Archive for the 'Breast Cancer' Category

A new promising enzyme target for a specific type of breast cancer, Brk, has been identified in research.

In a specific subset of breast cancer patients, the tumor cells produce high levels of the protein ErbB2 (also called HER2) which pushes the cells to proliferate without limit, a characteristic common of all cancers.

Approximately one in four patients are in this group, and their clinical prognoses are considerably worse than other patients.

While Herceptin and Lapatinib, concomitantly administered with other chemotherapic agents, have improved the prognosis for many of these patients, there is significant potential for development in this area.

In particular, they are able to suppress ErbB2, but are not effective against all tumors that secrete it. Additionally, when patients’ tumors do respond, they usually become resistant over time.

According to the authors of this study, this suggested that another element might factor into the progression of these tumors.

According to the authors “The limited success of existing therapy suggested to us that factors besides ErbB2, or proteins that collude with ErbB2, might nullify the effects of Herceptin and Lapatinib.”

Women at elevated risk for breast cancer - or a recurrence of the disease - increasingly are choosing double mastectomies as a protective measure against cancer’s rebound, doctors said.

Emmy Award-winning actress Christina Applegate, who underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer earlier this month, announced yesterday that she also chose a preventive mastectomy, commonly called a prophylactic mastectomy, on the opposite side.

Applegate, 36, said she carries the BRCA 1 gene mutation. Over a lifetime, BRCA 1 can increase the risk of the disease by as much as 85 percent.

She said her choice of a prophylactic mastectomy was to pre-empt the possibility of developing breast cancer in the future.

Genomic testing in recent years not only allows women to learn whether they’re carriers of a mutation, but a positive test can pave the way for making an excruciatingly difficult decision, said Dr. Brian O’Hea, medical director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center.

In addition to BRCA 1, the gene carried by Applegate, another, BRCA 2, also can increase the risk of breast cancer.

Carriers of BRCA 1 and 2 also have elevated ovarian cancer risks. The genes can be transmitted by either parent, and are a leading cause of breast cancer that occurs before the age of 40.

When someone well-known such as Christina Applegate is diagnosed with breast cancer, many adult women become concerned as to what the future holds for them.

While it’s true that 1 out of 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her lifetime, there are also a lot of misconceptions about the disease floating around.

Although Applegate is just 36 years old, the fact remains that breast cancer is more likely to strike women over the age of 50.

Still, many women under the age of 40 may now be tempted to run out and demand mammograms.

But mammograms are ineffective for most young women, told Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families.

“Young women’s breasts are dense and if they get mammograms, their breasts show up very white on mammograms and cancer shows up as white,” she said.

“But, as women get older, their breasts are less dense and show up gray on a mammogram, which makes it easy to identify the white cancer.

If there is a family history, and women are worried, they can start earlier and in this case a digital mammography may work better than a traditional mammography.”

A higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with lower survival rates in women with breast cancer, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

BMI is the ratio of weight to height, which is often used to see if a patient’s weight is outside normal parameters.

“We have found strong evidence that high BMI and a recent pregnancy are associated with a poorer prognosis after a diagnosis of breast cancer,” Dr. Gillian C. Barnett told Reuters Health. “Our study suggests that advice on weight loss should be given to all obese patients with breast cancer.”

Dr. Barnett from Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK and colleagues investigated the impact of established risk factors for incident breast cancer on overall survival after a diagnosis of breast cancer, using data from the Studies of Epidemiology and Risk Factors in Cancer Heredity.

Women with the highest BMIs were 52 percent more likely to die than women with the lowest BMIs, the investigators report.

“The Women’s Interventional Nutritional Study reported improved event-free survival in women randomly assigned to a reduced fat diet (associated with weight loss),” Barnett pointed out. “Further definitive clinical weight loss intervention trials in breast cancer populations are required to further clarify the relationship between breast cancer mortality and BMI.”

According to a study, patients with a rare type of breast cancer may benefit from receiving radiation therapy in addition to surgery to prevent recurrence.

Phyllodes tumors are rare breast tumors that develop in the connective tissue of the breast, as opposed to more common carcinomas, which develop in the ducts or lobules of the breast.

Most patients are treated for phyllodes tumors with either a lumpectomy or mastectomy, with only a small fraction of patients receiving radiation therapy.

Traditionally, adjuvant radiation therapy is recommended for cancer patients with local recurrence risks of 15 percent or greater, but the value of adjuvant radiation therapy has not been extensively studied for phyllodes tumors because they are so rare.

Researchers sought to determine the local recurrence rates of phyllodes tumors based on tumor size and the type of surgery performed and whether adjuvant radiation therapy should be considered as a treatment for some phyllodes tumor patients to reduce their local recurrence rate.

“Typically these tumors are treated well by surgery alone. However, local recurrences are not uncommon,” Richard Pezner, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., said.

Could lipstick give you breast cancer?

Chemicals found in lipstick and nail varnish could trigger breast cancer, scientists warned yesterday.

A study has shown that butyl benzyl phthalate, or BBP, can interfere with the healthy development of breast tissue.

The man-made substance is part of the phthalate family of chemicals, which mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen.

Environmental campaigners yesterday called for it to be banned in the cosmetic industry, where it is used to make products glossy.

According to Dr. Russo, the head of researchers, the toxin chemicals in the cosmetics trigger unnatural tissues to cause breast cancer as (BBP) is most likely to be used in the cosmetics industry to make products glossy, which is a toxin that hampers in developing natural healthy breast tissues.

In Great Britain, 90% females suffering from breast cancer were using lip sticks and applied many coats of it every day to transform a dull face into wow face. After research work and publishing report, they left lip stick use. Similarly based on Dr. Russo’s report USA females are reluctant to use lipstick and prefer dull face without lip stick since life is much more important than a wow face of shining lip stick.

Now-a-days, millions of women are suffering with improper functioning of thyroid gland, which is medically termed as hypothyroidism.

It has been estimated that almost 20% of all women aged over 60 are suffering with sub-clinical condition of hypothyroidism.

Usually, most of you can experience the same symptoms of menopause, even with this hypothyroidism unknowingly.

So, it can become a bit difficult for many experts to identify the condition of hypothyroidism. With proper diagnosis and performing various clinical tests, the job of identifying this improper functioning of thyroid gland becomes much easier.

Pregnancy can have major impact on hypothyroidism in women!

Pregnancy is considered as the major factor, which can significantly increase the risk of hypothyroidism in most of the women. During pregnancy, your body can undergo many hormonal changes including the thyroid hormone levels.

Due to this change in the hormone levels, your body can be affected in many ways. For instance, the requirements for iodine will be greatly increased both for the mother as well as for the fetus.

According to new study, screening women with both ultrasounds and mammograms allows doctors to find more breast cancers than if they rely on mammograms alone.

However, the combination also leads to many more unnecessary biopsies, and experts don’t recommend it to most patients.

Researchers involved in a study of more than 2,600 women in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association focused on women at high risk, such as those who have had previous breast tumors.

In such women, mammograms found cancer in eight out of 1,000 women screened. Adding an ultrasound let doctors find cancer in 12 out of 1,000.

But ultra-sensitive tests have drawbacks. In addition to finding real breast tumors, ultrasounds also pick up many more suspicious spots that are later found to be benign, says radiologist Wendie Berg, the new study’s main author.

In fact, more than 90% of suspicious ultrasound findings in the study proved harmless.

You can find more information at: USA Today