Diagnostic chest x-rays apparently bestow an increased risk of breast-cancer in women with mutations in BRCA susceptibility genes.

Any exposure to radiation from chest x-rays increased the women's risk by about 1.5-fold, reported Nadine Andrieu, Ph.D., and colleagues of the Institut Curie here, and other centers, in an early online release from the July 20 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology. (medpagetoday.com)

June 7, 2006

Younger black women who get breast cancer are far more likely than other afflicted women to have a particularly aggressive and lethal form of the disease, a study found. (MSNBC)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Breast Cancer Studies

June 4, 2006

Women with advanced breast cancer soon may have another treatment option: A novel experimental drug delayed the growth of tumors nearly twice as long as standard chemotherapy did in patients who had stopped responding to Herceptin, doctors reported Saturday. (MSNBC)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Breast Cancer Drugs

June 1, 2006

"All cancers in this study were identified with MR spectroscopy. There were no false-negative results," said lead researcher Dr. Lia Bartella, an assistant professor in the Department of Breast Imaging at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. "With the addition of MR spectroscopy to our breast MRI exam, we found that the number of biopsies recommended on the basis of MRI findings decreased significantly. These results should encourage more women to take this potentially lifesaving test." (excite.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Breast Cancer Detection

May 13, 2006

Doctors who treat women with breast cancer are glimpsing the possibility of a vastly different future. After years of adding more and more to the regimen — more drugs, shorter intervals between chemotherapy sessions, higher doses, longer periods of a harsh therapy — they are now wondering whether many women could skip chemotherapy altogether. (nytimes.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Breast Cancer Treatments