NBCC progress report

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fran-visco/breast-cancer-awareness_b_1772341.html

http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/2020/2012-progress-report.html

http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/assets/pdfs/breast-cancer-deadline-2020.pdf

Pink Coverage is skewed away from metastatic breast cancer

Quote:
The National Breast Cancer Coalition says there are many "myths and misunderstandings" surrounding breast cancer and that the public has been misled into thinking scientists are close to finding a cure. That’s due in part to media coverage, which does not always “reflect the realities of the disease,” the group’s report says.
...
For instance, in an analysis of coverage during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 2011, the report says, many stories focused on young women’s personal triumphs and effective treatments. “The majority of personal accounts were primary, early stage, breast-cancer diagnoses. Often times, a picture was painted of survivors who are disease-free and overcame the disease,” the report says. “Only about 1 in 9 articles portrayed women battling metastatic disease.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/13/the-media-s-pink-ribbon-problem-coverage-is-skewed-study-says.html

NBCC is running a fund raising campaign till 8/31 with 2-1 matching from Joyce Goodman Fund:
http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/homepage.html

Genome associated with tamoxifen resistance

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3286962/

Plus a paper on NF1 breast cancer:
http://www.genetics.org/content/early/2012/07/20/genetics.112.142802.long


Another link to a talk by Dr Topol of Scripps Institute about the barrier to whole genome sequencing.   Signing up is free of charge.   Please check out the comments:
http://boards.medscape.com/forums?128@@.2a342d7d!comment=1

Orphan Drug Designation

Does MBC qualify?

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

A Detective Mystery

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57498490-10391704/how-scientists-stopped-superbug-that-killed-6-by-using-dna-to-track-its-source/

Pubmed: A Love Letter

Dear Pubmed,
I love you so much.   The "Results by year" bar graph on the right is really really cool.   When I make any queries, you always check how many papers you got.   If you have enough data, you will make a bar graph to show me how many papers on published in the most recent decades.   This way, I get a quick gauge on the research interests of thousands of breast cancer researchers, and how they wax and wane.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Insulin%20breast%20cancer
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=triple%20negative%20breast%20cancer

For example, someone tells me to take DIM for breast cancer.   So I asked you:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=DIM%20breast%20cancer

You said: "83 papers total" over the years, 3-4 from 2012, many are talking about other things than DIM.
I said: OK.  I will pass.

Then I asked you:  should I consider metformin for breast cancer?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=metformin%20breast%20cancer
You said: "160 papers total", with 20+ papers from 2012 alone.
So I figure that metformin must be interesting.

Then I asked you:  some patients swore by "oligometastatic breast cancer" and clobbered me for suggesting maybe it's rather uncommon:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=oligometastatic%20breast%20cancer
You said 32 papers over the years, none from 2012
So I say, hmmm.   This doesn't seem a very active field, maybe it reflect the difficulty of clinical trials in this area, maybe it reflects the rarity of this subtype.    

Then I asked:  is HGF an interesting area for understanding?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=HGF%20breast%20cancer

Guess what pubmed says?   Anyway, I suspect that one day you will save my life.    I just wish clinicaltrial.gov is as cool as you.

2007 Overview of Therapy Resistance from MD Anderson

Check out the tables.   Very informative.    Include response rate statistics for various common 1st line 2nd line 3rd line breast cancer therapies, and mechanisms of therapy resistance.   

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6306/

Japanese Engineer: The last Ninja

http://news.yahoo.com/63-old-engineer-japans-last-ninja-053736959.html

Quote:
Many of their traditions were passed on by word of mouth, so we don't know what was altered in the process."

And those skills that have arrived in the 21st century in their entirety are sometimes difficult to verify.

"We can't try out murder or poisons. Even if we can follow the instructions to make a poison, we can't try it out," he said.

So clinical trials for BC cure is difficult?   Try refining the art of ninjutzu!

More quotes:

Kawakami first encountered the secretive world of ninjas at the age of just six, but has only vague memories of first meeting his master, Masazo Ishida, a man who dressed as a Buddhist monk.

"I kept practising without knowing what I was actually doing. It was much later that I realised I was practising ninjutsu."

Haha.   I first encountered BC maybe 10 years ago, and I kept practicing BCutzu without knowing what I was actually doing...

