Your good health: Breast cancer can recur years later



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Dear Dr. Roach, I just read another sad story about a woman who had bad cancer, who had fought her and who seemed to be winning, but after five years it came back to her and cost her life . The same sequence of events happened to my wife two years ago. She fought the second cycle of cancer for a year and a half, but it was pretty much everywhere. What is this link between the initial appearance of bad cancer and its reappearance five or six years later even more prevalent throughout the body? Is testing intensified during this period?

Anon

I am very sorry to hear about your wife.

With most cancers, no evidence of five-year disease diagnosis usually means a cure, that the person will not experience a recurrence of that particular cancer, although people with cancer are at a higher risk of developing a second cancer, unrelated. Cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the exceptions. Late recurrences (after five years) are possible, even very late recurrences.

I've seen 20 years later, and reports are even longer.

Although the reasons why bad cancer seems to be hidden for many years are not known precisely, we know some risk factors for recurrence: Larger tumors are more likely to reproduce. People with positive lymph nodes are at high risk, and women with estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 negative tumors are more likely to experience recurrence.

Screening is absolutely appropriate for women who have had bad cancer. There is no consensus on the type and frequency of screening, but many experts choose annual mammography. The MRI of the bads was considered, but it was not proven that it was better in women with a history of bad cancer.

A healthy lifestyle, including regular exercise, a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, tobacco abstinence and minimal alcohol consumption, has reduced the risk of cancer in women with a history of bad cancer. bad.

Dear Dr. Roach, I have been suffering from kidney failure at stage 4 for several years now. My doctors said that they could do nothing more for me. Another health professional said that asparagus and watermelon consumed about three times a week could have a beneficial effect. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

R.A.

Chronic kidney failure is not a single entity. Any condition that can cause long-term kidney damage will result in reduced kidney function as measured by glomerular filtration rate. It is ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, depending on the ability of the kidneys to filter blood.

Normal GFR is greater than 90: CKD 1 is kidney disease with normal GFR, whereas CKD 2 is GFR 60-89; CKD 3 is 30-59; CKD 4 is 15-29; and CKD 5 is less than 15. At this point, people generally consider
dialysis.

Sometimes, kidney specialists may find a reversible cause of poor kidney function, such as poor blood circulation in the kidneys. Most of the time, the damage is largely irreversible.

I sincerely hope that asparagus and watermelon can repair the damage to the kidneys.

It can not. The main goal of a person with chronic kidney disease is to take action to slow down the decline.

An herbal diet does this, and some people, especially those who have protein in the urine, could benefit from an ACE inhibitor to slow the damage to the kidneys.

A nephrologist is an expert in CKD and should be consulted early in the course of the disease. You can read more about the excellent website of the National Institutes of Health of the United States: tinyurl.com/y6gekvqo.

Dr. Roach regretted that he could not reply to individual letters, but would incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers can e-mail their questions to [email protected]

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