ANGELINA JOLIE UNDERGOES DOUBLE MASTECTOMY

Women, like Angelina Jolie, with a family history of certain cancers have a higher risk of developing the disease. Thus, if a woman’s mother or sister has had breast cancer for example, her relative risk may be double that compared to a person with no family history.

In a small number of women with a particularly strong family history, the risk of breast cancer may be caused by a mutation in a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. The normal population lifetime risk of developing the disease is around 10 per cent, however, a fault in one of these genes usually confers around an 80 per cent lifetime risk. This was the case with Angelina.

Around 3000 women in the UK carrying these mutations have now had double mastectomy. One of the driving motivations behind Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention is the desire to prevent breast cancer without the need for young women to resort to this measure. However, for those who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, the current alternative of regular screening and taking Tamoxifen as a preventative measure, may not be enough.

Opting for a preventative mastectomy is an incredibly difficult decision for any woman affected by breast cancer, and is not for everyone. Hopefully, Angelina’s courage in coming forward with her experiences will provide comfort to other women in similar situations. With them, we wish Angelina a long and happy future.

It’s important to remember that 85 per cent of women with an affected first degree relative, such as a mother or sister, will never develop the disease, and over 85 per cent of breast cancer patients have no family history at all.

Women who come from a family where breast cancer has affected several family members should ask their GP for a referral to a genetic clinic where gene testing can be provided on the NHS.

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Tags: Angelina Jolie, BRCA 1, BRCA 2, Breast Cancer, double mastectomy, family history, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, genetic clinic, NHS

Coast 2 Coast Updates

An update from the Coast 2 Coast Cycle Ladies:

“Here we are setting off from St Bees – the first C. in C2C!  Yesterday was a great day, we were really fortunate with the weather so only light showers.  Arrived in Greystoke happy but tired.  Today we have a day of hills as we cycle over the Pennines. Bring it on!”

Remember, you can help the ladies reach their fundraising target by visiting their Justgiving page and making a donation.

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Tags: Breast Cancer, challenge, coast to coast, cycles, cycling, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, Pennines, prediction, Prevention, research, St Bees

Genesis Coast 2 Coast Cycle Challenge Begins!

Supporter Diana Harris and her team of 12 cyclists are cycling coast to coast for Genesis!

The route starts from St Bees in Cumbria to Tynemouth in Northumberland – a jaw dropping 150 miles across a coastal route.

We will be posting regular updates from Diana so check back to see how the ladies are getting on.

“First morning, we’re up bright and early and fueling for the day ahead for our coast to coast challenge! Setting out from St Bees, taking in Loweswater and Whinlatter then on to Keswick and finally arriving at Greystoke for the evening. Lots of nerves….but at least it’s fine and dry. We’ve raised £3000 to date so a big thanks to all our supporters. The Genesis C2C team.”

Help the ladies raise vital funds and awareness by donating on their Justgiving page:

http://www.justgiving.com/genesisC2C

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Tags: Breast Cancer, challenge, coast to coast, Cumbria, cycle, cycling, cyclists, Genesis, justgiving, prediction, preventon, St Bees, Tynemouth

TAMOXIFEN PROVEN AS PREVENTATIVE MEASURE

Recently, The Lancet Journal issued a report identifying Tamoxifen as a proven preventative measure for women with a high risk of breast cancer, confirming that it would become available to women through the NHS.

As an organisation that has been studying Tamoxifen, and its preventative capabilities for some time, this came as a highly-anticipated and welcomed announcement.

The discovery of a proven preventative drug for women with a high risk of contracting breast cancer, is set to prolong, and even save, thousands of women’s lives. The results of the study will revolutionise the medical approach to preventative medicine in the field. Further still, the fact that it could be made available on the NHS this summer, will enable many more people to receive life-saving help.

As with most medical research studies, the Tamoxifen trial has been conducted over a long period of time to offer a more detailed and accurate result. Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention has part-funded some of this research, with the primary objective of creating a breast cancer-free future for the next generation.

Our leading team of breast cancer preventative specialists has been closely monitoring the women taking part in the trials and provided support for the staff who ran the studies. We’re extremely proud to have been a part of this life-changing research programme and are obviously thrilled with the outcomes.

As the only UK charity dedicated purely to breast cancer prevention, the positive results of the Tamoxifen trial are a very important step forward for everyone involved in Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention. The effects of this drug could result in women, with a pre-disposed risk of contracting breast cancer, never having to suffer from the disease.

