A cancer diagnosis is always devastating, but nothing can be as a bad as a diagnosis of advanced metastatic cancer.This means your cancer is incurable. A new study was released this week that suggests more younger women are being diagnosed with advanced incurable breast cancer. This at a time when cancer deaths have fallen 20 percent over the past 20 years.
The number of American women ages 25-39 being diagnosed with late stage breast cancer has risen from 250 per year to 850 per year. Wouldn't it be nice to have the "WHY" answered at the same time the study is released, or at least a plan of action for what they intend to do to figure out the "WHY?"
So many studies....so few answers. Frustration abounds.
What we do know is that this points again to the importance of continued research to answer the "why" and that is what we are doing at NFF (Noreen Fraser Foundation).
Last week, I presented the grant we gave to UCLA for study in the field of epigenetics. Now, I will share with you promising research we have granted in Canada.
Our first Canadian grant went to Drs. John Mackey & Nadeem Pervez at the University of Alberta, Canada. The grant was made possible due to the generosity of Stella & Dot and its Canadian stylists who graciously supported us by featuring a breast cancer awareness line of beautiful pink products with the net proceeds benefiting NFF during the entire month of October.
The grant will fund a pilot project to test the feasibility of a new type of radiation treatment for women with early stage breast cancer. Pervez and his team are investigating a new therapy, which involves implanting radioactive seeds into the breast of early stage breast cancer patients following a lumpectomy so that patients may avoid the traditional radiation treatment that requires daily hospital visits for seven to 12 weeks, and which can be painful and disfiguring.
If the pilot proves successful, patients may have a new treatment format that is safer, more effective, pain-free and much more convenient than traditional radiation treatment. You can read more about the research here.
NFF's Winter Challenge is well on its way! We have already raised $2,000 this past week toward our fundraising goal of $53,000 to continue the work at the epigentics lab at UCLA. To those of you who have contributed, thank you so much. You can make a secure, online donation by clicking here.
As always, 100 percent of online donations to the NFF go directly toward groundbreaking women's cancer research.
Noreen Fraser is living with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. She is the Founder and CEO of the Noreen Fraser Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to funding groundbreaking women's cancer research. To stay in touch with Noreen, please 'LIKE' The Noreen Fraser Foundation on Facebook
and follow her on Twitter. Noreen can be contacted via email at noreen@noreenfraserfoundation.org.
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