Breast Cancer News and Research

Latest Breast Cancer News and Research

Couples attending cancer counseling together better prepared to ease children's concerns

When women with children attend a counseling session before undergoing genetic testing for breast cancer, they are far more likely than their partners to be up front with their kids about the tests and the potential for cancers being inherited, according to a study released today here at the annual meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors.

15 Oct 2007

Breast cancer radiation does not affect women's immune system

A new study shows that neither of two commonly used radiation treatments for early-stage, node-negative breast cancer has any effect on a woman's immune system, even though women who receive five-day partial-breast radiation therapy (MammoSite brachytherapy) (PBRT) have improved energy and quality of life compared to women who undergo six weeks of whole-breast radiation therapy (WBRT).

15 Oct 2007

New molecules discovered that block cancer cells from modifying cell DNA

Researchers have discovered new small molecules that may prevent prostate cancer cells from turning off normal genes in a process that transforms normal cells into cancer cells. This significant discovery in the field of epigenetics has immediate implications in the development of new diagnostic tests and cancer medications.

12 Oct 2007

A tumor-blocking protein may be key in developing deadly form of pancreatic cancer

A tumor-blocking protein previously implicated in prostate and breast cancer development may also be behind the most aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have discovered that the protein pp32 – which normally applies the brakes on a cancer-causing gene – is missing in an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer.

12 Oct 2007

Genome update defines landscape of breast and colon cancers

One year after completing the first large-scale report sequencing breast and colon cancer genes, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have studied the vast majority of protein-coding genes which now suggest a landscape dominated by genes that each are mutated in relatively few cancers.

12 Oct 2007

Breast cancer awareness calls for cardiovascular awareness

Women who overcome breast cancer have every reason to celebrate. But a heart filled with joy may also be a heart damaged by life-saving cancer therapies, a growing body of research shows.

12 Oct 2007

Immune system protein shows potential as early warning system for lung cancer

An immune system protein could act as an early warning system for lung cancer, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Thorax.

10 Oct 2007

Mouse mammary tumor virus might be involved in causing human breast cancer

Mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) - which causes mammary cancer in mice - can replicate and spread in human cells, research published this week shows.

10 Oct 2007

HER-2 status predicts success of chemotherapy in breast cancer treatment

Researchers have found they can potentially target chemotherapy for breast cancer to only those women most likely to benefit, sparing the majority of patients from unnecessary side effects.

10 Oct 2007

Cancer conflict with adjuvant chemotherapy

Women under the age of forty with breast cancer who are given drugs in addition to lumpectomies or radiotherapy, known as adjuvant chemotherapy, may not be benefiting from these drugs.

10 Oct 2007

Women on low-fat diets reduce their risk of ovarian cancer

The American Cancer Society, estimates that as many as 22,400 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and of that number around 15,200 will die from the disease.

10 Oct 2007

Network approach finds potential breast cancer susceptibility gene

Like a crossword-puzzle solver who uses the letters in some answers to figure out others, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an international group of collaborators have used data on genes involved in inherited forms of breast cancer to identify a gene linked to non-hereditary cases of the disease.

10 Oct 2007

Medicaid managed care enrollees appear to receive lower-quality

The proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries in managed care increased from 23 percent to more than 60 percent during the same time period,” the authors write. There is limited information in peer-reviewed literature on the quality of care delivered within health plans to Medicaid enrollees.

10 Oct 2007

British attitudes to exercise show misleading guidelines 'should be changed'

British adults now believe that moderate activity is more beneficial than vigorous exercise, according to new research by the University of Exeter and Brunel University.

10 Oct 2007

British attitudes to exercise show misleading guidelines should be changed

British adults now believe that moderate activity is more beneficial than vigorous exercise, according to new research by the University of Exeter and Brunel University.

10 Oct 2007

African-American women less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women

A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women.

9 Oct 2007

Link between woman's hips and daughter's risk of breast cancer

In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer.

9 Oct 2007

Treatment for breast cancer differs between African-American women and white women

The study found that, among patients with breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes, African-Americans were less likely to have adjuvant cancer therapy than white women. In this clinical group, white women were almost five times more likely to take Tamoxifen, a widely-used cancer therapy medication, and over three times more likely to have chemotherapy.

9 Oct 2007

HMMR gene emerges as a key player in breast cancer

Researchers in a multicenter international study have identified a new gene that, if mutated, may increase a woman's risk of breast cancer by more than a third.

8 Oct 2007