Articles Index

Natural Sweeteners – Eating Healthy to Stay Healthy

Natural sweeteners are part of eating healthy -- they are low on the glycemic index, so they don't raise you blood glucose levels like refined sugar does. Cancer thrives on sugar, so cutting back is a good thing. Learn about several natural sweeteners.

Preventing Nausea After Surgery

Many patients have trouble with nausea and vomiting after surgery. Anesthesia drugs can sometimes cause these side effects, but we want anesthesia so we can sleep through surgery. Asking for pretreatment for nausea and vomiting is key. Learn more about avoiding nausea and vomiting after surgery here.

Cancer Loves Sugar: Myths and Facts

Cancer loves sugar - a very common saying and widely believed. But does cancer love sugar, and does sugar cause cancer to grow? If you cut sugar out of your diet, would that prevent or cure cancer?

Soy and Breast Cancer - Research, Controversy and Your Diet

Soy is great food - but not everyone agrees on whether or not it's good for your health. Soy foods contain the isoflavone genistein, which may help prevent breast cancer, if you start eating it just before puberty. However, if you've had estrogen-sensitive breast cancer, soy may interfere with your tamoxifen or Aromasin. Learn more about soy and breast cancer.

Chemotherapy and Your Oral Health

Chemotherapy causes side effects, some of which affect your oral health. Oral side effects can be serious, but these can be prevented and treated. Learn more about how chemotherapy causes oral side effects and how you can cope.

Axillary Lymph Node Dissection - Types of Surgery and Effect on Treatment Plans

Axillary lymph node dissection is done to determine your risk of metastatic breast cancer. Your lymph node status affects the staging of your cancer and your treatment options. Learn more about lymph nodes and breast cancer here.

Walnuts Help Fight Breast Cancer

Walnuts are healthy nuts that may help fight breast cancer. Walnuts have omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols, cancer-fighting components for your diet. Learn more about walnuts and breast cancer here.

Emotions and Your Breast Cancer Diagnosis

When you are diagnosed with breast cancer, you will have a lot of emotions to cope with. Learn what emotions are normal to experience, and when to get help. Expressing your emotions can actually help you cope with a cancer diagnosis.

Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Hormone therapy is important for you if you've been diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone fuel 80% of all breast cancers. Hormone therapy lowers your hormone levels and prevents recurrence and slows disease progression. Learn more about types of hormone therapy here.

Robin M. Gray RN, Breast Cancer Survivor

Robin Gray is a registered nurse who was misdiagnosed for seventeen months - she was told by several doctors that her breast lump was a cyst. Meanwhile, the lump grew and became painful. Robin tells her story of surviving breast cancer, and how she dealt with her misdiagnosis.

Breast Cancer Support - Volunteering to Fight Breast Cancer All Year Long

October is breast cancer awareness month, but the fight against this disease goes on all year. Learn how you can offer support for breast cancer patients and their families all year long. Here are several opportunities for breast cancer support.

Cancer and Fertility: How Does Chemotherapy Affect Fertility?

Cancer treatment affect your fertility because they suppress estrogen. This can cause your ovaries to stop working for a while. Your regular cycles may stop, and you might experience medical menopause, or chemopause. In addition, there’s a good chance that you will be infertile during treatment. You do have some options, if you take action before starting treatment.

Newly Diagnosed With Breast Cancer: Additional Tests You May Need

You've got a diagnosis and you just want to get rid of your breast cancer. Now your doctor orders additional tests. Not only that, but you'll have more tests during and after breast cancer treatment. Learn more about additional tests before, during, and after breast cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy Basics for Breast Cancer

Many breast cancer patients need to take chemotherapy treatments to prevent a recurrence, or shrink a tumor, or help control the disease. Chemotherapy affects healthy tissue as well as cancer cells, and may cause side effects. Learn about the most standard chemo regimens for breast cancer, and how they may affect your cancer and your fertility. Understand the basics of chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Breast Lumps Overview

There are four kinds of breast lumps: cysts, fibroadenomas, pseudolumps, and cancer. When you are doing a breast self-exam (BSE) you can feel differences in breast tissue and in lumpiness. Knowing the difference between harmless and harmful lumps is important to your breast health.

Breast Cancer and Adjuvant Therapy

An important part of breast cancer treatment is adjuvant systemic therapy. There are three types of adjuvant systemic therapy which are used after surgery. Learn more about adjuvant therapy and how to make the best treatment decisions.

Peter Devereaux – Male Breast Cancer Survivor

Peter Devereaux woke up one day and found a bump in his chest. He wasted no time in visiting his doctor, and his diagnosis came swiftly: it was male breast cancer. Currently in a clinical trial, Peter is intent on raising awareness and educating people about male breast cancer and early detection.

Chemosensitivity Testing for Breast Cancer Treatment

You've been told that you need chemotherapy treatment for your breast cancer. How do you make the right choice? One test that helps you make this decision is chemosensitivity testing. Find out how chemosensitivity testing helps you make the best treatment decision for your breast cancer.

Learning More About Your Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Your biopsy results were positive for cancer, but that isn't your complete breast cancer diagnosis. In order to make the best treatment decisions, you need the complete picture of your cancer. Your final breast cancer diagnosis covers tumor size, grade, hormone status, and many other things. Learn more about your breast cancer diagnosis here.

Top 10 Snappy Comebacks To Insensitive Breast Cancer Comments

You've got breast cancer, and now you've got rude people asking embarrassing questions and making thoughtless comments. How do you respond? Here's 10 snappy comebacks for those times that you need one.

Stages of Breast Cancer - The TNM System

What are the stages of breast cancer? How do the stages relate to the tumor size, the lymph node status, and if the cancer has spread? Read about why knowing the stage of a breast cancer diagnosis is important to you.

Breast MRI – Using MRI for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Screening

Most of us are familiar with mammograms - but what are breast MRIs used for, and how do they affect breast cancer treatment decisions? Learn more about breast MRI and how they are used in breast cancer diagnosis and screening.

Types of Breast Cancer

A review of several types of breast cancer: ductal, lobular, and inflammatory. Rare types of breast cancer: inflammatory breast cancer, Paget's disease of the nipple.

What is Breast Cancer?

Breast cancer is a malignant (cancerous) growth that begins in the tissues of the breast. Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells grow in an uncontrolled way. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but it can also appear in men.

Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer isn't always detected with the naked eye. Its early signs are often hidden within your breast tissues. Changes to your breasts that you do see may not be the result of breast cancer at all. Lumps and bumps may come and go, as your hormones ebb and flow, and as you age. Breast skin may change texture due to sunburn, radiation treatments, or infections that cause rashes. So how would you know for sure whether or not a lump, skin rash, or skin dimpling is benign or cancerous?