Breast Cancer
Breast Reconstruction Advances Fix Distortions Left by Lumpectomy
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Lumpectomy or breast conservation surgery is the most common type of breast cancer surgery currently performed. A benefit of the surgery is that only part of the breast is removed, but a drawback can be the resulting physical appearance of the breast, which may be disfigured, dented or uneven. A report in April’s Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery(R), the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), examines advances plastic surgeons have made in breast reconstruction to repair the damage left when cancer is removed.
“Although breast conservation therapies are a huge advance in the treatment of breast cancer, women are still concerned about how their breast will look after surgery,” said Sumner Slavin, MD, ASPS Member and report co-author. “Breast conservation surgery or lumpectomy can mean many things; a biopsy, partial mastectomy, wedge resection, or having a quarter of the breast taken. Women are often left with portions of their breasts removed and there are currently no implants that can address this unique cosmetic issue.”
Doctors Can Unmask Deceptive High Risk Breast Tumors Using Genetic Profile
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A unique genetic signature can alert physicians to high-risk breast tumors that are masquerading as low-risk tumors, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions. Although these tumors are apparently estrogen-receptor positive meaning they should depend on estrogen to grow they don’t respond well to anti-estrogen therapy.
Until now, doctors had no way to know these tumors would be unresponsive because their pathology is deceptive the tumors appear to be more easily treatable estrogen-receptor-positive tumors, but they rapidly lose their estrogen receptors. The researchers demonstrated that the chance for cancer recurrence in such patients is significantly higher, and standard post-operative care with long-term anti-estrogen therapy is often not effective. The genetic signature defined by the researchers will permit doctors to identify their high-risk patients and direct them to more effective therapy.
Bone drug could help prevent the spread of breast cancer
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Maintaining bone density could be a key to decreasing the spread of cancer in women with locally advanced breast cancer, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Bones are common sites for the spread, or metastasis, of breast cancer. Scientists here found that women treated for stage II/III breast cancer who also received a bone strengthening drug were less likely to have breast tumor cells growing in their bones after three months. The bone-strengthening drug used was zoledronic acid, a drug that decreases bone turnover and reduces bone fractures in patients with osteoporosis.
The findings will be reported June 3 at 11 a.m. CT at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Vitamin D may lower breast cancer risk
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Breast cancer patients with lower levels of vitamin D were far more likely to die and far more likely to have their cancer spread than women with normal levels, Canadian researchers reported on Thursday.
Women deficient in the “sunshine vitamin” when they were diagnosed with breast cancer were 94 percent more likely to have their cancer spread and were 73 percent more likely to die than women with adequate vitamin D levels, the researchers said.
More than three-quarters of women with breast cancer had a vitamin D deficiency, the researchers reported to an upcoming meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Nerve block cuts hot flashes after breast cancer
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Blocking parts of the nervous system that regulate body temperature can reduce hot flashes and improve sleep in survivors of breast cancer, researchers reported on Thursday.
With the experimental nerve blocker therapy, the average number of hot flashes per week fell from about 80 to just 8. Very severe hot flashes were almost totally abolished and a marked drop in nighttime awakenings was also seen, according to a report in the online issue of the Lancet Oncology.
Hot flashes and sleep dysfunction are common in breast cancer survivors, particularly those who use anti-estrogen agents like tamoxifen. Conventional treatments, such as hormone therapy or herbal remedies, have proven either ineffective or have been linked to important side effects.
Supplemental Breast Ultrasound Boosts Cancer Detection
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Among women at high-risk of developing breast cancer, breast ultrasound combined with mammography may detect more cancers than mammography alone, according to results of a multicenter trial that included UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.
Overall, 40 participants were diagnosed with breast cancer. Of those cases, a dozen lesions were suspicious only on ultrasound and eight were suspicious on both ultrasound and mammography.
The most recent findings, presented in the current issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, are from the first round of screening in the American College of Radiology Imaging Network’s ACRIN-6666 trial. More than 2,800 women at high risk of developing breast cancer participated. The median age of the participants was 55 years and more than half had a personal history of breast cancer.
Girls, Young Women Can Cut Risk of Early Breast Cancer Through Regular Exercise
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Mothers, here’s another reason to encourage your daughters to be physically active: Girls and young women who exercise regularly between the ages of 12 and 35 have a substantially lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared to those who are less active, new research shows.
In the largest and most detailed analysis to date of the effects of exercise on premenopausal breast cancer, the study of nearly 65,000 women found that those who were physically active had a 23 percent lower risk of breast cancer before menopause. In particular, high levels of physical activity from ages 12 to 22 contributed most strongly to the lower breast cancer risk.
The study, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard University in Boston, will be available online May 13 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Five percent of breast tumors may double in month
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Five percent of breast cancer tumors appear to double in size in just over a month, Norwegian researchers said on Thursday in a study underscoring the potential benefits of more frequent screening.
The study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research also suggested detection rates of just 26 percent for a 5 mm tumor, and 91 percent for a 10 mm tumor.
