The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study that stated -- a sharp decline in the use of premenopausal hormones was followed by a drop in the rate of breast cancer.

In the recent past, large clinical trials were conducted as part of the Women's Health Initiative that raised concerns about the health risks from hormonal therapies to manage menopausal symptoms. This report led many to stop using the drugs.

Since those reports that were published in 2002, the sharp decline in hormonal drugs has also seen a decline in breast cancer cases. They are not sure if this is the only reason that breast cancer rates have dropped.

The researchers however think the results of the trial provide additional evidence that recent declines in breast cancer incidence may be due in part to a decline in the use of postmenopausal hormones.

I'm always skeptical about the connection between certain foods and cancer. There's just so much back and forth -- the lycopene found in tomatoes prevents cancer and then it doesn't, for example -- that I don't base any life decisions solely on so-called cancer prevention foods. I simply do what is best for my health. If it happens to keep cancer at bay, then I consider it a bonus.

I eat fruits and vegetables because I know they're good for me. It was nice, while it lasted, to think I was also cutting my risk of cancer recurrence but when it comes down to it, fruits and veggies are better than sweets and candies and junky carbohydrates. So they'll remain a staple in my life -- even though a large, seven-year study published in today's Journal of American Medical Association dashes all hopes that a diet low in fat and jam-packed with fruits and vegetables prevents the return of breast cancer.

Five daily servings of fruits and veggies are recommended in the United States. This is more than most Americans get yet still doesn't make a difference for those trying to minimize their chances of breast cancer recurrence.

Breast cancer drug Herceptin has been approved in Europe for use with hormonal therapy for postmenopausal patients with HER2 and hormone receptor positive metastatic disease.

Herceptin, made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, is already approved in Europe for early and metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.

This new approval is based on data from an international late stage clinical trial showing the combination of Herceptin with hormonal therapy doubled the median progression-free survival time.

In the news there has been a lot of questioning whether or not it is wise for someone diagnosed with cancer, and needs therapy or treatments to control their cancer, should still work or carry on with their life the way it was before cancer entered into their lives.

Its a good question -- but all cancer survivors or patients must make this decision themselves and should not be judged either way. Treatments can be physically mild or debilitating and everywhere in between.

I know women who are walking in Elizabeth Edward's shoes and have metastatic breast cancer. These women that I know might not be blazing the campaign trail but they are still keepin-on- keepin-on with life like it was before their breast cancer returned. They still get up and go to work, do the laundry, feed their children, all the normal things that you and I do everyday. Not to say that days can't be really tough, emotionally and physically. But I see women who are living with the disease -- really living and not giving up any of their dreams.

I can't really speak for women with metastatic disease, I can only talk about what I see, because I am not walking in their shoes and don't completely understand what it is like living with recurrent breast cancer.

Recurrent breast cancer can mean being on some kind of cancer treatment for the rest of your life, it can mean long times of remission or no evidence of disease.

Can it mean Elizabeth Edwards being first lady with metastatic breast disease? I think so.

Hormonal therapy for prostate cancer can cause many side effects, one being bone loss. The goal of the hormonal therapy is to reduce the levels of the male hormones, called androgens, in the body. The main androgen is testosterone. Androgens can stimulate prostate cells to grow and lowering the levels often makes prostate cancer cells shrink or grow more slowly.

The Annals of Internal Medicine published an article that says Fosamax (alendronate) can prevent and even reverse bone loss associated with hormonal treatment for prostate cancer.

A trial was conducted that showed after one year bone density had increased among patients treated with Fosamax but had decreased among patients who received a placebo.

If you are receiving hormonal treatment for prostate cancer ask your doctor about a bisphosphonate, like Fosamax to control bone loss.

A liquid form of the hormonal therapy Tamoxifen is now available for women who have difficultly swallowing pills.

Soltamox, the brand name for liquid Tamoxifen, was approved by the FDA in October. Some women develop dysphagia, difficultly or painful swallowing, during or after chemotherapy and radiation treatments. These women might cut or crush up their pills in order to be able to swallow them. This can impact how the body absorbs the medication and the overall effectiveness of Tamoxifen.

