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Does anyone have any idea why this particular cancer is so emphasised in the news?
This article badly needs a rewrite, and some of these "risk factors" seem really dodgy, at least the way they're explained.
"Overall, it has been estimated that women have about a 1 in 10 lifetime risk of developing breast cancer."
I do not understand this 1 in 10 lifetime risk. Does it not contradict these stats from http://www.breastcancer.org/cmn_who_indrisk.html
I am not very good with stats so I won't dare edit.
Also was surprised by the figure. What Alex.tan is saying is that the conditional probability of having had breast cancer, given a person lives to age 90, is 12.5%. Ankur's data would imply that the conditional probability of getting breast cancer if you live to 79 is a bit over 7% (7%+a little bit extra for the previous categories) and lower if you live to a lower age. Since I think average life expectancy is in the 70s this is consistent with an overall lifetime risk of some 6-8%, roughly. I poked a bit on the web and found a figure of 8% at AAFP. They also say the chance of dying of breast cancer is 3.6%.
I think this means the 1 in 10 figure currently in this article is perhaps a bit high, but not too much. I'll leave any other hunting of data and/or editing to regular contributors to this article. Martinp 20:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
does someone want to do a writeup on breast cancer screening, mammography, epidemiology, etc. for this? Alex.tan 07:27 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- "More than 99% of cases occur in women, but men can also develop breast cancer (the relative risk of developing breast cancer in a female versus a male is more than 100" - isn't this just saying the same thing twice?
- "Breast cancer can be detected by a woman when washing, by her partner during foreplay" - is this serious? I can't tell. Maybe a rewording is in order.
GGano 23:15, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)
"More than 99% of cases occur in women, but men can also develop breast cancer (the relative risk of developing breast cancer in a female versus a male is more than 100" - isn't this just saying the same thing twice?
Pete attempted to merge the inflammatory breast cancer article, but ended up pasting its whole content. I reverted; while this info certainly belongs in this article, it should be interwoven with the regular breast cancer information. Staging, for example, is no different. JFW | T@lk 23:58, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The clinical TNM staging system is listed here. But operative treatment, adjuvant therapy and prognosis depend on the pathological tumor staging (pTNM). This differs from the clinical TNM system in the N (node) category. To avoid confusion with the rather complicated definitions of clinical and pathological TNM, I would suggest that only stage groups are listed, like here: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/cancer/breast/bcancer.test.stage.htm 00:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
InvictaHOG has repeatedly removed an external link, and I have repeatedly added it back, to Keeping Abreast: Dedicated to providing only the most interesting Breast Cancer News links and sumaries. There is no good reason for removing it. This is a legitimate news blog and is quite helpful. It was very helpful to my wife, and many of the breast cancer patients and survivors she interacts with on her BC forums have commented on its quality and relevance.
InvictaHOG initially removed the link with the comment "First page of blog link has article about the mistletoe cure. I'd rather not have this here." That is not only terribly biased, it is reactionary. Yes, that article appeared as the most current post (top of the page) -- on Christmas Day, which added somewhat of a "cute" flavor to it -- but it linked to a legitimate news story, not to some website that offered weird alternative cures or something. Had InvictaHOG read the article, s/he would have seen that. And had InvictaHOG actually looked through a fair sampling of the other news items on the front page and in the archives, s/he would have seen that that article was not in any way common for this blog.
I am adding the link back now, and InvictaHOG will need to provide a reasoned explanation here to convince me not to do so again.
InvictaHOG, I do appreciate your vast contributions to Wikipedia. That is not somehing I can claim for myself. But I think you are being very unreasonable, reactionary, and biased here. - TaintedAzure —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.243.210.226 ( talk • contribs) .
I understand your concerns, InvictaHOG, and I understand the concerns about blogs in the discussion Andre73 pointed to. There certainly are hundreds of sites about Breast Cancer out there, and the article wouldn't benefit from links to all of them. To be honest, I'm waffling on this after reading both of your comments, but I still am leaning toward this blog's inclusion, and here is why:
Breast Cancer patients will turn to Wikipedia for information about Breast Cancer. The article itself is very useful and very well written as a beginning educational resource. However, there are a couple of other types of resources breast cancer patients look for, and they do not know where to find them, or even to look for them. For instance, many breast cancer patients would love to find local support groups where they can get together with other patients and survivors. To my knowledge, there is no online resource that attempts to pull info on such local support groups together. However, patients and survivors also benefit from active online forums -- my wife has benefited beyond description from interacting with her "breast friends" at Healing Well's Breast Cancer forum, for example.
And another type of resource sought after by both patients and survivors alike is news related to the disease. "News," of course, can mean a whole lot of things. Most of the sites that pull together breast cancer "news" articles are either very popular-level (with the effect that they can mislead a seeker), are extremely biased in what they report (with the effect that they exclude some important or relevant information because it doesn't promote their agenda), or overly scholarly (with the effect that they are too difficult or inaccessible to the average patient). Yet someone who is dealing with cancer will want to be able to keep up with the goings on in breast cancer oncology. They'll want to know about research that is being conducted, clinical trials that are available, new medicines and procedures that are or may soon be available, old methods that are being supplanted by new ones, and a broad range of other "news" items. The Keeping Abreast news blog seems to do just that. Better than any I've yet found, it links to articles that touch the typical patient where s/he is. It claims to link to the "most interesting" news items, which appears to mean most interesting to the patient. Not all of the links are medical in nature -- it occasionally reports on "social" issues such as the controversy over whether European governments would provide Herceptin to survivors. The blog does not attempt to report news, just alert those interested to new items available elsewhere in a timely fashion. Nor does the blog appear to link to commercial interests. Basically, I'm saying what I already said -- it seems to meet typical breast cancer patients at the right level and with the right topics. It certainly does not attempt to provide much useful to the clinician or scientist in the field.
Does this sort of think belong in Wikipedia? I believe so. The encyclopedia article portion is not the place to include cutting edge or controversial or societal or "news" issues. Rather, it is a place to provide long-established knowledge about Breast Cancer. But in my mind, Wikipedia as a resource benefits greatly from also providing carefully selected external links to other types or resources (such as news) that are tangential to its purpose. -- TaintedAzure
Nice resource, but it isn't a source for news. It serves a different purpose than Keeping Abreast. --TaintedAzure
i did i project on breast cancer. it was fun. i am 3 years old. i love juice :) i love you :) go to peteranswers.com :)
Does anyone know if the ICD-10 code C50 includes both female and male breast cancers? (unsigned comment, 1/3/2005)
Is any body else scared of breast cancer out there.
The current section for Adjuvant treatment seems to be a bit dificult to follow. The section almost reads as if some of the treatments (chemo and hormonal) are mutually exclusive. The second statement almost seems to imply that chemo isn't waranted in cases where lymph nodes weren't positive, however my understanding is that chemo depends on the size of the tumor as well as lymph node status. As I am not a doctor I'd like some input before editing this section. A possible rearrangement might include the following changes:
Enterkin 01:34, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
Any suggestions here? Enterkin 23:00, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
Presently, the abortion article ( Abortion#Breast_cancer) has a section about breast cancer. That and an entire article Abortion-breast_cancer_hypothesis could use some context from breast cancer Wikipedians as opposed to people simply seeking to promote their abortion POV.
I set up talk space for it Talk:Abortion#Breast_Cancer_bias, but feel free to rewrite away.-- Pro-Lick 21:35, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
Pro-Lick is transparently a pro-choice POV warrior; and as the mention "revert so often" indicates is more interested in getting their way than helping to write an encyclopedia. - Roy Boy 800 15:54, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
The Daling interview studies and moreover the Howe cohort, and the positive results within the Melbye study are reliable sources; as they are peer reviewed scientific studies. Daling checked for response bias found none; of course bias could exist and remain in her research. The problem is it has yet to be shown response bias is a statistically significant confounding factor in any ABC interview based study. It is a (as yet) unsubstantiated criticism (I'll point out ahead of time I know it response and selection bias exists, but what I'm questioning is its statistical significance); and hence does not magically make positive results in interview based studies ignorable. - Roy Boy 800 02:09, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
The American Cancer Society published a report called Can Having an Abortion Cause or Contribute to Breast Cancer?. It concluded:
Hiya Andrew73. Thanks for your edits there, but I don't agree with them.
