Breast Cancer

Recent American Cancer Society (ACS) breast cancer screening guidelines consider the anxiety created by false-positive mammography an "important but not critical outcome" when deciding who should be screened. In other words, in these guidelines, the chance that mammography will create needless cancer worry is a light thumb on the scale against breast cancer screening in some … [Read more...]

  Weight training can be a big boost to breast cancer survivors who are trying to regain muscle and bone strength lost due to cancer treatment and physical inactivity, says a Florida State University researcher. In the academic journal Healthcare, FSU Professor of Exercise Science Lynn Panton details how a weight training regimen can help women who've survived breast … [Read more...]

A University of South Florida-led research collaboration with Aetna, the American Cancer Society and the national non-profit Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) today published results from a national study identifying factors and outcomes associated with the use of genetic counseling and testing services for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in the community … [Read more...]

Growing up, Charlotte Gard knew she came from a long line of women who developed breast cancer. The New Mexico State University assistant professor always expected her mother to develop it, like her grandmother before her, so she knew she wanted to contribute to research that would help fight the disease that kills more than 40,000 women in the U.S. every year. You won't … [Read more...]

A new study found improved public awareness about reconstructive breast surgery options following Angelina Jolie's decision to undergo a double mastectomy and subsequent reconstruction. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the results indicate that media coverage can serve as a tipping point for improving the general public's … [Read more...]

First results from the largest international comparison of the treatment of elderly patients with breast cancer have shown there are substantial differences in the use of surgery, hormone therapy and chemotherapy between European countries. The European Registration of Cancer Care (EURECCA) study compared the treatment patterns of 119,125 patients aged 70 and older in … [Read more...]

Concerns about fertility kept a third of young women with breast cancer from taking tamoxifen, despite its known benefit in reducing the risk of breast cancer coming back. In addition, the study found fertility concerns led a quarter of women who started tamoxifen to stop taking it before the recommended treatment period ended. "Our study points toward the importance of … [Read more...]

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey surgical oncologist Laurie J. Kirstein, MD, FACS, and Associate Director for Cancer Prevention, Control and Population Science Sharon L. Manne, PhD, have been awarded a $404,089 grant (R21CA187643) from the National Cancer Institute to explore the decision making process women with non-hereditary breast cancer undergo when considering the … [Read more...]

A special technique where breast cancer cells are "rescued" for research has been developed at the University of Adelaide. Coupled with advanced scientific technologies pioneered by Cambridge University this has provided a unique insight into the hormone regulation of breast cancers, which is expected to lead to new treatments for the disease. Published in the journal … [Read more...]

Western University researchers are working on a way to use artificial intelligence to predict a patient's response to two common chemotherapy medications used to treat breast cancer -- paclitaxel and gemcitabine. Peter Rogan, PhD, and a team of researchers, including Stephanie Dorman, PhD, and Katherina Baranova, BMSc, at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & … [Read more...]

Acupuncture may be a viable treatment for women experiencing hot flashes as a result of estrogen-targeting therapies to treat breast cancer, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Hot flashes are particularly severe and frequent in breast cancer survivors, but current FDA-approved remedies for these … [Read more...]

A diet that starves triple-negative breast cancer cells of an essential nutrient primes the cancer cells to be more easily killed by a targeted antibody treatment, UW Carbone Cancer Center scientists report in a recent publication. The study's senior author, Vincent Cryns, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says the … [Read more...]

Breast cancer survivors with a family history of the disease, including those who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, gained more weight over the course of four years than cancer-free women -- especially if they were treated with chemotherapy, according to a prospective study by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers. Data from earlier studies suggest that breast … [Read more...]

Asthma rates among black youth living in urban Detroit and rural Georgia are essentially the same, researchers report, a finding that conflicts with the widely held theory that city life is a risk factor, and pointing instead toward poverty. About 15 percent of Detroit's black inner city youth have diagnosed asthma and another 8 percent undiagnosed disease, according to a … [Read more...]

