CANCER
ALERT
Beware of the shocking odds.
Breast cancer is now the leading cancer type among Asian Americans.
While it is the second leading cause of death among Asian Americans, it is the
leading cause of death for Corean American women. It was only in 1992 that
the statistics categorized Corean American women to have the lowest
breast cancer rate among Asian Americans.
Limited research suggests that Asian women tend to get a more virulent
strain of cancer that grows at a faster rate.
The risk factor may be tied to diet rather than to race or ethnicity. A
Japanese American woman living in California, for example, has much higher
risk of getting a breast cancer than a Japanese woman living in Japan. How a low-fat diet can reduce breast-cancer risk remains at the forefront of
clinical trials.
The good news is that 90% of women with breast cancer survive if it's found and treated before it spreads beyond the breast. The bad news is that test results are oftentimes overlooked by health care professionals, thanks to widespread myth that Asian women are at much lower risk. The key, then, is to be proactive when you suspect irregularity. A note of caution. Do not wear deodorant, powder or cream, under your arms because it may interfere with the quality of the mammogram. Mammograms can detect cancer with 76-94% efficiency, rather than clinical breast exams (57-70%) or self examination (20-30%), according to the American Cancer Society. Some clinics like Planned Parenthood, offers low-cost mammograms every October to coincide with breast cancer awareness month.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 40 and 55, and 18% of all breast cancers occur among women between the ages of 40 and 49. The National Cancer Institute estimates that approximately 44,000 patients died from the disease in 1997.
Young women aged 20 to 24 have the best odds, with only a one in 100,000 risk of developing breast cancer.
Genetic or inherited risk is increased if a woman has had two or more first degree relatives diagnosed with breast cancer. 20% of breast cancer patients come from a family with a history of the disease.
President Clinton's mother, Virginia, Linda McCartney, Madonna's mother, Elizabeth Hurley's grandmother, Ingrid Bergman all died of breast cancer. Many others like Happy Rockefeller, Olivia Newton-John, Nicole Kidman's mother, Amber Valetta's mother are breast cancer survivors.
Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for Corean American women.
There have been some scientific advances made in the last few years that you need to know about.
Herceptin: The HER2 gene is responsible for the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, and Herceptin boosts responses to chemotherapy by more than 50% and stemmed the progression of breast cancer for up to nine months. The drug also caused tumors to shrink or disappear in 16% of the patients tested.
Flaxseed: Flaxseed contains anticancer compounds called lignans that seem to reduce the estrogen activities closely associated with breast cancer. The seed reduced tumor growth by 50% in lab animal studies. The recommended daily dose is two tablespoons of ground flaxseed.
Raloxifene: Also known as Evista, Raloxifene has been approved by
the FDA for treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. But they
also found that Raloxifene cuts breast cancer rate by up to 50%. The jury is
out on the possible side effects, because after all, it took researchers 10
years to discover that Tamoxifen, the breast can