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New blood test may help detect breast cancer

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have developed a blood test that can detect amplification of a certain gene found in circulating cells associated with breast cancer.

9 Jun 2004

FDA warns against use of domperidone to increase milk production

In response to reports that women may be using an unapproved drug, domperidone, to increase milk production (lactation), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning breastfeeding women not to use this product because of safety concerns. Today, FDA also issued six letters to pharmacies that compound products containing domperidone and firms that supply domperidone for use in compounding.

9 Jun 2004

Obesity threatens health of women in nations previously not known for a growing percentage of overweight citizens

Around the globe, obesity has become a problem for many poorer women in most countries with upper-middle income national economies and even some with lower-middle income economies, an important new international study concludes.

7 Jun 2004

Changing practices may raise African American women's breast cancer risk

A new study finds African American women derive similar breast cancer risk reductions associated with multiple births and breastfeeding as white women, but that recent trends may lead to a rising risk.

7 Jun 2004

Polycystic ovary syndrome more common than originally thought

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, have found that a complex hormonal disorder affecting the reproductive and metabolic function of premenopausal women may be considerably more common in the United States than previously believed from earlier, smaller studies.

5 Jun 2004

Socioeconomic gradients in stage and grade of breast cancer at diagnosis

Women living in deprived areas of the United Kingdom tend to have more advanced breast cancer at diagnosis than those living in affluent areas, finds new research on bmj.com.

5 Jun 2004

One small glass of wine may be enough to harm fetal brain

Just one small glass of wine. It may not seem like much alcohol, but expectant moms should beware. Research done in Alberta points to new dangers from drinking while pregnant.

3 Jun 2004

Uterine cancer, also called endometrial cancer, will strike more than 40,000 U.S. women annually

A Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) study, headed by Cornelia Trimble, M.D. of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, has revealed that pathologists who evaluate uterine biopsies disagree 60 percent of the time on whether the specimens contain cancerous cells.

3 Jun 2004

Cigarettes damage women’s lungs more than men’s lungs

Noting that lung cancer is women’s number one cancer killer, Loyola medical oncologist Dr. Kathy S. Albain will speak on the molecular differences in lung cancer between men and women, June 4, at the annual meeting of Women Against Lung Cancer.

3 Jun 2004

Growing problem of obesity in women from developing countries

Increasing obesity threatens to undermine the health of women in nations previously not known for a growing percentage of overweight citizens, the researchers say. As the amount of available food grows in most countries, the condition is becoming a greater issue for poorer women than for richer ones.

2 Jun 2004

San Francisco judge has slammed the new Bush legislation on abortions as unconstitutional

US federal Judge Phyllis Hamilton has slammed the new Bush legislation on abortions as unconstitutional "This court concludes that the act is unconstitutional because it poses an undue burden on a woman's ability to choose a second trimester abortion; is unconstitutionally vague; and requires a health exception,".

2 Jun 2004

Anti-violence money directed at wrong end of the problem

Millions of dollars allocated to this Sunday’s (June 6) launch of the federal government’s National Elimination of Violence Against Women Campaign would have been better directed to programs with long term vision, aimed at prevention of the attitudes leading to violence.

2 Jun 2004

Fibroid tumors affecting many American women lack a key protein helps hold tissues together

Fibroid tumors — the sometimes painful uterine growths affecting many American women — lack a key protein that plays a role in holding tissues together, according to a study by researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

2 Jun 2004

Federal abortion ban is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced

The federal abortion ban passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush last year is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, Federal District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton ruled yesterday (1st June 2004).

2 Jun 2004

Dow Corning breast implant claim checks to be mailed soon

Today is the effective date in the Dow Corning bankruptcy, finally allowing injured people's claims to be processed. The court-appointed claims administrator for the $2.35 billion fund said that thousands of letters will go out June 1st and that the first checks should be mailed June 15th.

2 Jun 2004

Women with chest pain who have low hemoglobin levels are more likely to die or suffer a heart attack

Women with chest pain who have low hemoglobin levels are more likely to die or suffer a heart attack, heart failure, stroke or other cardiovascular event than women with normal hemoglobin levels, according to a new study in the June 2, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

2 Jun 2004

Discovery of a key marker in breast cancer tumors

Cancer researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have discovered a key marker in breast cancer tumors that may help determine which women with early stage breast cancer have a better chance of survival. The research appears in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

31 May 2004

There are still benefits from hormone therapy after menopause

Despite the highly publicized closing of the Women’s Health Initiative study, the scientific community should not rule out that women may benefit from hormone therapy after menopause, say researchers at UC Davis, Duke and Harvard Universities.

31 May 2004

Breast reduction instead of removal a viable breast cancer alternative

Women at high risk of developing breast cancer may have an additional preventative alternative to having their breasts removed – breast reduction surgery, according to a study published in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

31 May 2004

Women who regularly take aspirin at lower risk of breast cancer

Women who regularly take aspirin seem to be at lower risk of the most common type of breast cancer than those who do not take aspirin, report researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians & Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medical College , and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

31 May 2004