Breast Cancer News and Research

Latest Breast Cancer News and Research

"Smart bomb" cancer therapy combo effective

Experts have more good news on the breast cancer front; they say they by using a combination of therapies it may be possible to extend the lives of thousands of women with advanced breast cancer.

4 Jun 2006

Molecular diagnostic test for early-stage breast cancer

Researchers at Montefiore Medical Center are leading a nationwide clinical trial to determine whether a new genetic test can be used to personalize treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

1 Jun 2006

Breast radiation device associated with complications

Doctors in New England have discovered that patients receiving accelerated-partial breast radiation therapy using a balloon brachytherapy system after lumpectomy for breast cancer can develop seroma, the retaining of fluid, in their breast which can require aspiration or make monitoring them by physical exam more difficult.

1 Jun 2006

Higher dose radiation for breast cancer safe and effective and halves the number of treatments

A team of UK and US researchers have found that it is possible to halve the number of treatments by giving higher doses of radiotherapy at each visit with results, after 10 years, at least as good as standard methods.

30 May 2006

Herceptin plus hormonal therapy holds breast cancer in check

Drug giant Roche believes it has proof that its cancer drug Herceptin when used in combination with hormonal therapy increases the time that some breast-cancer patients live without the cancer progressing.

29 May 2006

EU ruling on breast drug Herceptin will end 'post code lottery' in Britain

The European Union has approved the use of the breast cancer drug Herceptin for use in patients with an early stage of the aggressive HER2-positive type of breast cancer.

24 May 2006

MRI cost-effective for some women at high-risk of breast cancer

A computer model simulation suggests that adding breast MRI screening may be cost-effective for women of certain ages who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.

23 May 2006

Women who pile on the kilos more at risk of breast cancers

According to a large new study women who pile on the kilos as adults increase their risk of all types of breast cancer even if they do not take hormone replacement therapy after menopause.

23 May 2006

Adult weight gain and histopathologic characteristics of breast cancer among postmenopausal women

According to a new study, women who gain weight in adulthood face a higher lifetime risk of all types of breast cancer even if they do not take hormone replacement therapy after menopause.

23 May 2006

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 2 may play role in infection and dry eye

Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 2 (PAI-2), a protein found in various cell types including the skin, has been discovered in the tissue covering the eye and may have future clinical implications in various pathologies of the ocular surface such as eye infection or dry eye.

17 May 2006

Association between Pak1 expression and subcellular localization and tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer patients

A protein that activates estrogen receptors in breast cancer may play a role in resistance to therapeutic effects of anti-estrogen tamoxifen treatment, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

17 May 2006

Effectiveness of radiation therapy for older women with early breast cancer

Elderly women with early-stage breast cancer had a lower risk of recurrence when they were treated with radiation therapy, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

17 May 2006

Gene family of potential tumor inhibitors identified

Proteins from a newly discovered family of genes, LRIG, function as a retardant for a protein that is important to tumor cells. It is probably this mechanism that lends the gene family its inhibiting effect on cancer tumors.

17 May 2006

No link found between statins and breast cancer

According to a new study by U.S. researchers, women who use statin drugs to lower their cholesterol are no more likely to develop breast cancer than women who do not use the drugs.

17 May 2006

Extension of embryo screening will help reduce serious illness

A fertility watchdog in Britain, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), has given approval for the extension of embryo screening to cover a wider range of mutated genes, in the main those which raise the risk of cancer in later life.

11 May 2006

Gene amplification could guide treatment for high-risk breast cancer

A new study shows that breast cancer patients with an "amplification," or greater number of copies, of the TOP2A gene are 45% more likely than women who do not have this amplification to benefit from a longer course of anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy.

11 May 2006