Breast cancer blog

February 16, 2009, 10:21 PM CT

Genes breast cancer risk

Reporting this week in Nature Genetics, Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D, and his colleagues have identified a region on chromosome 6 that is strongly linked to breast cancer susceptibility in Asian women. This genetic "locus" may help guide efforts to find the specific genes linked with sporadic or non-inherited forms of the disease, the authors suggest.

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer types among women worldwide.

Genetics plays an important role in the disease, and a handful of breast cancer susceptibility genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been identified. Mutations in these genes increase risk of inherited forms of breast cancers.

"But the genetic factors identified so far explain only a small percent of all the cases in the general population," said Zheng, an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Medicine and the director of the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center.

The genetic factors responsible for the vast majority of cases are unclear, "so there has been a lot of interest to identify additional genetic factors for breast cancer," said Zheng, the senior author on the study.

To date, most breast cancer susceptibility genes have been studied primarily in Caucasian or European populations, but women of other ethnic backgrounds may have important genetic differences from these groups, Zheng noted. So the scientists turned to a population of Asian women in Shanghai, China, which they had been studying for more than a decade to identify nutritional, environmental and genetic factors linked to disease risk......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

February 9, 2009, 6:15 AM CT

Pregnancy has no impact on breast cancer

A newly released study finds women who develop breast cancer while pregnant or soon afterwards do not experience any differences in disease severity or likelihood of survival in comparison to other women with breast cancer. The study is reported in the March 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society.

So-called pregnancy-associated breast cancers (PABC), defined as breast cancer that develops either during or within one year following pregnancy, is relatively rare and presents a dilemma for clinicians. An estimated 0.2 to 3.8 percent of pregnancies are complicated by breast cancer, and approximately 10 percent of patients with breast cancer under age 40 develop the disease during pregnancy. But as age at the time of pregnancy continues to increase, the occurence rate of PABC can be expected to increase.

Prior research has suggested that pregnancy is linked to poorer outcomes among women with breast cancer. To clarify the issue, Drs. George Perkins, Beth Beadle and his colleagues at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center analyzed data from 668 breast cancers in 652 patients aged 35 years or younger. Among that group, 104 breast cancers (15.6 percent) were pregnancy-associated: 51 cancers developed during pregnancy and 53 developed within one year following pregnancy......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

February 5, 2009, 6:25 AM CT

Breast cancer and ostmenopausal hormone therapy

Women who stopped taking the postmenopausal hormone combination of estrogen plus progestin experienced a marked decline in breast cancer risk which was uncorrelation to mammography utilization change, as per a research studyfrom the Women's Health Initiative led by a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) investigator that was published recently in The New England Journal (NEJM)

"These findings support the hypothesis that the recent reduction in breast cancer incidence in the United States is predominantly correlation to a decrease in combined estrogen plus progestin use," said Rowan T. Chlebowski, M.D., Ph.D., a LA BioMed chief investigator and main author for the study.

Breast cancer in the United States began to decline in 2003, after the Women's Health Initiative's initial findings that combined hormone treatment was correlation to higher risk of breast cancer and heart problems.

Using data from the Women's Health Initiative's randomized trial and observational study cohort of postmenopausal women on combined hormone treatment, the scientists in the study published recently also observed that continued use of combined estrogen plus progestin after five years about doubles subsequent breast cancer risk each year.

"Postmenopausal women and their physicians should consider these findings in weighing the risks and benefits of combined estrogen plus progestin use, particularly if the women plan to take the medicine for more than five years," said Dr. Chlebowski......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

February 4, 2009, 6:15 AM CT

Those women who need radiation

One-fifth of women who should receive radiation after a mastectomy are not getting this potentially lifesaving treatment, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study looked at 396 women who were treated with a mastectomy for breast cancer. The researchers found that 19 percent of women who fell clearly within guidelines recommending radiation treatment after the mastectomy did not receive that treatment.

Results of the study appear online in the journal Cancer and would be published in the March 15 issue.

