A new drug to fight breast cancer?
Breast cancer is among the most common types of cancer in the world. Not only is the rate of breast cancer high among women, but men can suffer from it as well. To date, there have been no treatments beyond chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery (to remove tumors). Now, thanks to a new drug, there may be a breast cancer treatment that actually works.
The FDA has given the green light to Novartis, the pharmaceutical company, to use a new drug for treating breast cancer. The drug, known as Kisquali, can be combined with other breast cancer drugs as a breast cancer treatment among post-menopausal women.
The drug is designed to target two proteins: CDK 4 and CDK 6. These proteins can often be over-activated, which leads to too-rapid replication of cells in the body. They can cause the replication and growth of cancer cells as well as healthy cells. Kisquali targets these two proteins, preventing them from causing cellular growth. This can essentially slow the growth of cancer, possibly even reduce the risk of metastasis. The drug basically curbs the growth of the cancer cells and prevents them from replicating beyond your body’s ability to control.
The drug is most effective when combined with another medication known as letrozole. A study conducted into the effects of the drugs found that the success rate of Kisquali was higher when taken along with letrozole. Of the patients taking the two drugs, more than 50% remained alive by the end of the study.
Imagine that! A new drug that could stop breast cancer in its tracks by preventing the replication of cancer cells. Such a simple yet potentially effective treatment is absolutely one worth considering if you’re worried about breast cancer.
The truth is that you SHOULD be concerned about this type of cancer. Up to 250,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year—and INVASIVE breast cancer, at that. That’s nearly 10% of the U.S. population!
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Breast cancer is among the most common forms of cancer (especially among post-menopausal women) due to the fact that the female body produces cells at a much faster rate than the male body. Specifically, new breast cells are created (courtesy of estrogen) in order to accommodate the demands of childbirth and raising an infant.
But with this drug, there may be a way to reduce your risk of breast cancer. It may have only been tested on post-menopausal women, but remember that that is the category at the highest risk for breast cancer. A simple medication could be enough to prevent and possibly even treat breast cancer. If it proves effective, it could be one step closer to eradicating the problem once and for all.
In addition to the medications you can take to fight breast cancer, there are a few other options worth trying. Patients at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center found that changing up their diet helped to improve their chance of surviving breast cancer, and even recovering from it. Some of the changes they made to their diet included:
- Eating more raw foods, including fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts
- Increasing consumption of whole grains and cutting back on refined grains
- Achieving and maintaining not only a healthy weight, but a healthy body fat percentage
- Cutting back on the amount of cured, smoked, and pickled food consumed
- Cutting back on fat—eating no more than 30% of calories as fat
- Scaling back alcohol consumption, or even cutting it out completely
A few simple diet changes, but they may lead to a better prognosis in the long run!
