Tamoxifen Efficacy Revisited: Behind The Hype

PLEASE NOTE: Inaccuracies in my interpretation of the statistics in study referred to in this post were brought to my attention by one of the commenters below. After doing a lot of digging and head-scratching, I have decided to leave the original text, but have added strike-throughs over data that I wrongly interpreted, and further comments […]

Posted in: Chemotherapy-IV & Oral, Research by Kathi 22 Comments adjuvant therapy, breast cancer, medication, mortality, research, side effects, tamoxifen

Oh, That Crazy, Sexy Breast Cancer

Funny how bits of our culture take on a whole new meaning after you’ve had breast cancer. Take the iconic song, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by the group Queen. I discovered the Muppets’ hilarious version of it on YouTube one day and posted it on Facebook, whereupon a number of my sistahs posted a variety of wry […]

Posted in: Attitude, Fighting the Pink Peril, Survivorship by Kathi 33 Comments BRCA, breast cancer, chemotherapy, fundraising, lymphedema, Pink

Compliance Or Manipulation?

The Center for Health Transformation recently published a white paper on The Importance of Medication Adherence. In it, they report that as many as 40% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed, and up to 20% of new prescriptions given to patients by their doctors are not filled at all. Research about medication […]

Posted in: Attitude, Chemotherapy-IV & Oral, Health & Healthcare, Research, Survivorship by Kathi 15 Comments medical ethics, medication, responsibility, side effects

Lost and Found

“Your biopsy is positive.” Those were the words I heard when I found out I had cancer. I’ll never forget those words. I’ll never forget the day, the hour, where I was, what I was doing when I heard them. I’ll never forget the strange, weirdly comic experience of having the stereotactic biopsy that led […]

Posted in: Art & Music, Attitude, Diagnosis, Recurrence, Screening, Health & Healthcare, Nitty Gritty, Radiation, Surgery & Reconstruction, Survivorship by Kathi 18 Comments breast cancer, dcis, mortality, survivorship