Who wants to be the last breast cancer patient?

In Memory of StitchyPhish

My cancerversary is coming up.   Since the beginning of my BC journey, I have witnessed the passing of maybe 100+ women.   Dear to me with their generous sharing of their lives and courage, and giving me a peek of the terrible devastation of metastatic breast cancer.

StitchyPhish on BCO died a couple of days after my diagnosis and was the first I remembered.  I still read her blog:
http://meganpinkblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/megan-lally-1091980-09012011.html

I'll always remember her.

C Diff: Overuse of antibiotics

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-08-16/deadly-bacteria-hospital-infections/57079514/1

CoolBreeze on BCO is also a wealth of information on this particular hazard.   I learned about this from her blog for the 1st time.

http://www.butdoctorihatepink.com/

Also, fecal transplant is gaining acceptance as a 1st line treatment for C diff, before it used to be 2nd/3rd line treatment because of the ick factor.  Even autologous transplant is possible if you are going to have antibiotics use.   Personally, I'd add fecal transplant into my bucket list...

A bunch of nurses are commenting on c-diff stool smell.   "Rancid meat",
"sweet funky smell".   

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/characteristic-c-diff-32623-page3.html

I also looked up on internet for C-diff diarrhea pictures.     

Poem: State of the Art Cancer

Funny poem by Carol Miele:

bcmets.org/articles/153243

State of the Art Cancer

by Carol Miele

I have ‘state of the art' cancer,
For every question there's an answer.

Individualized chemotherapy? We got it!
Targeted therapy? No prob...we got it!

Want it given through a port?
Or injected in your butt?

We can give your chemo with a pill,
‘Oh....my heart be still!'

Want to join an experimental trial?
Our goal is to go the extra mile!

Our Über modern infusion center has it all,
Your own TV, computer, and even a waterfall!

We guarantee our Oncology Team is first rate,
And their knowledge base and certs are up to date.

Our nurses are so compassionate & caring,
They'll comfort you when treatment's overbearing,

We are a comprehensive cancer center,
Offering ‘state of the art' care to all who enter.

Sleek MRI equipment and ultra cool scanners,
We hired the very best architects and planners.

Rapid turnaround time on results of tests,
And our radiation treatment's the very best.

But most of all, we offer care you can afford,
I was so impressed, I jumped onboard!

Wait! Just one more thing, I have a question,
They nod with uncurbed enthusiasm, no hesitation.

When will there be a cure for my cancer?
Oh! Sorry, for that we have no answer.

True Innovation Or Fake Innovation

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/in-medicine-falling-for-fake-innovation/

 

I kind of agree that some innovations are impressive sounding but increase costs without bringing significant benefit.    BUT:   every breakthrough has humbler beginnings.   Davinci robots is NOT the end of robotic innovation in surgery or other healthcare field.   It's just one of the first application of a nonlinear technology that will one day transform the world.

 

Check out this video of a girl whose life is transformed by robotics, human machine interface and 3-D printing.   One day I may need this technology too:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/260439/a_3dprinted_exoskeleton_made_from_lego_plastic_changes_lives_for_children.html 

Nonlinearity

Recently the stage IV forum on BCO has been a sad place to visit with several active members and young members' passing.   Reality of cancer is not pink and pretty. When I feel the reality weighing on me, I remember 3 things:

1.   Cancer does not grow linearly.  It grows exponentially.   That sucks

2.   Guess another thing that grows nonlinearly?   Computer power and affordability.  

3.   Our knowledge does not grow linearly.   In the last 10 years, MBC death rate (5 year) has been dropping around 1% a year, which comes to about 30%-50% 5 year survival rate currently.  This is bad.   BUT, we must not extrapolate into the next 10 years that 5-year survival rate will be 40%-60%.   It could be better than that, may be worse than that.   We need to harness nonlinear progress in technologies to battle this nonlinear disease called cancer.

This is an article from NEJM, chronicling progress in cancer research.  We do not have a cure, but we will get there.  Sooner or later.   With clinical trials and support for fundamental research and urgency in reforming the process of clinical trials, we will be there sooner rather than later.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1204479

Quote: "At its peak in the early 1980s, the NCI accounted for 23% of the budget of the NIH, yet it supported 53% of the research in molecular biology in the United States. And the results have been explosive"