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Living With Breast Cancer

  • Soy and Breast Cancer

    Posted 6/5/2013 by hhill
      There has long been expressed concern about the possible negative link between soyfoods and breast cancer recurrence risk. Since soy is a phytoestrogen, the belief has been that it may act as estrogen in the body--not a good thing for women who have ER positive breast cancers and are trying to reduce estrogen. There has even been worry that soy might diminish some of the positive effects of tamoxifen or the AIs. For some women, being told not to eat soyfoods is not an issue, but for others, it means a big dietary change. Read more... Comments (0)

  • Dietary Supplements

    Posted 5/22/2013 by hhill
      This is another controversial and frequently misunderstood topic. Many, if not most, cancer patients at least think about their diets and wonder if there are foods that can be added or subtracted that would make a difference in their cancer progression. As far as I know (and I do try to keep up), there is zero proof that anything we eat or don't eat causes cancer or cures cancer or even has an impact on recurrence risk or progression. Certainly there is a great deal known about healthy eating, and the usual advice is the usual advice: meaning eat lots of fruits and vegetables, minimize the amounts of red meat, white flour, sugar. Today's article takes this all a step further with a careful look by the Clinical Practice Committee of the Society of Integrative Oncology at commonly used nutritional supplements. Read more... Comments (0)

  • Same Issues in England

    Posted 5/3/2013 by hhill

      It is always comforting to me to realize that others share our concerns. There is nothing surprising in this article from the BBC about survivorship issues in England and the need for physicians to expand the conversation beyond the specific medical concerns. People completing cancer treatment the world over must share the same worries about returning to work, families, sexuality, energy, etc. The health care system is somewhat different in Britain, and GPs (general practitioners, similar to our PCPs) seem to do more of the oncology follow up than is generally true in the US. Studies here have suggested that women who are followed by their PCPs after breast cancer treatment do just as well as those who continue to see their medical oncologists, but that is generally not the system. I suspect, in the era of more attention to costs, that may become increasingly true here, too. It is less expensive to see the PCP than to see a specialist.

    Read more... Comments (0)

  • Coffee and Recurrence

    Posted 5/2/2013 by hhill
      There hasn't been the same amount of attention paid to any relationship between coffee and breast cancer risk or recurrence as there has been to any associations with alcohol. However, a group in Sweden has just published the results of a study that suggest that, for women with a hormone positive breast cancer, drinking at least two cups of coffee (and, no, I don't know if that means a Grande or something bigger) may cut the rate of recurrence by half. Read more... Comments (0)

  • Diet and Cancer Risk

    Posted 4/9/2013 by hhill
      Once again, we have researchers telling us that we really don't know much, if anything, about the impact of diet on cancer risk. Note that this isn't about the possible associations between diet and risk of cancer recurrence--that is an even less well known and illusive topic. Once again, we do hear that a "healthy diet" is a good thing, and even that living a "heart healthy lifestyle" (healthy diet, exercise, don't smoke, weight control, etc.) is a good thing. I come back often to this topic because there is so much interest in the foods we eat and the magical wish that, by controlling our diets, we could control our risks. Read more... Comments (0)

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Cancer Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
617-667-1900

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