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Breast cancer vaccine within reach
According to breast cancer expert Professor Valerie Beral from the University of Oxford, enough is known about the causes of breast cancer to make a vaccine or prophylactic drug a real possibility,
Beral challenged the scientific community to turn its efforts to preventing breast cancer instead of investing more and more money and time into better drug treatments. Speaking to the Guardian, she said that while death rates have been slashed by new drugs and earlier diagnosis, the number of women getting breast cancer and having to go through traumatic surgery and chemotherapy was rising.
According to her research, genes played a part in only a very small number of cancers while the processes of giving birth and breastfeeding protected a woman from breast cancer more than anything else. Of course, returning to an era where women had endless babies and breastfed for two years or more at a time was not an option, but Beral raises the question why there are no drugs that mimic the effects of childbirth. She said. "We don't know how this happens and nobody is doing research on it. We should be looking at hormone production during late pregnancy and lactation." According to breast cancer expert Professor Valerie Beral from the University of Oxford, enough is known about the causes of breast ca... more -
Ex-EastEnder 'dying of cancer'
Former EastEnders star Wendy Richard is dying of cancer, she has revealed.
The 65-year-old, who played Pauline Fowler in the BBC One soap, said she would marry her long-term partner before starting chemotherapy.
Richard has fought off breast cancer twice but in January was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease which has spread to a kidney and her bones.
She told the Sunday Express that she has since planned her funeral and written her will. Former EastEnders star Wendy Richard is dying of cancer, she has revealed. ... more -
Big babies 'risk breast cancer'
Baby girls who are of larger than average length and weight at birth grow up being at increased risk of breast cancer, analysis suggests.
The analysis of 32 studies involving more than 600,000 women provides the strongest evidence yet of such a link.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team says birth size might explain 5% of all breast cancers.
It could point to some link between cancer and the environment of the baby before birth, PLoS Medicine reports. Baby girls who are of larger than average length and weight at birth grow up being at increased risk of breast cancer, analysis sugges... more -
Hormone Rx May Protect Women With Breast Cancer Gene
Postmenopausal women carrying breast cancer-linked BRCA gene mutations who took hormone replacement therapy actually reduced their risk for breast cancer, researchers report.
The study's authors called the finding "reassuring."
"I have no reservation about recommending HRT to my patients who have a [BRCA] mutation and who have had an oopherectomy [removal of ovaries] and, particularly, young women with surgical menopause," stated Dr. Steven Narod, senior author of the study and chair of breast cancer research at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. "I feel completely, absolutely, 100 percent comfortable in recommending HRT to BRCA carriers."
The study was published in the Sept. 23 issue of theJournal of the National Cancer Institute.
In a prepared statement, Dr. Amos Pines, immediate past president of the International Menopause Society (IMS), said the results support "the IMS view that HRT in the early postmenopausal period is safe and may be prescribed without concerns when needed."
Other commentators, however, approached the subject more conservatively, including IMS Secretary General Dr. Regine Sitruk-Ware.
"Given the limitations of the design and size of the study, caution is still recommended for the use of HRT in women who are carriers of a genetic mutation that expose them to a higher risk of breast cancer in their life," Sitruk-Ware said, also in a prepared statement.
Another expert agreed.
"These observational studies are small and have misled before," said Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. "I would still advise my patients who have a mutational BRCA status, if at all possible, to use as little exogenous estrogen as possible and for as little time as possible."
Some 3 percent of invasive cancers can be attributed to either a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation, which elevate a woman's lifetime risk of developing breast cancer to 60 percent to 80 percent. The National Cancer Institute puts the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer for an average American woman at 12.7 percent.
Many women with a BRCA mutation elect to have their ovaries removed at a relatively young age to reduce their breast cancer risk.
For this matched case-control study, researchers analyzed tumor samples from 472 postmenopausal women with a BRCA 1 mutation, some of who had undergone endocrine therapy (removing estrogen) before surgery for breast cancer. The other women also carried the BRCA1 mutation but had no history of breast cancer.