Some women skip doses or avoid taking the pills all together. The new delivery method for Tamoxifen may help you if you suffer from dysphagia and your doctor recommends that you take hormonal therapy.

The medication is sugar free, clear and colorless. It tastes and smells like licorice and aniseed. Liquid and pill form Tamoxifen have the same side effects.

Zometa can help prevent bone loss in premenopausal breast cancer patients says a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Young women that have estrogen receptor positive breast cancer can be treated with hormonal therapy. Some of these treatments can cause the loss of bone density. Treatment with drugs called bisphosphonates may be able to prevent this bone loss.

Zometa, a bisphosphonate, was studied to evaluate two different approaches to hormonal therapy. The patients received either Zoladex plus Tamoxifen or Zoladex plus the aromatase inhibitor, Arimidex. Half the women were treated with Zometa.

Women who did not receive the Zometa during hormonal therapy experienced significant loss of bone mineral density. Bone loss was worse for women treated with Zoladex and Arimidex than for women treated with Zoladex plus Tamoxifen. The women who did receive Zometa along with hormonal therapy had stable bone mineral density.

Bisphosphonates, the researcher concluded, should be considered for patients at risk of bone loss due to hormonal therapy.

Previous posts on the topic of bisphosphonates and Zometa:

Halting the spread of breast cancer to the bone

Prostate cancer and bone loss

Novartis cancer drug may cause jaw damage

Breast Cancer: Pain control improved for bone metastasis

Hormonal therapy is one of the many treatment options for prostate cancer. It is given to lower testosterone levels or block the effects of testosterone, which can stimulate the growth of hormone-dependent types of prostate cancer.

Hormonal therapy can have side effects and one of these can be bone loss. According to an article recently published in the Journal of Urology, Zometa (zoledronic acid) appears to reduce bone loss caused by hormone therapy among patients with prostate cancer that has not metastasized.

A clinical study was conducted to further evaluate Zometa among men with prostate cancer. The study included 120 men who have been treated with hormone therapy in the past twelve months. Indications of bone loss were reduced among patients treated with Zometa but were increased among patients receiving the placebo. The researchers suggest that measuring of bone density before therapy begins may help physicians more appropriately identify patients who should receive immediate therapy with Zometa.

If we made no further progress in breast cancer research from this day on, the number of women dying from breast cancer five years from now would still drop substantially because we've progressed so much over the past few years, says MD Eric Winer in the October 2006 issue of Oprah magazine. Winer, director of the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, is right. There has been a lot of progress. Breast cancer research is on a roll. And here are seven reasons why.

Breast density has something to do with breast cancer. This is not really news. It's clear there is some kind of link, some kind of relationship, some kind of risk related to breast density for both pre- and post-menopausal women. It's just not clear how exactly breast density -- how much fat tissue fills the breast compared to other tissue -- contributes to breast cancer risk. But once it is clear, medical professionals will have a whole new arsenal of power in the fight against this deadly disease.

Cancer News in Context, a regular series of podcast commentaries produced by the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, highlights two recent studies that add weight to the fact that breast density is an important tool in breast cancer prediction and identifies two areas that with futher study might help determine why breasts that are very dense are associated with higher risks for breast cancer -- and why density may be as important a factor as age in determining risk.

Currently, mammograms are the chosen method for measuring breast density. But measurement is not required, and there are no national standards for how to measure. Once federal groups issue requirements and direction on how to classify density, women will receive more accurate assessments of their personal risk.

There is also speculation that altering breast density through hormonal therapy may lower risk. Perhaps genetics are the strongest indicator of risk, making short-term solutions ineffective, but perhaps certain interventions can override genetics, helping women protect themselves from breast cancer.

There are many issues that must be ironed out before we really understand how breast density affects breast cancer. There is no doubt that density, when added to other risk factors, will surely help improve the accuracy of prediction. It's one tool, among many, that is poised to open all sorts of doors.

Bicalutamide (Casodex) is an antiandrogen or hormonal therapy. Daily treatment with bicalutamide is shown to cut the risk of progression of prostate cancer by 44 percent. It can also reduce the overall risk of death by 35 percent.

The study was done on 1370 patients who were randomized to receive either radiation and a placebo or radiation and 150mg once a day tablet bicalutamide.

