Breast feeding helps…but you have to have breasts!

The results of a large study recently published in The Archives of Internal Medicine were released this week, creating a substantial buzz within research and breast cancer communities.  Although there is still extensive follow-up research that needs to be done to ensure that other behaviors and factors are not causing this correlation, the study appears to show that among premenopausal women who are at higher risk for breast cancer because of a family history of the disease, breast-feeding has an incredibly protective effect.  The author of the study, Dr. Stuebe, even reported that the effect of breast-feeding could be as strong as that of Tamoxifen, the “chemoprevention” drug that is often given to high-risk women to lower their risk for breast cancer.  Breast-feeding was ONLY protective among women who are premenopausal and had a family history of breast cancer. So if you’re old and/or have good genes, feel free to break out the formula (although I can’t promise that your kid will be better off…).

Read more details here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/health/research/11cancer.html?_r=1&ref=health

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090811/hl_hsn/breastfeedingmaylowerbreastcancerrisk

This is a really interesting and significant finding and if further research verifies it, it could benefit a lot of women.  I can’t help thinking, however, of all of the mutants like me.  Our thought process tends to differ from that of normal women and even other high-risk groups.  As soon as I read these articles, I started to wonder if  other BRCA women were sitting at their computers running over some of the same questions in their head.

First of all, what about all of the young women who have already HAD prophylactic mastectomies??  What does it mean for them?  In an ideal world, they would have had this little token of info as one thought to consider when they were deciding whether or not to have the surgery, but now it’s too late for that.  What kind of effect will not physically being able to breast-feed have on us?

Then, I of course come back to my personal journey towards ditching my boobs.  When I decided I was definitely going to have the surgery, but just hadn’t decided when, I had a long, emotional conversation with my boyfriend.  As I bared my soul to him, I solidified my own confidence in my decision.  I heard myself saying things and as I said them, I realized they were, in fact, true.  I can live with out breasts, but I’m not sure I can live with breast cancer. No one in my family has managed it yet.  I never even liked my breasts that much anyway.   I know I can learn to love my body in whatever new state it encompasses. But…but…but… the ONE thing I kept coming back to was “I have a hard time with the fact that I won’t be able to breast-feed my kids.”  Breast-feeding, to me, has always been the most beautiful, organic connection between mother and child- her body literally sustaining her tiny being a while longer before they have to become entirely physically seperate for good.  I wasn’t sure I could deal with feeding my baby formula.  It upset me.

And now, now this.  Now I’m second guessing my decision to have the surgery first and then kids.  Because, after all, maybe I can have it all.  Maybe I can breast-feed my kids, lower my risk for breast cancer at the same time, and THEN trade them in for prettier (slightly bigger) ones.  But it frustrates me that one research finding can make me question something I’ve spent years deliberating.

I think, in reality, the “buzz” that breaking news like this creates sucks people, including me, in.  I think, in reality, that this changes little to nothing about my current circumstances.

But I can’t help wondering…will my baby know I’m jipping him/her?

I’ll never know.

PARP sounds cooler than BRCA

If you’ve been following the news at all, you know that a new class of drugs called “PARP inhibitors” are being talked about like crazy. Not only have they been shown to improve outcomes drastically for women with breast cancer (and men with prostate cancer), but they improve outcomes specifically for women with BRCA mutations or triple-negative breast cancer (the most lethal type)!  85% of women with the BRCA 1 mutation have triple-negative breast cancer (as if the mutation weren’t enough), so this is a double plus for these women!

Of course, these results are still preliminary and more clinical trials will need to be done, but this is pretty exciting stuff, people.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this may end up being a breakthrough in the same realm as the HER-2/Herceptin amazingness.  I can’t be sure…but it seems promising.

Here’s how PARP inhibitors work (in really simple, non-medical, “people-who-don’t-know-that-much-about-science” speak):

All cells have systems for repairing broken DNA. PARP, BRCA1, and BRCA2 are all part of that system.  Basically, when DNA is broken, it calls up these guys and they come with their tool kits and hammer it back together.

Women with mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 have to rely much more heavily on PARP to fix the DNA in their cells, because BRCA1 or BRCA2 has a broken leg and can’t be of much help.

While all of this happens in normal cells, it also happens in cancer cells.  Normally, chemotherapy damages the DNA in cancer cells but then PARP comes in and fixes some of the damage, making chemotherapy less effective.  PARP inhibitors give the PARP repair truck a flat tire, preventing PARP from getting to the job to repair the DNA damage caused by chemotherapy.  So the cancer cells simply can’t figure out a way to repair themselves, and they die!  Woohoo! We like that.  Death to cancer cells.

So that’s pretty much it.  To read some real, actual medical information on PARP, here are some sweet links!

Peace out (to my readers, if there are any,  AND to cancer).

FORCE: PARP inhibitor research presented at 2009 ASCO Conference.

Reuters: New breast cancer drugs block cell repair enzyme

Science of PARP

ASCO: New Drug Class Promising in Breast Cancer

BRCA Umbrella

I just discovered this new social networking site for us BRCA mutants.  It’s really great!  You can connect with women all over the world who are facing similar challenges and decisions.  AND the design is really cute.  What more could you ask for?

Check it out at http://brcaumbrella.ning.com/.

B, R, C, A, What??

A few years ago, my mother lost an ugly ugly battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 49.  Shortly after, I lost my aunt, my mother’s sister, to metastatic breast cancer.  She was barely 40 and had fought the disease for almost six years.  Somewhere amidst all of this cancer and suffering, I found that I had inherited what is often referred to as “the breast cancer gene.”  

BRCA 2

It’s confusing, hard to pronounce, and it places my risk of developing breast cancer within my lifetime somewhere between 80 and 90%.  Practically a guarantee.  Not to mention the extremely elevated risk of ovarian cancer and a slightly elevated risk of the almost-always-deadly pancreatic. 

My life is now all about hereditary cancer.  Partially because my body leaves me no other options, and partially becuase I’ve chosen to make it that way.  My job is about cancer, my volunteer work, my writing, THIS BLOG…

The truth is, as I dig deeper and deeper into the world of BRCA mutations, I hear the same things over and over.  The most common, I’d say, is that women refer to their bodies as “ticking time bombs.”  I understand this comparison, and I’ve often felt like that myself.  But I’ve decided to refuse the notion that my body is against me.  I mean, in reality, we’re all ticking time bombs.  The movement of the hands is just a lot louder for some…

I’m not a doctor, or a researcher, or a genetic counselor.  But I’m hoping, maybe, that someone  like me will stumble upon this tiny page amid trillions, and will, for a moment,  gather strength from the meandering musings of a fellow mutant.