****Read More**** Postmenopausal women carrying breast cancer-linked BRCA gene mutations who took hormone replacement therapy actually reduced their ris... more -
Breast cancer 'kills more poor'
Breast cancer is more likely to kill poor women than their more affluent counterparts, research shows.
A study of breast cancer patients in England and Wales diagnosed between 1986 and 1999 found overall long-term survival rates are improving.
However, survival rates one year after diagnosis were worse among poor women than those who were more affluent.
And the British Journal of Cancer study found this "deprivation gap" doubled five years after diagnosis.
The study, which looked at more than 380,000 women, found that even after adjustijng for other causes of death, the five-year survival rate was about 6% higher for affluent women.
The figures are part of a detailed analysis of survival rates for the 20 most common forms of cancer.
The researchers found that one-year survival rates tended to be higher among affluent women across a range of cancers.
However, breast cancer was the only form of the disease for which this deprivation gap continued to widen years after diagnosis.
Lead researcher Professor Michel Coleman, an epidemiologist for Cancer Research UK, said women from poor backgrounds might be less likely to access radiotherapy or drug treatment.
Others said the key could be that patients living in deprived areas were more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage, or to have other life-threatening diseases.
Improvements
Dr Sarah Cant, of the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said there had been significant improvements in access to services and treatments since the 2000 Cancer Plan which would not be be reflected in the study.
However, she said: "The inequalities in breast cancer survival between richer and poorer women that have been identified are of great concern.
"It is vital to continue to investigate the exact causes of any inequalities so appropriate measures to tackle them can be taken."
Professor Mike Richards, National Cancer Director for England, said there tended to be a difference of opinion between clinicians and epidemiologists about the reasons for a deprivation gap.
He said: "In general clinicians were likely to attribute the deprivation gap in survival mainly to the fact that people from poorer backgrounds had other diseases as well as cancer.
"By contrast statisticians put more emphasis on late diagnosis in deprived groups as a cause for poorer survival.
"These differences of opinion highlight the need for high quality information on the details of cancer staging and additional diseases to be collected by clinical teams and made available to the cancer registries."
For most cancers survival up to 10 years has improved significantly between those diagnosed in the mid 1980s and the late 1990s.
But there was almost no change in survival for lung, pancreatic, cervical and bladder cancer. Breast cancer is more likely to kill poor women than their more affluent counterparts, research shows. ... more -
25 Breast Cancer Myths
Roughly 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors for the disease. Roughly 80% of lumps in women's breasts are caused by benign (noncancerous) changes, cysts, or other conditions. Roughly 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors for the disease. Roughly 80% of lumps in women... more
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Breast cancer vaccine helps body fight tumors
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers who designed one experimental breast cancer vaccine say they have fine-tuned the process and come up with another that they hope will be more effective.
Their new vaccine delivers a cancer-fighting gene into cells, which then produce immune system proteins as well as tumor-destroying cells.
"In our own mind it is a very significant advance because we have put the gene into the cells in the body. The vaccine is produced by your own cells," Wei-Zen Wei of Wayne State University in Detroit, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. "It is made right in your body."
The vaccine eliminated tumors in mice from a type of cancer called HER2 positive cancer, they reported in the journal Cancer Research. HER2-positive cancers account for between 20 percent and 30 percent of breast cancers.
It even worked to eliminate HER2 tumors that had developed resistance to drugs designed to fight them, the said.
The HER2/neu protein is over-expressed, meaning it is over-active, in several tumors including breast, colorectal and ovarian cancer.
Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, an expensive antibody-based drug made by Genentech Inc, can treat these tumors. But many patients eventually acquire what is known as resistance and the tumors start growing again.
