August 8, 2007, 9:27 PM CT

Genetic Research On Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

Today Almac Diagnostics announced a major study analysing ductal carcinoma in situ tissue samples using its novel Breast Cancer DSA microarray. DSA research tools focus on the transcriptome of an individual disease, in this case breast cancer, and contain significant additional data, relevant to the disease of interest that is not available on other generic microarrays. The study will be conducted in collaboration with Prof Adrian Harris, Cancer Research UK and Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Oxford.

Our novel technology is helping scientists to reduce discovery timelines, accelerate the validation process and ultimately deliver clinical applications in this disease setting. said Paul Harkin, BSc, PhD, Professor of Molecular Oncology at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queens University, Belfast and MD and President of Almac Diagnostics.

This particular study aims to generate a gene signature to identify the subset of DCIS patients who are likely to suffer a recurrence, he added.

The study will use paraffin embedded samples and is due to commence in the coming weeks. Tissue samples will be analysed using the Breast Cancer DSA research tool. An Almac bioinformatics team will interrogate the resulting data to identify any potential signature......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 25, 2007, 5:06 AM CT

Breast cancer and hormone therapy - A looking-glass mirror?

The medical community has been debating for a number of years whether, and to what extent, postmenopausal hormone treatment (HT) use is linked to a higher risk of breast cancer, says Professor Amos Pines, President of the International Menopause Society. Eventhough it is agreed that long-term HT slightly increases that risk, the definition of long-term use is still unclear, especially in view of data showing that it may vary significantly by type of HT (estrogen-alone vs. estrogenprogestin, brand of progestin, dosage). A new study from the Kaiser Permanente health plan[1] raises the question whether trends in breast cancer incidence and use of HT over the past 25 years may be directly linked.

The Womens Health Initiative (WHI) trial was a landmark in menopause medicine since it provided information based on the best available study methodology[2]. By adopting its results as the ultimate source of information, a number of organizations, medical societies and health authorities actually declared that data derived from observations in the postmenopausal population are less valuable. Nevertheless, during the past few months, several studies have used databases on the occurence rate of breast cancer, on the one hand, and sales of HT conversely, in order to suggest a direct link between trends of hormone use and the number of newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer. While such information, by itself, is very important and interesting, conclusions must be drawn with great caution. It is tempting to simplify the observed year-by-year figures on HT use and breast cancer incidence and establish a mirror glass equation: the more postmenopausal hormone use, the more breast cancer, and vice versa. But human biology is far too complicated and the pathophysiology of breast cancer is far too complex to adopt such a mechanistic approach, as the authors of those studies and related Editorials rightly say......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 23, 2007, 6:35 PM CT

Support groups don't extend survival of metastatic breast cancer

A new study from a team of Stanford University School of Medicine scientists led by David Spiegel, MD, shows that participating in support groups doesn't extend the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. The results differ from oft-cited prior findings by Spiegel that showed group psychotherapy extended survival time.

The newest research did, however, confirm that support groups improved quality of life for the participants, and showed a survival benefit for a subgroup of patients with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

"We didn't confirm earlier observations that group psychotherapy extends overall survival for women with metastatic breast cancer, but we did again show a positive effect on mood and pain," said Spiegel, professor and associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "I still very much believe this type of treatment is crucial to cancer care".

The paper would be reported in the Sept. 1 issue of CANCER, the journal of the American Cancer Society, and will appear in the online version of the journal on July 23.

