Welcome - we've grown the site a lot in recent months
Feel free to browse around - or use the search box below to search the site for specific breast cancer information
We've also added these breast cancer videos by popular demand. Click on the image to make the video play. Take a look. Let us know what you think of them:
3rd time around.
Well, I'm fast approaching my third FEC chemo treatment. Slightly apprehensive as I've heard of the accumulative effect of chemo and as I've been feeling great I really dread the thought of that being compromised.
Also slightly worried about my poor old
veins with epirubicin. My veins in my left arm feel bruised and pretty uncomfortable because of the epirubicin being pumped in and I'm kind of suspicious there might be an accumulative effect here as well - lets hope not!
My two eldest children are taking me for my drip-drip this week as poor Gordon has run out of holidays.
Ally(19) and Amy(17) are very interested to see what goes on. I guess like most people they thought the whole chemotherapy treatment was very scary involving beds and sick buckets. When I explained what really happens they looked very unimpressed-what no drama? Just you and a drip stand? How dull. If only they knew!!
One of the nice side effects of chemo I was promised, was my periods stopping-well they lied! I've had two now and really wish they would stop. I'm considering asking for total hysterectomy when I have my left mastectomy next year. Get rid of it all then no more worries!
MarjoryLabels: chemotherapy, epirubicin
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Appeal against NICE decision about Herceptin TreatmentYou might have read elsewhere on this site that there had been an appeal against the decision to offer herceptin treatment on the NHS for early stage breast cancer patients.
NICE is the National Institute for Clinical Evidence - a government sponsored agency charged with responsibility to evaluate all new drugs or treatments and with deciding whether offering them for National Health Service (NHS) represents good practice and value for money.
NICE recently approved herceptin for NHS use in early breast cancer patients with HER-2 sensitive tumours. By law, any NICE decision must be open to appeal by those who disagree with it. Normally these appeals relate to drugs that NICE has declined to approve. However, in this case the appeal is against the fact that herceptin has been approved.
The appeal has come from Newbury and Community Primary Care Trust.
The appeal was heard yesterday and NICE's appeal panel now have 20 working days to report back to its guidance executive. If the appeal is upheld then there is the possibility that a new consultation for the drug will need to be submitted - greatly delaying its use in England and Wales. (Scotland and Northern Ireland operate a different system and patients there are currently receiving the drug if it is indicated for them).
According to a BBC report Newbury PCT had the following issues
- they say that the original NICE approval guidance does not take into account clinical trial data that suggest some women may respond better than others
- they claim that some studies suggest a shorter period of treatment than the recommended 12 months could be just as effective
- they challenge the assumption that all women had the same capacity to respond to a year's worth of treatment means the cost effectiveness for the NHS might not be as attractive as initially presented
- longer term risks and benefits for the drug were still unknown
With the exception of the last point in the list it all smacks of penny pinching doesn't it.
Personally, I'm confident that Herceptin will gain full NHS approval very soon, but for the time being it all adds to anxiety and concern for those women who could benefit from it.
Gordon
Read more about
treatment with herceptinLabels: herceptin
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Too busy to blog.......
Well it's been a while since I posted a blog which is bad, but good as the reason is I've been too busy. Sounds lame I know but it's true!
I've now had my second dose of FEC and will have the third next Wednesday. I've just about lost all my hair but not quite. I thought I would wear my wig all the time but since we seem to be living in tropical conditions (yes...Scotland!) I have taken to wearing much cooler, and I think quite fetching, bandanas.
The first two treatments have gone pretty well I think. I start to feel tired and sick about six hours after 'the hit' and just go to bed to sleep it off. The next day I feel a bit better then better still the next day, and by day 3 or 4 back to normal. I've not had any side effects so far (fingers crossed!) apart from a slightly sore arm from the epirubicin.
The one thing that did happen was that my pre chemo bloods came back with a very low-0.97-neutraphil count. This panicked me but the nurse on the phone reassured me and said just to come in slightly early the next day and they would recheck it. By the next morning it had risen to 1.72, boy was I relieved as the cut off for chemo is 1.00, so the chemo went ahead as planned. At least I'm prepared if it happens again.
