Latest news with #breastCancer
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Vicki Schmidt announces 2026 run for Kansas governor
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt says she's running for governor in 2026. A Republican and Wichita native, Schmidt has worked as a pharmacist for over 40 years and served in the Kansas Senate before being elected Insurance Commissioner in 2018. She was re-elected in 2022. Sedgwick County Fair kicks off in Cheney As commissioner, Schmidt says her office has recovered $145 million for Kansas families and cut business costs by more than $75 million. 'Throughout my personal and professional career, I have a track record of serving Kansans and actually getting things done,' Schmidt said in a news release announcing her bid for the office. 'If elected governor, my top priority is the people of Kansas and making their lives better.' Schmidt has also spoken publicly about her breast cancer diagnosis to encourage others to get screened. She and her husband, Mike, live in Topeka and have two sons and four grandchildren. The Republican primary for governor is set for Aug. 4. For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Times
02-07-2025
- Health
- Times
Kate is right. You don't just ‘get back to normal' after cancer
Anyone who has been through cancer treatment knows exactly the experience that the Princess of Wales described this week when visiting a cancer wellbeing centre at Colchester Hospital. 'You put on a brave face, stoicism through treatment,' she said while chatting with patients and volunteers at the centre. 'But actually the phase afterwards is really difficult. You're not necessarily under the clinical team any longer but you're not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to.' I could certainly relate, having been treated for breast cancer in 2021, with chemotherapy, mastectomy surgery and radiotherapy. Although it was hard, at least I knew what I had to do. The path was clear. I could get my head down and focus on getting through it. However, when treatment ends it is common for patients to feel abandoned, right as they're dealing with the emotional fallout of a diagnosis that they couldn't fully comprehend when being thrust into the rollercoaster of treatment. On top of that, there's often a host of post-treatment issues (such as early menopause, in my case) and the looming fear that the cancer might come back. • Rosamund Dean: The test that told me a gum infection caused my breast cancer When my treatment ended three years ago, this fear of recurrence became all-consuming. As far as I was concerned, my body had betrayed me — what was to stop it happening again? My friends and family expected me to be getting 'back to normal' and, on the outside, it probably looked as though I was. I would smile as I told people that I was relieved to be done with chemo, all healed from surgery, and lucky to be alive. But I would lie awake at 3am, tormenting myself with the details of how I'd explain a terminal diagnosis to my children, who were then seven and five. I'd have flashbacks to being in hospital after my mastectomy (a particularly dark time, since it was during Covid, so I wasn't allowed visitors) and started having panic attacks for the first time in my life. I was certainly not, as Kate described it, 'able to function normally at home'. It was all the more scary because I hadn't expected it. Nobody had warned me that the period after treatment can be one of the hardest parts of the whole shebang. Despite having supportive friends and family, I felt so alone because I didn't want to burden them with my anxiety. To my surprise, I found myself leaning into the type of things that might previously have made me roll my eyes. Having therapy, for instance, which was the best thing I could have done. I went from crying every day to learning how to manage panic attacks and intrusive thoughts. Having someone on whom I could offload all of my fears — without having to worry that I was upsetting them, as I would have done with someone close to me — was game-changing. I also invested in things that made me feel good in my body, such as yoga, massage and reflexology. I'll be for ever grateful to the breast cancer charity Future Dreams, which provides these services and more on a tiered payment system. • Read more expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing Kate, who announced she was in remission from an undisclosed form of cancer in January, praised the Colchester centre, which provides therapy, community groups and holistic treatments. While chatting to one of the therapists, Kate said that she had not tried reflexology but had had acupuncture, which has been shown to have benefits in terms of managing emotional stress and coping with the side-effects of treatment. '[For] a place like this to have the support network, through creativity and singing or gardening, whatever it might be, is so valuable,' she said while planting roses in the RHS's wellbeing garden. 'It would be great if more communities had this kind of support.' Kate, 43, is back to work now, recently meeting with the philanthropist Melinda Gates at Windsor Castle. But she's also pulling back where necessary, cancelling a planned appearance at Royal Ascot. It appears that she is learning her boundaries and limitations as she goes — which is relatable for anyone who has been through treatment. She said that centres such as the one in Colchester — and others, like Maggie's Centres up and down the UK — provide 'a sense of hope and positivity … in what is otherwise a very scary and daunting experience'. Cancer treatment, she insisted, is not only about our medical care. 'It's about the whole person — mind, body and spirit,' she said. 'We know now that all those three dimensions matter to the recovery journey.' I couldn't agree more.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
