CANCER PATIENTS FARE BETTER AT HIGH VOLUME FACILITIES A review of 41 studies conducted from 1984 to 2004 show that complex cancers do better when treated in a high volume hospital. The reason is unclear, but it is assumed that surgeons above low volume rates (2 to 13 cases per year) and hospitals above low volume (1-22 cases per year for a single procedure) had better success rates. A word of caution: all the studies were not equivalent and so a patient should not change physicians or hospitals based solely on this criteria. This review in the British Journal of Surgery shows the correlation of better outcomes and high volumes, especially in pancreatic, esophageal, gastric and rectal cancers.
OBESITY and BREAST CANCER CHEMO An article in Archives of Internal Medicine states that women who are 20+ percent over their ideal body weight have a greater risk of recurrence, which may be based on differences in estrogen and insulin levels. The author feels that physicians may reduce dosage levels, which are calculated by body weight, for heavier women because of fear of toxic effects. More details are available at www.archinternmed.com
MENSTRUAL CYCLE CHARACTERISTICS and BREAST CANCER RISK Age at menarche and menopause have been associated with breast cancer risk. Anovulation has been hypothesized to reduce incidence of breast cancer.
Data from the Nurses' Health Study II - 116,000+ registered female nurses - was analyzed for menstrual cycle information from 1989 through 1993. The conclusion states that longer or irregular cycles were associated with a lower incidence of premenopausal breast cancer before age 40. http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content...
BALANCE of ENERGY MAY REDUCE RISK Evidence shows that more exercise with less weight gain can affect the risk of breast cancer. Energy balance represents the difference between energy intake, by eating, and energy expenditure, through physical activity.
Women with low activity levels and high body mass index (weight divided by height) had twice the risk of those who exercise and had lower BMI. Findings were published in Cancer Epidemiology in June. http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content...
BREAST DENSITY and RISK A study in Breast Cancer Research, 2005 7:R605-608 was cited in www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/bc-ani060605.php relating a study of the mammograms of 27 women with DICS. Of 22 tumors, 21 were classified as in dense breast areas. The tumor area correlated to the breast area with the highest average density - the lateral-superior mammographic quadrant. This relationship suggests that "some aspect of mammographically dense tissue directly influences the carcinogenic process in the local breast glandular tissue."
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