Stimulate the body's defenses to fight ovarian cancer

Two percent of all newborn girls in the United States are at risk for ovarian cancer

Up to 30,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year. In 2006, 15,000 to 16,000 women are likely to die from this silent murderer. Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death among 5 women, and is responsible for about five percent of all cancer deaths. Chances are, your doctor may have diagnosed. That is often the case. A recent British study found 60 percent of all UK general practitioners had diagnosed their patients. Three quarters of British doctors surveyed incorrectly assumed that symptoms only occurred in the late stages of ovarian cancer. Based on this information should not be surprising that Britain has one of the lowest survival rates for ovarian cancer in the Western world - from 6,800 cases diagnosed each year, more than 4,600 die.

A similar discovery was made by researchers at the University of California, which announced last year, "Four in 10 women with ovarian cancer have symptoms that tell their doctors about at least four months - and while a year - before to be diagnosed. According to their study of almost 2,000 women with ovarian cancer, researchers found physicians:

• First ordered abdominal imaging or perform gastrointestinal procedures instead of more appropriate and pelvic imaging or CA-125 (a blood test that can detect ovarian cancer).

• Only 25 percent of patients who reported symptoms of ovarian cancer four or more months before diagnosis were given pelvic imaging or CA-125 had blood tests.

Patients with initial symptoms are often misdiagnosed. Abdominal imaging or diagnostic gastrointestinal studies are less likely to detect ovarian cancer. According to the website of the American Cancer Society, "The most common symptom is back pain, followed by fatigue, bloating, constipation, abdominal pain and urinary urgency. These symptoms tend to occur frequently and become more severe with time. Most women with ovarian cancer have at least two of these symptoms. "

At the time a woman reaches the fourth stage of ovarian cancer, first-line treatment is often carboplatin, paclitaxel and cisplatin chemotherapy specific for ovarian cancer. In the first stage, the cancer is inside one or both ovaries. In the second stage, the cancer has spread to the fallopian tubes or other pelvic tissues, such as the bladder or rectum. When the cancer has spread beyond the pelvic area in the abdominal cavity, especially when tumor growths are more than two inches in the lining of the abdomen, then ovarian cancer has reached stage three. The fourth and final stage of ovarian cancer is reached when the cancer has spread to other body organs such as liver or lungs.

If detected early, survival rates can be as high as 90 percent. Detected in the advanced stage, the survival rate falls to between 30 and 40 per cent. Several imaging tests such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound studies can confirm whether a pelvic mass is present. Laparoscopy can help a doctor look at the ovaries and other pelvic tissues in order to plan a surgical procedure, or to stage ovarian cancer. A biopsy, or sampling of tissue, could confirm whether there is cancer in her pelvic area, and help determine how advanced. An elevated CA-125 blood test usually indicates that the cancer has progressed to an advanced stage.

About 50 percent of patients with ovarian cancer are already at an advanced stage when a correct diagnosis is made. Only 10 to 14 percent of women with advanced cancer are likely to survive more than five years.

Evaluation of treatments

While research shows drinking black (or green) or herbal tea supplement ginkgo biloba may be useful as a preventive measure or to reduce the risk, women had few options when their cancer has moved to the stage advanced. In the first stage, a woman is facing surgical removal of the tumor, and possibly one or both ovaries, to increase their chances of survival. Beyond that, their choice is chemotherapy.

A major problem with chemotherapy side effects. The most advanced cancer, may be weaker, reducing the potential for survival. Survival rates have not changed much over the past fifteen years. Chemotherapy can increase survival time by up to 50 percent. However, the quality of life suffers. Side effects and increased toxicity that accompanies chemotherapy, how one moves to reduce the prolonged survival time.

Some minor side effects of paclitaxel, which was denounced by Medline Plus and may include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, altered taste, thinned or brittle hair, pain in the joints of the arms or legs, changes in the Nail color and / or tingling in hands or feet. The most serious side effects may include blisters in the mouth or fatigue. Some side effects may include unusual bleeding or bruising alarming, dizziness, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, chest pain or difficulty swallowing. The most common side effect of paclitaxel is a decrease of blood cells.

