Targeted Intra-operative Radiotherapy (Targit) - a one-off therapy without any follow-up.
 
A tumor is excised using a slim probe with a tiny metal sphere at one end to inserts into breast to deliver the radio waves directly on the tumor site. The probes position should be satisfied for the electron generator to generate "soft" X-rays, which pass out through the sphere destroying the tumor and even rogue cells mopped up, eliminating the need for weeks of radiotherapy. Targit is based on the premise that, since 90% of early breast cancer recurrences occur at the site of the original tumor, it makes sense to limit therapy to that spot and therefore, gentler on the body. Targit offers a degree of precision impossible with traditional irradiation delivered externally. The rays is delivered to a targeted dose and doesn't endanger heart or lungs.

 

Sentinel Node Biopsy- A mild removal of just one sentinel lymph node and seven (7) axillary nodes to see if the cancer had spread. The approach is based on the realisation that lymph fluid travels in an orderly fashion from one node to the next; find the nodes that are first in line to drain the region, and these so-called sentinels will signal cancer's spread or give the all-clear.

 

It has to keep in mind that sentinel node biopsy can give a false negative- a finding of no cancer when it actually has spread to the nodes- as little as 2% of the time, or as often as 30%, depending upon the experience of the surgeon. Make sure the doctor has had sufficient training and is dealing with a significant number of breast cancer patients in their clinical practice.

 

Surgery, chemo, radiation therapy and treatment with both TAMOXIFEN (a drug known to help prevent a relapse) and the aromatase inhibitor LETROZOLE (a new anti-cancer drug) may represent not just a step but a leap.  Some may had developed an intolerance to tamoxifen causing vaginal itch and a greenish yellow discharge.

 

Letrozole inhibit aromatase, an enzyme. Aromatase converts testosterone and related hormones into oestrogen, the female hormone but which can also be profoundly anti-female, acting as fuel to 60% of breast cancers that are oestrogen-sensitive so the treatment has long been to kill the breast cancer cells by starving them of all oestrogen.

 

Breast cancer patients sometimes have their ovaries removed to reduce levels of the hormone. Tamoxifen does the job chemically, by blocking the cancer cells' docking site for oestrogen. Tamoxifen cuts a woman's chances of relapse by some 40%, without causing the nausea, hair loss and exhaustion frequently experienced with chemotherapy drugs.

 

It is not a sure bet that aromatase inhibitors are  considered to be more effective than tamoxifen as there are costs and side effects, viz:

 

Anastrozole, another aromatase inhibitor,  seems more likely than tamoxifen to cause bone fractures and osteoporosis but less apt to trigger potentially deadly endometrial cancer and blood clots.

 

But for now, aromatase inhibitors appear to have an early lead over the tamoxifen drug. With better access to early detection and new generation treatments, rate of breast cancer survival internationally, will improved.

I'm glad that my luscious breast is free of cancer or any illness for that matter but I am prone to migraine which has twenty (20%) percent higher levels of sexual desire compared to those other types of headaches (positive side). It's complicated, but sexual desire and migraines are both influenced by serotonin. So if either spouse, significant other, lover, etc., has had "headache" as distinguish from "migraine", a kiss will be sufficient.

 

Source: Reader's Digest, October 2006, page 66.