Herbal formulas show inverse risk for breast cancers

This is an interesting German study, with over 10,000 post-menopausal women. While no study is ever the final word on any topic, it is encouraging to know there is some basis to support the use of herbal preparations for post-menopausal symptoms with an inverse risk for breast cancer; contrasted by the body of work that seems to show higher risk of breast cancers in women who have used HRT (hormone replacement therapy). jd

Findings: Every use of HEP (Herbal Preparations) was inversely associated with invasive breast cancer in a dose-dependent manner. Classes (formulas) of HEP did not differ significantly (in outcomes). Risks for invasive ductal and combined lobular/mixed/tubular tumors were similarly reduced by any HEP use but not for in situ (pre-existing) carcinomas. There were no substantial differences in associations of HEP use by estrogen receptor status and progesterone receptor status of the tumor.

Interpretation: Our findings support the hypothesis that HEP use protects from invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Among conceivable modes of action, those independent of estrogen-receptor mediated pathways seem to be involved (i.e., cytotoxicity, apoptosis). (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(8):2207-13)
Edited by jd for readability.

The Use of Herbal Preparations to Alleviate Climacteric Disorders and Risk
of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer in a German Case-Control Study
Nadia Obi, Jenny Chang-Claude, Jurgen Berger, Wilhelm Braendle, Tracy
Slanger, Martina Schmidt, Karen Steindorf, Wolfgang Ahrens, and Dieter
Flesch-Janys
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18 2207-2213
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/8/2207?etoc

14 things that reduce breast cancer

Fourteen Simple Things You Can Do To Reduce
Your Risk for Breast Cancer
By John Mericle M.D.

Cancer Recovery Foundation

1. Increase your consumption of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.
2. Avoid using any pesticides or chemical sprays in your home. Try to avoid new carpet.
3. Avoid drinking tap water.
4. Decrease alcohol consumption.
5. Start an exercise program.
6. Increase consumption of organic whole grains and fiber.
7. Decrease meat, poultry and fish consumption.
8. Stop smoking.
9. Increase consumption of phytoestrogens from organic sources.
10. Decrease or stop consumption of processed foods.
11. Avoid trans-fatty acids found in margarine and some vegetable shortenings.
12. Take two capsules of organic flaxseed oil daily or just add a teaspoon of flaxseed oil to your daily organic salad.
13. If you are pregnant definitely breast feed.
14. Gets lots of sunshine as breast cancer is less prevalent in areas where there is ample sunlight unobscured by fog or smog.

Grapefruit & possible breast cancer connection

There is a growing list of drugs that interact with grapefruit and grapefruit juice, due to its ability to alter liver metabolism. Grapefruit juice slows activity of the liver enzyme that metabolizes Lipitor, for instance, thus increasing the possible side-effects of the drug.

Now there is preliminary evidence that regular consumption of grapefruit in a post-menopausal woman's diet can increase breast cancer incidence, due to grapefruit's inhibition of CYP3A4, an isoenzyme that metabolizes estrogen.

In the Hawaii-Los Angeles Multiethnic Cohort Study, women in the highest intake category—60 grams or more per day, equal to slightly more than one-quarter grapefruit per day or half a grapefruit every other day—had a relative risk of breast cancer 30% higher than women who ate no grapefruit. The trend of increasing risk with increasing consumption was significant after adjusting for weight, exercise, use of postmenopausal hormone therapy, family history of breast cancer, and other factors that could impact risk.

"The results are consistent with a biological effect of grapefruit on estrogen metabolism. At least 2 previous studies have found higher estrogen levels in women consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice, the authors note, and grapefruit is known to elevate serum concentrations of many drugs, including hormone replacement therapies. The US Food and Drug Administration requires hormone replacement products to carry warning labels stating that grapefruit juice may increase plasma concentrations of estrogen."

Lead study author Kristine R. Monroe, PhD, Research Associate in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University's Keck School of Medicine stresses, however, that there's not yet enough evidence to recommend women stop eating grapefruit as a means of lowering their breast cancer risk. "I would use caution until further studies are done and a scientific conclusion can be reached."

http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/57/6/321

Breast Cancer Chemo Drug for Whom?

Drug, Called Taxol, May Only Benefit Certain Women With Breast Cancer

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 10, 2007 -- The breast cancer chemotherapy drug Taxol may not help most breast cancer patients, researchers report in The New England Journal of Medicine. The key finding: Adding Taxol to a chemotherapy regimen may only benefit women who have HER2-positive breast cancer, in which breast cancer has a high level of a protein called HER2.

That's about 15% to 20% of all breast cancer patients, according to the researchers, who included the University of Michigan's Daniel Hayes, MD. Hayes' team isn't recommending that any breast cancer patients abandon Taxol. "We think the stakes are too high" to change treatment recommendations until further research is done, Hayes says in a news release. But cancer doctors "have a responsibility to patients to be aware" of the study, states a journal editorial.

"The days of 'one size fits all' therapy for patients with breast cancer are coming to an end," writes editorialist Anne Moore, MD, of New York's Weill Cornell Medical College.

Taxol for Breast Cancer

Hayes and colleagues reviewed data from a breast cancer study conducted in the 1990s.
Though the data weren't new, the analysis was, and it was "appropriate" to look back at that data, according to editorialist Moore. The study included 3,121 women whose breast cancer had spread to their lymph nodes and who had already had breast cancer surgery. All of the women got two chemotherapy drugs -- Adriamycin and Cytoxan. Afterward, about half of the women got further chemotherapy treatment with Taxol.

Taxol and HER2

Over the next five years, women with HER2-positive breast cancer who got Taxol were more likely to survive without breast cancer recurrence, compared with those with HER2-positive breast cancer who didn't get Taxol. But those Taxol benefits only included women with HER2-positive breast cancer, the study shows. In women with HER2-negative breast cancer, Taxol didn't appear to affect survival or recurrence. The findings weren't affected by whether the women's breast tumors were sensitive to the hormone estrogen. In the journal, several of Hayes' colleagues report financial ties to Bristol-Myers Squibb, the drug company that makes Taxol.

View Article Sources

SOURCES: Hayes, D. The New England Journal of Medicine, Oct. 11, 2007; vol 357: pp 1496-1506. Moore, A. The New England Journal of Medicine, Oct. 11, 2007; vol 357: pp 1547-1549. WebMD Medical Reference provided in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic: "Treatments by Breast Cancer Stage." News release, University of Michigan Health System.

© 2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.