Researchers have discovered two chemical compounds that effectively stop the growth of brain cancer cells and breast tumors, opening the way for potential new drugs to be developed. "It is particularly encouraging for brain tumor patients, who do not currently have effective treatment options besides surgery," said Dr. James Turkson, PhD, Chief Academic Lead of the … [Read more...]

Every parent knows the maxim "feed a cold, starve a fever." In cancer, however, exactly how to feed or starve a tumor has not been easy to determine. A study led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown that a simple molecule called 14-3-3 sigma could be one answer for explaining cancer metabolism, the chemical process by which a tumor … [Read more...]

Scientists of UT research institute MIRA have developed a system that maps out the odds of recurrence of breast cancer in individual patients. On the basis of information about the patient, the original tumour and the treatment used, they can accurately predict the odds of recurrence of breast cancer per year. The research has been published in the scientific journal Breast … [Read more...]

Francis Crick Institute scientists, funded by Cancer Research UK, have solved a decades-old mystery and helped to unravel the genetic cause of some breast and ovarian cancers, according to new research published in the journal Cell. Following a five-year study in nematode worms, researchers have uncovered how key proteins can switch on a protein called RAD51, allowing it to … [Read more...]

Researchers from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio have found evidence that directly links disrupted metabolism (energy production in cells) to a common and often fatal type of lymphoma. The finding was announced in Nature Communications. "The link between metabolism and cancer has been proposed or inferred to exist for a … [Read more...]

HER2 membrane proteins play a special role in certain types of breast cancer: amplified levels of HER2 drive unrestricted cell growth. HER2-tailored antibody-based therapeutics aim to prevent cancer cell growth. However, two-thirds of HER2 positive breast cancer patients develop resistance against HER2-targeting drugs. The reason for this is not yet understood. Researchers now … [Read more...]

Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) who intended to breastfeed their infants exclusively for two months had a lower risk of relapse during the first six months after giving birth compared with women who did not breastfeed exclusively , according to an article published online by JAMA Neurology. About 20 percent to 30 percent of women with MS experience a relapse within the … [Read more...]

Nearly a third of breast cancer survivors in Appalachia are not taking the critical, potentially life-saving follow-up treatment -- despite having insurance that would pay for it, a troubling new study has found. Researchers cross-examined cancer registries with Medicare claims data and determined that of 428 women, approximately 30 percent failed to follow through with … [Read more...]

Angelina Jolie received widespread media attention in 2013 when she told the public that she'd tested positive for BRCA1, a gene associated with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers, and subsequently had a double mastectomy. Now research shows that this publicity did influence some women's intentions to seek out similar genetic testing. "We put a questionnaire … [Read more...]

Both real and sham weekly acupuncture treatments eased hot flashes and other side effects of anticancer drug treatment in a small, preliminary study of breast cancer patients, Baltimore researchers have found. The results, they say, add to previous reports that even the sensation of skin pricks used to simulate genuine acupuncture needle sticks might be enough to generate … [Read more...]

Researchers explain that, for more than 30 years, bodybuilders have taken tamoxifen to prevent and treat gynaecomastia (breast swelling) caused by use of anabolic steroids. Usually, tamoxifen is sourced from the illicit market, they say. However, bodybuilding discussion forums have speculated that a dietary supplement called Esto Suppress contains tamoxifen because the label … [Read more...]

For women with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy, yoga offers unique benefits beyond fighting fatigue, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The preliminary findings were first reported in 2011 by Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., professor and director of the Integrative Medicine Program at MD Anderson, and are now published in the … [Read more...]

A study has found no increase in overall survival but a reduction in breast cancer recurrence when additional radiation is given to the lymph nodes as well as the standard treatment of whole-breast irradiation after breast-conserving surgery. The research, which examined the addition of regional nodal irradiation to whole-breast irradiation compared with whole-breast … [Read more...]