ANTIBODIES AND KILLER T-CELLS Continued... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers who designed one experimental breast cancer vaccine say they have fine-tuned the process and come u... more -
Study Shows Link Between Stress And Breast Cancer
A new study supports an interaction between severe life events, psychological distress, and breast cancer.
One of the authors, Dr. Ronit Peled, said young women who are exposed to severe life events more than once should be considered as a risk group for breast cancer and treated accordingly.
Peled, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, and colleagues studied 255 women younger than 45 years old who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and compared them with 367 healthy women of a similar age.
Interactions between breast cancer and severe life events were evaluated in the study. Such events include the loss of a parent, close relative or spouse, or the divorce of parents before age 20 -- and mild to moderate life events -- e.g., separation from a spouse, loss of a job, an economic crisis, or severe illness in a close relative.
The analysis revealed a positive association between exposure to more than one adverse life event and breast cancer. For these women, the risk of breast cancer was increased by 62 percent.
"It wasn't enough to be exposed to one life event, a woman had to be exposed to more than one event," Peled said.
Women with breast cancer also demonstrated significantly higher scores of depression and significantly lower scores of happiness and optimism compared with healthy women.
Moreover, the results showed a negative association between happiness and optimism and breast cancer.
Peled noted that general feelings of happiness and optimism seemed to offer protection against breast cancer. "The more you are happy and feel optimistic with your life, the less the probability of developing breast cancer." A new study supports an interaction between severe life events, psychological distress, and breast cancer. ... more -
Breast cancer survivors raise $1.4 million
In Vancouver thousands of people who have been touched by breast cancer banded together over the weekend to take a stand against the disease. In Vancouver thousands of people who have been touched by breast cancer banded together over the weekend to take a stand against the d... more
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Breast MRIs delay cancer treatment by weeks
Women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who get an MRI scan wait about three weeks longer before their surgery and are far more likely to get a mastectomy than women who have only a mammogram, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
"MRI may not be as good as we think it is," said Dr. Richard Bleicher of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, who presented his findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Breast Cancer Symposium in Washington.
"Those who received an MRI had a three-week delay in the start of their treatment," Bleicher said in a statement.
"In addition to the treatment delay, we're concerned that the well-documented false-positive rate with MRIs may be leading -- or misleading -- women into choosing mastectomies."
Bleicher said many women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, including younger women, are getting MRI exams in addition their mammograms. He and colleagues wanted to see if the tests had any impact on a woman's care.
They reviewed the records of 577 breast cancer patients who had been evaluated by a radiologist, pathologist and a surgical, radiation and medical oncologist. Of these patients, 130 had MRIs before surgery to remove their tumors, and 27.7 percent of these had a mastectomy. In the non-MRI group, 19.5 percent had a mastectomy.
After adjusting for tumor size, they said women who had gotten an MRI were 80 percent more likely to get a mastectomy.
Bleicher said it is not clear why these women had mastectomies rather than lumpectomies, but it may be related to the higher sensitivity of the MRIs, which are known to have a high number of false-positive findings.
"Rather than having a biopsy to see if those findings are real, women and their doctors may choose mastectomy out of an abundance of caution," Bleicher said.
Bleicher said so far there is little evidence to show the scans, which cost about 10 times more than mammograms, help save lives.
"MRIs are valuable and should be done in certain women at high risk, but they are not appropriate in routine evaluation of breast cancer," he said.
Breast cancer is diagnosed in 1.2 million men and women globally every year and kills 500,000. Women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who get an MRI scan wait about three weeks longer before their surgery and are far more likel... more -
Reason for breast cancer relapses discovered
The reason why women with breast cancer commonly relapse into the disease despite apprently succesful treatment has been discovered.
The breakthrough, which ignites hope of more effective treatments, suggests that normal cells may migrate from the cancer spots, and only later become cancerous themsevles when 'cancer genes' are 'switched on'. The reason why women with breast cancer commonly relapse into the disease despite apprently succesful treatment has been discovered. ... more -
Stress may raise breast cancer risk in young women
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who experience more than one stressful life event are at greater risk of developing breast cancer, but a general feeling of happiness and optimism may help guard against the disease, Israeli researchers report.
