Breast Cancer News and Research

Latest Breast Cancer News and Research

Surgery plus radiation therapy an effective way to treat early breast cancer in women aged 70 and older

For early breast cancer, the standard of care is surgery to remove the cancerous lump followed by radiation therapy, thereby allowing the patient to keep her breast. However, older women are not always offered this option.

1 Sep 2004

Gene - beta1-integrin, could be key to breast cancer therapies

Canadian researchers at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and McMaster University have identified a new player in breast cancer. This gene, beta1-integrin, has been shown to be critical in the initiation of tumour growth and development in a mouse model of cancer.

30 Aug 2004

Cinical trial to evaluate breakthrough breast cancer treatment

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center will host 20 medical experts from around the United States on Sept. 9 to prepare for a 3,000-patient phase III clinical trial that will evaluate a breakthrough breast cancer treatment.

30 Aug 2004

Black women may not be getting mammograms as often as white women

Black women may not be getting mammograms as often as white women, despite a widespread belief that this particular racial disparity has been overcome, a University of Rochester Medical Center study shows.

27 Aug 2004

More women are surviving advanced breast cancer

Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, (Vol. 22, No. 16: 3302-3308), doctors from 3 French hospitals reported on 724 women whose first diagnosis was breast cancer that had spread to other parts of the body (stage 4). It is rare for women to be diagnosed with such late stage disease.

27 Aug 2004

Success of breast screening varies between women

Breast cancer may be harder to detect and exclude among women with certain personal and lifestyle characteristics, according to research published in this week's BMJ.

26 Aug 2004

Powerful new cancer-fighting property of Herceptin

For many patients with advanced breast cancer, the cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) has offered new hope when traditional cancer drugs failed to work, shrinking tumors and sending some patients into remission.

23 Aug 2004

Blueberries may lower cholesterol

New research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that blueberries may lower cholesterol as effectively as a commercial drug and have the potential for fewer adverse side effects.

23 Aug 2004

African-American women are less likely to be treated with breast reconstruction after mastectomy than women of other races

According to a new study published August 23, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, African-American women had significantly lower immediate breast reconstruction rates compared to Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic women. The abstract of this article will be freely accessible via the CANCER Newsroom.

23 Aug 2004

1 in 5 women who have mammograms every 2 years will have to undergo follow up evaluation for a false positive finding

A new long-term study finds over 20 years, only one in five women who have mammograms every two years will have to undergo follow up evaluation for a false positive finding. Only one in 16 will have an unnecessary invasive procedure over two decades.

23 Aug 2004

More tumour cells in the blood leads to quicker deterioration in women with breast cancer

A new study of women with advanced breast cancer who have more tumor cells circulating in their blood deterioate and die quicker than women with fewer of these cells, according to the researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and other cancer centers throughout the country.

18 Aug 2004

Exposure to natural and man-made substances in the environment accounts for at least two-thirds of all the cases of cancer in the U.S.

These environmental factors include lifestyle choices like cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, lack of exercise and excessive sunlight exposure. Other factors include exposure to certain medical drugs, hormones, radiation, viruses, bacteria, and chemicals that may be present in the air, water, food and workplace.

18 Aug 2004

80% of cancer patients use some form of complementary or alternative therapies

Plug the terms "alternative" and "cancer" into Google and the Internet search engine returns a list of 3.27 million - yes, million - sites with information both credible and questionable about nontraditional treatments for cancer. What's a cancer patient to make of such a vast array of options?

18 Aug 2004

A quarter of all adults aged over 40 could develop an irregular heartbeat

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the U.S., affecting more than 2 million adults. The prevalence of the condition is rising and scientists predict that about 5.6 million Americans will have the disorder by 2050. Known causes of AF include abnormalities in the heart’s structure and long-term uncontrolled high blood pressure.

17 Aug 2004

Benefits from short-term hormone therapy are likely to outweigh the risks

A group of prominent experts on treatment of the menopause today issued advice for doctors on the use of hormone therapy.

13 Aug 2004

The largest North American breast cancer prevention trial ever undertaken has reached its goal of enrolling 19,000 women

The largest North American breast cancer prevention trial ever undertaken, the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR), reached its goal of enrolling 19,000 women to the trial in June 2004, a month earlier than originally expected.

13 Aug 2004

What is Telomere crisis?

Telomere crisis is an important early event in the development of breast cancer, and its occurrence can be identified with precision, according to recent findings by a team of scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at San Francisco.

11 Aug 2004

Stanford researchers identify leukemia stem cells

A handful of leukemia cells constantly replenish the supply of cancerous cells, according to new work by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers.

11 Aug 2004

Sugar Association questions claim that breast cancer is connected to sucrose consumption

In response to a recent study published in the journal "Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention," the Sugar Association is questioning the study's claim that breast cancer is connected to sucrose consumption.

11 Aug 2004

Free licences of European patents on the hereditary breast cancer gene BRCA2

The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research Technology Limited, the technology transfer company of the charity Cancer Research UK, today announced the availability of free licences of European patents on the hereditary breast cancer gene BRCA2 to publicly funded research laboratories and not-for-profit research laboratories.

11 Aug 2004