News You Can Use
Disparity Seen in Promising Staging Tool
Minorities, older women and those from poorer areas are less likely to receive sentinel lymph node biopsies, according to a new study. >>Full story
Chemo Survey: Doctors and Patients Speak Out
A new study sheds light on a disconnect between oncology patients and their doctors on treatment options. >>Full story
The Exercise-Insulin Connection
Exercise has been to reduce insulin levels, which may lower your risk of developing breast canccer or a recurrence. >>Full story
Old Friend, New Name
Y-ME, a 30-year-old organization dedicated to cancer survivors, has changed its name to Breast Cancer Network of Strength. >>Full story
Powerful Benefits from Gentle Yoga
Research indicates that breast cancer survivors can benefit from gentle yoga through reductions in anxiety and depression. >>Full story
Sutent Shows Promise in Metastatic Breast Cancer
A new drug could slow progression of advanced breast cancer by blocking the formation of blood vessels. >>Full story
Portion Distortion
There's an art to reading food labels, and learning it could help cut back more than your waistline. >>Full story
Time to Talk about the Sexual Impact of Mastectomy
Though breast surgery has a demonstrable effect on women's self-image and sexuality, conversations between doctors and patients still aren't taking place to address long-term effects on patients' sexual realtionships. >>Full story
Weight Matters in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer
How overweight you are may affect your prognosis if you are diagnosed with an advanced or aggressive breast cancer. >>Full story
Cancer Online: Can You Trust What You Read?
Most online information about breast cancer is accurate, but patients still need to click with care, according to a new study. >>Full story
Metastatic Patients Want Support, Information
Women with metastatic breast cancer value psychosocial support as highly as cutting edge information on medical treatments, according to a recent survey. >>Full story
The Cancer Threat That Affects Teen Girls
A family of viruses, some linked to cervical cancer, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls, and one in four young women ages 14 to 19 has an STI. >>Full story
The Racial Divide in Stage IV Disease
Though women are living longer with stage IV breast cancer, new statistics show a difference based on race, with white women surviving longer than black women. >>Full story
Sister Study Update
The Sister Study is still looking for underrepresented women to participate in a comprehensive look into those ages 35 to 74 who have a sister with breast cancer. >>Full story
The Fatigue-Fighting Herb
Ginseng may help to combat fatigue in cancer patients, according to a pilot study from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. >>Full story
Surprising Findings About Race and the BRCA1 Gene Mutation
A new study finds that women with breast cancer—and their physicians—shouldn't make assumptions about whether the BRCA1 mutation is involved because of ties to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. >>Full story
New Biomarker Finds Aggressive Cancers
A newly discovered biomarker could be used together with long-established biomarkers to identify women who need the most aggressive treatment. >>Full story
The Option Surgeons Don't Discuss
A study from the University of Michigan Medical Center reveals that surgeons do not tell two-thirds of breast cancer patients about breast reconstruction. >>Full story
Cancer Drugs Gain FDA Approval
Three of the new drugs approved by the FDA in the last 12 months each work in a different way to curb the spread of breast cancer, targeting women who have already tried standard drugs or whose type of cancer is particularly challenging to treat. >>Full story
Tech Report: The Gamma Camera
More doctors are prescribing Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging tests to diagnose women whose mammograms are inconclusive or difficult to read. >>Full story
More Alcohol, More Breast Cancer Risk
One of the largest studies on the effects of alcohol on breast cancer risk concludes that the link lies in the number of drinks per day you consume--not what you're drinking. >>Full story
Does Calcium Prevent Bone Metastasis?
A new study shows that a calcium-rich diet may keep breast cancer from spreading to the bones—as happens in 70 percent of patients whose treatment has failed. >>Full story
Early Screening Test for Ovarian Cancer on the Way?
A simple and more sensitive urine test appears to detect most ovarian cancer—a breakthrough that could help lead to earlier diagnoses and increased public awareness. >>Full story
Peel Me a Grape
A study found that juice extract from Concord grapes could protect healthy cultures of human breast tissue from DNA damage when exposed to benzo(a)pyrene, a known environmental carcinogen. >>Full story
Age and Breast Cancer Treatment: A Matter of Life and Death
Rural or urban, rich or poor, white or black, all older women are at risk of undertreatment in all types of practice settings. >>Full story
Fatigue After Treatment
Research has found that for a quarter to a third of women, fatigue associated with chemotherapy and radiation often persists even six months after treatment has ended. >>Full story
Beware the Western Diet
Among thousands of women from Shanghai, researchers identified a Western dietary pattern increases the risk of estrogen-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal Chinese women, especially heavier ones. >>Full story
Test for Tiny Cancers
Breast cancer surgeons can now use a genetic test that may detect even the tiniest metastases, thereby helping patients stay ahead of their disease. >>Full story
Male Version: Rare but Risky
Cancer (April) reports that men whose breast cancer hasn’t yet spread to the lymph nodes survive an average of 6 years while women diagnosed at the same stage of the disease survive an average of 15 years. >>Full story
When Chemo Fails: Ixempra
Advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients who have stopped responding to usual chemotherapy drugs now have another option: Ixempra. >>Full story
Stress
Stress may reduce a woman’s risk of developing uterine cancer. >>Full story
Cancer After Conception
Scientists are starting to understand what causes these pregnancy-related cancers and what might one day prevent them. >>Full story
Hip Size of Mother Linked to Cancer Risk
Mothers with wide, round hips may have daughters at higher risk for breast cancer >>Full story
Hypnotic Advantage