Spiegel is well-known for his work on support groups for cancer patients. His studies and others have previously shown the groups can lead to better coping, improved mood, and reduced pain, depression and anxiety for cancer patients. When Spiegel started his research in the 1970s, virtually no cancer patients were in support groups, he said, but now the treatment is a much more accepted part of cancer care......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 17, 2007, 10:39 PM CT

Fruit Intake Doesn't Reduce Chance Of Breast Cancer Recurrence

Eating double the amount of veggies and fruits recommended by general dietary guidelines doesn't reduce the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence among women whose cancers were treated at an early stage of the disease, says a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"For breast cancer survivors who are meeting the '5-a-day' dietary goals set by the National Cancer Institute, there is no benefit to further increasing their vegetable and fiber intake in terms of preventing breast cancer recurrence," said Marcia Stefanick, PhD, professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the senior author of a study that would be reported in the July 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The multicenter study documents the effect of diet on nearly 3,100 women previously treated for early-stage breast cancer. Half of the women were randomly assigned to follow the dietary guidelines from the NCI and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that promote eating five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. The other half were asked to eat almost double that amount of vegetables and fruits while reducing their fat intake.

After following the women for an average of 7.3 years, the scientists observed that the breast cancer recurrence and mortality rates were nearly identical for each of these two groups of women......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 10, 2007, 4:52 AM CT

Western diet linked to increased risk of breast cancer

Postmenopausal Asian women who eat a meat-sweet or Western diet are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who eat a vegetable-soy diet, as per a new study. The findings mark the first time an association between a Western diet and breast cancer has been identified in Asian women.

The study, reported in the recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, involved women in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study. Eligible cases included all women 25 to 64 years of age who with a new diagnosis of breast cancer from August 1996 to March 1998. Controls were selected from the Shanghai Resident Registry of permanent residents in urban Shanghai.

The issue [of diet] is of particular relevance to women in Asia, for whom breast cancer rates are traditionally low but increasing steadily in recent years, explained Marilyn Tseng, Ph.D., an associate member in the population science division at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

The transition in breast cancer risk has been attributed to environmental factors, possibly the incorporation of Western dietary pattern foods into traditional dietary habits as a part of broader, societal socioeconomic changes. However, the association of dietary patterns with breast cancer risk has not been studied previously in Asian women......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 8, 2007, 10:16 PM CT

Combining Trastuzumab And Chemotherapy

A recent meta-analysis of five major breast cancer trials has confirmed that combination therapy with the antibody trastuzumab and chemotherapy improves survival in women with operable HER-2 positive breast cancer.

At the ESMO Conference Lugano, Issa Dahabreh from the University of Athens reported the results of a meta-analysis of 5 trials involving more than 13,000 women whose breast cancer was amenable to surgery.

All the trials compared disease-free survival, overall survival and the risk of locoregional and distant recurrence of breast cancer in women given adjuvant chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy plus trastuzumab, after breast surgery.

Up to a quarter of all breast cancers express large amounts of the HER2 protein or carry multiple copies of the HER2 gene. Those cancers tend to be linked to aggressive disease, a higher likelihood of recurrence and a decreased response to therapy. Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that directly targets part of the HER2 tyrosine kinase receptor.

The results showed that combining trastuzumab with chemotherapy results in a -34% reduction in mortality and a 38% increase in disease-free survival, Dahabreh said. Those survival benefits were accompanied by decreases in the risk of both locoregional and distant recurrences of the cancer......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

June 20, 2007, 10:08 AM CT

1-step breast cancer treatment

Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) breast cancer specialists are using a new way to treat patients by delivering a one-time dose of radiation during surgery. The procedure, called intraoperative radiation treatment, takes less than an hour and eliminates the need for further radiation therapys.

On May 17, the PMH team combined the expertise of surgeons, radiation medicine specialists (radiation oncologists, physicists and therapists) and nurses to perform its first procedure. It marked the first time the portable intrabeam radiotherapy machine that makes this procedure possible has been used in Canada. The PMH team has since treated two more patients.

The potential benefits to patients are huge, says lead surgeon Dr. David McCready, who also heads the PMH Breast Cancer Program. Treating the specific area of cancer with this kind of precision protects the skin, heart and lungs from unnecessary radiation, minimizes side effects, and saves the patient a lot of time.