The findings showed that patients with locally advanced prostate cancer receiving the bicalutamide faired better than those with the placebo. This may be a more suitable treatment instead of castration therapies which can adversely affect the patients quality of life.

The authors say that bicalutamide "has additional quality of life benefits relative to castration in terms of maintaining sexual interest, physical ability, and bone mineral density".

Hormonal Therapies: Making Decisions and Quality of Life After Breast Cancer is the next teleconference hosted by Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC). Get the latest treatment strategies and learn about quality of life issues surrounding hormonal therapy during a free teleconference from 12 p.m to 1:30 p.m on Tuesday, September 26th.

Speaker Ruth Oratz, MD, FACP, associate professor of clinical medicine at the New York University School of Medicine will help you understand how hormonal therapy works and who should consider treatment. You can learn about aromatase inhibitors in treating breast cancer in postmenopausal women, the use of tamoxifen for premenopausal women and how to maintain bone health.

After the presentation, Dr. Oratz will invite you to participate in a 45 minute question and answer session. Register for the teleconference here.

Prostate cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes is more likely to be controlled if radiation is given along with hormonal therapy. A study was done and published in the Journal of Urology. The study showed that among the prostate cancer patients that had initially received hormonal therapy faired better than those that didn't use hormonal therapy along with or before radiation.

It is important to discuss adjuvant hormonal therapy with your doctor if you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. If hormonal therapy given right after diagnoses gives a better benefit than just radiation alone and causes less distant recurrences then I would go for it.

An online conference called Thinking and Memory Challenges was held on August 15, 2006. You can read the Ask the Expert transcript on breastcancer.org.

I call it chemo brain. I can't remember anyone's name. As soon as they tell me I forget. I think it's mostly because when I'm being introduced I'm so worried about remembering my own name that I don't pay attention when they tell me theirs!

This transcript on memory challenges gives us insight on what might be causing our memory problems after cancer treatment. Is the memory loss caused by chemotherapy or maybe hormonal changes or even stress and anxiety?

This online conference explains what might be the causes of memory loss and tips to get your memory back on track.

I have heard the term chemobrain many times -- even here at The Cancer Blog when Dalene wrote about it. And I've started using the terminology myself -- to explain my new-found odd behavior. Like when I put a carton of ice cream in the refrigerator with no recollection of it. And when I took a cap off a pen, couldn't find it, and discovered it on top of an egg carton in the refrigerator. I don't think this is a refrigerator theme -- just a coincidence -- because I've also lost a clipboard at work, forgotten to hand a guest her glass of water immediately after I prepared it, lost library books and movies, and failed to remember responsibilities time and time again. This may seem like minor forgetfulness -- this is what my oncologist believes may be at work -- but for me, this is odd. I have always had a good memory, have always delivered on my promises, and have never felt as scattered as I do now. So I call it chemobrain -- a good excuse, I figure -- and am now trying to determine what exactly this word means.

My oncologist tells me he doesn't really like this term. He thinks it puts a negative spin on regular functioning. He believes those of us who have experienced chemotherapy look more closely at our post-chemo behavior and may interpret quirky stuff as more serious than it is. It probably existed before chemotherapy, he says. But now, we are more sensitive to it and find chemotherapy a good explanation. He may be right. But for me, something in my head has definitely been altered.

One patient advocate for Hurricane Voices: A Breast Cancer Foundation believes that something doesn't have to be scientifically proven to exist. And while chemobrain may not be completely proven, there are still studies that support its existence -- which manifests itself through aging-type memory problems, forgetfulness, distraction, and loss of the ability to calculate quickly. Some studies show that 20 to 30 percent of women who undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer, and some who receive similar treatment for lymphoma, score lower than average on mental function tests for as long as 10 years after chemotherapy. ''There's enough data now to at least know it's a real effect,'' said Dr. Ian F. Tannock, a psychiatrist who has studied this issue at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. Some suggest that typical aging may be at fault -- and for premenopausal women who may be rushed into menopause, this effect may be due to hormonal issues. Regardless, it seems to stem from chemotherapy -- somehow. And somehow, this topic needs more attention, more research, and maybe a more positive name.