Today I read the story of Stefanie LaRue the opening lines of her biography seem so clinical so inevitable.

“Stefanie LaRue is a young Cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic (advanced/life threatening) Breast Cancer when she was only 30 years old, after having been misdiagnosed by several physicians, allowing the tumor to grow and become more virulent. Stefanie was given one year to live.”

Thats only the start of her Breast cancer story she is inspirational and actively promotes getting checked even if you are “too young and don’t fit the profile”.

You can check out the Stefanie LaRue Advocacy Coalition (SLAC) at

http://www.metooyoutoo.org/

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Dr. Beata Peplonska of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lodz, Poland, and her colleagues also found that the benefits appeared to be particularly strong for women who boosted their recreational activity levels in their 50s.

There is a growing body of research showing that very active women are significantly less likely to develop breast cancer than their sedentary peers, Peplonska and her team note, but there is less information on whether the timing of exercise during a woman’s life also influences the risk, and whether moderate physical activity is also beneficial.

To investigate, the researchers compared 2,176 women with breast cancer and 2,346 healthy controls. All were asked about their level of recreational and occupational physical activity throughout their adult lives.

The women with the highest total adult lifetime activity were 20 percent less likely to have developed breast cancer than the least active women, the researchers report in the medical journal Epidemiology.

Being in the top fourth of the group based on moderate-to-vigorous recreational physical activity conferred a 26 percent lower risk of the disease compared to being in the bottom fourth.

Furthermore, exercise was beneficial no matter whether a woman was slim, normal weight, or overweight; whether or not she had a family history of breast cancer; and whether or not she had reached menopause.

In fact, women who spent more time in moderate-to-vigorous recreational activities in their 50s than they had in their 20s, 30s and 40s were 34 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, while those who increased their activity the most were at 41 percent lower risk, Peplonska’s team found.

They conclude: “Although the beneficial role of engaging in physical activity was observed for all age periods, our study suggests that increases in activity levels when a woman is in her 50s might be particularly relevant.”

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The risk for recurrence in women diagnosed and treated for early-stage breast cancer may be linked to higher concentrations of serum estrogen, according to data published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

To determine the relationship between recurrence-free survival and levels of estriol, testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin, researchers from the University of California in San Diego and other institutions, examined a case-control group of the 3,088 women enrolled in the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study, a randomized diet trial. Researchers followed these women for more than seven years after their diagnosis.

In the current study, 153 of the 3,088 WHEL participants whose cancer recurred were matched with 153 participants whose cancer did not return. Researchers found that concentrations of total estradiol, bioavailable estradiol and free estradiol were associated with recurrence risk in these 153 pairs of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. The average estradiol concentration in women with a recurrence was twice that of women who did not have a recurrence (22.7 vs. 10.8 pg/mL; P=.05), according to the study.

Researchers did not find a link between risk for recurrence and concentrations of testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin.

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CRUCIFEROUS vegetables may help lower the risk of developing breast cancer, particularly for women who carry a particular gene variant linked to the disease, a new study suggests.Researchers found that among more than 6000 Chinese women, those with the highest intake of Chinese cabbage and white turnips had a somewhat lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer than those with the lowest intake.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, add to evidence that compounds in cruciferous vegetables may help fight cancer.

Chinese cabbage and white turnips are two cruciferous vegetables common in the Chinese diet; in Western diets, the most common cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower and kale.

The vegetables contain certain compounds that the body converts into substances called isothiocyanates, which are thought to have anti-cancer effects.

In the current study, high consumption of Chinese cabbage and white turnips was linked to a moderately lower breast cancer risk. But the apparent benefit was stronger among women who carried two copies of a particular variant of a gene called GSTP1.

Among these women, those with the highest intake of any cruciferous vegetables had about half the risk of breast cancer as those who ate the fewest, according to the researchers, led by Sang-Ah Lee of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

GSTP1 is an enzyme that helps detoxify the body of potentially cancer-causing substances. Some studies have suggested that having a particular form of the gene – the Val variant – may raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer.

The current study found that women who carried two copies of the Val variant did, in fact, have a higher risk of developing breast cancer before menopause than women who had other variants in the GSTP1 gene.

But the excess risk was cut substantially in those who ate the most cruciferous vegetables.

