Breast Cancer Research

Have you ever noticed how many people you hear about that are inflicted with cancer? It seems that every week we hear of someone that has been diagnosed with some form of cancer. It seems that the occurrences are becoming more frequent rather than less frequent even though there have been many years of cancer research, studies and treatments. The prevention of cancer does not seem to have made many advancements. We have a better understanding of the causes of some cancers such as lung cancer as well as skin cancer but many other forms of the disease seem to not have an explanation of why they begin.

I have been very fortunate in my family. We have not had issues with the different forms of cancer to any large extent. My brother-in-law had a patch of cancerous cells removed from his skin. This was a minor surgery and the cancer was stopped. Recently my cousin who is like another sister to me was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother’s family has a history of this disease. The ironic thing is that my cousin has been involved in breast cancer research for twelve years. She has a degree in pharmaceutical research. She did a fellowship working on different ways of manufacturing synthetic insulin. Once she was done with her fellowship she was hired by a drug company to help with breast cancer research. This company manufactures on of the drugs that is used in the chemotherapy process for victims of breast cancer. Because the company is involved in administering the drug it has many patients available to track regarding the breast cancer research. My cousin is trying to find similarities between the people that are diagnosed with breast cancer. She is also working on the profiles of the people that seem to respond well to the treatments and for those that do not. The hope is that if a common denominator is found regarding who responds well and why this can be shared with those that are not doing as well. As my cousin has been involved with the breast cancer research she has noticed how much the attitude of the person plays into their treatment and recovery. Those that have a positive attitude are much more likely to tolerate the medications and have a smoother adjustment. Those patients that are negative about their treatments or pessimistic about their survival rate often do not respond to the medications. My cousin told me that those that hear cancer and feel that this is a death sentence usually do die from their disease. When it comes to cancer the mind certainly plays a huge role.