How did my cancer grow?

Just like "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary" in the Old English Nursery Rhyme, people wanted to know how her garden grew.  I am sure you have wondered how a "healthy and athletic" woman like myself grew cancer.  Not only do you wonder how I got it, but more importantly, how I grew it.  At least, these are the things I would wonder if I was you....so that I could figure out how not to get it.  

Please know, I don't have cooties.  I am not contagious and I didn't do anything wrong to get this disease.  I just lived my life, like the rest of the world.  Cancer just happens.  We have to learn to deal with it better as a society.  Hopefully, if you indulge me by reading this post, you will understand that this information about breast cancer translates to all other cancers.  Those cancers have different names and are fueled by different things as mine, yet the principles are the same.  Understanding cancer doesn't mean you will get it...in fact, this knowledge can help you prevent cancer.

In my journey, I have learned so much.  But, I don't want you to have to go through what I have in order to avoid cancer.  So, the one lesson I would want you all to take from this post is to help your immune system not be friendly to cancer so that it can identify and destroy it early on.  As much as I would love to give you a full lesson on genetics, I don't have the capability.  Though, I voraciously read everything I can on genetics.  I will give you the best 20,000 foot level lesson on this subject.  That is probably the best I can do.:)

As we discussed before, when cancer happens...a bad cell grows and divides out of control.  This is how a tumor forms.  The actual accumulation of these cells is usually fueled by something.  Each cancer is different.  Not only are there several types of breast cancer, but there are several types of EVERY cancer.  This is because a cancer is typically named based on where the initial tumor grew and developed before it became "invasive".  Only pathologists can really determine this information under a microscope.  

That is the trick with cancer, the tissue needs to be evaluated under a microscope in order for cancer to be confirmed.  A biopsy is the type of surgery that is used to either fully remove the tumor or remove a sample of the tissue from the patient.  There are even different types of pathologies!  Cancer is a very complicated topic.   There are some ways cysts or benign tumors can be excluded without a biopsy, however, solid masses can only usually be confirmed or excluded as a cancer under the microscope.

I will explain the types of breast cancer under another post.  But for now, just know the most common type of breast cancer is invasive ductal carcinoma.  The name is based on the cancer originating in the breast "duct".  This is my type of cancer.

With breast cancer, there are typically three characteristics that a pathologist will test your tissue for...these are estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and her-2-neu.  These fuel cancer.  There are also unknown characteristics, meaning some people don't test positive for any of these characteristics.  Estrogen and progesterone receptors are hormone receptors that sit on a cancer cell and fuel its growth.  I will spend another post on the importance of estrogen in cancer risks and growth, but this post is about my cancer so I will focus on her-2-neu.

Even though I got diagnosed when Jack was nine months old, I had no hormone receptors.  Meaning, the influx of hormones associated with my pregnancies did not make my cancer grow.  Ironic, huh?  My cancer was totally fueled by her-2-neu (her2).  What does all of this mean?  Through all I have read, it seems that cancer, itself, is a difficult process to eliminate from our bodies.  However, the way it can be destroyed or limited is through bolstering our immune system and addressing these receptors and/or proteins that make cancer growth.  Brilliant chemists and other scientists use to these receptors/proteins to develop sophisticated medicines.

If you have hormone receptors, your doctor might want you to remove your ovaries (a large source of estrogen) and/or take maintenance meds like Tamoxifen for five years after treatment.  Since I did not have those receptors, I dealt solely with her2.  You usually receive a pathology report in piecemeal fashion because a pathologist performs various tests of a period of time.  They give you what they can as the test results unfold.

All I knew at my diagnosis was that her2 was the most aggressive of cancers and that I had IT. What I didn't know was that science was catching up with my aggressive form of breast cancer.  Herceptin is a drug that is called a monoclonal antibody.  These are the newest and most sophisticated of cancer drugs.  They only target cancer cells, unlike chemotherapy, which just targets fast-growing cells.  Herceptin targets this her2 protein, but tries to help your body's immune system to destroy the cancer cells and/or stop the cell division and growth.  

Her2 is considered an oncogene.  Wikipedia describes an oncogene as a gene in the DNA sequence that makes cancer grow.  Her 2 is a protein that is present in all breast cells and helps the normal cells grow and divide.  On cancer cells, the her2 protein is abnormally high in amount, or amplified.  This has helped scientists understand that her2 aids in the process of cancer cell growth.  There are a couple of tests that will tell a scientist how abundant your her2 protein is, mine was extremely high.

Basically, something went wrong in my DNA...so that not only did I get cancer, but my immune system did not recognize the cells as foreign.  Just as my personality is friendly to the strangest of strangers, so was my body.  I take Herceptin and Avastin to help stave off new growth of tumors.  I have been on Herceptin  off and on for almost three years.  I fully believe it has assisted in limiting tumor growth by helping  my body to abolish the small cancer cells that may want to grow.  This doesn't mean I haven't gotten other tumors, it just means it has helped to limit them.  My goal is to give my immune system some help so that over time my own body will recognize and destroy a cancer cell...and the meds will just bolster what MY body can do.

Now, ask me why I got cancer on a lymph node or my liver or the lungs?  That will have to be another post, friends....I still need to break down the chemistry of Avastin.  Just know that bolstering your own immune system by eating healthy, exercising and taking supplements can and does help.

After reading and re-editing this post a lot, I have finally given up on it!  I hope this make sense.  I am sure I have left a lot of things out, so let me know how I can help.  More on Avastin in another post.

Let me know if you have questions.

Believe in the power of your and my body to be self-restorative.  That is how we are made!

Lolo

P.S.  The above information about Herceptin and her-2-neu was obtained from www.herceptin.com.  A great site!