Women hypnotized prior to biopsy or lumpectomy felt reduced pain after surgery, spent less overall time in surgery and needed less anesthesia. >>Full story
Power of Prevention
Evista, a new osteoporosis drug, lowers the risk invasive breast cancer and prevents estrogen from attaching to breast cells and driving the growth of cancer. >>Full story
Awareness is soaring but myths abound
Breast cancer awareness has reached an all-time high, but despite the buzz, critical knowledge gaps and confusion often perpetuated in the media are leaving women vulnerable and at risk. >>Full story
Handheld Coach
Patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer a host of side effects, especially pain, depression and fatigue. Yet unless they effectively communicate the problems to their physicians, they won’t receive available relief. Now, from the Ohio State University. >>Full story
Early Puberty, High Risk
Studies show that early puberty increases breast cancer risk--alarming news for American girls who are starting puberty at younger ages, with black girls starting earliest. >>Full story
Combining Drugs to Help the Heart
Certain therapies link to heart toxicity has to do with whether it activates a protein called AMP kinase, which safeguards the heart. >>Full story
her-2 vaccine on the horizon
Researchers are testing a special vaccine that, early evidence shows, may slow tumor growth in women with advanced, Her-2 positive breast cancer. >>Full story
Metastatic Patients Plan Second Conference
The Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN) Second Annual National Conference will be held at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on November 17 and 18. >>Full story
Tracking Tumors With Ultrasound
Physicians increasingly turn to ultrasound in addition to mammography to screen women for breast cancer. >>Full story
Sex after Recurrence
Women with breast cancer maintain sexual lives after recurrence, according to new findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (July 20). >>Full story
The Lymphedema Diet
Studies have shown that lymphedema strikes harder at overweight breast cancer patients, but now a new study reveals that there might be a new tool for these patients: weight loss. >>Full story
Seeking Sisters
By studying women who never had cancer but who may be at genetic risk, researchers hope to tease out the roles played by environment and genes. >>Full story
Baby Born from Frozen Egg
In what possibly amounts to a joyous medical breakthrough for tens of thousands of survivors, researchers have announced the birth of a baby girl conceived from an egg that was frozen and then thawed before fertilization. >>Full story
Morning Sickness May Indicate Lower Risk
There may be an upside to morning sickness, suggests a study presented in June at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. >>Full story
An Apple (Peel) a Day
Cornell researchers have identified a dozen compounds in apple peels—all in a class called triterpenoids—that either inhibit or kill cancer cells in laboratory cultures. >>Full story
RESEARCH BRIEFS
Obesity drug & breast cancer, Faslodex, next-generation imaging >>Full story
Small Family, Uncertain Genetic Risk
Computer models used to predict whether a woman has mutations in her BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which increase risk of breast cancer, may be inaccurate if her family is small. >>Full story
Landmark Consensus on Ovarian Cancer Symptoms
New research has identified early-stage symptoms in ovarian cancer patients, making the "silent killer" a thing of the past. >>Full story
Reducing Radiation
European researchers found that after five years of radiation regimens fewer and lower doses of radiation were just as effective as higher doses given for longer periods of time. >>Full story
Saving the Nipple
Doctors in Korea are experimenting with a surgical procedure that allows women to retain their own nipples after a mastectomy. >>Full story
Hair Relaxers Don't Cause Breast Cancer
Research has dismissed the theory that hair relaxing products that are popular among black women are linked to cancer. >>Full story
Women Report Getting Fewer Mammograms, But Why?
Experts are looking to everything from insurance plans to fewer breast imaging radiologists for an answer. >>Full story
Portuguese Breast Cancer Genes
Scientists at the Lisbon Oncology Institute have discovered that some Portuguese people have a specific mutation in the BRCA2 gene, which could lead to new tests to detect cancer predisposition. >>Full story
Accupuncture & Imunity
Acupuncture may boost white blood cell counts and bolster the immune system. >>Full story
Research Briefs
Tumor microenvironment, Gemzar, Ginseng >>Full story
Designer Diets for Better Taste
For cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, even favorite foods can set off nausea and loss of appetite, leading to malnutrition and weight loss. >>Full story
Choosing a Surgeon
Do Your Homework >>Full story
Healthy Pregnancy Following Herceptin
Cancer patients can take Herceptin during pregnancy and still have a healthy baby. >>Full story
RESEARCH BRIEFS
Bone Metastases, Side Effect Gene, Cisplatin, Saliva Test, Alcohol, Yoga, Cancer Gene >>Full story
Racial Disparity in Men
In a study from Columbia University in New York, 90 percent of white male breast cancer survivors lived beyond five years compared to only 66 percent of black male breast cancer survivors. >>Full story
Lymphedema in Young Breast Cancer Survivors
Now, for the first time, researchers are studying how the condition affects young breast cancer survivors. >>Full story
Doctors Validated
As more patients turn to the Internet to learn about medical issues, some doctors have expressed concern. >>Full story
Chemotherapy Before Breast Cancer Surgery
A recent review of these studies shows that preoperative chemotherapy is safe. >>Full story
Hospital Operations: Numbers Matter
The more surgeries, the better. >>Full story
Breast Density Affects Risk
Is a woman who hasn't always had dense breasts but develops them later in life also at increased risk? >>Full story
Herpes Virus May Treat Advanced Ovarian Cancer
Now, it turns out, the notorious virus may actually be put to use. >>Full story
Funding Source Affects Outcome
Breast cancer clinical trials funded by pharmaceutical companies are more likely to report positive results than are trials not funded by the industry >>Full story
Interactive Toolkits
A series of Internet tools that doctors and patients can use collaboratively to help with risk assessment, treatment decisions and more. >>Full story