The findings shouldn't be interpreted to mean that optimism is all you need to prevent breast cancer, Dr. Ronit Peled of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, study's lead author, told Reuters Health. The best way to protect oneself against the disease is still to eat well, be physically active, and follow screening recommendations, she said in an interview.
Peled and her team investigated the role of severe life events, such as losing a parent before age 20, in breast cancer risk. The breast cancer incidence in Israeli women is among the highest in the world, while stress is also a fact of life for people living in the country, Peled noted.
She and her colleagues recruited 255 women between 25 and 45 years old who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 367 women of the same age who were free from the disease. They asked the women whether they had experienced any severe life events, such as loss of a spouse or a close relative, as well as events considered to be mild or moderately stressful, such as severe illness, job loss, or separation from a spouse. Women also completed a 15-item questionnaire to evaluate their levels of anxiety, depression and happiness and optimism.
Women who had experienced two or more severe or mild-to-moderate life event were 62 percent more likely to have breast cancer, the researchers found. "This suggests that stressful events do not protect us from the effect of additional events, and even 'moderate or mild events' seem to have a cumulative effect," Peled and her team write in the medical journal BMC Cancer.
Women with breast cancer were statistically more likely to have higher scores for depression and lower score for happiness and optimism.
However, they also found that women with a "general feeling of happiness and optimism" had a 25 percent lower risk of having been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The fact that women with breast cancer were asked about their mood pre-diagnosis but surveyed after they had been diagnosed is one limitation to the study, Peled conceded. However, she added, the number of life events a person experiences can be measured objectively. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young women who experience more than one stressful life event are at greater risk of developing breast can... more -
English Breakfasts In Cancer Warning
Bacon and sausages, the basis of a fry-up, are processed meats which are linked to an increased risk of developing bowel cancer.
And greasy additions of fried bread, fried egg and black pudding result in a hefty calorie count that can lead to obesity - and a raised risk of suffering a host of other types of cancer.
Lovers of the English-breakfast are 63% more likely to develop bowel cancer if they tuck into two sausages and three rashers of bacon daily, The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) warned.
The charity added that the evidence that processed meat is a cause of bowel cancer is so strong, people should avoid eating it.
There is also convincing scientific evidence that excess body fat is linked to six different types of cancer, including bowel cancer and breast cancer, the WCRF said.
Experts now believe that, after not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight is the most important thing people can do to prevent getting the disease.
Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific adviser for WCRF, said: "For some people, having a fry-up with bacon and sausages might seem like a good way to start the day.
"But if you are doing this regularly then you are significantly increasing your risk of bowel cancer, which is one of the most common cancers in the UK.
"Only a third of people are aware of the link between processed meat and cancer, which means two thirds of people are not in a position to make an informed choice about how much of it they eat.
"This is not a question of all or nothing because the more processed meat you eat, the greater your risk.
"As well as the processed meat increasing the risk of bowel cancer, fry-ups also tend to be high in calories.
"We recommend people limit consumption of high calorie, or energy dense foods because eating them regularly makes you more likely to gain weight.
"This is important because there is convincing evidence excess body fat increases risk of six different types of cancer."
In terms of overall risk, the chances of developing bowel cancer are one in 18 for men and one in 20 for women in the UK. Bacon and sausages, the basis of a fry-up, are processed meats which are linked to an increased risk of developing bowel cancer. ... more -
Applegate calls double mastectomy a 'tough' choice
Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer — the really long view. Speaking on ABC News' "Good Morning America" in her first interview since announcing her diagnosis earlier this month, the "Samantha Who?" star said she had a double mastectomy three weeks ago. She'll undergo reconstructive surgery over the next eight months.