Post-mastectomy radiation is known to decrease the risk of cancer returning in the chest wall and has been shown to reduce mortality in high-risk patients, but there's been some debate within the cancer community about who is likely to benefit most. Current guidelines recommend radiation after mastectomy for women who had particularly large tumors or cancer in four or more of their nearby lymph nodes. Even women with fewer positive lymph nodes should strongly consider radiation treatment.

"There's an identifiable high-risk group for whom there's absolutely no debate -- they need radiation after their mastectomy. Even in this group for whom it's crystal clear, we found that only four-fifths were treated. That's not good enough. This is a potentially lifesaving treatment," says lead study author Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., assistant professor of radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

January 6, 2009, 7:23 PM CT

Digital Mammograms: Is it Efficient?

Digital mammograms take longer to interpret than film-screen mammograms, as per a research studyperformed at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

The study included four radiologists who interpreted 268 digital screening mammograms and 189 film-screening mammograms. "The average interpretation time for all of our readers was 240 seconds (4 minutes) for digital screening mammograms and 127 seconds (2 minutes, 7 seconds) for film-screen screening mammograms," said Tamara Miner Haygood, MD, main author of the study. "The digital screening mammograms took nearly twice as long to interpret as the film-screen screening mammograms," said Dr. Haygood.

The study identified factors that might have contributed to the difference in time. "Those factors were the identity of the interpreting radiologist, whether there were older studies available for comparison, whether the radiologist looked for and hung up additional films, how a number of images were obtained and whether the study was normal or not. In each of these situations, the digital images took longer to interpret than the film-screen images," said Dr. Haygood.

"As a result of this study, radiologists should be able to make a more informed choice about whether digital of film-screen mammograms are right for their practice, and if they choose digital screening mammograms, they will have a better idea of how much time to allow for reading them," said Dr. Haygood......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

December 23, 2008, 10:36 PM CT

Preventing breast cancer with broccoli

Women should go for the broccoli when the relish tray comes around during holiday celebrations this season.

While it has been known for some time that eating cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, can help prevent breast cancer, the mechanism by which the active substances in these vegetables inhibit cell proliferation was unknown until now.

Scientists in the UC Santa Barbara laboratories of Leslie Wilson, professor of biochemistry and pharmacology, and Mary Ann Jordan, adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, have shown how the healing power of these vegetables works at the cellular level. Their research is published in this month's journal Carcinogenesis

"Breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, can be protected against by eating cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage and near relatives of cabbage such as broccoli and cauliflower," said first author Olga Azarenko, who is a graduate student at UCSB. "These vegetables contain compounds called isothiocyanates which we believe to be responsible for the cancer-preventive and anti-carcinogenic activities in these vegetables. Broccoli and broccoli sprouts have the highest amount of the isothiocyanates......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

November 19, 2008, 8:39 PM CT

New compounds show promise for eliminating breast cancer tumors

Two new compounds created by a University of Central Florida professor show early promise for destroying breast cancer tumors.

Associate Professor James Turkson's compounds disrupt the formation and spread of breast cancer tumors in tests on mice. The compounds, S3I-201 and S3I-M2001, break up a cancer-causing protein called STAT3, and scientists have observed no negative side effects so far.

"The compounds are very promising," Turkson said. "They've worked very well in mice, and now we're looking for partners to help us take these compounds to the next level of trials".

Turkson's research has been reported in the academic journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and ACS Chemical Biology, and he has obtained patents for both compounds.

Turkson is passionate about his research and has a very personal reason for wanting to find a cure for cancer. During his first year of college, his 52-year-old mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer and died. He dedicated his life to finding a cure.

The two compounds developed in his lab hold promise in part because they efficiently disrupt the abnormally active STAT3 protein he said.

"We all have the STAT3 protein in our bodies, and under normal circumstances it causes no harm. But in patients with breast cancer, the protein is abnormally active. It never shuts off"......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

November 18, 2008, 5:25 AM CT

Breast cancer common among women with family history

New data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting outlines new data, which assesses breast cancer risk among women with a strong family history of breast cancer, but without a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. This may facilitate earlier detection and prevention among high-risk women.

