From the 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: http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/prostate-cancer-related-to-bc-risk
So…my wife had breast cancer. My dad had prostate cancer – but my MOM didn’t have breast
cancer and I don’t have prostate cancer…
So, what does this
mean for my kids?
Backtrack for a
second: I have a BS in biology with additional classes in earth, space, soil,
and chemical sciences that allow me to teach (at least one class of) anything
from astronomy to zoology. I pretty much know what I’m talking about when it
comes to genetics, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. NOT because the degree magically
imparted on my special knowledge, but because I can read the reports, papers,
abstracts, and scholarly articles and then understand them (sometimes with a
bit of research).
So – I made a map,
or a Cancer Family Tree. You can see it above.
Based on this
article and my Cancer Family Tree, I can say that my daughter is NOT in this
class of possible breast cancer risks. My sister isn’t, either.
I can’t say that I’m
breathing a sigh of relief because we ALL know that BC is far more complicated
than this. But it’s somewhat reassuring.
“‘These findings
are important in that they can be used to support an approach by clinicians to
collect a complete family history of all cancers -- particularly among
first-degree relatives -- in order to assess patient risk for developing
cancer,’ said Jennifer Beebe-Dimmer, Ph.D., M.P.H. of the Barbara Ann Karmanos
Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, who was the lead researcher. ‘Families
with clustering of different tumors may be particularly important to study in
order to discover new genetic mutations to explain this clustering.’”
I suppose I’ve “known”
this all along, but seeing it in such stark terms, I can see that my family has
a long history of cancers…not just one kind: lung, skin, prostate. My wife’s
family is just as varied: lung, liver, breast cancers. It looks like my kids
have an entire suite of things to keep an eye on. Not to worry. Strides are
being made in cancer research all the time. It’s why we host such events as
Relay For Life, Susan B. Kommen events, and all the others.
A cautionary note.
Any of you ever see I AM LEGEND? “. The story is set in New York City after
a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of
mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York...” in a city infested
with zombie-like nocturnal things. The movie opens with “Emma Thompson has
an uncredited role as Dr. Alice Krippin, who appears on television explaining
her vaccine for cancer that mutated into the ‘zombie’ virus.”
The cautionary
note? Cancer is complex, varied, and has dozens of factors that affect it.
There IS no straight line between genetics, environment, lifestyle and the
onset of cancer in Humans. A Human-engineered vaccine against cancer could very
easily succumb to natural forces and turn into something terrifying.
On THAT happy
thought, see you later!
Image: Personal
camera, © Guy Stewart 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment