From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received
a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this
blog…
Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast
cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites,
journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and
share them with you. Today I’ll be referencing a number of different sources –
let me state immediately and LOUDLY:
I AM NOT A DOCTOR. I AM READING THE
SOURCES I NOTE BELOW AND SUMMARIZING, SOMETIMES CHANGING TECHNICAL TERMS INTO
MORE COMMON ENGLISH DEFINITIONS. THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE A DIAGNOSIS OR
TREATMENT BLOG BUT A THOUGHT-PROVOKING ONE.
“Peripheral
neuropathy is a set of symptoms caused by damage to the nerves that are away
from the brain and spinal cord. These distant nerves are called peripheral
nerves. They carry sensations (feeling) to the brain and control the
movement of our arms and legs.”
Some of the symptoms of PN are: “pain
that might be present all the time or come and go, like shooting or stabbing
pain); burning; tingling; loss of feeling; it’s hard to pick up things and you
drop things more often; balance problems; trouble with tripping or stumbling
while walking; more sensitive to cold, heat, touch, or pressure; shrinking
muscles; muscle weakness; trouble swallowing; constipation; trouble passing
urine; blood pressure changes; as well as decreased or no reflexes.”
What causes PN?
Diabetes can. Chemotherapy with certain
drugs can.
What if you have diabetes AND have been
successfully treated for breast cancer?
Over a decade ago, it seems that the
treatment was essentially: MORE DRUGS! (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2430688/)
Doctors today are taking a closer look at
dealing with it: “In a recent…analysis…the…prevalence of [neuropathy caused by
breast cancer chemotherapy] was 48%. Within the first month of completing chemotherapy,
the prevalence of [neuropathy] was 68%; after 6 or more months of completing
chemotherapy, the prevalence of [neuropathy] decreased to 30%.”
What’s the solution here?
There isn’t one yet. There are hopeful
signs, however: “Clinical trials investigating… acupuncture and massage therapy
are under way. A few small trials have investigated the use of Scrambler
therapy, a device that provides noninvasive cutaneous electrostimulation, to
treat [neuropathy]. The use of topical menthol...is also being investigated...”
That’s breast cancer.
How about diabetic neuropathy treatments?
Quite plainly: “There are
currently no curative options for people with diabetic neuropathy; instead the
condition is treated through pain relief or blood glucose control to stop the
condition getting worse.”
In the same article from which the above
quote was taken, there seems to be some hope in using stem cells FROM THE PATIENT
THEMSELVES (“Mesenchymal stem cells can be obtained from several sources in the
body, including fat tissue, tendons, umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. The
most successfully transplanted MSCs have been those from the bone marrow.”)
Currently, doctors treat diabetic
neuropathy “...based on three major approaches: intensive glycemic control and
risk factor management, treatments based on pathogenetic mechanisms, and
symptomatic pain management. Clinical guidelines recommend pain relief...through
the use of antidepressants…opioids and topical agents such as capsaicin…[other
drugs are listed] [But]...there is a growing need for studies to evaluate the
most potent drugs or combinations for the management of [neuropathy] to
maximize pain relief and improve quality of life. A number of agents are
potential candidates for future use in PDN therapy, including [a sodium ion channel that in humans is encoded by the SCN9A
gene]antagonists, calcium
channel blockers, NGF antibodies, and angiotensin II type 2 receptor
antagonists.”]
So – drugs, drugs, and more drugs...
You DID notice that the treatments for chemotherapy-induced
neuropathy and diabetic neuropathy DON’T have anything in common, right?
If you GOOGLE “diabetic neuropathy,
chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, treatment”…you get nothing that includes both.
With 11 million women in the US with diabetes (https://diabetessisters.org/women-diabetes)
and 300,000 dealing with breast cancer in the US alone (http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/document/acspc-042725.pdf),
you’d think that someone, somewhere, would link the two and do a teensy bit of
research.
Anyone care to join me in politely asking
the medical community to “GET ON THE STICK!!!!!”
Resources: http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/002908-pdf.pdf,
http://www.gotoper.com/publications/ajho/2015/2015jan/management-of-chemotherapy-induced-peripheral-neuropathy#sthash.HkQrSnfP.dpuf,
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2015/jun/stem-cell-injection-could-cure-diabetic-neuropathy-90691986.html,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25553239
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