An analysis done at Duke University has found that while clinical trial data support omitting radiation treatments for elderly women with early stage breast cancer, nearly two-thirds of these women continue to receive it. The findings were published online in December 2014 in “Cancer”, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. A release from… Continue reading Elderly Breast Ca Patients Get Radiation Despite Findings
Tag: Breast Cancer
Getting Potentially Life-Saving Drugs to High-Risk Breast Cancer Patients Faster
By Tatiana Prowell, M.D. and Richard Pazdur, M.D. Researchers at an international oncology conference held in October in Spain reported that pertuzumab, which was FDA-approved for treatment of HER2+ metastatic breast cancer in June 2012, improved survival by an average of nearly 16 months when added to standard treatment. This was yet another piece of… Continue reading Getting Potentially Life-Saving Drugs to High-Risk Breast Cancer Patients Faster
Study: Walnuts May Have Lifesaving Benefits
The heart-health benefits of nuts have been known for some time, but now researchers say that walnuts slow the growth of prostate and breast cancer as well. Investigators from the University of California, Davis, and other institutions also found that both walnuts and walnut oil helped to reduce cholesterol and increased sensitivity to insulin. The… Continue reading Study: Walnuts May Have Lifesaving Benefits
Meditation Improves Cells in Breast-Cancer Survivors
Practicing meditation can have a positive physical impact on breast-cancer survivors at the cellular level, research has found for the first time. The investigators, who worked out of Alberta Health Services’ Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology, showed that telomeres (protein complexes at the end of chromosomes) maintain their… Continue reading Meditation Improves Cells in Breast-Cancer Survivors
Breast Cancer Patients and Hot Flashes
Physicians aren’t adequately treating hot flashes in breast-cancer patients, and that could have a serious effect on the patients’ health-care decisions, according to new research. More than 70 percent of breast-cancer survivors have menopause-related problems, especially hot flashes. These can persist for more than five years after cancer treatment has ended. Experts say they affect… Continue reading Breast Cancer Patients and Hot Flashes
Looking Toward Changes in Breast-Cancer Detection
Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration are studying the next generation of screening and diagnostic devices, some of which borrow from the world of entertainment. Soon, three-dimensional (3D) images in actual 3D might help your doctor find hidden tumors and better diagnose cancers, thanks to the regulatory work being done by a team at… Continue reading Looking Toward Changes in Breast-Cancer Detection
Making The Decision about Breast Implants
Should I get breast implants? Are there alternatives? Will they need to be replaced? No matter what your reason – medical or cosmetic – for getting breast implants, the subject can be confusing and even emotionally taxing. Here, experts from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tell you what you need to know both… Continue reading Making The Decision about Breast Implants
A Link Between Bra Wearing and Breast Cancer? Forget about It
Despite what some people believe, there’s absolutely no evidence of a link between wearing a bra and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women and wearing a bra, according to research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “There have been some concerns that one of the… Continue reading A Link Between Bra Wearing and Breast Cancer? Forget about It
Breast Screening Over Age 70 May Lead to Overdiagnosis
Mammograms for women over the age of 70 s doesn’t prompt a sharp fall in advanced disease and may instead lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment, according to research led by a team based at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Their paper was published in BMJ,, coinciding with the opening of the Preventing Overdiagnosis… Continue reading Breast Screening Over Age 70 May Lead to Overdiagnosis
Perspectives on Breast Reconstruction
Less than 42 percent of women underwent breast reconstruction following a mastectomy for cancer, and the factors associated with foregoing reconstruction included being black, having a lower education level and being older. That is the finding of Monica Morrow, M.D., of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, and colleagues who published their results online August 20th 2014 JAMA Surgery.
Active Lifestyle Decreases Breast Ca Risk After Menopause
Postmenopausal women who in the past four years had undertaken regular physical activity equivalent to at least four hours of walking per week had a lower risk for invasive breast cancer compared with women who exercised less during those four years, according to data published in August 2014 inCancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Scientists Zeroing In on Third Breast-Cancer Gene
Researchers have discovered more about a breast-cancer gene that could be as important as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in determining a woman’s likelihood of getting breast cancer.
An international team of 17 researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, said that the gene, PALB 2, could be a candidate to be “BRCA 3.” They said that women with the gene have an average one in three chance of developing breast cancer by the age of 70.
The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Although it’s been known for a while that PALB2 was l
Mammography Benefits Women Over 75
Mammography-detected breast cancer is associated with a shift to earlier stage diagnosis in older women, subsequently reducing the rate of more advanced, difficult-to-treat cases, according to a study published online in the journal Radiology in August 2014. The researchers said the findings lend support to regular mammography screening in women ages 75 and older.
Acupuncture Helps Breast Ca Patients
Use of electroacupuncture (EA) – a form of acupuncture where a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles – produces significant improvements in fatigue, anxiety and depression in as little as eight weeks for early stage breast cancer patients experiencing joint pain related to the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs). That is the finding of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial examining the intervention led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published online in July 2014 in the journal Cancer.
Exposure To Nighttime Light Could Be Dangerous for Breast-Cancer Patients
The breast-cancer drug tamoxifen is useless if a patient is exposed to even dim overnight light, according to a new study. But it can become effective during the same period in combination with the hormone melatonin.
Researchers from Tulane University School of Medicine published the study in the journal Cancer Research. It is the first study to show that melatonin, which regulates sleep and wake cycles, is essential to tamoxifen’s success in treating breast cancer. But melatonin doesn’t work if it’s shut off by exposure to light at night.
Immunotherapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer
Yale Cancer Center researchers used a new molecular analysis tool to accurately detect the level of an important target for immunotherapy in early-stage breast cancers. The diagnostic test, using RNAScope, measures the amount of PD-L1 (programmed death ligand 1) mRNA in routine formalin-fixed cancer tissues and is devoid of many of the technical issues that plague antibody-based detection methods that have yielded conflicting results in the past. PD-L1 is the target of several novel immune stimulatory therapies in clinical trials.
Breast Ca Screening for Older Women = High Cost But No Benefit
Medicare spending on breast cancer screening increased substantially between 2001 and 2009 but the detection rates of early stage tumors were unchanged, according to a study done at Yale and published July 16th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Marginal Benefit from Prophylactic Mastectomy
The choice of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) by women with breast cancer (BC) diagnosed in one breast has recently increased in the US but may confer only a marginal life expectancy benefit depending on the type and stage of cancer, according to a study published July 16th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.