What is Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer is one of the leading killers among all the cancers of women. But if diagnosed early and treated appropriately you can lead a perfectly normal life.

Breast cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the breast. It is considered a heterogeneous disease—differing by individual, age group, and even the kinds of cells within the tumors themselves. Obviously no woman wants to receive this diagnosis, but hearing the words “breast cancer” doesn’t always mean an end. It can be the beginning of learning how to fight, getting the facts, and finding hope.

Women in the United States get breast cancer more than any other type of cancer except for skin cancer. It is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in women.

Each year it is estimated that nearly 200,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die. Approximately 1,700 men will also be diagnosed with breast cancer and 450 will die each year. The evaluation of men with breast masses is similar to that in women, including mammography.

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More resources on Breast Cancer:

http://www.cancer.gov/

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Are you suffering from Sleep apnea? Sleep Apnea Treatment Might Boost Men's Sex Lives

WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- In younger men, sleep apnea and impotence often go hand in hand. But a small study finds that treating the sleep disorder with a mechanical device can jump-start a guy's sex life.

Erectile dysfunction resolved in 17 of 42 men who used machines that maintain air flow throughout the night. And even those without sexual dysfunction who used the CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) devices reported a boost in sexual performance, the study found.

While earlier studies have produced similar results, this one is especially strong, said Dr. Steven Park, an ear, nose and throat physician and sleep medicine specialist familiar with the new findings.

The study "has huge implications," said Park, of Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "If you snore or you're tired and you're having intimacy issues, consider getting tested for obstructive sleep apnea," he said.

Sleep apnea treatments have revitalized his male patients, Park noted. "In my practice, one of the most common comments is that they're having erections again upon wakening in the morning," he said.
"Bed partners report improved relations," Park added.

The National Sleep Foundation estimates that 18 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, but 90 percent may not know it.

People with sleep apnea subconsciously awaken many times a night -- even dozens of times an hour -- because their airways close, disrupting their breathing. Sleep apnea sufferers often snore heavily and are tired during the day.

Erectile dysfunction is common among men with sleep apnea, said Park, author of the book Sleep, Interrupted: A physician reveals the #1 reason why so many of us are sick and tired.

"Having multiple breathing pauses at night causes a massive stress response, increasing your fight-or-flight response, and reproductive function is your last priority when you're being chased by a tiger or in even fighting off an attack," Park said.

"Also, arousal and erection are activated by the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls digestion and reproduction, so too much stress will lessen these functions," he explained.

In the new study, researchers at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., followed 92 men, average age 46, who began using CPAP machines after being diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. While sleeping, patients wear masks connected to machines that send pressurized air into the throat to keep the airway open throughout the night.

The average participant was overweight. Forty-six percent reported erectile dysfunction, and 27 percent said they had diminished libido.

After six months, the researchers found that sexual function and satisfaction improved in the CPAP device users, and erectile dysfunction vanished in 41 percent of those who'd had erection issues.
Joyce Walsleben, a sleep medicine specialist and associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, said the devices probably boost energy by improving sleep.

"It may well have to do with increased oxygen and the production of hormones and other neurotransmitters being reset," Walsleben said.

CPAP machines aren't for everyone. They're expensive -- prices range from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000 -- and some sleep apnea patients can't tolerate them. However, other treatments, such as surgery, exist for sleep apnea.

As for whether wearing a mask-and-hose getup ruins the mood in bed, Walsleben had this to say: "I can tell you that from people I know with the device, happy bed partners are much more interested in sex -- before or after sleep -- than those who are fighting over snoring or sleeping in separate rooms."

The study -- scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting in Boston -- doesn't prove that CPAP will boost a man's performance, or resolve sexual dysfunction. It merely shows an association between apnea treatment and a happier sex life.
Treating sleep apnea often improves other risks associated with the sleep disorder, including high blood pressure.

Data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Birth Control That Uses Combined Hormones Raises Heart Risk: Study

WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Sweeping new research comparing various forms of hormonal contraception -- including birth control pills, vaginal rings and skin patches -- suggests that the risk for heart attacks and strokes is twice as high among users of combined estrogen-progestin versions.

These include brands such as Yasmin and Yaz pills, the NuvaRing vaginal ring and Ortho Evra patches. The overall odds of suffering such debilitating effects, however, are still quite low.

Analyzing 15 years of observational data from more than 1.6 million women aged 15 to 49, Danish scientists found that those taking low-dose estrogen birth control pills combined with various progestins suffered heart attacks and strokes between 1.5 and 2 times more often than women not using hormonal contraception. The risks were between 2.5 and 3 times higher among users of vaginal rings and transdermal patches compared to non-users.

"The first point to take home is that [clotting] complications increase dramatically with increasing age," said lead author Dr. Ojvind Lidegaard, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Rigshospitalet, a state-run hospital in Copenhagen. "A doubled risk for thrombotic stroke is not very serious when you are 20 years old, because your risk at baseline is very low. On the other hand, when you are 35 years old or older, the risk is no longer that low, and you should be more careful with choosing those products with the lowest risk of thrombotic complications."

