsies to check for cancer. This preinvasive cancer does not seem to have an impact on the levels of PSA scores.

All doctors can do now is the watch and wait method with those diagnosed with PIN. A preliminary study has shown that Toremifene can decrease the incidence of prostate cancer in men diagnosed with this precancerous condition.

A study was done with 514 men who had been diagnosed with PIN and had no evidence of prostate cancer. They were randomized to daily treatment with Toremifene or placebo for twelve months. The researchers concluded that 6.8% of every 100 men had their prostate cancer prevented with Toremifene.

Having a precancerous condition is very stressful. Its like the sword is just hanging over your head waiting to drop. This medication and its use with PIN to prevent prostate cancer is in its early stages but it is hopeful because at the current time there is no treatment for PIN available.

Every promising drug therapy has a potential dark side. Hycamtin -- topotecan hydrochloride -- a cancer-fighting drug used to treat patients with ovarian and lung cancer, has received FDA approval for treatment of late-stage cervical cancer. When surgery or radiation is not a viable option for women diagnosed with recurrent or incurable cervical cancer, Hycamtin can be added to cisplatin as a combination chemotherapy drug therapy shown to provide life-lengthening benefit.

Combining Hycamtin with cisplatin is not a cure, and in clinical trials showed an additional survival benefit of three months when compared to treatment with cisplatin alone. Who would not choose to live as long as possible, even if you are measuring life in months? However, the combination drug therapy is likely to increase the risk in lowering white cell counts, decreasing blood platelets, inducing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and hair loss. Quantity of life versus quality of life is the dark side of this drug therapy promise. One woman might choose quantity of life, and another woman choose quality of life. There is no wrong or right but when making a choice it needs to be made with eyes wide open.

For more information, there is a Hycamtin website offering information on how the chemotherapy drug is administered and the side effects a woman can expect during treatment. While it is written for ovarian and lung cancer patients, I believe the basic over all information should be the same for cervical cancer patients.

Thanks to Joel Arellano of Autoblog for this news tip!

In woman with fake boobs has real health worries, Busty and bothered wrote to women's medical health expert Dr. Judith Reichman asking if her breast implants will rupture during a mammogram or if there is a possibility that the implants will obscure signs of breast cancer. Dr. Reichman, who is NBC Today show's medical contributor on women's health, responded that both are valid concerns for the over four million women who have had breast augmentation. According the doctor, there were only 41 cases of implant ruptures during mammography reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between June 1992 and October 2002.

As to breast implants obscuring mammography readings, implants can cause a 15 to 50 percent decrease in the mammographically visualized breast tissue and several studies have reported false negative mammograms -- those that missed the cancer -- in 12 to 67 percent of women with breast implants. So, it's a bit of good news and bad news but women with breast implants should not put off having mammograms because of fear that the implants will be damaged or that there is no point in having a mammogram because there is a possibility the implants will obscure the early signs of breast cancer.