[ RadSafe ] Breast Cancer

[Sergio Faermann]

Dear Joe
 
I appreciate very much your almost routine comments on many subjects.It's like philosophical digressions!
Concerning your comments on breast cancer I must point out:
1-As a past (retired medical radiation physicist) I can tell you that we don't treat breast cancer with GammaKnife ( reserved only for radiosurgery).We do treat with linacs.
2-Breast cancer is a systemic disease and even if you perform the best combined treatment-Chemo +radiotherapy, you cannot assure 100% that metaatasis will not appear 20 years later.
3-Mapping of all the properties of DNA is an enormous project, and even if you can perform  a complete individual  mapping, and you could say that a specific women will get breast cancer, you are faced with a difficult question: treat the tumor before it has appeared? Make preventive mastectomy?

Best regards


Sergio Faermann ,Ph.D.
System Advanced Laboratories
Israel


----- Original Message -----
From: JPreisig at aol.com
Date: Saturday, October 6, 2012 5:43
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Breast Cancer
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu

> 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
>  
>  
>  
>      
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