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Tags: Breast Cancer, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, NHS, tamoxifen, The Lancet Journal

Why I volunteer – by Joan Miller

I got involved in fundraising over 30 years ago, after some very close family members lost their fight against Cancer.
I got together with a group of friends to raise funds for Cancer Research. We used to organise Summer Balls, Fashion Shows, Quizzes, Race Nights etc. but after over 25 years of voluntary work for the charity I felt that I needed a change.
I worked at Wythenshawe Hospital as a Ward Clerk on the Breast and Gynae ward for 13 years. As I was about to retire, I got in touch with the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention volunteers and began to help out in the Coffee Shop, filling in if someone wasn’t able to do their shift. Then Thursday afternoon became available, and I’ve now been working there on Thursday afternoons for over a year now. I really enjoy meeting people and listening to them, if they feel like talking about their problems (some don’t). If they don’t want to talk that is fine by all the volunteers, we just want to help in any way we can.

A nice hot cuppa and a friendly smile is sometimes all that’s needed.

Earlier this year I was asked if I would organise a Fashion Show to be held at the Centre. I got two friends (also volunteers) to help and with the help from the admin staff at the Centre, we had our Fashion Show. We sold over 100 tickets. After the clothes had been modelled, we could try them on and buy on the night. It was a great success and we raised over £1000 for the Centre.

Thanks to all who helped in anyway, we couldn’t have done it without you.

It has been suggested that we make it an annual event so watch this space!

If you would like to volunteer at the coffee shop/welcome desk at The Nightingale Centre and Genesis Prevention Centre, call the office on 0161 291 4400.

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Tags: Breast Cancer, Cancer research, Fashion Show, fundraising, Genesis, prediction, Prevention, volunteer, volunteering, wythenshawe hospital

FURTHER COMMON GENETIC VARIENTS LINKED TO INCREASED RISK OF BREAST CANCER

Last week, a major series of papers in the premier genetics journal, Nature Genetics, identified further common genetic variants linked to increased risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer.

A total of 43 new genetic variants have been linked to breast cancer, trebling the number we were previously aware of. These genetic variants are carried by between 10 per cent and 40 per cent of us, and account for approximately five per cent of the inherited component of breast cancer.

Each individual variant will only increase the risk of developing breast cancer by around 10 per cent. By the age of 80, someone who does not carry a variant has a 9.6 per cent risk of developing breast cancer. For someone carrying the variant, this increases to a 10.6 per cent risk. It is therefore plain to see that while useful, these genetic variants cannot provide us with clear cut indicators of who is likely to develop breast cancer. However, if certain variants are found together, some individuals will have predicted risks as low as two per cent, and others as high as 35 per cent.

Women who carry the BRCA mutation are already known to have a substantially higher lifetime risk of breast cancer, at around 65 per cent. That risk increases to 85 per cent, for those who also carry many of the newly-discovered gene defects, or may drop to 45 per cent if they inherit a favourable mix.

The hope is that further research will identify the remaining causative elements of the increased risk of breast cancer, and genetic variants are sure to be a part of this. It is our hope that this will allow better prediction – and eventually prevention – of breast cancer.

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Tags: BRCA, Breast Cancer, genetic varients, Nature Genetics, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer

From Crime to Kind

Here at Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, we have partnered with GM Police and are using car parks around the Salford Quays area on match days to raise vital funds.

The car parks were shut down last year by police following the launch of two operations to put a stop to organised crime groups – Project Gulf and Operation Bank. Macmillan is also operating a similar scheme in partnership with police in the Trafford area.

To find out more about this initiative, watch this short video:

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Tags: Breast Cancer, cancer, Charity, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, Greater Manchester Police, Macmillan, Old Trafford, Operation Bank, Project Gulf, Salford Quays

What can the 2-Day Diet do for you if you’re not overweight?

It’s not just people wanting to lose weight who are turning to 2-Day Dieting, we’ve discovered that lots of normal weight people are keen to do it too. So what can the 2-Day Diet do for you if you’re not overweight?

The important thing is to check whether you really are a healthy weight – in other words that you’re not carrying too much body fat. Lots of us look fine on the scales, with a healthy BMI (the ratio of your height to weight), but can still be carrying way too much body fat for good health. If you’re fat on the outside, you’re probably fat on the inside -around your internal organs- as well.

