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Positivity and Hope at the Abramson Cancer Center #CSD14

Cancer Survivor’s Day is a day to celebrate life with and after cancer. Every person diagnosed with cancer is considered a survivor, and today, we share inspirational stories of Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center survivors.

“Not a day goes by that I am not thankful for the incredible care that I received.”

Dimitrios Donavos of Silver Spring, MD was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma in May of 2006. Today, he is grateful to be cancer free.

“Sitting in Dr. Mandel’s office awaiting the results of a thin needle biopsy was one of the longest waits I ever had to endure. It was probably less than 20 minutes, all told, but the anticipation of confirming (or rejecting) a cancer diagnosis had the effect of making time stand still. The tension in the room as we waited for the results was palpable. When Dr. Mandel mercifully burst in and broke the silence, the news was what I had feared: I had thyroid cancer.”

Read Dimitrios’s full story here.

“There are always options at Penn.”

Ken Shaw could no longer ignore the swollen gland on the side of his neck. At first, he just brushed it off as part of a cold or sore throat, but as weeks went by and it wasn’t getting better, he decided to have it checked out by his family physician in Woodbury, NJ.

“I had stage 4 cancer, and needed a complicated surgery that involved a graft from my thigh in order to rebuild the back of my throat, but Dr. Weinstein removed the cancer that January, and I started radiation and chemotherapy after that,” remembers Ken. “I really had no time to react to the fact I had cancer because it all moved so fast.”

Read Ken’s full story here.

“By being grateful for the beautiful moments in each day, we are truly living.”

Rachel Kachnycz is a young woman from Ambler who, at 23, was diagnosed with brain cancer (grade III anaplastic astrocytoma). Today, she is cancer-free and living her life full of positivity.

“Though this diagnosis came to me as a shock, I think that in life we get that for which we ask. I needed something to make me put my silly anxieties and my entire life into perspective. I needed to truly appreciate the opportunity that I have here on this earth. Now I can say that I do.”

Read Rachel’s full story here.

Does caffeine fight cancer?

Epidemiological studies have shown that caffeinated drinks may help prevent skin cancer by inhibiting a DNA repair pathway, thus killing potentially precancerous cells. In English, it means that drinking drinks containing caffeine will reduce one’s chances of developing some types of cancer, including UV-associated skin cancer. That just proves that caffeine fight cancer. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend support to the idea that caffeine could be added to sunblock to increase its protective effects. At the cellular level, they’re showing that caffeine is working in this way of inducing an apoptotic mechanism. This statement was then made by cancer epidemiologist Joanne Kotsopoulos of the University of Toronto.

In the 2007, a study stated that woman who drank caffeinated coffee on a daily basis had a 10 percent lower risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Six or more cups of coffee a day translated to a 30 percent reduction in risk. Mouse studies have also confirmed the link, with both ingested and topically-applied caffeine lowering skin cancer rates in the animals. But exactly how the stimulant protected against cancer remained mysterious. One possibility is the drug’s inhibition of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR), a large protein kinase that senses incomplete DNA replication often a result of DNA damage and signals the cell to not divide. By inhibiting ATR activity, caffeine could make cells more likely to die in response to UV damage, preventing damaged cells from ever becoming cancerous.

Studies have shown that the caffeine molecule acts as a sunscreen. It therefore blocks the penetration of UV rays. And that is why today we see many sunblocks with a good amount of caffeine in them.

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Can sugar consumption cause breast cancer?

A recent study stated that drinking three sugar sweetened drinks a week would increase the risk of having breast cancer. The study had 776 pre-menopausal women and 779 post-menopausal women. Each women’s breast density was assessed by examining their mammograms. The women were told to make a note of sweet they consumed such as chocolates, cakes, ice cream or any sweet drinks. Also they were asked to make a note of how much of spoonful of sugar they add to the drinks.

It was then found out that post-menopausal women who consumed more of sugar, an increase in the density of breast. While the pre-menopausal women observed an increase in breast density when they consumed sugar food. These women, in a week were just consuming three sugar sweetened drinks. The study then further stated that sugar tends to increase the migration of breast cells together. This explains the fact that the premenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened drinks were 3 percent more likely to have dense breasts than those who didn’t consume the drinks. And having dense breasts increases your risk of breast cancer by making it difficult to see tumors on mammograms.

However, there is more to be studied on this matter. But until then there is still a link between the sugar consumption and breast density. About 40% of women in the US have dense breast and they are totally unaware of it. Doctors say that women with a dense breast are five time more likely to have a breast cancer and 10 times more likely to miss the tumor in the mammogram test.

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