My eye lashes are thinning.........NO!!!! Can cope with the rest but really want to keep them, or maybe it's just I know I'll be useless at the false eyelash thing.
Talking about eyelashes that reminds me of the most recent Kylie interview.
Now, i ask you? Yes she's had breast cancer, yes she's had chemo and yes it's horrible but not once did she acknowledge how hard it must be for all the other women out there who have money worries, or who need to work full time, or who have kids who need looked after.
Or come to think of it have a team of Chanel stylists to stick on their false eyelashes! I still think that Kylie is great but as a fellow breast cancer sufferer the interview left me saying
' come on Kylie, get a grip' - ( sorry to any die hard Kylie fans! )
One of the positive things to come out of this is that Gordon and I have decided to change our diets. We've cut out dairy products and are increasing natural soya products and are now eating mostly unrefined foods. We decided to do this after reading material about the low incedence of breast cancer in China and the thoery being that they eat no dairy but a large amount of soya.
Gordon has had problems with high blood pressure for years and it has fallen dramatically since starting this diet hey - Fab or what! So
he wont have a stroke and
I wont get breast cancer again.....well thats the theory. It does make me feel I'm doing something positive though.
Anyway, life goes on as normal. My daughter passed her driving test today and believe me, I've had a lot to worry about recently but none of that compares to the worry of your child hurtling around the country side in a metal box! Still, does mean somebody else can do the shopping run.
Labels: about-marjory, chemotherapy, epirubicin, hair-loss
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Interleukin - Interferon and Herceptin Treatment for Breast Cancer
We certainly seem to be living in exciting times when it comes to new developments in the treatment of breast cancer.
There seems to be a new breast cancer treatment announcement almost every week - well .... there does if your tumour is HER-2 positive at least.
Tumours positive for HER-2 (Herceptin sensitive breast tumours) only account for about 20% of all breast cancer cases. Women in this category had a poorer prognosis until the development of herceptin a few years ago. Now all the dramatic headlines seem to relate to them and each new development serves to raise their hopes even further.
This is a mixed blessing of course - since the other 80% of women either gain false hope from the newspaper headlines - or feel let down by the fact that there is less interest in their type of cancer.
Newest on the headline stage is an announcement today that researchers in Ohio have discovered that using a substance called Interleukin can boost the effect of herceptin by as much as fifty percent. Interleukin works by stimulating the production of a body chemical called Interferon. Interferon makes your immune system much more efficient.
Read
more about this here.
Now - before getting too worked up about this you need to realise that this was a very early study and was performed in mice. The scientists found that mice with HER2-positive tumors treated with both Interleukin and Herceptin saw their tumors shrink at least 50 percent more than animals injected with either substance alone.
The researchers have said that treatment with Interleukin and Herceptin was effective in cell cultures and in animals, and they hoped to conduct a clinical trial to test the combination in humans in the near future.
Along with developments such as Tykerb - this can only be good news for women with herceptin sensitive breast cancer. But do please bear in mind that it could be several years before this kind of treatment becomes available .... and other studies in the future may reveal that it is not as beneficial as this early report suggests.
Still - as I said above - we live in exciting times!
Gordon
You can read more about herceptin treatment for breast cancer here
Labels: herceptin
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Marks and Spencer Mastectomy RangeOrdered two marks and spencer mastectomy bras (or post surgical bras as they call them)
Great price - good quality - quite sexy
but ....
be prepared ....
... no pocketing!
The bras seem designed in such a way with the upper elastic set tighter to hold your prosthesis in place on your chest. Works great for me - smallish prosthesis. Not so sure that I would feel secure if I needed a larger prosthesis - larger cup size.
Do give them a try though - the price and quality alone means that you don't have much to lose.
MarjoryLabels: mastectomy
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Herceptin TreatmentFinding Light Amongst the ShadowsSometimes I browse other blogs relating to breast cancer treatment. Occasionally I post a comment about my own experiences or with information that I think might be useful to others.
Only once in a while do the comments develop into online "conversations" about the subject at hand - but when they do the outcome and the discussion can open up issues in a way that simple articles or news stories never do.
One such conversation happened recently on the
Cancer Blog between myself and Gregory Pawelski.
We explored the issues around herceptin treatment for women with breast cancer and touched on some pretty important and deep issues about making breast cancer treatment choices.