So how can you tell if you’re carrying too much fat? You’ll find a quick body fat ready reckoner at the back of the 2-Day Diet book or you can make a rough calculation by measuring your height and your waist – don’t cheat by pulling your tummy in! Your waist measurement should be less than half your height. So if you’re 5ft 4 ins tall (64 ins) for example, your waist should measure less than 32 ins. Any more than that and there’s room for improvement – a few months on the 2-Day Diet will help you lose the extra fat far more effectively than doing a regular calorie controlled diet. And if you’re already trim and lean? Try the maintenance version of the 2-Day Diet with just one restricted low carb high protein day each week. It will stop you gaining weight (which happens to many of us, particularly as we get older) and help you to stay healthy by keeping your insulin, blood pressure and cholesterol levels down.

Please don’t be tempted to try the 2-Day Diet if you’re already underweight (with a BMI of less than 19) with low body fat – less than 20% for women and 8% for men. There are real dangers here as lighter people risk losing vital muscle because they don’t have the body fat to protect them when they cut calories. Similarly steer clear of any diet that advocates severe calorie restriction, particularly diets which don’t provide enough protein.

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Tags: 2-Day Diet, blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, insulin, lose weight, The 2-Day Diet

The 2-Day Diet – very definitely not a fasting diet

Some people are suggesting that 2-Day Dieting might be better for men than women – and they’ve even raised concerns that dieting like this could lead to fertility problems, excess muscle loss or diabetes.

We can say with absolutely certainty that is not the case with our 2-Day Diet. This is very definitely not a fasting diet – our two restricted days are low carb, you get lots of protein, all your vital nutrients and your calories are only cut to around half the normal intake.

Most of the dieters involved in the 2-Day research were women – although we know it works for men as well, because lots of their partners and other men we work with joined in and got great results from the diet.

There are no worries about fertility – many of our dieters were aged 20 – 50 , and they all carried on having normal cycles, although as with any weight loss , low calorie diet we certainly wouldn’t suggest that someone trying to conceive does the diet.

Our research showed that diabetes risk is actually reduced by the 2-Day Diet’s combination of 2 days low-carb high protein and 5 days Mediterranean eating. When we compared our 2-Day Dieters with others doing a daily reduced calorie diet they had better insulin function and blood sugar– and that means a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

And far from losing lots of muscle, the 2-Day Diet actually conserves it. We’ve been careful to make sure you get enough protein to maximize your fat loss and keep muscle loss to an absolute minimum. On strict low cal diets 40% of the weight you lose can be muscle – drastic calorie cutting, especially if you’re not overweight or getting enough protein can lead to major muscle loss which isn’t good for your health or your weight loss! With the 2-Day Diet, muscle loss is minimized, so your metabolic rate is maintained, and 80% of your weight loss is pure fat.

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Tags: 2-Day Diet, breast cancer research, diet, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, low carb

Oncotype DX

Yesterday NICE announced that a consultation had be issued recommending the use of Oncotype DX for a subset of patients with breast cancer. We fully support this recommendation and are pleased that this test, which we have known about for a good few years now, will be funded for a specific breast cancer patient group on the NHS.

The group of patients we are focussing on are those with oestrogen positive disease (ER+ve), have no lymph node involvement (LN-) and are Herceptin receptor negative (HER2-ve). This represents a significantly large proportion of breast cancer patients in the UK today, especially those diagnosed through the screening programme. This group of patients would usually be classified in the ‘good prognosis group’ according the scoring systems such as the Nottingham prognostic Index. However, we know that a proportion of patients in whom a good prognosis is diagnosed will unfortunately develop distant metastases. Conversely, there will be patients in whom a poorer prognosis is expected who do not develop distant spread. This is why breast cancer treatment needs to advance towards more targeted treatment based on the biology of the tumour.

The Oncotype DX test will help identify those patients in whom chemotherapy treatment will not add any additional benefit to taking anti-oestrogen (hormonal) tablets only. Also, on the other hand, the Oncotype DX test will help confirm the patients in whom the breast cancer, which has not already spread to the lymph nodes, would actually benefit from chemotherapy and reduce the risk of metastatic spread. This particular patient group are the ones in which the Oncologists, Surgeons as well as other members of the multidisciplinary team agonise over time and time again as to whether chemotherapy should be given – as chemotherapy is not without risks.

We believe the addition of tests such as Oncotype DX will help us target and refine our treatments on an individual basis so that each patient receives a tailored approach in their fight against breast cancer, whilst avoiding criticisms such as over treatment of breast cancer patients which has recently been publicised in the media. Finally, we also applaud NICE for having the courage to continually assess and approve potentially expensive therapies so that patients will benefit on basis on clinical need and not financial ability to pay.

John Murphy
Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon
Nightingale Centre & Genesis Prevention Centre
UHSM NHS Foundation Trust
Manchester M23 9LT

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Tags: Breast Cancer, chemotherapy, Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, NHS, NICE, Oncotype DX