Also expanding the ABC mention itself in this article; makes it seem more important than it currently is. If we go back to my version, it is a minor side note. Maybe changing unestablished to hypothesized would be best. Is that alright with you? - Roy Boy 800 03:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
The reference provided in support of the claim that recent large studies support an association between breast cancer and abortion says exactly the opposite: "Several studies have provided very strong data that induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer. Also, there is no evidence of a direct relationship between breast cancer and spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) in most of the studies that have been published. Scientists invited to participate in a conference on abortion and breast cancer by the National Cancer Institute (February 2003) concluded that there was no relationship. A recent report of 83,000 women with breast cancer found no link to a previous abortion, either spontaneous (stillbirth) or induced." Perhaps the original text was a typo - I've amended it. If not, another source is needed. -- 203.97.252.91 00:08, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
It has been said on an online forum (via email) that breast cancer is caused by exposure artificial light. True or false?-- 陈 鼎 翔 说! 贡献 Chat with Tdxiang on IRC! 10:09, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
This section doesn't seem notable enough to belong in this article...it seems to serve as a repository for link spams and attempts at self-promotion of blogs. Andrew73 17:39, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The new prevention section for high risk patients, reminded me that some high risk patients even opt for propholactic mastectomy. If someone knows a good reference, it might add to the completeness of the article.-- Technicaltechy 20:50, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
See WP:V, WP:CITE and WP:RS. Yesterday I putted a "unreferenced" tag which was immediately deleted. So, this is supposed to be a scientific article addressing a wide audience. We certainly need references for statistics and for almost everything. Since I'm sure pretty much of the editors here have a scientific background, this shouldn't be too difficult to provide. And it would make the article something on which we could rely on. If references are not introduced, than just any crack-head can put whatever he want, and we will just have to trust other editors struggles against silly or outlandish claims. I don't trust Wikipedia on sight, so I do think this article is totally unreferenced. Furthermore, without moving the passage here, I find this quite strange:
"Some ethnic groups have a higher risk of developing breast cancer - notably, women of European and African descent have been noted to have a higher rate of breast cancer than women of Asian origin [1]. However, these apparent racial differences diminish when geography is altered, as Asian women migrating to the western world, gradually acquire risk approaching that of western women."
I assume that this means that it is wrong than Asian ethnic groups have a higher risk of cancer! So why put it in the first place? Isn't it rather about food diet and such different mores, that are lost when they live in an Western environment? Then we could write this. Sorry for asking for sources, but if you look at political articles or even things like the Chernobyl disaster, you will see how sources are provided. I remind you that if no sources is provided, any editor, including me, has the right under Wikipedia policy to delete it on sight. Why should I believe things on race, alcohol, or percentages that come out of thin air? Unreferenced statistics is just... too much! Lapaz 17:39, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
ps:Please don't take offense, this is totally normal. Again, see WP:RS. Lapaz 17:41, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Lapaz, if you look at {{ unreferenced}}, it is quite clear this template should be either at the bottom of the article or on the talkpage (There is currently no consensus about where to place this template; most suggest either the bottom of the article page (in an empty 'References' section), or on the article's talk page). This is why I removed it.
I totally agree that this article needs sources. Google is your friend. Unreferenced statistics are indeed absolute evil&tm;. I would not disagree with their targeted removal. Alternatively, you can put {{ fact}} behind the more outrageous claims, so readers will understand that no source has yet been made available for them. JFW | T@lk 23:19, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
I changed the citation tag to the fact that it was backing up, and therefore put this strange and contradictory passage here, till source provide back-up and explanation (see also comments on section immediately above):
"Some ethnic groups have a higher risk of developing breast cancer - notably, women of European and African descent have been noted to have a higher rate of breast cancer than women of Asian origin. However, these apparent racial differences diminish when geography is altered, as Asian women migrating to the western world, gradually acquire risk approaching that of western women."
This means that it is wrong than Asian ethnic groups have a higher risk of cancer! isn't it rather about food diet and such different mores, that are lost when they live in an Western environment? In any cases, either this is true, and source can be found, either it's whatever, and i don't think whatever goes about race issues. Lapaz 01:45, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
I was looking for some history remarks on the diagnosis, treatment, and discoveries for breast cancer. For example, the earliest known cases of breast cancer I know of is from the Etruscans who used votives to ask the gods for mercy on health issues. They formed body parts from terracotta illustrating the health problem, and many breasts, complete with visible tumors, were found in votive pits (I saw these at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam) Jane 20:22, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
This nomination is on hold for 7 days for these issues: Reference section is ABOVE two article text sections, references are not properly formatted--they need to be in a single (cite php) format, refernces are a mix of external jumps and inline citations--all should be in inline citations, and the citation tags need to be taken care of with proper references. Rlevse 21:29, 9 July 2006 (UTC)...There are also several fact tags.
There see to be quite a lot. Any that are particularly valuable per the guideline? - brenneman {L} 11:54, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
it's not exactly "preclinical"--please note that the research being done in toronto is not "nutritional prevention"--what they are finding is that flax has treatment potential, as it not only shrinks extant tumor tissue but enhances effect of tamoxifen. Cindery 21:11, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
so? the artificial light study is still at preliminary stage but was worth including. (also--i think there have been two more human studies--sweden, maybe? will look it up.) i agree obviously it needs more study, but should definitely be mentioned/not quite exactly "pre-clinical." Cindery 23:15, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
At the top of the article, it states the incidence as "one out of twelve or thirteen". Under "Age", it states it as "one in seven". In both places, it says that this statistics is for women who live to be 90. I have added a contradiction tag to the "Age" section. -- Strait 23:49, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
This statistic seems like one make to try to confuse and distort the truth. First off percentages are much more common than fractions and easier to understand and why does it only count women that reach 90 in the western world?. I also checked the reference and it does not seem to support this statistic either.
Worldwide, it is the most common form of cancer in females, affecting, at some time in their lives, approximately one out of nine to thirteen women who reach age ninety in the Western world. This statistic is just bad, why not make it 100% of women and men that get breast cancer get breast cancer? -- 222.152.90.4 22:25, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I have moved the following from the section on male breast cancer: Since the psychological effects of this surgery are just as great for males as for females, experimental surgery has been started to introduce the lumpectomy for males. This looks highly doubtful. The psychological relevance of the breasts is very different among the sexes. Unless properly referenced, this should not stay. 91.64.30.198 12:17, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Under 'Screening' I read (emph. mine):
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to detect cancers that are not visible on mammograms, but it has several disadvantages. For example, although it is 27-36% more sensitive, it is im hot age that is 10 years less than the age at which the relative was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I'm pretty sure that's Vandalism! I've been thinking about what the original text was but I was actually coming to this page to look for info, so I have no idea! Anybody know? Also, who put that in there - Wikibot hasn't spot it?
---BREAST CANCER--- breast cancer is a really bad thing.If you havr breast cancer and you don't go to a doctor you may died or something migth happend to you.the way that you will know if you are in risk of breast cancer if you are around 62 years old,if you are a women(men are still able to get breast cancer), if you are a tall women,and if you are an alcohol person.A way to prebent breast cancer is by not being over weight.this a lot of stuff you can know about breast cancer if what to know more information you can go to yahoo,google,wikipedia,or to ask.com and they will answer all your questions. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.165.217.197 ( talk) 21:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC).
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 |
Why does it say gaining weight after menopause can increase a woman or man's risk of contracting breast cancer? Surely men don't go through menopause...
I don't want to get into an edit war over mentions of breast cancer in men. I removed the phrase "which can occur in both men and women" in the article's first sentence, and it was re-inserted. I have left it there, but changed the order to "women and men". There have been numerous additions to this article over time mentioning breast cancer in men--some of these have clearly been vandalism, others were likely well-meaning, but were removed because they appeared to over-emphasize or over-state the risk and prevalence in men. If anyone disagrees, could we please discuss it here before making wholesale changes? Sfmammamia 23:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
I would like to make a case for expanded consideration of breast cancer in men. It is not my intent to obscure the fact that breast cancer is primarily a women's health issue. In a nutshell, the problem comes from three facts. First, breast cancer is much more common in women. Secondly, breast cancer is still a significant issue in men. Finally, the disease is not distinguishable between men and women such that an interested person can simply add a "Breast Cancer in Men" article. The disease is the same; the gender differences lie in the epidemiology, social context, screening recommendations, etc.
The article is well-written with regards to the issue of breast cancer in men. With this issue, I think there are two important points. First, that breast cancer is much more common in women, and that hormonal influences over the person's life, as opposed to innate anatomic differences between males and females, likely plays the major role in this discrepancy. Secondly, breast cancer in men is still a serious issue. Although I don't object in general to the use of the term "rare" in reference to male breast cancer, especially in comparison to the female incidence, it should be noted that, by NIH criteria, breast cancer in men actually occurs too often to be considered a rare disease.
