Breast Cancer in Iraq leads to Gulf War Veteran News Alert and Rep Boswell Legislation

Gulf War Veterans need to be made aware of the following articles.  Alert for all female veterans you know the drill!  Self Breast Checks often and Mammograms.  VA does provide this, so make use of that service!

Male Veterans yes you too can get breast cancer.  Again our females will have to teach you the principles of breast self exams.  Basically you work in a clockwise pattern and outward and inner in direction from the clock face.  If you palpate any lumps or bumps under the skin GET IN TO A DOCTOR for further Assessment! 

Also checks should also extend to lymph nodes in the arm pits.

I already know quite a few female gulf war veterans that have had breast cancers.  I would also recommend that all print this out and provide to health care providers, fellow veterans, etc.  Also I would recommend sharing on facebook pages personal and veteran groups facebook pages and specific gulf war veteran unit facebook pages.  I would also reccommend we use all social networks ie Twitter information. 

We need mass communications.  Also try to get your local media and newspapers to cover the issues.  Email media contacts in your area.  I also recommend you get in touch with your US Representatives and Senators and get their staffer’s email and keep them in the flow of information.  VSO’s should also get this information for their post newsletters and magazines.  Each Veteran can do their part!  Each citizen should be helping!

Here are the stories about Breast Cancer in Iraq from the American Association for Cancer Research

Breast cancer continues to rise in Iraq, and scientists have established the Iraqi National Cancer Research Program to better understand the underlying molecular and environmental causes in an effort to curb the incidence of cancer.

“Breast cancer is the most common type of malignancy recorded in the cancer registries of almost all countries within the Eastern Mediterranean Region. In Iraq, the continuous rise in the incidence rate is associated with an obvious trend to affect premenopausal women,” said Nada A.S. Alwan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Breast Cancer Research Unit at Baghdad University Medical College and the executive director of the newly established Iraqi National Cancer Research Program.

Alwan presented early data at the second AACR Dead Sea International Conference on Advances in Cancer Research: From the Laboratory to the Clinic, held March 7-10, 2010.

The Iraqi National Cancer Research Program was organized by the Iraqi minister of higher education and scientific research in 2009 in collaboration with the common secretariat for the Council of Ministers and the Iraqi Parliament.

“This project includes within its objectives comprehensive epidemiologic studies on risk factors of the main encountered cancers in Iraq, with a focus on the characteristics and behaviors of cancer in patients inhabiting different geographic areas,” said Alwan.

The current study focused on 721 of 5,044 women who complained of breast lumps later diagnosed as cancer. Approximately one-third of the diagnosed patients were between 40 and 49 years old; 71.9 percent came from urban areas and 75 percent were married.

History of lactation was reported in 63.1 percent of the women and 29 percent had taken hormone therapy. A family history of breast cancer was reported in 16.2 percent of cases.

Although 90.6 percent of women detected a lump on self-examination, only 32 percent sought medical advice within the first month. Because of this, 47 percent of them presented with advanced stage breast cancer, either stage III or IV cancer. The main histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma of grade 2 in 56.6 percent and grade 3 in 39.9 percent. Estrogen-receptor positive tumors were noted in 65.1 percent of the cases and progesterone-receptor positive tumors were noted in 45.1 percent of the cases.

“We are currently planning to use this information to compare the demographic characteristics, clinicopathological presentations and management outcomes of breast cancer patients within selected countries in the Middle East,” said Alwan.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research and Rick Maze(Military Times) covers the legislative efforts of Rep. Boswell on breast cancer in the military.

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Article from Military Times by Rick Maze

Lawmaker urges military breast cancer study

By Rick Maze – Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 27, 2009 12:50:48 EDT

A senior lawmaker is pushing for a joint Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department study of breast cancer rates in service members and veterans to determine if there is a link to military service.

Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, the chief sponsor of a bill ordering the study, said the 18-month effort he is proposing would be a “first step to determining if breast cancer is service-connected.”

