Breast Cancer News and Research

Latest Breast Cancer News and Research

Women well-informed about breast cancer although lack knowledge about current treatments

According to a new GfK Roper Public Affairs survey sponsored by CancerCare, a national nonprofit cancer support organization, while the majority (76 percent) of women surveyed said they know at least a fair amount about breast cancer, many remain unaware of the important recent progress made in treatment.

16 Jun 2007

Newer breast cancer drug may protect heart

By uncovering how one breast cancer drug protects the heart and another does not, Duke University Medical Center researchers believe they may have opened up a new way to screen drugs for possible heart-related side effects and to develop new drugs.

16 Jun 2007

Type of insurance coverage linked to more advanced cancers

Two new studies find the uninsured and people with certain types of public health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced cancer compared to those with private insurance.

16 Jun 2007

Researchers create first 3-D optical images of human breast cancer in patients based on tissue fluorescence

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography, or FDOT, relies on the presence of fluorophore molecules in tissue that re-radiate fluorescent light after illumination by excitation light of a different color.

14 Jun 2007

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables best for breast cancer survival

A new study in the "Journal of Clinical Oncology" reinforces existing evidence showing that women with breast cancer can greatly reduce their risk of recurrence by eating a healthy plant-based diet rich in fruits and vegetables and making other healthy lifestyle choices, according to nutrition experts with The Cancer Project.

14 Jun 2007

Impact of diet or physical activity on breast cancer survival

Breast cancer survivors who eat a healthy diet and exercise moderately can reduce their risk of dying from breast cancer by half, regardless of their weight, suggests a new longitudinal study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

14 Jun 2007

A single cancer stem cell is sufficient to initiate and maintain a malignant tumor

At the heart of most, if not all cancers, lie a handful of wayward stem cells that feed the ever growing tumor mass, but their scarcity make it difficult for scientists to study them. Now, times of plenty may lie ahead as a breast cancer cell line , established long ago , turned out to behave a lot like cancer stem cells.

14 Jun 2007

BRCA2 carriers more likely to develop aggressive and lethal prostate cancer

Carriers of a BRCA2 variation specific to Iceland are more likely to develop aggressive and lethal prostate cancer than noncarriers, according to a study published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

14 Jun 2007

First comprehensive description of sleep and wake patterns of cancer patients using continuous polysomnography

Patients with advanced-stage cancer experience very poor sleep quality and often have troubling staying awake, says Emory University researcher Kathy Parker, PhD, RN.

14 Jun 2007

Hawaii the tops when it comes to health care

Living in Hawaii has more advantages than just sunshine and beautiful beaches. Health wise Hawaii is the top place to be when it comes to accessing safe and affordable medical care.

13 Jun 2007

New drug-delivery system using nanomaterials

Researchers at UCLA have successfully manipulated nanomaterials to create a new drug-delivery system that promises to solve the challenge of the poor water solubility of today's most promising anticancer drugs and thereby increase their effectiveness.

8 Jun 2007

Scientists look at slow-freezing techniques for human tissue

The goal is to make human eggs, ovarian tissue, blood vessels, even whole organs available when needed.

8 Jun 2007

Largest ever genetics study of common diseases

The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, the largest ever study of the genetics behind common diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and coronary heart disease, publishes its results in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics.

8 Jun 2007

Researchers find stem cells in colorectal tumors

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified the cancer stem cells that propagate tumors in colon and rectal cancer, a discovery that could lead to improved treatment of this deadly cancer.

5 Jun 2007

Hot flashes may be a good sign for women with early stage breast cancer

Women on tamoxifen therapy who reported having hot flashes were less likely to develop recurrent breast cancer than those who did not report hot flashes, according to a study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

5 Jun 2007

Tumor cell activity may provide clues for treating breast cancer in young women

When women under 50 develop breast cancer the disease tends to be more aggressive and less responsive to treatment than when it occurs in older women.

5 Jun 2007

Circulating tumor cells predict how prostate cancer patients do with chemotherapy

The number of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream of patients with metastatic, hormone-resistant, prostate cancer can predict how they will do with chemotherapy, according to results of an international trial.

5 Jun 2007

Study finds difference in survival rates among white and black women with advanced breast cancer

Despite modest overall improvements in breast cancer survival rates for women with advanced disease over the last two decades, the rates for black women have not improved and the difference in life expectancy between white and black women continues to widen, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

5 Jun 2007

MRI detects cancers missed by mammography in breast cancer patients

A unique examination of one treatment center's use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in new breast cancer patients has found MRI to be superior to mammography in finding additional tumors in a breast in which cancer has already been diagnosed, and in detecting new tumors in a patient's supposedly healthy breast.

5 Jun 2007

Herceptin does not increase heart failure in patients long-term

Risk of congestive heart failure in women treated with trastuzumab (Herceptin) and combination chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer did not increase over time according to a five-year follow-up of National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) trial B-31, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

5 Jun 2007