Although breast cancer is primarily a disease of women, and there are many women-specific issues (screening mammography, advocacy groups, etc.), the disease itself has no gender. This is in contrast to cancer of the cervix, prostate, etc. Breast cancer in men, although very uncommon in comparison to women, is not insignificant. It is certainly not some sort of bizarre medical anomaly, like a case from the TV show House; it is not even a rare disease by the epidemiological definition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.61.185.126 ( talk) 18:22, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
The article seems very messy to me, it could be more consice, more layman friendly. In relation to male breast cancer the article says "Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females...", breast tissue in males isn't the same as in females post-puberty (at risk of carcinoma). Male breast tissue has ducts but no lobules/acini. Nkosi69 ( talk) 01:23, 4 May 2008 (UTC) Nkosi69 02:21 4th May 2008
I would suggest a separate wikipedia article on male breast cancer ala http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/male_bc/index.jsp. 24.8.37.91 ( talk) 03:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
The subject of the article is "Breast Cancer". The point of this website is to convey information. A piece of information regarding the subject "Breast Cancer" is that men get it. The benefit of withholding that information from people researching the subject "Breast Cancer" does not appear to me. When my mother told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer I came here to discover information about the disease. If my father told me he had been diagnosed with breast cancer I would come here to discover information as well. If in the article titled "Breast Cancer" I found no information pertaining to males I would be dissatisfied. Chances are I would dig deeper and come across this thread of argument. I would be appalled to find what is written above. I would be even more appalled to find that people admittedly actively removed factual information from the article because, in their opinions, that information negatively impacted its flavor. Facts are facts. A commensurate omission would be: failing to mention Washington D.C. in an article titled "The United States of America" because Washington D.C. is only one small feature of the entity "The United States of America" and studies indicate that the percentage of land area it occupies is slight in comparison to other states. A commensurate thread of argument to follow such an omission would be a conversation about how California is more important because it's one of the REAL United States of America. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.186.187.251 ( talk) 17:33, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
I excised this portion from the epidemiology:genetics section. It's too technical for this article.
A recent publication in the Journal of Nucleic Acids Research shows that the ’ BRCA1 and ’ NBR2’’’ genes are directly connected by a bi-directional promoter. The promoter is found in a CpG island that is constitutively methylated as a means to silence the gene(s). In addition to being methylated, these genes have specific methyl binding domain proteins that they are associated with - namely MBD2. Through Western blots, ChIP analyses, and siRNA knockdowns, it was determined that MBD2 binds specifically to the BRCA1-NBR2 locus. In addition, if MBD2 is removed and unable to bind to the BRCA1-NBR2 promoter, no other methyl binding domain proteins will bind to this locus. There is no "rescue" by other MBD proteins. The high fidelity of binding and the specificity of MBD proteins have important implications in understanding the mechanism of breast cancer, and subsequent treatment approaches.
-- Dr.michael.benjamin 06:36, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
I cut this section off the main page. It appears to have been written by this breastcancerfund.org, and is POV and unsubstantiated. It should live on the discussion page, if at all, or consider a separate page entirely.
Fewer than 20 percent of breast cancers are genetic. When all known risk factors and characteristics are added together, including family history, genetics, smoking and obesity, more than 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained. [2] According to State of the Evidence 2006 - What Is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer?”, a report which reviews and analyzes nearly 350 journal-published scientific studies on environmental links to breast cancer:
The Breast Cancer Fund suggests the following environmental prevention methods:
-- Dr.michael.benjamin 20:54, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Molecular Diagnosis of Breast Cancer
I am also removing this section, since it doesn't report any existing information. Like Jimmy says, it may be reportable at some point, just not right now. Wikipedia is not a forum for news per se; it's a repository of knowledge. There are a lot of studies right now describing the genomic differences between cancer and no cancer, but there aren't a lot of products on the market for doctors and patients. We should focus on what's actually out there, rather than what a company says they might do at some point.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 05:44, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
OncoDetect (www. oncodetect.com) is an early-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a diagnostic assay for cancer. Preliminary research has shown the potential to use a combination of markers as a breast cancer diagnostic tool. The company is seeking to develop a molecular diagnostic assay. This assay will identify the presence or likelihood of breast cancer through measurement of markers in blood that are also expressed in malignant tumors to identify individuals at high risk to develop breast cancer. OncoDetect will develop molecular technique based diagnostic assay kits to accurately diagnose the presence and/or likelihood of breast cancer by determining the unique pattern of expression using a variety of gene markers. Research by Dr. Khanna has demonstrated the following results significant to the development of breast cancer diagnostic assays: Application of standard PCR techniques to malignant and non-malignant tissues from 50 human breast tissue pairs has confirmed the statistically significant difference in expression of molecular and protein markers between diseased and non-diseased states. (Results for Mammaglobin B, PPAR-alpha, PPAR-gamma, MMP-9, Skp2, TNF-alpha and TIMP-2.) Correlation of Mammaglobin B in breast tissues and lymphocytes of patients known to have malignant breast cancer (based on 25 tissue/lymphocyte pairs) indicates that mammaglobin B levels can be detected in blood samples, not only tissue samples requiring biopsy. Low concentrations of Mammaglobin B in the lymphocytes can be amplified using 10 to 40 PCR cycles, greatly lowering the detection threshold. Correlation of multiple molecular markers with in tissue and lymphocytes demonstrates the feasibility of a non-invasive blood based molecular diagnostic test for breast cancer
I beefed up the symptoms section and took out the "expand-me" tag. The symptoms section is exhaustive now, but not all that relevant, since probably 90% of breast cancers are diagnosed by mammography at this point, not symptoms.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 04:27, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Please don't post linkspam in the links section. This article should be based on evidence based medicine, not quackery.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 04:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
The Table of Contents of this article is quite large and rambling, with some stubby sections; it may be instructive to review WP:MEDMOS and recent featured articles like Tuberculosis, Influenza, and Tourette syndrome. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 05:04, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
The article is a strange one: it has 87 (!) references in the list, yet many paragraphs and sections don't have them at all. The lead doesn't provide a meaningful summary of the article, it only discusses cancer rates. The article is patchy and difficult to read. It should be focused on the main causes, treatments,etc. All other short subsections should be grouped in ones like "Other causes", "Other treatments". The authors shouldn't attempt to write something about everything and instead try to select the core knowledge about the breast cancer and write a well sourced shorter article. Ruslik 13:22, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
I agree, the reference section is a too large; heck it is large enough to be it's own article. There are several statements that have more than one reference, is this really necessary? I also think that Ruslik's comment about grouping the shorter subsections is a good idea. Markco1 20:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
While it is recognised that a healthy diet may prevent breast cancer, this study finds that once cancer has developed, adopting such a diet does not alter prognosis. JFW | T@lk 21:51, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
I addded the technical tag to this article because, a couple of sections in particular are quite dense. Selective Estrogen receptors under prevention is quite bad, and shows that it was pulled from very technical sources, and doesn't give context for a broad audience. Treatment also has several sections that become quite dense. For example, under indications for radiation the lines Patients with <4 LN involved, but extension out of the substance of a LN and Inadequate numbers of axillary LN sampled are quite difficult. Optigan13 02:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
I read an interesting interview with an artist who had a mastectomy in an online magazine. Her way of dealing with this was to not have reconstructive surgery but to have a tattoo where the breast was removed. It is an extremely touching story. lovely magazine I thought about posting this to external links but did not want to do so without the ok from the group. The issue has other breast cancer stories in it as well. Markco1 —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 22:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
In my area, there's a common belief that breast cancer is the leading illness affecting and/or the leading illness killing women. Some reading I did on the issue indicated that it's heart disease, not breast cancer, that both affects and kills the most women. Is the above-mentioned belief common? Am I right that such a belief would be mistaken? And is this worth noting in the article? — NRen2k5 13:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
The feminist POV slant here is astounding. I don’t even know where to start editing. On the other hand, I wouldn’t trust them not to try to drag my name through the mud once I get started. — NRen2k5, 20:03, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Optigan13 has done some very good work bringing this article down to a manageable length. I'm starting a discussion session to encourage further comment on the article's current state. My own comments: Regarding further splits, I don't think it's necessary to split the Classification section, as it's fairly short. Ditto the Staging section -- this is pretty basic information for a cancer article and is pretty compact. I think the Screening section, now that the split has been done, could benefit from further summarizing and condensing in this overview article. Other comments? -- Sfmammamia 18:20, 13 October 2007 (UTC)
The National Breast Cancer Coalition seems to think the idea that eating fruits and vegetables will prevent breast cancer is a popular myth not supported by scientific evidence. [5] The sources in the Folate section are not strong; they are journal articles describing individual studies, which are not necessarily a good indication of whether or not there is scientific consensus to support the results of the studies. Can anyone reconcile these competing claims? -- Beland 02:13, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
A quick note concerning folate & cancer risk - it has been suggested by studies examining the relationship between folate supplement consumption and colon cancer that perhaps folate only reduces the risk up to a certain level of folate use; since we now supplement so many foods with folate, as long as you're not overwhelming your system with alcohol, additional folate might not make a difference. I'm off to look for the citations both from the colon cancer study, and for any I find on breast cancer. I'll post them here when I find them.~~Ruth Feb 12 2008
I think this would fit better in the Epidemiology and etiology of Breast cancer article, but could we at least keep one sentence in this main article? futurebird 19:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
The issue of racism is raised in a number of papers published in peer reviewed journals. Of course, it is still an open question, but there's nothing inflammatory about discussing exactly what is meant by "racism," as the quote does.