“We cautiously interpreted this as diet being a factor that may reduce the impact of genetic susceptibility in overall breast cancer risk,” Jay Fowke, one of the researchers on the work, said in a statement.

It’s possible, according to Dr Fowke and his colleagues, that people who carry two Val variants of the GSTP1 gene excrete the beneficial isothiocyanates more quickly, and eating more cruciferous vegetables helps counter this.

More research, they conclude, is needed to better understand how cruciferous vegetables might modify breast cancer risk.

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Chris Christensen had always been the corporate dad, the man with the edge.

He wore conservative blue suits over custom shirts and pricey ties. He drove modest but impressive cars and sent his kids to the right schools.

The only place he let loose was on his motorcycle.

He was a sales executive with Nortel Technologies. But when the company began downsizing, he quit to work for a start-up company, which failed.

Interviewing in his 50s proved harder than expected. And, since he couldn’t get a job, he hit the road on a 30-day, cross-country motorcycle trip. He grew his hair, kept a journal and began to imagine himself as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck or Jack Kerouac.

Still, he wondered what he would do once he was back home.

When he returned, his wife, Jennifer, told him to continue relaxing, that he had earned it after all his hard work at Nortel.

He held a slew of random jobs: bartender, cook, antique store manager, truck driver. His hair reached his waist, and he got several tattoos of pin-up girls with exposed breasts.

People tell him his cancer is punishment for the tattoos.

THE DIAGNOSIS

He never thought he could develop breast cancer, but the disease found him Aug. 3, and changed his life.

The day before his 59th birthday, he was driving and itched a lump on his chest. He told Jennifer, who encouraged him to get it checked.

Chris’ doctor thought it was calcium buildup, but suggested a biopsy. It showed Stage 3 cancer in his right breast tissue and lymph nodes. Surgery to remove the breast was scheduled for Aug. 22.

At first, he was surprised. Cancer in his family was limited to an aunt and his dad.

Then he was embarrassed.

“You’re looked at rather strange(ly) by men and women if you have it,” Chris said. “My family has been (very) … supportive, but it gets old to them after a while. You can’t go to a support group” because none exist for men.

FIGHTING BACK

Of all breast cancer cases, about 1 percent occur in men, according to the American Cancer Society. If men carry a genetic predisposition to the disease, it most likely will occur in the BRCA2 gene. Chris is considering testing for his children’s sake. He has two sons and wants them to know if he — or they –carries the mutation.

After finding little or no support beyond his family, Chris wanted to help other men with breast cancer. He heard about a new study that evaluated how different doses of chemotherapy affect cancer reduction.

He joined the study.

His family opposed the experiment. He secretly signed up, telling only his wife. He got six chemotherapy treatments every two weeks. Many patients get only four every three weeks.

The Christensens were living in Wisconsin and Jennifer was about to take a new job. But when she arrived, they told her the position was no longer available. Both without work, they had to live on food stamps — a first for Chris, the former executive. Jennifer eventually found a job on Hilton Head Island with Bank of America, giving them both benefits.

When they moved here in November, Chris’ new doctor took him off the experimental study and gave him four treatments every two to three weeks.

He has finished his last round of chemo. Doctors believe Chris is free of the disease, but are starting radiation, which lasts about six weeks.

LIVING ON

While the cancer is gone or nearly so, it’s changed his appearance and his life.

“This is not me,” he said. “I don’t know how to get my eyebrows back. I don’t know how to get my hair back. I don’t know how to get the steroids out of my face. I don’t even know who I am.”

He feels guilty his wife is working so hard when he’s not, though the chemotherapy makes him too ill to work.

It also changed his sense of adventure.

The chemo made him tired and unmotivated. The only thing he enjoyed was building model cars from the ’60s. He had to stop even that when the treatments caused him to lose the feeling in his fingers.

But his difficulties have not dampened his will to go on.

Now that chemo’s over, Chris is starting to enjoy life again. He takes his dog, Tanner, to the beach on days he feels well.

He’s looking forward to finishing radiation and starting over with a new career in the service industry. He hopes it’s at Barnes and Noble.

His cancer has created more awareness in his own family. The men check themselves for breast cancer now. All are more health conscious.

“I really don’t know what the future will be, about getting (cancer) somewhere else,” he said. “But I look at it this way … I’m lucky, my kids are raised and grown and I’m glad I got to do what I did.”

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