Bay Area Cancer Connections is providing this blog as a public service. The views and opinions expressed by guests in this blog are those of the authors and do not reflect the views, official policy, or position of Bay Area Cancer Connections. Their appearance in our blog does not imply an endorsement of them or any
My name is Annie, and I’m 46 years old. My husband and I have been married for 19 years, and we have three wonderful children together, ages 17, 14, and 11. We live in the East Bay with a 90-pound female American Bulldog who has a 50-pound Pitbull for a brother. By all accounts, we
This post was originally published on the author’s blog and reprinted with her consent. A year ago, I was undergoing cancer treatment. This month, I am celebrating my one-year survivorship. It is a big milestone on many levels. I underwent so much pain and so many sorrows. I am grateful for life, even though the hardships are not
Each year, we ask our staff and community to nominate volunteers that stand out for the wonderful work they have done to support us. Under normal circumstances, we would gather together to celebrate all of our volunteers who choose to donate their time and talents to us throughout the year. Without our volunteers, BACC would
Regina Bortolus epitomizes the humble ‘angel’ among us. As a member of Mani di Angeli, a group within the Italian American Women’s Guild, she has led a group of dedicated women who have spent many hours creating and sewing dolls for pediatric wards at local hospitals and heart pillows for newly diagnosed clients of Bay
It is no secret that we absolutely love our BACC community. There’s a good reason that our Executive Director has been known to send emails and letters with the sign off “sending hugs!” It’s because, even before this pandemic, we knew we had the absolute best community. Now, during this time, our love and appreciation
Results from the IMpassion 130 clinical trial show that there is benefit to adding immunotherapy to chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This phase III clinical trial randomized 902 people with untreated metastatic TNBC to treatment with either chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus immunotherapy. The immunotherapy drug used in the study was
Forty percent of advanced estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer patients have mutations that result in uncontrolled activation of the PI3K pathway. This pathway is involved in resistance to endocrine therapies and can promote the growth of ER+ breast cancer cells. SOLAR-1 is a phase III clinical trial of 572 patients with advanced ER+, HER2-negative breast cancer. The
Did You Know?A cup of oatmeal provides tryptophan – amino acid that converts to serotonin – the feel good brain hormone that in turn converts to melatonin – the sleep promoting hormone. The carbs in the oats promote the production of insulin which helps tryptophan get into the brain. And oats are high in Vitamin
“The purpose of a [clinician] or any human in general should not be to simply delay the death of a patient, but to increase the person’s quality of life.” – Patch Adams, MD If you distilled the sweetest goodness of medicine, you’d get the Bay Area Cancer Connections. Twenty-five years ago, a patient and a
