Reviewing the records of 577 breast cancer patients, researchers found that women with newly diagnosed breast cancer who receive a breast MRI are more likely to receive a mastectomy after their diagnosis and may face delays in starting treatment. The study demonstrates that, despite the lack of evidence of their benefit, routine use of MRI scans in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer increased significantly between 2004 and 2005, and again in 2006.
Researchers have isolated a potent metastasis inhibitor produced by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. The protein, prosaposin, reduced metastases by 80 percent in a mouse model and significantly prolonged survival, the researchers report. Currently, there are no approved therapies for inhibiting or treating metastases.
Scientists have identified a stromal marker for breast cancer progression.
Tamoxifen is a widely used and highly successful drug in the treatment of breast cancer, though resistance to tamoxifen is still a concern in recurrent disease, since therapy resistant metastatic tumor cells are a major cause of death. Now, researchers have uncovered a protein profile that may accurately predict whether a cancer will be tamoxifen resistant.
Fear plays a major role in whether women decide to go for cancer screening or not. But healthcare providers underestimate how much women need to know and wrongly assume that they will ask for information if they want it. Researchers reviewed 19 studies (1994-2008) that explored the attitudes of 5,991 women from 14 to their 80s to breast and cervical cancer screening. Figures from the UK and USA show that there is a big gap between the number of women invited for screening and the number who actually attend.
A protein known to play a role in growth of some types of leukemia appears to have a mixed function in breast cancer development, say researchers.
Research has shown for the first time how cancers that spread to the brain establish themselves and begin to grow.
Aggressive, deadly and often misdiagnosed, inflammatory breast cancer is the most lethal form of primary breast cancer, often striking women in their prime and causing death within 18 to 24 months. Now, scientists have identified a key gene — eIF4G1 — that is overexpressed in the majority of cases of IBC, allowing cells to form highly mobile clusters that are responsible for the rapid metastasis that makes IBC such an effective killer.
It may be possible in the future to use a specimen from the tumor to determine which patients with breast cancer have a good chance of overcoming the disease, and which patients should be given more intensive treatments. Fifty-one genes may together provide information about the prognosis for an individual patient.