I have posted a copy of the transcript on a page about
herceptin treatment risks on this site or you can view the
original here.
If you or a family member has breast cancer then do read and think about what we discussed. It may make for uncomfortable - perhaps even painful - reading but the issues raised are crucially important.
Being informed and being involved are the most important things in the world when you are facing a battle with cancer.
GordonLabels: herceptin
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Mystery as UK Herceptin Decision Goes to Appeal StageNICE has received an appeal against its recent decision to approve the
use of herceptin or trastuzumab as adjuvant therapy for early stage breast cancer.
NICE are duty bound to listen to any appeal that is raised against any drug decision that it makes.
This will leave many breast cancer patients on edge as they wait to hear confirmation of the appeals decision about
herceptin use in the UK.
The appeal hearing will be held on 26th July in London
It is not known who has launched the appeal - but presumably they intend to try to stop the use of herceptin in the UK for early stage breast cancer.
Members of the public and the press may request to attend the hearing.
Read about this herceptin appeal case on the
NICE websiteGordonYou can read more about
herceptin for breast cancer here
Labels: herceptin
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Logo Mania - Competition Major Prize!
T-shirt tycoon and entrepreneur Fred sent us this alternative T-shirt Logo to the one shown in Miriam Engleberg's
cartoon.
Great idea Fred - which prompted me into fun filled inspiration !
Lets have a competition - with a mystery prize from Gordon and Marjory of course -
for the best breast cancer T-shirt logo. Boring old Target campaign look out!
You can see Fred's first attempt above - can you do better.
Yeah - we know its irreverent - just a little on the sick side maybe - but who knows, it might just cheer everyone up.
Closing date: 31st July. Go to it folks. This is serious.
Maybe we can get
Helena Christensen to model the winning entry - I feel sure she'd be OK with that ....
publicize - publicize - publicize - publicize
Gordon
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Breast Cancer - You're Having a Laugh
Finding the funny side of breast cancer treatments
As I suspect many of you reading this will know only too well - it can be hard to see the funny side of things when you and your family are coping with breast cancer and its treatment. The disease has a habit of taking over your life when in fact you should be striving to ensure that the very opposite is happening.
Writing a regular blog- by the way - is a mixed blessing in this regard. Writing regularly about not getting obsessed with cancer has a habit of making you ... well .... obsessed with cancer .. damn it!
But it's also true that keeping things in perspective and having fun in your life is crucial.
Laughter really is the best medicine - proven time and time again in countless medical studies. Laughter also works to boost your immune system when it's at a low ebb.
So ... how do you find the funny side?
You could start by taking a look at Miriam Engelberg's site -
Cancer Made Me A Shallower PersonMiriam has taken her breast cancer experience as a stimulus and in many ways an inspiration to create an off beat and irreverent look at life from the perspective of a breast cancer survivor. It's all done in the form of comic strips - some of them
directly about breast cancer and others about her wryly observed looks at daily life and its absurdity.
She also writes a blog as a day to day diary of life and how breast cancer can affect it.
Well done Miriam - we love what you're doing.
Labels: about-marjory, cancer-sites, cancer-support
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Keep up to date with breast cancer newsYou might have noticed that we've added a link at the top of the page and a link on the right to our newsletter - and you might be asking what it's all about?
Marjory and I have decided to offer a simple newsletter service to those of you who might want to keep in touch - either with Marjory's progress or with Gordon's regular postings about new developments in breast cancer treatment and about breast cancer issues in general.
Here's how it works. If you add your name and email address in the boxes provided then your details will be kept in a secure database. Only Marjory and I have access to it so your details are safe.
You'll be sent an email asking you to confirm that you want to receive information from us - this is to ensure that someone else hasn't entered your information without your knowledge. Follow the simple instructions and it's as easy as that.
Our system is automated to send you a regular update email once every few weeks - this will let you know about the newest items that we've posted on this website. From time to time we might drop you a note by email to alert you to new breast cancer news or important new information.
You can choose to remove your name from the newsletter list at any time.
Please sign up and give it a try. You can always change your mind if you don't like it
Click here for more detailsGordonLabels: about-marjory, cancer-support
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