There are good data supporting the concept that inherent or genetic differences are not the reasons that blacks have higher breast cancer mortality rates than whites. The most obvious evidence is the fact that there was no disparity in mortality between blacks and whites in the United States before 1980. It is distressing that Bradley and colleagues (2) found that, after adjusting for age, socioeconomic status, and insurance coverage, black women diagnosed with breast cancer were less likely to receive surgical removal of their tumors than white women.... It is a sad statement that race influences one's chances of obtaining adequate medical care. In the United States, it is bad to have cancer; it is worse to be poor and have cancer; and it is even worse to be poor, black, and have cancer....Results of several breast cancer clinical trials demonstrate that equal treatment yields equal outcomes among equal patients (14–16). Other institution-specific treatment series demonstrate that outcomes are similar among the races when there is equal treatment (17–19). These findings, taken together with the fact that the racial disparity in mortality began in 1981, are consistent with the hypothesis that as we have learned how to treat breast cancer, a larger proportion of one segment of the population (the middle and upper class, which is primarily white) is receiving better (or more effective) treatment than are other segments of the population. Disaggregating the Effects of Race and Poverty on Breast Cancer Outcomes by Otis W. Brawley. ( JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002 94(7):471-473; doi:10.1093/jnci/94.7.471 )
Others:
Targeted review on the origins and evolution of breast cancer: doi: 10.1172/JCI33295 JFW | T@lk 00:29, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
Can I ask why the segment about breast cancer in men was deleted, it should remain in the article because it is a fact. -- 88.108.100.139 ( talk) 02:12, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
it is known by all with some form of intelligence that prostate cancer kills more men a year than breast cancer kills women..so why does the page state that it is the fifth most common cause of cancer death .. breast cancer is not exclusive to women so we simply cant make this page exclusive no matter what the statistics. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PotentiallyMensa ( talk • contribs) 16:06, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
Breast ultrasound and gamma imaging aren't screening techniques, they're used for surgical guidance. They've been marked as not having sources since October 2007. Isn't it time to delete them (unless someone can supply sources)? And Miraluma has even weaker justification. Nbauman ( talk) 15:32, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
I think this section should be pruned. Some of it isn’t relevant or specific to breast cancer. — NRen2k5, 20:22, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Image:BCtimeline.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems because it is a suspected copyright violation. The source listed is http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/, but no specific journal is listed. I tagged it as possibly needing to be converted to an SVG, which is why someone noticed the licensing issue. In order to create a new image without it being a pure reproduction of that image. Can anyone provide similar images or references so if someone creates a new image that isn't derivative of that specific work alone. I've done a quick try on google, but haven't done an exhaustive search myself.
Also, reliable overview references for some sections of this article would probably help for citations and to trim more language back out into the sub-topic articles. I had initially planned to do a proper lit review for overview sources to help reduce the screening article into something of an abstract of the sub-article, and also to better source the treatment section and its article, but I've yet to follow through with that. I think the longer these two spend without the short sections here the higher the chance of differing data/information. - Optigan13 ( talk) 18:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
I posted this comment on the Talk:Epidemiology and etiology of breast cancer page a couple of days ago, but no one responded. So, I thought I'd try this page.
One very plausible theory that explains the world-wide epidemiology of breast cancer has to do with the use of bras. Please see this link as well as the long discussion on the brassiere talk page. I know this is controversial but I think it deserves to be mentioned in the article. -- Jonathan108 ( talk) 01:41, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Assuming that that this breast cancer page is of particular interest to women with breast cancer, it seems to me that this is not the place to have a section on what is basically quackery. Women with breast cancer have enough to deal with already and the last thing they need is to have to contend with this sort of false and misleading rubbish. I propose removing this section on Alternative Treatment, perhaps leaving flax seed in a newly titled section Experimental or New Treatment Undergoing Assessment.-- Kenneth Cooke ( talk) 12:38, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
The Subsection "Pathological types" of the "Classification section is too long, inappropriate and misleading. It is not in fact a list of pathological types of breast cancer; rather it is a list of breast tumours. Tumour means any sort of lump and this term includes breast cancers (malignant breast tumours), or non cancerous lumps (benign breast tumours such as fibroadenomas). This list also includes benign and malignant tumours or cancers which are not particularly unique to the breast and which are more likely to occur elsewhere in the body such as most sarcomas, leimyomas( more often found in stomach or intestine), neurofibromas(usually in skin or spine) and lipomas(found almost anywhere). I suggest it be replaced by a list including only cancers (malignant tumours) which are either unique to the breast or more commonly found in the breast than elsewhere. I suggest a short list such as at Cancer Reasearch UK or at US National Cancer Institute.-- Kenneth Cooke ( talk) 11:51, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
User:Smg2008 has done nothing but create an article DVS: Dose verification system, about a proprietary system by Sicel Technologies. See Special:Contributions/Smg2008.
Shortly after, Special:Contributions/96.234.60.75 linked to DVS: Dose verification system from Breast cancer and prostate cancer.
DVS: Dose verification system doesn't cite a single published study, or even a meeting report; it merely links to the company's web site, which gives preliminary data from a non-published study which doesn't even identify a single investigator. The rest of the entry is padded with generic bullshit about breast and prostate cancer.
I would bet money that DVS: Dose verification system was created by someone with the company (the tipoff is the ® sign; company lawyers require companies with registered products to use the registration mark every time they mention the name).
DVS is a clever device, but it has no clinical use right now. It certainly doesn't belong in a general article about breast cancer for the non-specialist. I wonder why DVS: Dose verification system belongs in Wikipedia at all. I don't think it meets WP:NOTABLE, unless every clever gadget is notable.
I don't want to piss on somebody else's parade, but I am annoyed at the covert way they created an article in apparent violation of WP:COI and several other WP good-faith rules. We've had enough of that lately.
My first inclination is that DVS: Dose verification system is about a non-notable product, created by the company itself, and should be deleted, along with the references to it in Breast cancer and Prostate cancer. How do other people feel about it? Nbauman ( talk) 00:09, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
I see that someone has proposed merging inflammatory breast cancer into this article. I would tend to argue against such a merger. This (main) article should offer an overview of breast cancer (diagnosis, types, treatments, etc.), and subarticles should exist – or be created – to expand on concepts introduced here. (See Wikipedia:Summary style). In the same way that we have subarticles on topics like ductal carcinomas, inflammatory breast cancer is a reasonable, interesting, and well-documented type of breast cancer on which we ought to (continue to) grow a separate, more-detailed article. TenOfAllTrades( talk) 01:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
Why is there little or no mention of this, it's supposed to be an encyclopaedic article so it should mention more about the thousands of men that get diagnosed worldwide with it. In any case- the article should be better gender neutralised. I myself am male and had a breast cancer scare 2 years ago and finding this article in this state is very demeening to the men that are suffering from it - please sort it out. -- 88.108.34.230 ( talk) 22:16, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Breast cancer staging would be better in its own article, particularly as is is comprised mostly of lists. Have a look at non-small cell lung carcinoma staging. Ditto pathological sub-types. Axl ( talk) 13:37, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
There is misleading information...... In the US, both incidence and death rates for breast cancer have been declining in the last few years.[10][9] Nevertheless, a US study conducted in 2005 by the Society for Women's Health Research indicated that breast cancer remains the most feared disease,[11] even though heart disease is a much more common cause of death among women.[12]
It states that there is a decrease in incidence and death rates etc. in the last few years. But the article to back it up only covers (or atleast to my attention span) American Indians and Alaska Natives. Not for nothing the sources states American Indians? To my understanding its Native Americas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikesta21 ( talk • contribs) 20:53, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
This article is kind of a mess -- too technical for a general article, but not split well (the information from the splits was also left in the main article). I'm going to do my best to work on it section by section to make it a useful reference for the casual reader as well as medically accurate -- and don't worry, I'll add back in references. It would probably also help if we had some broad, general references for a "further reading" section -- most patients can't be expected to track down, or understand, many of these medical articles. -- phoebe / ( talk to me) 06:33, 4 September 2008 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 |
Does anyone have any idea why this particular cancer is so emphasised in the news?
This article badly needs a rewrite, and some of these "risk factors" seem really dodgy, at least the way they're explained.
