I know you people wish I would give it a rest…but today  I am on a quest. (And apparently “I am a poet and I did not even know it”)

Do I file this under boobalicious?

So tamoxifen, my buddy drug post surgery for the next five years will shut down the estrogen in my body, turn off my ovaries, and send me into menopause.  Alrighty I can deal with that.

But a friend and survivor whom I adore because she is just so blessedly calm and practical in all things and breast cancer said to put on my to do list once I have a medical oncologist and to also ask my breast surgeon about this in more detail  later: because studies show that after three years of tamoxifen the ovaries and things estrogen are apparently so in retirement and uninterested in running naked through my body that these studies now show switching to aromotese inhibitors might prove to be a way to round out years four and five.

I also am curious about other genetic testing in addition to what I mentioned in a previous post about BRCA testing.

So I have pulled a couple of things off the Internet to keep a note active about this:

BreastCancer.org: Aromotese Inhibitors

Aromatase inhibitors stop the production of estrogen in post-menopausal women. Aromatase inhibitors work by blocking the enzyme aromatase, which turns the hormone androgen into small amounts of estrogen in the body. This means that less estrogen is available to stimulate the growth of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer cells.

Aromatase inhibitors can’t stop the ovaries from making estrogen, so aromatase inhibitors only work in post-menopausal women.

There are three aromatase inhibitors:

• Arimidex (chemical name: anastrozole)
• Aromasin (chemical name: exemestane)
• Femara (chemical name: letrozole)

Each is a pill, usually taken once a day.

 RICHMOND, Va., May 17 (UPI) — An immunity biomarker may predict a breast cancer patient’s risk of cancer recurrence, Virginia researchers say.

Masoud Manjili, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, and colleagues say the breakthrough may lead to new genetic testing.

“We know that the body initiates an immune response when it detects cancer, and immune system cells are usually present at the site of the tumor,” Manjili says in a statement. “Our test differs from currently-used tests by looking for a biological response to the presence of cancer, and not relying on genes expressed by the actual cancer cells.”

The study, published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, found a specific, five-gene signature related to tumor infiltrating immune cells can accurately predict relapse-free survival.
Read more HERE

ABC NEWS: Predicting Breast Cancer’s Return

Ok people, love you all madly but that’s enough out of me for one day…I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, yet today I feel like I did some redecorating if that makes any amount of sense….