[ RadSafe ] Breast Cancer

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear Radsafe:
 
     Hey All.
 
     The US Government and other agencies and companies  have made 
considerable progress in 
DNA Mapping.  Considerable DNA progress has also been made by one  
gentleman and his
company in Southern California --- his name and company were described on  
an episode of
60 Minutes (USA TV).  I guess the many DNA on/off switches  can detail the 
characteristics of
various body organs, tissues and structures.  Color, chemical  composition, 
organ geometry and
dimensions, function(s) and so on, are probably described by DNA.  One  
might venture a guess
as to how many parameters are (minimally) needed to describe a given organ, 
 tissue, structure.
 
     I wonder, as I have done before on radsafe, if  cancer parameters are 
in included in the DNA
information.  Rate of growth, characteristics of the cancer and so  on.  
Perhaps individual
hospitals and/or research organizations should be given some responsibility 
 for doing the 
continued DNA mapping for any given organ, tissue, structure.
 
    I don't pretend to understand biochemistry --- I  will leave that to 
people educated in that field.
I have some background in physics, health physics, fluid mechanics and  
radiation biophysics and
radiation chemistry.
 
    Someday soon, or perhaps already, some smart graduate  student will 
produce a fluid flow input/
output model for the human breast.  Once produced, such a model could  be 
tinkered with to
produce a model in which blood vessel breaks, breaks in other circulation  
systems and so on 
can be produced.  
 
     Breasts have their own life cycle from:  non-existence, to growth, to 
adult stage, to older
adult stage and finally, death.  This is a dynamic process.   There is, for 
various cancers, the concept of
latency time, which can be quite long-winded.
 
    I expect that once the breasts are exposed to some  carcinogen, 
radiation???, biological agent,
other insult, there is a buildup process of the carcinogen in the  breasts. 
 Accumulation of the 
carcinogen may take some time, which is probably goes hand-in-hand with the 
 phenomenon of 
latency time.  Effects of the carcinogen etc. on the breast tissue is  
probably somewhat dependent 
on the amount/concentration of the carcinogen available.  
 
    Persons with cancer-susceptible breasts may have weak  blood and/or 
other fluid circulation
systems.  Maybe this is due to bad genetics, long term environmental  
exposure of a group of
persons to carcinogens, reproductive behavior of a limited group of people  
(a small village) and
so on.  People living in volcanic areas may be exposed to more  chemicals 
than people living
on just farm dirt or whatever.  In California, there are known zones  of 
Selenium buildup, just as a 
chemical example.
 
    A previous post by me alludes to a news item on google  about discovery 
of 4 distinct types of
breast cancer.  Designer treatment is starting now of biopsy samples  of 
Cancer grown in Petri
dishes or whatever.
 
   More traditional means of treatment include radical surgery,  
lumpectomies, gamma knife
treatment, other radiation treatment, chemotherapy and so on.  I'm  hearing 
than chemotherapy
is now an easier process.  Quite a while ago now, one of my health  physics 
colleagues remarked that
she would rather die than go through chemotherapy again.  I wish her  well.
 
    I hear lately that Pancreatic Cancer is being treated  with much 
greater success nowadays.
I also see advertisements in the newspaper about proton machines (i.e.  
accelerators) being used
to treat prostate cancer.
 
    Well, this is getting long.  I wish great success  to anyone doing 
cancer research as their
real job.
 
    I guess, if Cancer and Heart Disease are truly being  conquered then 
people will live longer
lives and possibly die of natural causes, circulation clogging, organ  
failure and so on.  Soon,
organs/tissues will be easily grown in Petri dishes and/or other lab  
glass-ware.
 
   Keep moving forward....
 
   Regards,    Joseph R. (Joe) Preisig, PhD