Breast Cancer
Oral contraceptives increase risk for breast cancer in some women
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A meta-analysis published in the October issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings indicts oral contraceptives as putting premenopausal women at significantly increased risk for breast cancer, especially women who use them prior to having a child.
The meta-analysis builds on many studies with similar findings. But even as the findings stack up, many women are unaware of the risks posed by oral contraceptive use prior to pregnancy, says lead study author Chris Kahlenborn, M.D., of Altoona Hospital in Altoona, Pa.
Sequencing of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for early breast cancer
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For women who have had surgery for early breast cancer, it may not matter whether they receive follow-up chemotherapy before, after or during radiation therapy, according to a new review of studies.
A woman’s chances of survival or seeing the cancer return are similar in all three cases, if radiation therapy and chemotherapy begin within seven months after surgery, the review concludes.
However, the studies suggest that certain toxic side effects in the blood and esophagus—common in chemotherapy and radiation patients—may be up to 44 percent more likely when the two therapies are delivered at the same time, said Dr. Brigid Hickey and colleagues at the Southern Zone Radiation Oncology Service in Brisbane, Australia.
Breast cancer undertreated in elderly patients
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Breast cancer diagnosis is delayed in elderly patients, due in large part to the underuse of mammography, and these patients are also not treated as aggressively as their younger counterparts, findings from a new study show.
The results, appearing in the Archives of Surgery, confirm the findings of previous reports. However, in contrast to prior studies, the current research took place in a community hospital setting, where, as the investigators point out, the majority of cancer patients are treated.
Searching a tumor database maintained at a community hospital, Dr. David A. Litvak and Dr. Rajeev Arora, from Michigan State University in Lansing, identified 354 patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2002 and were at least 70 years of age.
Vitamin D may help slow breast cancer
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High levels of vitamin D may help slow the progression of breast cancer, researchers suggested on Tuesday.
In a small study of women with the illness they found that patients with early breast cancer had higher levels of the vitamin than those with more advanced disease.
“Vitamin D levels are lower in women with advanced breast cancer than in early breast cancer,” said Dr. Carlo Palmieri of Imperial College London. “It lends support to the idea that vitamin D has a role in the progression of breast cancer,” he told Reuters.
Genetic mutation doubles breast cancer risk-study
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British researchers said they had found a new genetic mutation that doubled the risk of breast cancer in women who carry it.
The gene, called BRIP1, helps to repair damaged DNA—like some of the other known breast cancer genes, researchers reported in this week’s issue of the journal Nature Genetics.
And, as with the BRCA2 breast cancer gene, certain mutations in BRIP1 may cause a blood disease called Fanconi anemia, reported Dr. Nazneen Rahman of the Institute of Cancer Research, in Sutton, Britain and colleagues.
Health advisors improve mammography usage
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Women who receive visits from a lay health advisor are more likely to undergo the recommended mammography screening for breast cancer, a new study conducted in a poor, rural population shows.
“Lay health advisors provide a personalized intervention, as well as navigation through the health care system, social networking, and social support, and serve as a link between community members and the medical care system through outreach, education (and) information dissemination,” Dr. Electra Paskett of Ohio State University in Columbus and her colleagues write.
Many women don’t get regular mammograms, while poor and minority women, as well as those living in rural areas, have particularly low rates of breast cancer screening, Paskett and her team point out in the September 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Subsidy for breast cancer drug
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A LIFE-saving drug that has been costing breast cancer victims more than $50,000 a year is to be subsidised by the Federal Government.
Health Minister Tony Abbott said today Cabinet had agreed to place the breast cancer treatment Herceptin on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from October 1 for women suffering “positive early stage” cancer.
The move will cost the Government $470 million over the next four years and is expected to help about 2000 Australian women a year.
Breast cancer chemo side effects elevated
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Chemotherapy drugs may cause more serious side effects for breast cancer patients under age 64 than once thought, a U.S. study released on Tuesday said.
Researchers mined insurance claims for 3,526 women who had intravenous chemotherapy for breast cancer and tallied problems serious enough to require emergency care or a hospital stay.
Their review found more than 8 percent of women underwent treatment for a fever or infection compared with less than 2 percent reported in an earlier review of clinical trials.
Breast implants save woman’s life?
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An Israeli woman’s breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hizbollah rocket attack during Israel’s war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.
Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old’s heart.
Weight gain, particularly after menopause, is associated with increased risk of breast cancer
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Weight gain, particularly after menopause, is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in women, according to an article in the July 12 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
Background information in the article indicates that weight loss after menopause lowers circulating estrogen hormones in women, and because estrogen is directly related to breast cancer, weight loss is thought to decrease risk of the disease. Studies show that weight gain since early adulthood is associated with increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, particularly those not taking postmenopausal hormones. However, weight changes in middle-aged to older women (50 years and older) has been studied less extensively.
X-rays raise breast cancer risk in women with BRCA
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X-rays may double or triple the risk of breast cancer in women who carry a mutation in the BRCA1 or BCRA2 gene, which makes them more susceptible to the breast as well as ovarian cancer, researchers reported on Monday.
The findings are not clear-cut and it is not known which type of chest X-ray poses the greater risk, said Dr. David Goldgar of the University of Utah School of Medicine, who helped lead the research.
“The results from this study raise potentially significant clinical considerations,” the researchers wrote in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “The absolute risk of breast cancer by age 50 years is in the order of 40 percent in BRCA1 carriers and 15 percent in BRCA2 carriers.”
Older women get mammograms less often than thought
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Older U.S. women are less likely to undergo mammography breast cancer screening than experts have believed, according to a study published Tuesday.
The findings, based on Medicare claims data, show that in 2000-2001, fewer than half of women age 65 or older had a mammogram within a two-year period.
That figure is much lower than health officials have estimated based on federal surveys. In those surveys, as many as 80 percent of women in their late 60s said they’d undergone screening mammography in the past two years.
Black women twice as likely to get aggressive breast cancer
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New research has found that African-American women who contract breast cancer before reaching menopause are more than twice as likely as white women to have an aggressive, deadlier form of the disease.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill believe the higher rates of basal-like cancer among younger black women partly explains why blacks are at greater risk of dying from breast cancer than white women, despite having a lower overall risk of the disease.
Black women prone to aggressive breast cancer
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African-American women who haven’t entered menopause but who develop breast cancer have a higher risk of dying from the disease than their white counterparts. Now, new research suggests that this increased risk may be in part due to the higher rate of so-called basal-like breast tumors among premenopausal African-American women.
“Basal-like cancers,” Dr. Lisa A. Carey explained in an interview with Reuters Health, “are highly proliferative, have a lot of ... features of aggressive tumors, and tend to have a poor prognosis.”
Carey is an oncologist at the University of North Carolina-Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill and is lead author of a report published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Calcium and vitamin D supplements do not reduce breast cancer
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A large multicenter randomized clinical trial reported that supplementation with calcium and vitamin D did not reduce breast cancer risk in the overall population.
However, exploratory analyses suggest the effect of vitamin D and calcium supplements on breast cancer risk may vary according to a woman’s initial supplement use.
“Our findings suggest that calcium and vitamin D supplementation may reduce breast cancer risk in some women, but more research is needed to clarify these results,” said Rowan T. Chlebowski, MD, PhD, Medical Oncologist at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) and the study’s lead author. “We can’t yet make a general recommendation about how much calcium and vitamin D individuals should take each day as supplements.”