Carboplatin has its own list of side effects. You can reduce the production of platelets, which may interfere with the ability of blood to clot. You can become anemic, tired or breathless. Nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and a general feeling of weakness are common with this chemotherapeutic agent.

Comedians like Gilda Radner and Madeline Kahn, Oscar-winning actress like Loretta Young and Sandy Dennis, the wife of the singers Laura Nyro and Dinah Shore, actor Pierce Brosnan, Cassandra Harris, actress Jessica Tandy, former Connecticut Gov. Ella Grasso, and the wife of Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King died of ovarian cancer. It's not just celebrities, politicians or movie stars, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One in 55 women U.S. is at risk of ovarian cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates about 22,000 new cases of ovarian cancer is diagnosed. Over 16,000 women will die because the symptoms are often subtle, and your doctor does not recognize the symptoms early enough. Is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women.

Silent and undetected, this cancer often spreads beyond the ovary or ovaries in the abdominal cavity, or the final stage, in other body organs like the liver or lungs. Family physicians often fail to properly diagnose "the murderer quiet" until it's too late. Last August, researchers at the University of California Davis, said 40 percent of women said their doctors about their symptoms for as long as a year before they were correctly diagnosed. A UK survey found 75 percent of family physicians think that symptoms are present during advanced stages of cancer. At the time, women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 40 to 50 percent of patients are in the advanced stage, where there is little hope for survival.

Less than half of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will live five years. About 10 to 14 percent live beyond five years after diagnosis. Your choices have been limited, mainly restricted to variations of chemotherapy drugs or a new form of drug delivery. The general public is often unaware of the adverse effects experienced by patients with ovarian cancer during chemotherapy. In mid-March, the Food and Drug Administration U.S. criticizes the safety profile of Eli Lilly's Gemzar for ovarian cancer patients, saying the increased survival of 2.8 months seen in studies of patients taking the drug was not sufficient to offset increased toxicity of the treatment included anemia, neutropenia (a blood disorder) and thrombocytopenia (low platelets in the blood). Currently used first-line treatment for patients with ovarian cancer include cisplatin, with adverse events, such as nerves, kidneys and / or damage to hearing, Carboplatin (side effects: damage to nerves in the arms and / or legs, joint pain and / or thrombocytopenia), paclitaxel (neurotoxicity), or melphalan, with side effects including irreversible failure of the bone marrow, bone marrow suppression).

The woman developed symptoms of ovarian cancer is facing the first surgery, then chemotherapy. Recent press advertising and extensive new development in the treatment of ovarian cancer, intra-abdominal or intraperitoneal chemotherapy, is just that more chemotherapy. The "belly bath" as it has been dubbed by some television journalists, has been much praised, because treatment can prolong life for some 16 months more than "regular" chemotherapy. The results were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in December 2005. Most news reports failed to mention that only 40 percent of women treated with a belly bath were able to complete all six cycles. Why? The therapy is based on infusions of paclitaxel and cisplatin (see side effects in the previous paragraph). According to Dr. Robert Edwards, director of research at Magee-Women's Gynecologic Cancer in Pittsburgh, "Many women do not feel well enough to work for the duration of the intra-abdominal (treatment)." Some patients, like Cindy Pakalnis Marshall (Pennsylvania) treatments have called "exhausting."

The unresolved problem of chemotherapy is to reduce the "quality of life." While some life extension has been demonstrated, the patient's life deteriorates. Many patients struggle with the balance of the loss in quality of life with the rigors of therapy. Researchers are actively pursuing new directions that could one day provide new hope for patients with ovarian cancer. The University of Minnesota research study has suggested the use of thalidomide, which is used in combination with chemotherapy as a potential means of increasing the chance of remission. Minnesota cancer researcher Dr. Levi Downs explained, "prevents the tumor from making new blood vessels. Without new blood vessels, the tumor can not be adequately feed the new cells, so cancer can not grow. "The randomized trial was small with only 65 patients (only 28 had the thalidomide), and certainly more tests are needed.