"I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that," she joked in the interview, which aired Tuesday. "I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table."
The 36-year-old actress elected to remove both breasts even though the disease was contained in one breast. She said she is now cancer-free.
Applegate called the operation a logical decision. Her mother battled breast cancer, and she tested positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation linked to breast and ovarian cancer.
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of it," she said. "So this was the choice I made and it was a tough one."
The experience has been an emotional roller coaster, she said.
"Sometimes, you know, I cry and sometimes I scream and I get really angry and I get really like, you know, into wallowing in self-pity sometimes," she said. "And I think that's — it's all part of healing, and anyone who's going through it out there, it's OK to cry. It's OK to fall on the ground and just scream if you want to."
The Emmy-nominated "Samantha Who?" star has kept her sense of humor intact.
"I've laughed so much in the last three weeks," she said. "I love living, and I really love my life, and I knew that from this moment on it was only going to be good that was going to be coming. Yeah, I'll face challenges, but you can't get any darker than where I've been. So knowing that in my soul gave me the strength to just say, `I have to get out there and make this a positive.'"
Applegate's cancer was detected early through a doctor-ordered MRI. She said she's starting a program to help women at high risk for breast cancer to meet the costs of an MRI, which is not always covered by insurance.
Applegate is scheduled to appear on a one-hour TV special, "Stand Up to Cancer," to be aired on ABC, CBS and NBC on Sept. 5 to raise funds for cancer research.
She has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the ABC show "Samantha Who?", in which she plays a woman who wakes from a coma with no memory of who she is. Christina Applegate is taking the long view of her battle with breast cancer — the really long view. Speaking on ABC News' "... more -
Japanese woman loses healthy breast in hospital blunder
A hospital in Japan said Tuesday that doctors mistakenly removed a healthy woman's left breast because of a mix-up in samples from tests for breast cancer. A hospital in Japan said Tuesday that doctors mistakenly removed a healthy woman's left breast because of a mix-up in samples fro... more
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Cheap drug hope for breast cancer
"A combination of two inexpensive existing drugs may offer a new way to treat breast cancer, according to UK and Finnish researchers.
The common chemotherapy drug and a brittle bone medicine almost completely stopped the growth of tumours in mice.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute said the combination cost a twentieth of Herceptin, given to breast cancer patients by the NHS.
Specialists said the results of human trials now under way would be crucial.
In the UK, almost 46,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year.
Although modern treatments mean that cases caught sufficiently early, some via breast screening programmes, have an excellent chance of being successfully treated.
The study was a joint project between researchers at the University of Sheffield and the Kuopio University in Finland.
Its findings could offer an even more effective way to help some patients.
It used a dose of the drug doxorubicin, a common component of chemotherapy regimes, followed 24 hours later by zoledronic acid, currently given to osteoporosis patients.
In the mice, this stopped 99.99% of new cancer cell growth in tumours.
It is thought the first drug could be "priming" the tumour to be more sensitive to the cancer-cell killing qualities of the second drug.
Dr Ingunn Holen, who led the study, said that the study showed that the drug cocktail could "kill breast tumours".
"These results show that a patient may benefit the most if these two drugs are given in this particular order."
She said that the results of a human trial were expected later this year. " "A combination of two inexpensive existing drugs may offer a new way to treat breast cancer, according to UK and Finnish research... more -
Gone for Good? Breast Cancer Debate Rages
Some Say New Research Could Give Women Wrong Idea About Breast Cancer:
A common public misperception about cancer is that once a person beats the disease, they are forever "cured." But the unfortunate reality for cancer survivors is that the risk of relapse remains a nearly constant threat throughout one's lifetime -- though some say media coverage of the disease often glazes over this fact.
Today, new research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that the risk of breast cancer relapse remains present even 15 years after a woman is initially diagnosed with the disease.
Still, ABC News medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson believes that this study should provide breast cancer survivors with a realistic sense of hope.