Heres how it works: Using a probe attached to the portable intrabeam radiotherapy machine, a single, concentrated dose is inserted directly into the affected area inside the breast during surgery. Dr. McCready says the one-time dose is biologically equivalent to conventional radiation therapys for breast cancer that typically require, on average, a minimum of 16 therapys over three weeks......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

June 13, 2007, 12:36 AM CT

Fluorescence Diffuse Optical Tomography Look At Breast Cancer

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first three-dimensional optical images of human breast cancer in patients based on tissue fluorescence.

Fluorescence diffuse optical tomography, or FDOT, relies on the presence of fluorophore molecules in tissue that re-radiate fluorescent light after illumination by excitation light of a different color. The reconstructed images demonstrated significant tumor contrast in comparison to typical endogenous optical contrast in breast.

Tumor-to-normal tissue contrast based on FDOT with the fluorophore Indocyanine Green, or ICG, was two-to-four-fold higher than contrast based on endogenous contrasts such as hemoglobin and scattering parameters obtained with traditional diffuse optical tomography, or DOT.

With the continued development of molecularly-targeted exogenous fluorophores, the research helps pave the way for diagnostic tools based on optics that will provide improved sensitivity and specificity between healthy and normal tissues.

Fluorophores are exquisitely sensitive to their local environment, and therefore FDOT holds potential to provide information about tumor physiology, including tissue oxygen, tissue pH and tissue calcium concentration levels.

"Previously, the FDOT technique was used for in-vivo imaging of animal tissues, but ours is the first successful demonstration of its use to detect cancer in deep-tissue, human breast imaging," Arjun Yodh, professor of physics at Penn, said......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

June 11, 2007, 4:06 PM CT

Hot Flashes With Breast Cancer Treatment

Women on tamoxifen therapy who reported having hot flashes were less likely to develop recurrent breast cancer than those who did not report hot flashes, according to a study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Moreover, hot flashes were a stronger predictor of outcome than age, hormone receptor status or even how advanced the breast cancer was at diagnosis.

The study results were published online June 1 by the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, and were presented June 4 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

"Hot flashes are a very common and disruptive problem in breast cancer survivors," said the study's first author Joanne Mortimer, M.D., medical director of the Moores Cancer Center and professor of medicine with the UCSD School of Medicine. "About two-thirds of women with breast cancer say hot flashes compromise their quality of life. The most common request for additional treatment we get is for relief from these symptoms".

The study was based upon data from the comparison group of the Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) study - a multi-site randomized trial of the impact of a diet high in vegetables, fruits and fiber, and low in fat on the recurrence of breast cancer. The WHEL participating institutions are University of California, San Diego and Davis, Stanford University, Kaiser Permanente in Oakland and Portland, University of Arizona at Tucson, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

May 17, 2007, 5:18 AM CT

Hair straightening chemicals does not cause breast cancer

Chemical relaxers used to straighten hair are not associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer among African-American women, say researchers who followed 48,167 Black Womens Health Study participants.

In the recent issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers from Boston University and Howard University Cancer Center found no increase in breast cancer risk due to the type of hair relaxer used or the frequency and duration of use. Women who used relaxers seven or more times a year over a 20 year span or longer had the same risk as women who used the chemicals for less than a year, researchers say.

This is good news, said the studys lead investigator, Lynn Rosenberg, Sc.D., professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. The present study is definitive that hair relaxers dont cause breast cancer, as much as an epidemiologic study can be.

Previous research shows that breast cancer incidence is higher among African-American women age 40 or younger than among Caucasian women of the same age, and this increased risk is not fully explained by known risk factors, such as race and family history. At all ages, African-American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than are Caucasian women. To shed light on these findings and to study potential causes of breast cancer and other serious illnesses that affect black women, the Black Womens Health Study was launched across the United States in 1995. More than 59,000 women completed an initial questionnaire and more than 80 percent have answered follow-up questions every two years since, including questions about use of hair relaxers......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source