Ovarian cancer is a silent murderer  one of the greatest threats to women's health. The American Cancer Society says about 20,180 U.S. women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year alone. Each woman faces a risk of 1:57 risk of getting ovarian cancer during their lifetime.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are not noticeable until the cancer spreads, criticism, explaining that thousands of women die from this terrible disease each year. Although ovarian cancer can be treated, in most cases are detected late, leading to complications and death in patients with ovarian cancer.

Given that to date there is no safe and effective way to diagnose or detect ovarian cancer in its early stages, specialists, research groups and cancer advocacy groups and government organizations are doing all the research ovarian cancer that may finally shed light on the gray areas of this deadly disease. Some organizations provide scholarships for those willing and interested in carrying out research on ovarian cancer.

Among the most important organizations that promote awareness of ovarian cancer is the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. Formed in 1997 by seven groups of ovarian cancer defense that joined forces to strengthen efforts to promote education of ovarian cancer.

Research teams ovarian cancer research on several areas including ovarian cancer symptoms (in both the first and the last stage), stages, risk factors, prevention, risk reduction, and treatment with objective of raising awareness of this cancer. Knowledge of these areas may be old protection against this cancer.

However, apart from the fact that there are many information gaps that still need to be filled, ovarian cancer research is carried out in response to the high rate of cancer mortality. In the United States, ovarian cancer is the fifth among gynecologic cancers than women out on the edge of death. Over 50% of all women diagnosed with the disease are to die within five years, research shows. It is this fact that the research groups of ovarian cancer are exerting their best effort to discover hidden truths about ovarian cancer.

Most ovarian cancer research reveals that women with ovarian cancer exhibit the following symptoms: persistent and perplexing gastrointestinal upset, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, distention or bloating, pain in the pelvic and abdominal area, fatigue, frequent bleeding urinating, and abnormal during the postmenopausal stage.

Recent research on ovarian cancer conducted by the University of California, shows that over one third of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer have shown symptoms of at least four months before they have been diagnosed with cancer, what is a good chance that ovarian cancer can be diagnosed earlier.

The researchers explained that the reason the cancer is detected when it is in its advanced state is that doctors do not perform tests that could diagnose cancer immediately. Generally, doctors have the image of patients undergoing abdominal and certain gastrointestinal procedures, they say you're not as effective in diagnosing this disease.

Other research of ovarian cancer are concerned about improving the treatment of ovarian cancer and the prevention of this disease. Many clinical studies are conducted to analyze carefully the potential of a drug in the prevention of women at high risk of developing ovarian cancer and in treating those in the early and late stages of cancer.

Ovarian cancer, tea, and an ounce of prevention


Ovarian cancer and hysterectomies - Being informed about your options

A hysterectomy is not often a procedure to be performed urgently, except in the case of cancer. Therefore, a woman considering the procedure should take time to investigate all options, including other possible treatments. Now there are new treatments for diseases that previously would have required a hysterectomy. She advises women to a hysterectomy for a noncancerous condition before being offered more conservative treatments may be appropriate to seek a second opinion.

In deciding whether to undergo a hysterectomy can be a difficult and emotional process. Being informed about the procedure, women can confidently discuss available options, concerns and wishes with your doctor and make a decision that is right for them.

If, too, have been questioning the need for surgery of fibroids, prolapse, incontinence or "celebrations" of repairs, was reassuring to know that you have every right to do so. The decision to undergo surgery of any kind is often difficult, so it is often useful to explore other alternatives before going ahead. Women, especially at the time of menopause, all too often is advisable to undergo major gynecological surgery for minor conditions that can be significantly improved with natural alternatives

Every 10 minutes, 12 hysterectomies are performed in the United States. That's over 600,000 per year, of which only 10% are due to cancer. This surgery most often not diagnosed and corrected the problem rather than the results of the trials again. And, says Dr. Stanley West, author of the joke of the hysterectomy, nine out of ten hysterectomies are unnecessary.

We have to ask? How have these surgeries in the quality of life of women? "Nowhere in the gynecological literature did the study versus the number of women for whom sex has become painful or impossible. Nowhere were studies to track the number of marriages or who were not seriously affected as a result of these postoperative complications or alcoholism or drug addiction resulting from chronic debilitating pain.