The researchers used a computer model fed with national screening and cancer data to calculate how quickly tumors grow and estimate the proportion of breast cancers detected at screening.
Mammograms benefit women up to the age of 75 and 3-yearly screening intervals are best
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Berlin, Germany: Breast cancer screening is effective, appropriate and reduces deaths from the disease in women aged up to 75 years old according to new research in over 860,000 women aged 70-75 presented today (Friday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin. In another study of nearly 100,000 women aged 50-62, also presented at EBCC-6 today, researchers found that the best interval for screening was every three years – a finding that counters arguments that women should have mammograms more frequently.
Many countries that run breast cancer screening programmes offer it to women aged between 50 and 70. However, in 1998 in The Netherlands, the programme was extended to women aged up to 75. The results presented today suggest that this is an appropriate upper age limit and saves lives without causing substantial harm by subjecting older women to over-diagnosis and over-treatment.
This is the first study to provide firm support for the idea that offering mammograms to women up to the age of 75 is effective, as, until 1998, very few women were screened at this age.
Standard chemo works better against metastatic BRCA1/2 breast cancer than against sporadic tumors
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Berlin, Germany: The first study to investigate the effects of chemotherapy on metastatic breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation has shown that standard chemotherapy works better in these patients than in women without the BRCA1/2 mutation.
The authors of a study presented today (Thursday) at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) in Berlin found that women with BRCA2-associated breast cancer had a significantly higher response rate, a longer time without the disease progressing, and a longer overall survival when treated with anthracycline-based regimens than did women with sporadic breast cancers that were not associated with BRCA1/2.
Women with BRCA1-associated breast cancer also did better than women with sporadic breast cancer, but the rates were not statistically significant.
Chemotherapy effects on brain may be a myth
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“Chemofog” - impairments in memory and in thinking, or “cognition,” that have been attributed to chemotherapy—was not seen in two studies of women being treated for breast cancer, according to a presentation at the 60th annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago..
In Melbourne, Australia, Dr. David G. Darby of CogState Ltd, where a cognitive assessment test bearing its name was developed, and colleagues, used the test to evaluate the changes in cognitive function in breast cancer patients. CogState Ltd. is an international, publicly held company that sells diagnostic tools.
The researchers tested 30 women with breast cancer, and 30 “control” subjects matched by age, before each cycle of chemotherapy and 28 days after the last cycle. Both groups of women also provided a subjective assessment of their cognitive function and feelings of depression and anxiety at each evaluation.
Obese women disadvantaged in both breast cancer treatment and diagnosis
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Berlin, Germany: Obese women with breast cancer have worse disease outcomes and also tend to present to their doctor for the first time with more advanced disease, two scientists told the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-6) today (Wednesday 16 April).
Dr. Evandro de Azambuja and colleagues at the Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium, told the conference that his work, which involved 2887 patients, showed that women who had a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30kg/m2 had poorer outcomes in terms of disease-free and overall survival. “Our data once more stress the global problem of obesity,” he said.
Dr. de Azambuja and colleagues studied patients who were taking part in an international phase III trial (BIG 2-98) which compared two docetaxel regimes with two anthracycline regimes in patients with node-positive breast cancer (where the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes). Obesity was found in 19% of all patients enrolled in this trial. “We found that 5-year disease-free survival in non-obese patients was significantly higher than in the obese group,” he said. “75.9% of the non-obese patients were disease-free after 5 years as compared to 70% of those who were obese. In addition, the 5-year overall survival was 87.5% in the non-obese patients compared to 82.9% in the obese patients.
Video helps adjustment to life after breast cancer
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An educational video may be more effective and far less costly than psychological counseling in helping women adjust to life after breast cancer, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among 389 breast cancer survivors they followed for a year, those who were given an educational booklet and video generally had greater improvements in emotional distress and fatigue than women who attended two counseling sessions.
The cost of the video was less than $26 per patient, compared with roughly $134 for the video plus individual counseling.
Soy compound linked to lower breast cancer risk
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Women with high blood levels of an estrogen-like compound found in soy seem to have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among more than 24,000 middle-aged and older Japanese women, those with the highest levels of the compound, called genistein, were only one-third as likely as other women to develop breast cancer over 10 years.
Genistein is one of the major isoflavones, plant compounds found in soybeans, chick peas and other legumes that are structurally similar to the hormone estrogen, and are believed to bind to estrogen receptors on body cells.
Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients Benefit
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Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer Patients Benefit from Use of Ultrasound-guided Fine Needle Aspiration of Lymph Nodes
Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (USFNA) of the lymph nodes is a safe, useful, and minimally invasive procedure for diagnosing metastatic disease in patients who are undergoing preoperative staging for breast cancer, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the Rhode Island Hospital/Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, RI.
“We wanted to determine which patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer would benefit most from preoperative fine needle aspiration of the axillary lymph nodes,” said Martha Mainiero, MD, lead author of the study. “This quick and minimally invasive procedure can assist the surgeon in determining what type of axillary surgery is best for patients with breast cancer. Unfortunately many centers do not routinely perform this procedure as there is not yet consensus on who will benefit from it,” she said.