The study, conducted at the University of Toronto, showed that women with a significant family history of breast cancer remain at increased risk for developing the disease, despite having negative BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. These mutations typically signal a need for preventive therapy. The excess risk was about four-fold higher than that of average women.

"In clinical practice we often see families with a significant history of breast cancer and negative BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests, and it is often difficult to counsel them about their risk without this information," said Steven Narod, M.D., the study's senior author. "It is clear that genes are involved, but it is hard to be more specific".

Narod, who holds the Canada Research Chair in breast cancer at the University of Toronto and Women's College Research Institute, said this new data would help physicians counsel their patients. "Now when we see families such as this, we will be able to offer better advice about their actual risk. It is clear to me that the risk is high enough that we need to discuss options such as breast MRI for screening and chemoprevention with tamoxifen or raloxifene." said Narod......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

October 9, 2008, 10:54 PM CT

Improving treatment of inherited breast cancer

Researchers have identified some of the elusive downstream molecules that play a critical role in the development and progression of familial breast cancer. The research, published by Cell Press in the October 10th issue of the journal Molecular Cell, also identifies a compound found in grapes and red wine as an excellent candidate for therapy of some forms of breast cancer.

About 8% of breast cancer cases are caused by mutations in tumor suppressor genes, such as breast cancer associated gene-1 (BRCA1). BRCA1 is the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor gene found in inherited breast cancers and BRCA1 mutation carriers have a 50-80% risk of developing breast cancer by age 70. "Eventhough work with animal models of BRCA1 mutation has provided some insight into the a number of biological processes linked with BRCA1, very little is known about the downstream mediators of BRCA1 function in tumor suppression," says lead study author Dr. Chu-Xia Deng from the Genetics of Development and Diseases Branch at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Deng and his colleagues were interested in investigating the relationship among BRCA1, SIRT1 and Survivin. SIRT1 is a protein and histone deacetylase involved in numerous critical cell processes including metabolism, DNA repair and programmed cell death, known as apoptosis. Eventhough SIRT1 has been implicated in tumorigenesis, no concrete role in cancer initiation or progression has been identified. Survivin is an apoptosis inhibitor that is dramatically elevated in a number of types of tumors. Research has suggested that Survivin may serve to maintain the tumor and promote growth......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

September 29, 2008, 10:43 PM CT

Birth size is a marker of susceptibility to breast cancer

Birth size, and in particular birth length, correlates with subsequent risk of breast cancer in adulthood, according to a new study published in PLoS Medicine by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Associations between birth size, perhaps as a marker of the pre-natal environment, and subsequent breast cancer risk have been identified before, but the findings from epidemiological studies have been inconsistent.

In the new study, led by Isabel dos Santos Silva (Professor of Epidemiology), the researchers re-analysed data from published and unpublished studies to obtain more precise estimates of the extent to which birth size affects the risk of breast cancer later in life and to investigate whether they could be explained by associations with other risk factors.

They examined 32 studies, comprising 22,058 cases of breast cancer among a total of more than 600,000 women, most of whom lived in developed countries. They found that birth weight was positively associated with breast cancer risk in studies where information on birth size was based on birth records (although not in those based on adult self-reports, which tend to be less accurate). Analyses of women with data from birth records showed that a 0.5 kg increment in birth weight was associated with an estimated 7% increase in the risk of breast cancer......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

September 22, 2008, 10:33 PM CT

3-week radiation therapy as effective as 5 weeks for breast cancer

Boston Early-stage patients with breast cancer who receive a more intensive course of radiation to their whole breast over three weeks is as effective as the standard, less intensive five-week whole breast radiation and offers patients more convenience at a lower cost, thereby providing a better quality of life, as per a randomized, long-term study presented September 22, 2008, in the plenary session at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.

The cost of this shorter therapy, called accelerated hypofractionated whole breast irradiation, is two-thirds of the cost of the standard whole breast radiation. It is also less expensive then other new approaches such as partial breast irradiation.