"Overall, it has been estimated that women have about a 1 in 10 lifetime risk of developing breast cancer."
I do not understand this 1 in 10 lifetime risk. Does it not contradict these stats from http://www.breastcancer.org/cmn_who_indrisk.html
I am not very good with stats so I won't dare edit.
Also was surprised by the figure. What Alex.tan is saying is that the conditional probability of having had breast cancer, given a person lives to age 90, is 12.5%. Ankur's data would imply that the conditional probability of getting breast cancer if you live to 79 is a bit over 7% (7%+a little bit extra for the previous categories) and lower if you live to a lower age. Since I think average life expectancy is in the 70s this is consistent with an overall lifetime risk of some 6-8%, roughly. I poked a bit on the web and found a figure of 8% at AAFP. They also say the chance of dying of breast cancer is 3.6%.
I think this means the 1 in 10 figure currently in this article is perhaps a bit high, but not too much. I'll leave any other hunting of data and/or editing to regular contributors to this article. Martinp 20:48, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
does someone want to do a writeup on breast cancer screening, mammography, epidemiology, etc. for this? Alex.tan 07:27 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- "More than 99% of cases occur in women, but men can also develop breast cancer (the relative risk of developing breast cancer in a female versus a male is more than 100" - isn't this just saying the same thing twice?
- "Breast cancer can be detected by a woman when washing, by her partner during foreplay" - is this serious? I can't tell. Maybe a rewording is in order.
GGano 23:15, 29 Sep 2003 (UTC)
"More than 99% of cases occur in women, but men can also develop breast cancer (the relative risk of developing breast cancer in a female versus a male is more than 100" - isn't this just saying the same thing twice?
Pete attempted to merge the inflammatory breast cancer article, but ended up pasting its whole content. I reverted; while this info certainly belongs in this article, it should be interwoven with the regular breast cancer information. Staging, for example, is no different. JFW | T@lk 23:58, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The clinical TNM staging system is listed here. But operative treatment, adjuvant therapy and prognosis depend on the pathological tumor staging (pTNM). This differs from the clinical TNM system in the N (node) category. To avoid confusion with the rather complicated definitions of clinical and pathological TNM, I would suggest that only stage groups are listed, like here: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/cancer/breast/bcancer.test.stage.htm 00:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
InvictaHOG has repeatedly removed an external link, and I have repeatedly added it back, to Keeping Abreast: Dedicated to providing only the most interesting Breast Cancer News links and sumaries. There is no good reason for removing it. This is a legitimate news blog and is quite helpful. It was very helpful to my wife, and many of the breast cancer patients and survivors she interacts with on her BC forums have commented on its quality and relevance.
InvictaHOG initially removed the link with the comment "First page of blog link has article about the mistletoe cure. I'd rather not have this here." That is not only terribly biased, it is reactionary. Yes, that article appeared as the most current post (top of the page) -- on Christmas Day, which added somewhat of a "cute" flavor to it -- but it linked to a legitimate news story, not to some website that offered weird alternative cures or something. Had InvictaHOG read the article, s/he would have seen that. And had InvictaHOG actually looked through a fair sampling of the other news items on the front page and in the archives, s/he would have seen that that article was not in any way common for this blog.
I am adding the link back now, and InvictaHOG will need to provide a reasoned explanation here to convince me not to do so again.
InvictaHOG, I do appreciate your vast contributions to Wikipedia. That is not somehing I can claim for myself. But I think you are being very unreasonable, reactionary, and biased here. - TaintedAzure —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.243.210.226 ( talk • contribs) .
I understand your concerns, InvictaHOG, and I understand the concerns about blogs in the discussion Andre73 pointed to. There certainly are hundreds of sites about Breast Cancer out there, and the article wouldn't benefit from links to all of them. To be honest, I'm waffling on this after reading both of your comments, but I still am leaning toward this blog's inclusion, and here is why:
Breast Cancer patients will turn to Wikipedia for information about Breast Cancer. The article itself is very useful and very well written as a beginning educational resource. However, there are a couple of other types of resources breast cancer patients look for, and they do not know where to find them, or even to look for them. For instance, many breast cancer patients would love to find local support groups where they can get together with other patients and survivors. To my knowledge, there is no online resource that attempts to pull info on such local support groups together. However, patients and survivors also benefit from active online forums -- my wife has benefited beyond description from interacting with her "breast friends" at Healing Well's Breast Cancer forum, for example.
And another type of resource sought after by both patients and survivors alike is news related to the disease. "News," of course, can mean a whole lot of things. Most of the sites that pull together breast cancer "news" articles are either very popular-level (with the effect that they can mislead a seeker), are extremely biased in what they report (with the effect that they exclude some important or relevant information because it doesn't promote their agenda), or overly scholarly (with the effect that they are too difficult or inaccessible to the average patient). Yet someone who is dealing with cancer will want to be able to keep up with the goings on in breast cancer oncology. They'll want to know about research that is being conducted, clinical trials that are available, new medicines and procedures that are or may soon be available, old methods that are being supplanted by new ones, and a broad range of other "news" items. The Keeping Abreast news blog seems to do just that. Better than any I've yet found, it links to articles that touch the typical patient where s/he is. It claims to link to the "most interesting" news items, which appears to mean most interesting to the patient. Not all of the links are medical in nature -- it occasionally reports on "social" issues such as the controversy over whether European governments would provide Herceptin to survivors. The blog does not attempt to report news, just alert those interested to new items available elsewhere in a timely fashion. Nor does the blog appear to link to commercial interests. Basically, I'm saying what I already said -- it seems to meet typical breast cancer patients at the right level and with the right topics. It certainly does not attempt to provide much useful to the clinician or scientist in the field.
Does this sort of think belong in Wikipedia? I believe so. The encyclopedia article portion is not the place to include cutting edge or controversial or societal or "news" issues. Rather, it is a place to provide long-established knowledge about Breast Cancer. But in my mind, Wikipedia as a resource benefits greatly from also providing carefully selected external links to other types or resources (such as news) that are tangential to its purpose. -- TaintedAzure
Nice resource, but it isn't a source for news. It serves a different purpose than Keeping Abreast. --TaintedAzure
i did i project on breast cancer. it was fun. i am 3 years old. i love juice :) i love you :) go to peteranswers.com :)
Does anyone know if the ICD-10 code C50 includes both female and male breast cancers? (unsigned comment, 1/3/2005)
Is any body else scared of breast cancer out there.
The current section for Adjuvant treatment seems to be a bit dificult to follow. The section almost reads as if some of the treatments (chemo and hormonal) are mutually exclusive. The second statement almost seems to imply that chemo isn't waranted in cases where lymph nodes weren't positive, however my understanding is that chemo depends on the size of the tumor as well as lymph node status. As I am not a doctor I'd like some input before editing this section. A possible rearrangement might include the following changes:
Enterkin 01:34, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
Any suggestions here? Enterkin 23:00, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
Presently, the abortion article ( Abortion#Breast_cancer) has a section about breast cancer. That and an entire article Abortion-breast_cancer_hypothesis could use some context from breast cancer Wikipedians as opposed to people simply seeking to promote their abortion POV.
I set up talk space for it Talk:Abortion#Breast_Cancer_bias, but feel free to rewrite away.-- Pro-Lick 21:35, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
Pro-Lick is transparently a pro-choice POV warrior; and as the mention "revert so often" indicates is more interested in getting their way than helping to write an encyclopedia. - Roy Boy 800 15:54, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
The Daling interview studies and moreover the Howe cohort, and the positive results within the Melbye study are reliable sources; as they are peer reviewed scientific studies. Daling checked for response bias found none; of course bias could exist and remain in her research. The problem is it has yet to be shown response bias is a statistically significant confounding factor in any ABC interview based study. It is a (as yet) unsubstantiated criticism (I'll point out ahead of time I know it response and selection bias exists, but what I'm questioning is its statistical significance); and hence does not magically make positive results in interview based studies ignorable. - Roy Boy 800 02:09, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
The American Cancer Society published a report called Can Having an Abortion Cause or Contribute to Breast Cancer?. It concluded:
Hiya Andrew73. Thanks for your edits there, but I don't agree with them.
