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…That was four years ago – as time passed, people searching for
answers stumbled across my blog and checked out what I had to say. The
following entry appeared in September of 2015.
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?
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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