"There has been renewed interest in hypofractioned whole breast irradiation, due to the potential radiation advantages, patient convenience, quality of life and lower costs. However, long-term effects were a potential concern," Timothy Whelan, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, said. "We were surprised that the risk of local recurrence and side effects for women treated with accelerated whole breast irradiation was so low even at 12 years. Our study shows that this therapy should be offered to select women treated with early-stage breast cancer."........ Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

September 15, 2008, 10:23 PM CT

Vaccine against HER2-positive breast cance

Scientists at Wayne State University have tested a breast cancer vaccine they say completely eliminated HER2-positive tumors in mice - even cancers resistant to current anti-HER2 treatment - without any toxicity.

The study, published in the September 15 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, suggests the vaccine could treat women with HER2-positive, therapy-resistant cancer or help prevent cancer recurrence. The scientists also say it might potentially be used in cancer-free women to prevent initial development of these tumors.

HER2 receptors promote normal cell growth, and are found in low amounts on normal breast cells. But HER2-positive breast cells can contain a number of more receptors than is typical, promoting a especially aggressive type of tumor that affects 20 to 30 percent of all patients with breast cancer. Therapies such as trastuzumab and lapatinib, designed to latch on to these receptors and destroy them, are a mainstay of therapy for this cancer, but a significant proportion of patients develop a resistance to them or cancer metastasis that is hard to treat.

This therapy relied on activated, own-immunity to wipe out the cancer, says the study's lead investigator, Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D., a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Karmanos Cancer Institute......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 9:01 PM CT

Growth factor predicts poor outcome in breast cancer

The response to insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) in breast cancer cells predicts an aggressive tumor that is less likely to respond to therapy, said scientists at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The finding gives impetus to the movement to tailor cancer therapys to attributes of the various tumors.

"These findings come at a critical time," said Dr. Adrian Lee, associate professor in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at BCM. "Our goal is to identify biomarkers that will help predict which patients will respond to treatment against insulin-like growth factor. Several inhibitors of the IGF pathway are in patient studies right now. There's a large movement to understand which patients will respond to these drugs. This is a step toward that goal".

In this study, Lee and colleagues stimulated breast cancer cells with IGF-I in the laboratory and defined how more than 800 genes in the cells responded to the growth factor. They then examined samples of patient breast tumors with this "gene signature" and correlated the gene signatures with the fate of the patients.

"We have technology now to allow us to globally assess what IGF is doing in breast cancer at the whole gene expression level," said Lee. "This is one of the first studies to do that. We know that IGF is bad in cancer, but now we can globally understand it in a more comprehensive manner. It could lead to finding biomarkers for patients response" to breast cancer therapys......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

July 30, 2008, 0:10 AM CT

2 different breast cancer screening strategies are equally effective

An organized population-based breast cancer screening program in Norway and an approach to screening that relies on physician- and self-referrals in Vermont are equally sensitive for detecting cancer, scientists report in the July 29 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute But the recall rate for abnormal mammograms was lower in Norway.

Breast cancer screening in the United States is commonly initiated in response to a physician's recommendation (known as "opportunistic screening"), and women are advised to have annual screening mammograms. By contrast, breast cancer screening programs in Norway and in some other European countries regularly send letters to all women in a specific age range inviting them to have a screening mammogram. The Norway program aims for women to be screened every two years. The differences between the two approaches make it relatively difficult to compare their effectiveness, and few studies have aimed to do so previously.

In the current study, Berta Geller, Ed.D., of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Solveig Hofvind, Ph.D., of the Cancer Registry of Norway, and his colleagues compared the screening approaches by looking at the percentage of women who were recalled for a re-evaluation, the screening detection rate of breast cancer, and the rate of interval cancers in 45,050 women in Vermont and 194,430 women in Norway from 1997 to 2003. Women included in the study were aged 50 to 69 years at the time of screening......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

June 19, 2008, 9:17 PM CT

Breast Cells Sets Stage For Abnormal Cell Division And Cancer

A University of Michigan study reveals in detail how breast cells produce new cells that are predisposed to become malignant, unless they receive the protective action of the CHFR gene.

CHFR expression is missing in more than a third of breast cancers. Analysis of this gene is also a hot area of interest among scientists trying to explain colorectal, stomach, lung and other forms of cancer.