“There is significant anecdotal evidence that men and women who are serving or have served in our armed forces are being diagnosed with breast cancer at an alarming rate, especially for their age,” said Boswell, a Vietnam veteran who spent 20 years in the Army.

His bill, HR 3926, the Armed Forces Breast Cancer Research Act, asks for a joint report in 18 months that would report on the number of service members and veterans — male and female — who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, what kind of treatment they have received and demographic information about the age and service of the victims. Additionally, the report would address whether defense and VA officials see any service-related breast cancer risk.

The legislation comes as lawmakers and the government are looking into claims of an unusual incidence of breast cancer among men who once served at Camp Lejuene, N.C., a base that has a history of environmental problems, including contaminated water. The Senate Armed Services Committee is considering holding a hearing specifically on the Lejuene problem at the urging of Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C.

Boswell’s press secretary, Jane Slusark, said the congressman’s interest in the bill came not from Camp Lejuene, but from a woman on his staff, an Iraq veteran who recently attended a five-year post-deployment reunion. At the reunion, one woman talked of coming home, discovering breast cancer and having a double mastectomy.

“Through the course of the night, the people at the reunion were able to piece together that at least six women who they were deployed with had come back from their deployment in Iraq with breast cancer, ages 25 to 35 years old,” Slusark said.

A half-dozen other women reported new lumps in their breasts, she said. “With 70 women deployed with the battalion, this incident rate in young women seemed high,” she said.

Boswell introduced the bill after discovering that VA and DoD did not have any conclusive data on breast cancer incident in service members, Slusark said.

Boswell, serving his seventh term in Congress, said that if the study shows the possibility of a link to military service, he would try to get breast cancer classified as a service-connected disability.

“It is the responsibility of Congress and our government to conduct research on the incidence rate of breast cancer in men and women in the armed forces when their greater risk may be a result of defending our country,” Boswell said.

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Iraqi National Cancer Research Program established to curb rising incidence of breast cancer
11. March 2010 00:34

Breast cancer continues to rise in Iraq, and scientists have established the Iraqi National Cancer Research Program to better understand the underlying molecular and environmental causes in an effort to curb the incidence of cancer.

“Breast cancer is the most common type of malignancy recorded in the cancer registries of almost all countries within the Eastern Mediterranean Region. In Iraq, the continuous rise in the incidence rate is associated with an obvious trend to affect premenopausal women,” said Nada A.S. Alwan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Breast Cancer Research Unit at Baghdad University Medical College and the executive director of the newly established Iraqi National Cancer Research Program.

———————————————————————————-

Alwan presented early data at the second AACR Dead Sea International Conference on Advances in Cancer Research: From the Laboratory to the Clinic, held March 7-10, 2010.

The Iraqi National Cancer Research Program was organized by the Iraqi minister of higher education and scientific research in 2009 in collaboration with the common secretariat for the Council of Ministers and the Iraqi Parliament.

“This project includes within its objectives comprehensive epidemiologic studies on risk factors of the main encountered cancers in Iraq, with a focus on the characteristics and behaviors of cancer in patients inhabiting different geographic areas,” said Alwan.

The current study focused on 721 of 5,044 women who complained of breast lumps later diagnosed as cancer. Approximately one-third of the diagnosed patients were between 40 and 49 years old; 71.9 percent came from urban areas and 75 percent were married.

History of lactation was reported in 63.1 percent of the women and 29 percent had taken hormone therapy. A family history of breast cancer was reported in 16.2 percent of cases.

Although 90.6 percent of women detected a lump on self-examination, only 32 percent sought medical advice within the first month. Because of this, 47 percent of them presented with advanced stage breast cancer, either stage III or IV cancer. The main histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma of grade 2 in 56.6 percent and grade 3 in 39.9 percent. Estrogen-receptor positive tumors were noted in 65.1 percent of the cases and progesterone-receptor positive tumors were noted in 45.1 percent of the cases.

“We are currently planning to use this information to compare the demographic characteristics, clinicopathological presentations and management outcomes of breast cancer patients within selected countries in the Middle East,” said Alwan.

Source: American Association for Cancer Research

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