Also expanding the ABC mention itself in this article; makes it seem more important than it currently is. If we go back to my version, it is a minor side note. Maybe changing unestablished to hypothesized would be best. Is that alright with you? - Roy Boy 800 03:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
The reference provided in support of the claim that recent large studies support an association between breast cancer and abortion says exactly the opposite: "Several studies have provided very strong data that induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer. Also, there is no evidence of a direct relationship between breast cancer and spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) in most of the studies that have been published. Scientists invited to participate in a conference on abortion and breast cancer by the National Cancer Institute (February 2003) concluded that there was no relationship. A recent report of 83,000 women with breast cancer found no link to a previous abortion, either spontaneous (stillbirth) or induced." Perhaps the original text was a typo - I've amended it. If not, another source is needed. -- 203.97.252.91 00:08, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
It has been said on an online forum (via email) that breast cancer is caused by exposure artificial light. True or false?-- 陈 鼎 翔 说! 贡献 Chat with Tdxiang on IRC! 10:09, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
This section doesn't seem notable enough to belong in this article...it seems to serve as a repository for link spams and attempts at self-promotion of blogs. Andrew73 17:39, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
The new prevention section for high risk patients, reminded me that some high risk patients even opt for propholactic mastectomy. If someone knows a good reference, it might add to the completeness of the article.-- Technicaltechy 20:50, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
See WP:V, WP:CITE and WP:RS. Yesterday I putted a "unreferenced" tag which was immediately deleted. So, this is supposed to be a scientific article addressing a wide audience. We certainly need references for statistics and for almost everything. Since I'm sure pretty much of the editors here have a scientific background, this shouldn't be too difficult to provide. And it would make the article something on which we could rely on. If references are not introduced, than just any crack-head can put whatever he want, and we will just have to trust other editors struggles against silly or outlandish claims. I don't trust Wikipedia on sight, so I do think this article is totally unreferenced. Furthermore, without moving the passage here, I find this quite strange:
"Some ethnic groups have a higher risk of developing breast cancer - notably, women of European and African descent have been noted to have a higher rate of breast cancer than women of Asian origin [1]. However, these apparent racial differences diminish when geography is altered, as Asian women migrating to the western world, gradually acquire risk approaching that of western women."
I assume that this means that it is wrong than Asian ethnic groups have a higher risk of cancer! So why put it in the first place? Isn't it rather about food diet and such different mores, that are lost when they live in an Western environment? Then we could write this. Sorry for asking for sources, but if you look at political articles or even things like the Chernobyl disaster, you will see how sources are provided. I remind you that if no sources is provided, any editor, including me, has the right under Wikipedia policy to delete it on sight. Why should I believe things on race, alcohol, or percentages that come out of thin air? Unreferenced statistics is just... too much! Lapaz 17:39, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
ps:Please don't take offense, this is totally normal. Again, see WP:RS. Lapaz 17:41, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Lapaz, if you look at {{ unreferenced}}, it is quite clear this template should be either at the bottom of the article or on the talkpage (There is currently no consensus about where to place this template; most suggest either the bottom of the article page (in an empty 'References' section), or on the article's talk page). This is why I removed it.
I totally agree that this article needs sources. Google is your friend. Unreferenced statistics are indeed absolute evil&tm;. I would not disagree with their targeted removal. Alternatively, you can put {{ fact}} behind the more outrageous claims, so readers will understand that no source has yet been made available for them. JFW | T@lk 23:19, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
I changed the citation tag to the fact that it was backing up, and therefore put this strange and contradictory passage here, till source provide back-up and explanation (see also comments on section immediately above):
"Some ethnic groups have a higher risk of developing breast cancer - notably, women of European and African descent have been noted to have a higher rate of breast cancer than women of Asian origin. However, these apparent racial differences diminish when geography is altered, as Asian women migrating to the western world, gradually acquire risk approaching that of western women."
This means that it is wrong than Asian ethnic groups have a higher risk of cancer! isn't it rather about food diet and such different mores, that are lost when they live in an Western environment? In any cases, either this is true, and source can be found, either it's whatever, and i don't think whatever goes about race issues. Lapaz 01:45, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
I was looking for some history remarks on the diagnosis, treatment, and discoveries for breast cancer. For example, the earliest known cases of breast cancer I know of is from the Etruscans who used votives to ask the gods for mercy on health issues. They formed body parts from terracotta illustrating the health problem, and many breasts, complete with visible tumors, were found in votive pits (I saw these at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam) Jane 20:22, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
This nomination is on hold for 7 days for these issues: Reference section is ABOVE two article text sections, references are not properly formatted--they need to be in a single (cite php) format, refernces are a mix of external jumps and inline citations--all should be in inline citations, and the citation tags need to be taken care of with proper references. Rlevse 21:29, 9 July 2006 (UTC)...There are also several fact tags.
There see to be quite a lot. Any that are particularly valuable per the guideline? - brenneman {L} 11:54, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
it's not exactly "preclinical"--please note that the research being done in toronto is not "nutritional prevention"--what they are finding is that flax has treatment potential, as it not only shrinks extant tumor tissue but enhances effect of tamoxifen. Cindery 21:11, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
so? the artificial light study is still at preliminary stage but was worth including. (also--i think there have been two more human studies--sweden, maybe? will look it up.) i agree obviously it needs more study, but should definitely be mentioned/not quite exactly "pre-clinical." Cindery 23:15, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
At the top of the article, it states the incidence as "one out of twelve or thirteen". Under "Age", it states it as "one in seven". In both places, it says that this statistics is for women who live to be 90. I have added a contradiction tag to the "Age" section. -- Strait 23:49, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
This statistic seems like one make to try to confuse and distort the truth. First off percentages are much more common than fractions and easier to understand and why does it only count women that reach 90 in the western world?. I also checked the reference and it does not seem to support this statistic either.
Worldwide, it is the most common form of cancer in females, affecting, at some time in their lives, approximately one out of nine to thirteen women who reach age ninety in the Western world. This statistic is just bad, why not make it 100% of women and men that get breast cancer get breast cancer? -- 222.152.90.4 22:25, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I have moved the following from the section on male breast cancer: Since the psychological effects of this surgery are just as great for males as for females, experimental surgery has been started to introduce the lumpectomy for males. This looks highly doubtful. The psychological relevance of the breasts is very different among the sexes. Unless properly referenced, this should not stay. 91.64.30.198 12:17, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Under 'Screening' I read (emph. mine):
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to detect cancers that are not visible on mammograms, but it has several disadvantages. For example, although it is 27-36% more sensitive, it is im hot age that is 10 years less than the age at which the relative was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I'm pretty sure that's Vandalism! I've been thinking about what the original text was but I was actually coming to this page to look for info, so I have no idea! Anybody know? Also, who put that in there - Wikibot hasn't spot it?
---BREAST CANCER--- breast cancer is a really bad thing.If you havr breast cancer and you don't go to a doctor you may died or something migth happend to you.the way that you will know if you are in risk of breast cancer if you are around 62 years old,if you are a women(men are still able to get breast cancer), if you are a tall women,and if you are an alcohol person.A way to prebent breast cancer is by not being over weight.this a lot of stuff you can know about breast cancer if what to know more information you can go to yahoo,google,wikipedia,or to ask.com and they will answer all your questions. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.165.217.197 ( talk) 21:04, 5 February 2007 (UTC).
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | Archive 4 |
Why does it say gaining weight after menopause can increase a woman or man's risk of contracting breast cancer? Surely men don't go through menopause...
I don't want to get into an edit war over mentions of breast cancer in men. I removed the phrase "which can occur in both men and women" in the article's first sentence, and it was re-inserted. I have left it there, but changed the order to "women and men". There have been numerous additions to this article over time mentioning breast cancer in men--some of these have clearly been vandalism, others were likely well-meaning, but were removed because they appeared to over-emphasize or over-state the risk and prevalence in men. If anyone disagrees, could we please discuss it here before making wholesale changes? Sfmammamia 23:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
I would like to make a case for expanded consideration of breast cancer in men. It is not my intent to obscure the fact that breast cancer is primarily a women's health issue. In a nutshell, the problem comes from three facts. First, breast cancer is much more common in women. Secondly, breast cancer is still a significant issue in men. Finally, the disease is not distinguishable between men and women such that an interested person can simply add a "Breast Cancer in Men" article. The disease is the same; the gender differences lie in the epidemiology, social context, screening recommendations, etc.
The article is well-written with regards to the issue of breast cancer in men. With this issue, I think there are two important points. First, that breast cancer is much more common in women, and that hormonal influences over the person's life, as opposed to innate anatomic differences between males and females, likely plays the major role in this discrepancy. Secondly, breast cancer in men is still a serious issue. Although I don't object in general to the use of the term "rare" in reference to male breast cancer, especially in comparison to the female incidence, it should be noted that, by NIH criteria, breast cancer in men actually occurs too often to be considered a rare disease.