The new study reveals how and why new "daughter" cells, produced as cells in body tissues renew themselves, receive too few or too a number of chromosomes if expression of the CHFR gene is missing or low. The loss of CHFR can lead to the survival of genetically unstable cells loaded with too a number of chromosomes, which can lead to cancer.

"Our findings show that loss of CHFR disrupts normal chromosome segregation in breast cells during cell division and creates genomic instability, which can drive genetic mechanisms that accelerate the development of cancer," says Elizabeth Petty, M.D. , a U-M professor in the departments of human genetics and internal medicine and the senior author of the study. The article appears online ahead of print in the journal Neoplasia.

The new knowledge eventually could provide the scientific basis for diagnostic markers and identify which patients can benefit from specific types of cancer drugs......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

June 16, 2008, 9:57 PM CT

New Inhibitors Of Estrogen-dependent Breast Cancer Cells

Scientists have discovered a new family of agents that inhibit the growth of estrogen-dependent breast cancer cells. The finding, described today at a meeting of the Endocrine Society, has opened an avenue of research into new drugs to combat estrogen-dependent breast cancers.

"This cell-based study is exciting because it suggests these compounds are likely to be effective in tumors that remain dependent on estrogen for growth but are resistant to current therapies," said principal investigator David J. Shapiro, a professor of biochemistry in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois.

Eventhough multiple factors contribute to the development of breast cancer, estrogens play a key role in the growth of a number of tumors. More than 80 percent of breast cancer tumors in women over age 45 are activated by estrogen by way of a protein called an estrogen receptor. When estrogen binds to the receptor, this "estrogen-receptor complex" latches on to DNA and prompts it to transcribe the RNA blueprints for new proteins that promote cell growth, migration and division.

Current therapies for estrogen-receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancers include the use of drugs, such as tamoxifen, that interfere with estrogen's ability to bind to the estrogen receptor. Over time, however, ER-positive breast cancer tumors become resistant to tamoxifen. In some resistant tumors, tamoxifen even begins to act like estrogen and actually stimulates tumor growth......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

May 8, 2008, 9:06 PM CT

Switch regulates breast cancer response

A tiny modification called methylation on estrogen receptors prolongs the life of these growth-driving molecules in breast cancer cells, as per research by researchers at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute.

The results are reported in the May 9, 2008 issue of the journal Molecular Cell.

Most breast cancers contain estrogen receptors, which enable them to grow in the presence of the hormone estrogen. Their presence can determine whether tumors will respond to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen.

The finding will help scientists sort out how mutations change the estrogen receptor's function and allow some breast cancers to resist tamoxifen, says Paula Vertino, PhD, associate professor of radiation oncology at Emory University School of Medicine.

"The problem is that a significant fraction of estrogen receptor positive tumors don't respond to tamoxifen," Vertino says. "Development of new drugs that interfere with the methylation of the estrogen receptor may be an alternative way to treat those tumors".

Until recently, researchers thought methylation enzymes acted only on DNA molecules or on histones, proteins that bundle DNA into spool-like packages. Methylation enzymes add tags called methyl groups to other molecules, influencing their ability to turn genes on or off......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source

April 21, 2008, 7:35 PM CT

Mammography may be beneficial to all women

According to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, mammography, the gold-standard for breast cancer screening and early detection, has shown to significantly reduce the risk of being diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer in women over the age of 80, an age group currently without clear guidelines recommending regular screenings.

The study, published online today (April 21) in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), is the first to specifically assess the screening modality in women older than 80. It's estimated that approximately 17 percent of breast cancers are diagnosed in women older than 80, and only about one-fifth of women in this age group have routine mammograms.

According to the study's senior author, Gildy Babiera, M.D., the need for this study evolved as she began to notice a growing number of women who were 80-years-old and older in her clinic.

"With an increasing number of people living longer, there's a real dilemma regarding how best to manage the care of breast cancer patients 80 years of age and older, taking into account both their comorbidities and their account their quality of life," said Babiera, associate professor in the Department of Surgical Oncology.

This research follows other M. D. Anderson studies looking at complications associated with surgery and treatment tolerability in elderly patients......... Posted by: Betsy      Read more         Source