Tag Archives: breast

Moderate doses of radiation therapy to unaffected breast may prevent second breast cancers

"Over the past decades, we’ve had great success in treating breast cancer, and the 15-year survival rate is now 77 percent," said study leader David J. Brenner, PhD, director of CUMC’s Center for Radiological Research and the Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics. "Unfortunately, breast cancer survivors have a several times higher risk of developing cancer in their other breast, compared with healthy women of the same age." "While drugs such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors can reduce the risk somewhat, at least for women with estrogen receptor-positive tumors, the long-term risks of a second breast cancer in the unaffected breast remain high. …

Long term study: Breast cancer risk increased in young women after treatment for Hodgkin’s disease

The incidence figures for secondary breast cancer are based on long-term observation of 590 female patients in the German-Austrian pediatric treatment trials dating back to the years 1978 to 1995. The authors estimate that 19% of the girls treated with radiotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease develop secondary breast cancer within 30 years as a result of that therapy. …

Large amounts of folic acid shown to promote growth of breast cancer in rats

The role of folate, a B vitamin, and its synthetic form, folic acid, in the development and progression of breast cancer is highly controversial. Although some studies have found it may offer protection against breast cancer, recent studies have suggested that taking high amounts of folic acid may increase the risk of developing breast cancer…

Evidence of harmful effect of bisphenol A-based plastics

Complex mechanism of action "Our research provides further evidence that the physiological effects of bisphenol A may be even more complex than previously assumed," says Prof Dr Raphael Stoll, head of Biomolecular Spectroscopy at the Ruhr-Universität. "However, we have also discovered other related compounds that indicate which path the future development of pharmaceutically effective substances against GTPase-mediated tumours may take," adds synthetic chemist Prof Dr Jürgen Scherkenbeck from Wuppertal. Bisphenol A impairs the function of GTPases Small GTPases are enzymes that occur in two states within the cell: in the active form when bound to the GTP molecule; and in the inactive form when bound to GDP, a lower-energy form of GTP. …

Epigenetics of breast cancer family history

Researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York have now examined whether a specific epigenetic modification (more specifically, methylation of the DNA) can be associated to breast cancer family history in unaffected women from high-risk breast cancer families. This important work suggests that the levels of DNA methylation in white blood cells from cancer-free women could be one of the factors playing a role in the clustering of breast cancer in families with extensive cancer histories within its members. source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140107172017.htm

Promising new biomarkers linked to early diagnosis of breast cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in both men and women in the U.S. However, women have a higher chance than men of being diagnosed with cancer before the age of 60 due to breast cancer development. Metastases in breast cancer’s later stages cause the majority of deaths associated with the disease, making early detection crucial to patient survival. …