Although breast cancer is primarily a disease of women, and there are many women-specific issues (screening mammography, advocacy groups, etc.), the disease itself has no gender. This is in contrast to cancer of the cervix, prostate, etc. Breast cancer in men, although very uncommon in comparison to women, is not insignificant. It is certainly not some sort of bizarre medical anomaly, like a case from the TV show House; it is not even a rare disease by the epidemiological definition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.61.185.126 ( talk) 18:22, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
The article seems very messy to me, it could be more consice, more layman friendly. In relation to male breast cancer the article says "Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females...", breast tissue in males isn't the same as in females post-puberty (at risk of carcinoma). Male breast tissue has ducts but no lobules/acini. Nkosi69 ( talk) 01:23, 4 May 2008 (UTC) Nkosi69 02:21 4th May 2008
I would suggest a separate wikipedia article on male breast cancer ala http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/male_bc/index.jsp. 24.8.37.91 ( talk) 03:57, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
The subject of the article is "Breast Cancer". The point of this website is to convey information. A piece of information regarding the subject "Breast Cancer" is that men get it. The benefit of withholding that information from people researching the subject "Breast Cancer" does not appear to me. When my mother told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer I came here to discover information about the disease. If my father told me he had been diagnosed with breast cancer I would come here to discover information as well. If in the article titled "Breast Cancer" I found no information pertaining to males I would be dissatisfied. Chances are I would dig deeper and come across this thread of argument. I would be appalled to find what is written above. I would be even more appalled to find that people admittedly actively removed factual information from the article because, in their opinions, that information negatively impacted its flavor. Facts are facts. A commensurate omission would be: failing to mention Washington D.C. in an article titled "The United States of America" because Washington D.C. is only one small feature of the entity "The United States of America" and studies indicate that the percentage of land area it occupies is slight in comparison to other states. A commensurate thread of argument to follow such an omission would be a conversation about how California is more important because it's one of the REAL United States of America. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.186.187.251 ( talk) 17:33, 10 August 2009 (UTC)
I excised this portion from the epidemiology:genetics section. It's too technical for this article.
A recent publication in the Journal of Nucleic Acids Research shows that the ’ BRCA1 and ’ NBR2’’’ genes are directly connected by a bi-directional promoter. The promoter is found in a CpG island that is constitutively methylated as a means to silence the gene(s). In addition to being methylated, these genes have specific methyl binding domain proteins that they are associated with - namely MBD2. Through Western blots, ChIP analyses, and siRNA knockdowns, it was determined that MBD2 binds specifically to the BRCA1-NBR2 locus. In addition, if MBD2 is removed and unable to bind to the BRCA1-NBR2 promoter, no other methyl binding domain proteins will bind to this locus. There is no "rescue" by other MBD proteins. The high fidelity of binding and the specificity of MBD proteins have important implications in understanding the mechanism of breast cancer, and subsequent treatment approaches.
-- Dr.michael.benjamin 06:36, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
I cut this section off the main page. It appears to have been written by this breastcancerfund.org, and is POV and unsubstantiated. It should live on the discussion page, if at all, or consider a separate page entirely.
Fewer than 20 percent of breast cancers are genetic. When all known risk factors and characteristics are added together, including family history, genetics, smoking and obesity, more than 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained. [2] According to State of the Evidence 2006 - What Is the Connection Between the Environment and Breast Cancer?”, a report which reviews and analyzes nearly 350 journal-published scientific studies on environmental links to breast cancer:
The Breast Cancer Fund suggests the following environmental prevention methods:
-- Dr.michael.benjamin 20:54, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Molecular Diagnosis of Breast Cancer
I am also removing this section, since it doesn't report any existing information. Like Jimmy says, it may be reportable at some point, just not right now. Wikipedia is not a forum for news per se; it's a repository of knowledge. There are a lot of studies right now describing the genomic differences between cancer and no cancer, but there aren't a lot of products on the market for doctors and patients. We should focus on what's actually out there, rather than what a company says they might do at some point.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 05:44, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
OncoDetect (www. oncodetect.com) is an early-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a diagnostic assay for cancer. Preliminary research has shown the potential to use a combination of markers as a breast cancer diagnostic tool. The company is seeking to develop a molecular diagnostic assay. This assay will identify the presence or likelihood of breast cancer through measurement of markers in blood that are also expressed in malignant tumors to identify individuals at high risk to develop breast cancer. OncoDetect will develop molecular technique based diagnostic assay kits to accurately diagnose the presence and/or likelihood of breast cancer by determining the unique pattern of expression using a variety of gene markers. Research by Dr. Khanna has demonstrated the following results significant to the development of breast cancer diagnostic assays: Application of standard PCR techniques to malignant and non-malignant tissues from 50 human breast tissue pairs has confirmed the statistically significant difference in expression of molecular and protein markers between diseased and non-diseased states. (Results for Mammaglobin B, PPAR-alpha, PPAR-gamma, MMP-9, Skp2, TNF-alpha and TIMP-2.) Correlation of Mammaglobin B in breast tissues and lymphocytes of patients known to have malignant breast cancer (based on 25 tissue/lymphocyte pairs) indicates that mammaglobin B levels can be detected in blood samples, not only tissue samples requiring biopsy. Low concentrations of Mammaglobin B in the lymphocytes can be amplified using 10 to 40 PCR cycles, greatly lowering the detection threshold. Correlation of multiple molecular markers with in tissue and lymphocytes demonstrates the feasibility of a non-invasive blood based molecular diagnostic test for breast cancer
I beefed up the symptoms section and took out the "expand-me" tag. The symptoms section is exhaustive now, but not all that relevant, since probably 90% of breast cancers are diagnosed by mammography at this point, not symptoms.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 04:27, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
Please don't post linkspam in the links section. This article should be based on evidence based medicine, not quackery.-- Dr.michael.benjamin 04:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
The Table of Contents of this article is quite large and rambling, with some stubby sections; it may be instructive to review WP:MEDMOS and recent featured articles like Tuberculosis, Influenza, and Tourette syndrome. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 05:04, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
The article is a strange one: it has 87 (!) references in the list, yet many paragraphs and sections don't have them at all. The lead doesn't provide a meaningful summary of the article, it only discusses cancer rates. The article is patchy and difficult to read. It should be focused on the main causes, treatments,etc. All other short subsections should be grouped in ones like "Other causes", "Other treatments". The authors shouldn't attempt to write something about everything and instead try to select the core knowledge about the breast cancer and write a well sourced shorter article. Ruslik 13:22, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
I agree, the reference section is a too large; heck it is large enough to be it's own article. There are several statements that have more than one reference, is this really necessary? I also think that Ruslik's comment about grouping the shorter subsections is a good idea. Markco1 20:31, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
While it is recognised that a healthy diet may prevent breast cancer, this study finds that once cancer has developed, adopting such a diet does not alter prognosis. JFW | T@lk 21:51, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
I addded the technical tag to this article because, a couple of sections in particular are quite dense. Selective Estrogen receptors under prevention is quite bad, and shows that it was pulled from very technical sources, and doesn't give context for a broad audience. Treatment also has several sections that become quite dense. For example, under indications for radiation the lines Patients with <4 LN involved, but extension out of the substance of a LN and Inadequate numbers of axillary LN sampled are quite difficult. Optigan13 02:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
I read an interesting interview with an artist who had a mastectomy in an online magazine. Her way of dealing with this was to not have reconstructive surgery but to have a tattoo where the breast was removed. It is an extremely touching story. lovely magazine I thought about posting this to external links but did not want to do so without the ok from the group. The issue has other breast cancer stories in it as well. Markco1 —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 22:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
In my area, there's a common belief that breast cancer is the leading illness affecting and/or the leading illness killing women. Some reading I did on the issue indicated that it's heart disease, not breast cancer, that both affects and kills the most women. Is the above-mentioned belief common? Am I right that such a belief would be mistaken? And is this worth noting in the article? — NRen2k5 13:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
The feminist POV slant here is astounding. I don’t even know where to start editing. On the other hand, I wouldn’t trust them not to try to drag my name through the mud once I get started. — NRen2k5, 20:03, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Optigan13 has done some very good work bringing this article down to a manageable length. I'm starting a discussion session to encourage further comment on the article's current state. My own comments: Regarding further splits, I don't think it's necessary to split the Classification section, as it's fairly short. Ditto the Staging section -- this is pretty basic information for a cancer article and is pretty compact. I think the Screening section, now that the split has been done, could benefit from further summarizing and condensing in this overview article. Other comments? -- Sfmammamia 18:20, 13 October 2007 (UTC)
The National Breast Cancer Coalition seems to think the idea that eating fruits and vegetables will prevent breast cancer is a popular myth not supported by scientific evidence. [5] The sources in the Folate section are not strong; they are journal articles describing individual studies, which are not necessarily a good indication of whether or not there is scientific consensus to support the results of the studies. Can anyone reconcile these competing claims? -- Beland 02:13, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
A quick note concerning folate & cancer risk - it has been suggested by studies examining the relationship between folate supplement consumption and colon cancer that perhaps folate only reduces the risk up to a certain level of folate use; since we now supplement so many foods with folate, as long as you're not overwhelming your system with alcohol, additional folate might not make a difference. I'm off to look for the citations both from the colon cancer study, and for any I find on breast cancer. I'll post them here when I find them.~~Ruth Feb 12 2008
I think this would fit better in the Epidemiology and etiology of Breast cancer article, but could we at least keep one sentence in this main article? futurebird 19:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
The issue of racism is raised in a number of papers published in peer reviewed journals. Of course, it is still an open question, but there's nothing inflammatory about discussing exactly what is meant by "racism," as the quote does.
