Abstracts & Commentary
It's time to reconsider the use of breast thermography in breast cancer screening and breast mass assessment. Thermography remains a controversial topic in integrative oncology. Although digital thermography is FDA approved for adjunctive breast imaging to clarify results of mammography or breast MRI, it is often employed for broader applications. In particular, some practitioners and patients use thermography for cancer screening, to evaluate palpated masses, and as an alternative to mammography.
In a randomized, counterbalanced, crossover designed trial, 20 active men consumed chocolate or a placebo for 2 weeks and then performed a bout of prolonged cycling. Those consuming dark chocolate had lower F2-isoprostanes at exhaustion and during recovery. Consuming dark chocolate lowered levels of oxidized low-density lipoproteins both before and after exercise. Chocolate consumption was also associated with ~21% greater increase in free fatty acids during exercise.
The use of adjuvant radiation therapy in women who have undergone a lumpectomy for breast cancer has become routine practice. The findings from the current study substantiate the body of evidence that has accumulated showing that radiation therapy does have long-term consequences to the heart muscle and vasculature.
This is the first well-controlled and sufficiently powered clinical trial to demonstrate that weight training does not increase the incidence of lymphedema after axillary node dissection and may significantly reduce the risk among breast cancer survivors who have had 5 or more axillary lymph nodes removed.
The study included 1,033 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 1,011 controls from 33 counties in the central and eastern part of North Carolina. African-Americans were oversampled to be proportionate to their incidence of colorectal cancer. Nurses interviewed participants for demographics and dietary intake using a validated questionnaire.
Tunisian women who had no family history of breast cancer or BRCA mutation were investigated for the methylation status of BRCA1 and BRCA2 promoters using methylation-specific PCR. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women in Tunisia, and breast cancer in Tunisia is characterized by its increased incidence of a younger age at onset and a more aggressive tumor phenotype.
The study suggests that continued, not short-term, implementation of an integrative, holistic approach to cancer treatment confers a survival benefit principally at years 1 and 2 after diagnosis with NSCLC. Although this study provides a beginning foundation of information upon which to build future prospective studies, the conclusions drawn lose significance with further scrutiny.
During their hospitalization the experimental group of children interacted with 2 clowns who were experienced with working with hospitalized children. Assessments made to measure the effect of the clown sessions included duration of stay in the hospital, duration of the fever period and time taken to achieve clinical recovery.
Magnesium intake by the study population was inadequate and a high percentage of individuals presented alterations in the status of this mineral.
Vegetable intake in children is very low in the United States. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance studies indicate more than 75% of children do not eat the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Allowing children to pair a good-tasting food with vegetables increases the amount and variety of vegetables children will eat.