The study is scheduled to be published June 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The link between combined estrogen-progestin oral contraceptives and blood clots occurring in either veins or arteries has been studied continually since the formulations were marketed in the 1960s, with estrogen doses lowered in many products in response to research showing increased vascular risks.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in April that birth control pills containing drospirenone -- a man-made version of the hormone progesterone included in products such as Bayer's Yaz or Yasmin -- would require updated labels since these contraceptives may be linked to a higher risk of blood clots. That change pinpointed risks associated with blood clots in veins, however, while the new Danish study focuses on clot risks in arteries.

"Pills are still very beneficial. I wouldn't want a study like this ... to tell us these are dangerous drugs," said Dr. Kathleen Hoeger, chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and director of the Strong Fertility Center at the University of Rochester, in New York. "The drugs have risks, and those risks are really well-defined. This data gives doctors a lot of confidence to be able to offer advice."
The study encompasses data from the entire population of Danish women of childbearing age, and was 10 times as large as a similar study in the United States that also assessed the comparative risks of arterial clots among hormonal contraceptive users, said Hoeger, who served on the FDA advisory panel that reviewed Yaz and Yasmin.

Significantly higher rates of heart attack and stroke, which result from clots in arteries, were recorded among women with diabetes and high blood pressure and among those over age 35. The relative odds of suffering a heart attack doubled among those aged 40 to 44 compared to those aged 35 to 39, and increased by an additional one-third thereafter.

Dr. Diana Petitti, a professor of biomedical informatics at Arizona State University in Tempe, said she was struck by the finding that different formulations of progestin didn't dramatically affect the safety profiles of the various hormonal contraceptives studied.

"From the standpoint of arterial vascular disease, the combined [formulations] are essentially equivalent," said Petitti, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "Decision-making should focus more on effectiveness and adherence and not on miniscule differences in the potential for vascular disease. All of the current products on the market are safe enough."

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Human Breast Milk May Block HIV, Mouse Study Finds

THURSDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- Human breast milk seems to kill HIV and block its oral (through the mouth) transmission, according to a new study conducted in mice.

The findings suggest that it may be possible to isolate the compounds in breast milk that destroy HIV and use these to combat the virus that causes AIDS, the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine researchers said.

More than 15 percent of new HIV infections occur among children. Left untreated, only 65 percent of infected babies survive until their first birthday, and less than 50 percent reach the age of 2, the study authors pointed out in a news release from the University of North Carolina Health Care.
While breast-feeding by HIV-infected mothers is believed to cause a large number of HIV infections in infants, most breast-fed infants do not become infected, despite prolonged and repeated exposure to the virus, researchers have found.

In order to investigate this contradiction, the UNC researchers used humanized mice, which have a fully functioning human immune system and can be infected with HIV in the same manner as humans.
The mice did not become infected when given HIV in whole breast milk from women without HIV, according to the report published June 14 in the online journal PLoS Pathogens.

"This study provides significant insight into the amazing ability of breast milk to destroy HIV and prevent its transmission," senior author J. Victor Garcia, a professor of medicine in the UNC Center for Infectious Diseases and the UNC Center for AIDS Research, said in the news release.

The research could lead to new ways to prevent HIV transmission, the study authors suggested.
"No child should ever be infected with HIV because it is breast-fed. Breast-feeding provides critical nutrition and protection from other infections, especially where clean water for infant formula is scarce," Garcia said. "Understanding how HIV is transmitted to infants and children despite the protective effects of milk will help us close this important door to the spread of AIDS."

It is important to note that research conducted on animals does not necessarily produce the same results in humans.

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Revealed: Secret of HIV's natural born killers

This article gives glimpses as to why some people might be resistant to Infection with HIV. Check it out.

Scientists on Sunday said they had found a key piece in the puzzle as to why a tiny minority of individuals infected with HIV have a natural ability to fight off the deadly AIDS virus.

In a study they said holds promise for an HIV vaccine, researchers from four countries reported the secret lies not in the number of infection-killing cells a person has, but in how well they work.

Only about one person in 300 has the ability to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) without drugs, using a strain of "killer" cells called cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cells, previous research has found.

Taking that discovery further, scientists from the United States, Canada, Japan and Germany reported that the strain has molecules called receptors that are better able to identify HIV-infected white blood cells for attack.

Until now, it was well known that people with HIV "have tonnes of these killer cells," Bruce Walker, an infectious diseases expert at the Ragon Institute in Massachusetts, told AFP.

"We have been scratching our heads since then, asking how, with so many killer cells around, people are getting AIDS. It turns out there is a special quality that makes them (some cells) better at killing."
The study looked at 10 infected people, of whom five took antiretroviral drugs to keep HIV under control while five were so-called elite controllers who remained naturally healthy.

HIV kills a type of white blood cell called CD4, leaving people with AIDS wide open to other, opportunistic and potentially deadly infections.

"What we found was that the way the killer cells are able to see infected cells and engage them was different," said Walker.

"It is not just that you need a killer cell, what you need is a killer cell with a (T cell) receptor that is particularly good at recognising the infected cell. This gives us a way to understand what it is that makes a really good killer cell."

Walker said attempts at creating vaccines had so far failed because the T cell receptors they generated were not the efficient type.

But while the research has showed scientists how to find and measure the good cells, they still do not yet know how to generate them.

"The next step is to determine what it is about those receptors that is endowing them with that ability," said Walker.

"HIV has revealed another one of its secrets and that is how the body is able to effectively control the virus in certain individuals.

"Each secret that HIV reveals is putting us in a better position to ultimately make a vaccine to control the virus."

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