There are good data supporting the concept that inherent or genetic differences are not the reasons that blacks have higher breast cancer mortality rates than whites. The most obvious evidence is the fact that there was no disparity in mortality between blacks and whites in the United States before 1980. It is distressing that Bradley and colleagues (2) found that, after adjusting for age, socioeconomic status, and insurance coverage, black women diagnosed with breast cancer were less likely to receive surgical removal of their tumors than white women.... It is a sad statement that race influences one's chances of obtaining adequate medical care. In the United States, it is bad to have cancer; it is worse to be poor and have cancer; and it is even worse to be poor, black, and have cancer....Results of several breast cancer clinical trials demonstrate that equal treatment yields equal outcomes among equal patients (14–16). Other institution-specific treatment series demonstrate that outcomes are similar among the races when there is equal treatment (17–19). These findings, taken together with the fact that the racial disparity in mortality began in 1981, are consistent with the hypothesis that as we have learned how to treat breast cancer, a larger proportion of one segment of the population (the middle and upper class, which is primarily white) is receiving better (or more effective) treatment than are other segments of the population. Disaggregating the Effects of Race and Poverty on Breast Cancer Outcomes by Otis W. Brawley. ( JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002 94(7):471-473; doi:10.1093/jnci/94.7.471 )
Others:
Targeted review on the origins and evolution of breast cancer: doi: 10.1172/JCI33295 JFW | T@lk 00:29, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
Can I ask why the segment about breast cancer in men was deleted, it should remain in the article because it is a fact. -- 88.108.100.139 ( talk) 02:12, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
it is known by all with some form of intelligence that prostate cancer kills more men a year than breast cancer kills women..so why does the page state that it is the fifth most common cause of cancer death .. breast cancer is not exclusive to women so we simply cant make this page exclusive no matter what the statistics. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PotentiallyMensa ( talk • contribs) 16:06, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
Breast ultrasound and gamma imaging aren't screening techniques, they're used for surgical guidance. They've been marked as not having sources since October 2007. Isn't it time to delete them (unless someone can supply sources)? And Miraluma has even weaker justification. Nbauman ( talk) 15:32, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
I think this section should be pruned. Some of it isn’t relevant or specific to breast cancer. — NRen2k5, 20:22, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Image:BCtimeline.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Copyright problems because it is a suspected copyright violation. The source listed is http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/, but no specific journal is listed. I tagged it as possibly needing to be converted to an SVG, which is why someone noticed the licensing issue. In order to create a new image without it being a pure reproduction of that image. Can anyone provide similar images or references so if someone creates a new image that isn't derivative of that specific work alone. I've done a quick try on google, but haven't done an exhaustive search myself.
Also, reliable overview references for some sections of this article would probably help for citations and to trim more language back out into the sub-topic articles. I had initially planned to do a proper lit review for overview sources to help reduce the screening article into something of an abstract of the sub-article, and also to better source the treatment section and its article, but I've yet to follow through with that. I think the longer these two spend without the short sections here the higher the chance of differing data/information. - Optigan13 ( talk) 18:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
I posted this comment on the Talk:Epidemiology and etiology of breast cancer page a couple of days ago, but no one responded. So, I thought I'd try this page.
One very plausible theory that explains the world-wide epidemiology of breast cancer has to do with the use of bras. Please see this link as well as the long discussion on the brassiere talk page. I know this is controversial but I think it deserves to be mentioned in the article. -- Jonathan108 ( talk) 01:41, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Assuming that that this breast cancer page is of particular interest to women with breast cancer, it seems to me that this is not the place to have a section on what is basically quackery. Women with breast cancer have enough to deal with already and the last thing they need is to have to contend with this sort of false and misleading rubbish. I propose removing this section on Alternative Treatment, perhaps leaving flax seed in a newly titled section Experimental or New Treatment Undergoing Assessment.-- Kenneth Cooke ( talk) 12:38, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
The Subsection "Pathological types" of the "Classification section is too long, inappropriate and misleading. It is not in fact a list of pathological types of breast cancer; rather it is a list of breast tumours. Tumour means any sort of lump and this term includes breast cancers (malignant breast tumours), or non cancerous lumps (benign breast tumours such as fibroadenomas). This list also includes benign and malignant tumours or cancers which are not particularly unique to the breast and which are more likely to occur elsewhere in the body such as most sarcomas, leimyomas( more often found in stomach or intestine), neurofibromas(usually in skin or spine) and lipomas(found almost anywhere). I suggest it be replaced by a list including only cancers (malignant tumours) which are either unique to the breast or more commonly found in the breast than elsewhere. I suggest a short list such as at Cancer Reasearch UK or at US National Cancer Institute.-- Kenneth Cooke ( talk) 11:51, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
User:Smg2008 has done nothing but create an article DVS: Dose verification system, about a proprietary system by Sicel Technologies. See Special:Contributions/Smg2008.
Shortly after, Special:Contributions/96.234.60.75 linked to DVS: Dose verification system from Breast cancer and prostate cancer.
DVS: Dose verification system doesn't cite a single published study, or even a meeting report; it merely links to the company's web site, which gives preliminary data from a non-published study which doesn't even identify a single investigator. The rest of the entry is padded with generic bullshit about breast and prostate cancer.
I would bet money that DVS: Dose verification system was created by someone with the company (the tipoff is the ® sign; company lawyers require companies with registered products to use the registration mark every time they mention the name).
DVS is a clever device, but it has no clinical use right now. It certainly doesn't belong in a general article about breast cancer for the non-specialist. I wonder why DVS: Dose verification system belongs in Wikipedia at all. I don't think it meets WP:NOTABLE, unless every clever gadget is notable.
I don't want to piss on somebody else's parade, but I am annoyed at the covert way they created an article in apparent violation of WP:COI and several other WP good-faith rules. We've had enough of that lately.
My first inclination is that DVS: Dose verification system is about a non-notable product, created by the company itself, and should be deleted, along with the references to it in Breast cancer and Prostate cancer. How do other people feel about it? Nbauman ( talk) 00:09, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
I see that someone has proposed merging inflammatory breast cancer into this article. I would tend to argue against such a merger. This (main) article should offer an overview of breast cancer (diagnosis, types, treatments, etc.), and subarticles should exist – or be created – to expand on concepts introduced here. (See Wikipedia:Summary style). In the same way that we have subarticles on topics like ductal carcinomas, inflammatory breast cancer is a reasonable, interesting, and well-documented type of breast cancer on which we ought to (continue to) grow a separate, more-detailed article. TenOfAllTrades( talk) 01:17, 5 June 2008 (UTC)
Why is there little or no mention of this, it's supposed to be an encyclopaedic article so it should mention more about the thousands of men that get diagnosed worldwide with it. In any case- the article should be better gender neutralised. I myself am male and had a breast cancer scare 2 years ago and finding this article in this state is very demeening to the men that are suffering from it - please sort it out. -- 88.108.34.230 ( talk) 22:16, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
Breast cancer staging would be better in its own article, particularly as is is comprised mostly of lists. Have a look at non-small cell lung carcinoma staging. Ditto pathological sub-types. Axl ( talk) 13:37, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
There is misleading information...... In the US, both incidence and death rates for breast cancer have been declining in the last few years.[10][9] Nevertheless, a US study conducted in 2005 by the Society for Women's Health Research indicated that breast cancer remains the most feared disease,[11] even though heart disease is a much more common cause of death among women.[12]
It states that there is a decrease in incidence and death rates etc. in the last few years. But the article to back it up only covers (or atleast to my attention span) American Indians and Alaska Natives. Not for nothing the sources states American Indians? To my understanding its Native Americas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikesta21 ( talk • contribs) 20:53, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
This article is kind of a mess -- too technical for a general article, but not split well (the information from the splits was also left in the main article). I'm going to do my best to work on it section by section to make it a useful reference for the casual reader as well as medically accurate -- and don't worry, I'll add back in references. It would probably also help if we had some broad, general references for a "further reading" section -- most patients can't be expected to track down, or understand, many of these medical articles. -- phoebe / ( talk to me) 06:33, 4 September 2008 (UTC)