"This study gives women a ballpark feel for what to look forward to at the point of five-year survival; they are not totally free from the risk of recurrence, as some women would like to believe, but they aren't totally doomed either," Johnson said. "And if you take these numbers at face value, [breast cancer survivors] have a pretty good chance of escaping recurrence after five years of survival."
Lead study investigator Dr. Abenaa Brewster, assistant professor of clinical cancer prevention at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, said that the conclusions of the research, which looked at more than 2,800 breast cancer survivors, should be perceived as good news for breast cancer survivors who fear recurrence.
"The message I'd really like to get across is that these [recurrence] rates are actually pretty low, and I hope these numbers are reassuring to women because women who are five-year survivors [of breast cancer] often think they are still at high risk for recurrence," Brewster said.
**Read More** Some Say New Research Could Give Women Wrong Idea About Breast Cancer: ... more -
Cancer-catching clothing to save lives?
Last year, a design student at Cornell University designed a garment that can prevent colds and flu and, crucially, never needs washing, CNN reports.
Meanwhile, Textronics, a Delaware-based company, has developed a sports bra which monitors the heart rate and motion of runners. The company has patented stretchy textile electrodes that can be incorporated into the garments.
Perhaps one of the most exciting developments in this field is ongoing work on a breast screening smart bra which could allow wearers to detect breast cancer at the earliest stage.
Professor Elias Siores, of the University of Bolton, England, says the bra can detect cancer before the tumor can develop and spread into surrounding areas. Crucially, Professor Siores says the bra can also monitor the effectiveness of any breast cancer treatment the wearer is undergoing.
The smart bra works using a microwave antennae system device which is woven into the fabric of the bra. The antennae picks up any abnormal temperature changes in the breast tissue, which are often associated with cancer cells.
It is hoped the bra will be on sale in stores in a couple of years.
However, some remain doubtful as to whether the science behind the bra is achievable. There are also doubts whether the bra could replace traditional screening methods, such as a mammogram.
This is because the idea behind the bra supposes that as tumors grow, there will be a higher demand for blood flow. The increased blood flow then produces elevated temperatures around the affected area of the breast, sending a warning to the wearer.
Critics say blood flow rates could be increased for any number of reasons.
There are benign growths and nonmalignant inflammatory changes, which might also increase blood flow," said Anne Rosenberg, a breast surgeon at Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Despite the reticence from some quarters, work in this burgeoning field forges ahead.
Scientists in Europe are at at an advanced stage of developing outfits which they say will be able to monitor the body's vital signs and detect illnesses and infections at their earliest stages.
Would you wear health-check garments like this? Can you really rely on them? Is it better to go to the doctor for a check-up once in a while, or are garments like this necessary in a world where seeing a good doctor and getting decent care feels increasingly difficult? Is the development of this kind of clothing just evidence that we've become paranoid about our health, or a sensible step to looking after ourselves? Last year, a design student at Cornell University designed a garment that can prevent colds and flu and, crucially, never needs washin... more -
Christina Applegate Has Cancer
Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Christina is scheduled to appear on the Stand Up to Cancer benefit scheduled to air simultaneously on CBS, NBC and ABC September the 8th.
Tune in and show your support for Miz Applegate and the cause! Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with breast cancer. ... more -
Applegate fighting cancer
US actress Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer, according to her publicist.
Ame Van Iden said: "The cancer is not life threatening. She is following the recommended treatment of her doctors and will have a full recovery."
The 36-year-old is best known for her role as Kelly Bundy in the long-running US sitcom Married with Children.
Last month she was nominated for an Emmy award for her current role as an amnesiac in TV comedy Samantha Who?
Applegate also received a Golden Globe nomination for the show, in which she plays a woman who awakens from an eight-day coma remembering nothing about her past. US actress Christina Applegate has been diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer, according to her publicist. ... more
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Breast Cancer
