Breast Cancer
While breast cancer knows no boundaries, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic and Latino women are more likely to die from breast cancer than Caucasian women.

Only 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are due to heredity. The majority of women with breast cancer have no known significant family history or other known risk factors.

While more than 40,000 women and 400 men will die of breast cancer this year alone, this is truly a family disease that affects everyone in a patients’ support network.

One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes, and one woman will die of breast cancer every 13 minutes.

Until we know more about preventing breast cancer, detection of breast cancer at an early stage provides a greater chance of survival and more treatment options. When the disease is confined to the breast, a patient’s five-year survival rate is 97 percent.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women of all ages and is second only to lung cancer in cancer proven and significant risk factors are being female and getting older. In the United States, a woman has about a 13 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

Studies have noted an association between alcohol consumption and an increased risk of breast cancer. The combined use of tobacco and alcohol leads to a greatly increased risk of oral and esophageal cancers. (ACS)

Incidence rates of female breast cancer are highest among white women and lowest among American Indian women. (ACS)

Komen Foundation has a National Toll-Free Breast Care Help line that is answered by a trained and caring staff, as well as volunteers that have been personally touched by breast cancer. For response to questions, local resource information or moral support, call 1.800 I’M AWARE® (1.800.462.9273). For the latest breast health information and Komen Foundation news and activities, visit the Foundation’s award-winning website at www.komen.org.

This year, an estimated 203,500 women and 1,500 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Approximately 39,600 women and 400 men will die of the disease.



Colon and Rectum
Diets high in saturated fats also increase the risk of getting these types of cancer. Follow the guidelines found under the Prevention & Nutrition heading on this website. Lower fat, high fiber diets can reduce that risk. If you have a family history of colon cancer, talk to your doctor about having a colonoscopy beginning not later than age 40. Current accepted recommendations suggest beginning screening at age 50, if there is not a family history of the disease. Remember that “family history” has to start with someone so why not start your colonoscopy screenings at age 40? You must take charge of your own health!



Leukemia
Approximately 167,000 people are living with leukemia in the U.S.Approximately 21,700 deaths will occur this year in the U.S.

Leukemia is a malignant disease that originates in the bone marrow. There is not a heredity link to leukemia. It appears to be caused by a genetic injury to an individual cell’s DNA. Of the approximately 30,800 new cases that will be diagnosed in the U.S. this year, more than half will occur in people over the age of 60. While leukemia is the most common cancer in children, ten times as many adults are diagnosed with the disease than children.

Leukemia has been linked to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation and to certain chemicals such as benzene, a commercially used toxic liquid that is present in gasoline and cigarette smoke. (ACS)

An estimated 1,500 deaths are expected to occur among children aged 0-14 this year, about one-third of them from leukemia. (ACS)



Lung
This one is simple: STOP SMOKING NOW!!

Smoking is responsible for 87% of lung cancers.

Lung cancer mortality rates are more than 20 times higher for current male smokers and 12 times higher for current female smokers. (US Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, Ga US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health; 1989)

Male smokers are about 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. (ACS)



Prostate
In another study, a half-cup serving of strawberries per week reduced the risk by 20%. (Note to reader: Unfortunately, strawberries also have been found to retain the highest level of chemicals from pesticides compared to other fruits. The answer here is to eat organic strawberries if at all possible or wash the strawberries thoroughly before eating them.) Supplements that have been shown to reduce the risk of getting prostate cancer are Selenium and vitamin E. Specifically, men over the age of 25 should take 200mcg.of Selenium plus 400 IU of d-alpha tocopherol Vitamin E plus 210mg of d-gamma tocopherol Vitamin E.

Read the labels of tomato-based products and try to eat organic whenever possible. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that any of those products should have chemicals or dyes in them.

Nutrition is a key factor in reducing your risk of getting prostate cancer. Men should eliminate or reduce red meat, dairy, saturated fats and egg yolks from their diet. They should also eat 5 servings of fresh, preferably organic fruits and vegetables per day. There are specific foods that have been shown to reduce prostate cancer risk. One study showed that men who ate 10 servings a day of tomatoes and tomato products such as spaghetti sauce, juice, etc. reduced their risk by 41%. Eating 4-7 servings per day resulted in a 22% reduction.

A diet high in saturated fats has been shown to increase the rate of prostate tumor growth in laboratory animals. In addition to a high fat diet increasing prostate cancer risk, current research shows that prostate cancer and its proliferation are linked to caloric intake. Men should limit their caloric intake to 500 calories for each of three meals a day and 100 calories for 3 snacks per day (1800calories).

Each year, 180,000 men die from prostate cancer. For men over the age of 35, it is imperative that they get annual checkups, which include digital rectal exam (DRE) and blood testing to include a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) and PSA Doubling time. Many doctors will order a PSA test without ordering the PSA Doubling test. INSIST ON THE PSA DOUBLING TIME test, as it is a very important test to detect a developing prostate cancer even when the PSA remains in “normal range”(up