HRT ‘can raise breast cancer risk' in younger women
Hormone replacement therapy can raise the risk of breast cancer in some younger women, a Lancet study suggests. An international team of researchers found the treatment was not linked to young onset breast cancer overall. But oestrogen plus progestin therapy appears to increase breast cancer risk by 10 per cent. Meanwhile, oestrogen hormone therapy use appeared to decrease breast cancer risk by 14 per cent. Hormone replacement therapy is a treatment used to help menopause symptoms. There are different types of HRT, which is used to treat menopause symptoms, available. They contain different hormones: some are oestrogen products; others contain progestogen and other types have both. These medicines can be taken or used in different ways and work by replacing the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, which can fall to lower levels as women approach the menopause. Most studies examining links between hormone therapy and breast cancer risk have been explored in older women. Previous work, which has focused on women who have already been through the menopause, suggest that oestrogen plus progestin hormone therapy is a risk factor for breast cancer. The researchers, led by academics from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the US, wanted to explore the risks among younger women on hormone therapy – who may take these drugs after gynaecological surgery or during perimenopause. The new meta-analysis published in the journal, Lancet Oncology, examined data drawn from previous studies of 459,476 women aged 16 to 54 years old. Some two per cent of this group (8,455) developed young-onset breast cancer, which means the disease was diagnosed before they were 55 years old. And 15 per cent of women involved in the study reported using hormone therapy, with oestrogen plus progestin hormone therapy and oestrogen being the most common types. 'Although the strength of these associations might vary by age at first use, duration of use, gynaecological surgery status, and other factors, unopposed oestrogen hormone therapy use appears to decrease breast cancer risk and oestrogen plus progestin therapy appears to increase breast cancer risk,' the authors wrote. 'The findings can be used to augment clinical recommendations for hormone therapy use in young women, for whom guidance was previously scarce.' Dr Kotryna Temcinaite, the head of research communications at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'These results are largely in line with what we already know about taking HRT for menopausal symptoms and its effects on breast cancer risk – for most people, the risk of developing breast cancer because of taking HRT is small and is outweighed by the benefits. 'Taking HRT is a very personal decision and, as such, it's vital that everyone has the information they need on the benefits and risks, discusses them with their GP or specialist team and is supported to make the choice that's right for them.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Mail
01-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Scientists discover new cause of aggressive cancer in young people... and a possible treatment
A little-known molecule in the body may be the key to treating aggressive cancer that often strikes young people, a study suggests. Researchers in New York reviewed records from 11,000 cancer patients to evaluate long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a type of RNA molecule that helps regulate gene behavior and distinguish healthy from non-healthy cells. While studying human breast tumor models, they found a specific type of lncRNA called LINC01235, which has previously been linked to stomach cancer, may be feeding breast cancer cells. The team tested their hypothesis using gene editing to 'turn off' LINC01235 in cells from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease that's resistant to standard hormonal treatments. They found cancer cells without LINC01235 grew more slowly and were worse at forming tumors than those with the activated molecule. The experts, from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, believe LINC01235 activates another gene called NFIB, which has been shown to increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancer. NFIB then controls how cells grow and develop, leading to them becoming cancer cells. By turning off the molecule (LINC01235) that encourages the TNBC-linked gene (NFIB) to proliferate, researchers believe it could inhibit tumor growth and spread. Study researcher David Spector believes the findings could also lead to new treatments for triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for 10 to 15 percent of breast cancer diagnoses and disproportionately is diagnosed in young women. He said: 'Our long-term goal is to try to find an lncRNA or multiple lncRNAs that may eventually be therapeutic targets.' Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, affecting 316,000 per year and killing 42,000 in the US. About to 10 to 15 percent of breast cancers are triple-negative, adding up to as many as 47,000 cases and 6,300 deaths. Triple-negative means cancer cells don't have receptors that respond to the hormones estrogen and progesterone and the protein HER-2. Without these receptors, triple-negative breast cancers don't respond to treatments that target those hormones, making them harder to treat. Though the survival rate is over 90 percent if caught in earlier stages, those figures drop as low as 15 percent when the disease spreads to lymph nodes and other organs. It's most common in Black women and those under 40 and is one of the many forms of the disease on the rise, along with colon and lung cancers. In the new study, published in Molecular Cancer Research, tumor samples were taken from breast cancer patients in New York and used to make organoids, small models of tumors. They were then compared to healthy tissue samples. The researchers found breast cancer tumors had significantly higher expressions of LINC01235 than healthy tissue. LINC01235 was then deactivated with CRISPR, a type of gene editing that has mostly been tested in head, neck, gastrointestinal and brain cancers. Since tumor growth slowed when researchers deactivated LINC01235, the team suspected the molecule increases the growth of breast cancer cells. They suspected LINC01235 activates the gene NFIB, which has most often been tied to triple-negative breast cancer compared to other forms of breast cancer. It's believed NFIB suppresses the expression of p21, a protein that inhibits cell growth. With this protein suppressed, cancer cells can grow unchecked. Lead researcher Wenbo Xu, a graduate student at Stony Brook University, said: 'Our findings demonstrate that LINC01235 positively regulates NFIB transcription.' The team said the findings could be the first step in developing CRISPR technology to treat triple-negative breast cancer.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Mulaney Gushed About Wife Olivia Munn's 'Staggering' Return to Acting & We Can't Get Enough
If you've seen the new gripping Apple TV show Your Friends & Neighbors, then you know that Olivia Munn steals the screen as recent divorcée Sam. But what you might not know from watching the show is that she was ready to step back from acting before the script was sent to her inbox. In a new interview with People, Munn explained that acting took a backseat in her life following the birth of her son Malcolm in 2021, whom she shares with husband John Mulaney, and her breast cancer diagnosis in 2023. More from SheKnows Halle Berry & Van Hunt Surprised Fans With a Major Relationship Milestone But It's Not Official Just Yet 'I love acting, but John loves performing more,' Munn told the outlet. 'Nothing I had worked on in the past five or six years felt like it was worth me taking time away from my family.' 'I started thinking for the first time that maybe I need to be behind the camera, not that that's not also hard work, but putting myself in front of the camera felt a lot more vulnerable,' she explained. 'I wanted to protect myself.' But as she started to make peace with leaving her acting career behind, the script for Your Friends & Neighbors, in which her character has a relationship with Jon Hamm's character, came along. 'It was the thing I needed to energize me,' she said of the show, which is already streaming. 'When I told John I was taking it, he was just so happy. I had one more surgery to do, and by that point, we knew that [daughter] Méi was on her way. I just felt like I was ready to let go of the fears and worries that I had.' Mulaney, for his part, gushed about Munn's acting return. 'For the past three years, Liv was just giving everything she had to her health and to being the brightest and silliest mom and partner,' he said of his wife. 'But I have to admit — and I've never said this to her — I didn't think she was done acting by any means.' So when Munn showed her excitement for her role, Mulaney was her biggest cheerleader. 'She was sitting on the bed and just lit up when she told me about this role,' he remembered. 'Then Malcolm and I and then Méi Méi got the chance to see our Olivia just expand and give her whole mind and heart to us and to doing this show: to see her come back from such a long break, to watch her prepare for this role while still in the middle of exhausting cancer treatment, and then like everyone else to watch week after week as she crafts this totally original, really funny, really staggering character in Sam … I'm just blown away.' How adorable is that? And while Mulaney will always be swooning over Munn, fans of the show can also attest that she's totally in her element. We're so happy for her!Best of SheKnows 27 Celebrity Moms Who've Opened Up About Their Plastic Surgery 16 of the Steamiest Movie Sex Scenes With Older Women & Younger Men All the Men Marilyn Monroe Reportedly Had Relationships With Throughout Her Short Life