Women who have been hysterectomized experience a lot of negative side effects such as chronic pain and fatigue, depression and pain during sex. These are only a fraction of the long list of unwanted symptoms reported by women after surgery.

So, if you choose, or have already decided, that surgery is not an option, you may ask, "What now?" I have asked myself this same question. But I'll tell you, no quick fix. As women we must understand that our bodies to look after them in a positive way.

The more I think about it the hottest issue that I feel for informing women before making this important decision. Prevention is the key and the hormonal balance is the answer.

In most of whom are encouraged to remove her uterus is likely to suffer from excess estrogen that is also explained by Dr. John Lee.

Balancing hormones involves working on a few fronts through simple strategies.

1. Evaluate your hormones with a saliva test - determine what is happening in your body - ask your self the question - Are you estrogen dominant? Using a saliva test to find the answer.

2. Optimize your diet by reducing insulin levels. More than 2 / 3 of Americans are overweight. This balances the extra weight increases insulin causing estrogen dominance increased. EAT 40/30/30

3. If the saliva test shows the need to use a natural progesterone cream in the process of rebalancing your hormonal system

4. Exercise to reduce excess estrogen and to eliminate toxins

5. Drink more water

6. Supplement with wisdom to our program balancing hormone fiber, indoles, EFA, multi - fruit and essence veggies, calcium


Abdominal Chemo increases ovarian cancer survival rate

A large trial shows that giving chemotherapy directly into the stomach and in a vein, can improve survival of women with advanced ovarian cancer by about sixteen months. The results of the study, which appears in this week's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, led the NCI to issue a statement of support for physicians to use this plan of attack for appropriate patients.

Why is reigmine new treatment is so important? Ovarian cancer is the fourth biggest reason for cancer deaths in women, affecting more than 22,000 women and killing more than 16,000 in 2005. Although this disease is treatable when it was super early, almost all cases go unnoticed until they have spread beyond the ovaries. Because many patients with ovarian cancer is diagnosed at a later stage, it is essential to find ways to improve treatments for the disease progressed further.

What is known about ovarian cancer? virtually all women with advanced ovarian cancer receiving chemotherapy after surgery to remove the tumor. That chemotherapy is usually given in a vein and moves through the bloodstream to reach tumor cells in the stomach. Doctors have also experimented with the delivery of chemotherapy directly into the abdomen through a catheter, a system called intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy. Eight clinical trials of this approach have been made, and most showed an increase in IP chemotherapy. But this technique is not widely carried, according to the study's author, Deborah Armstrong, MD.

"There has been a prejudice against IP therapy in ovarian cancer because it is an old idea, that requires skill and experience for the surgery and chemotherapy, and is more complicated than IV chemotherapy," said Armstrong, who is medical oncologist and associate professor at the John Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore.

How did this study: Women with ovarian cancer stage III were randomly assigned to get either standard chemotherapy into a vein (210 women), or a combination of chemotherapy into a vein and IP chemotherapy (205 women). The woman had already had surgery that successfully removed all or most tumors, none had remaining tumors were larger than 1 cm in diameter. All women were treated with the same drugs, cisplatin and paclitaxel. Six cycles of chemotherapy were planned for both groups.

What was found? Women who had long operated IP chemotherapy without their cancer returning, and have lived more generally. Women who had received traditional chemotherapy into a vein survived 4 years after treatment, while those who received chemotherapy in the stomach, stomach and a vein from an average of almost 5 ½ years after treatment.

That improvement is "one of the largest benefits ever observed for a new therapy in gynecologic oncology," based on data from Stephen A. Cannistra, MD, author of an editorial published with the study. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School and managing director of the division of gynecologic oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

However, the IP treatment was much more difficult in patients. Women who had this treatment was much more terrible or life-threatening side effects, including low white blood cell count, infection, fatigue and anxiety. Many were the side effects associated with the catheters to be inserted into the stomach to deliver the chemotherapy. These problems are so severe that less than half of women appointed to undergo IP chemotherapy completed all six cycles of treatment designed. This makes the progress of survival than a good complementary offering remarkable, Cannistra compound.

Women who received IP therapy also reported worse caliber of life during and after treatment. For a year away, however, both groups described similar quality of life.