June 21, 2006, 7:01 AM CT

New Gene Mutation Linked To Breast Cancer

Most of us are familiar with the breast cancer associated genes 1 and 2 commonly called as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Mutations in these genes significantly increase risk of developing breast cancer in women who carry them. BRCA2 mutations are also associated with increased risk of breast cancer in men.

Now researchers have discovered another breast cancer gene, which may be involved with breast cancer development. Mutation in this gene greatly increases the risk of breast cancer in women of European heritage. These genes may work in combination with the well-known BRCA genes and may increase the risk of breast cancer development as much as 80 percent.

These new research findings come from Iceland's Decode Genetics, and researchers say that the study suggests that women with certain mutations in two of the genes have an almost certain risk of developing breast cancer.

The newly discovered gene is called BARD1. "The BARD1 variant works together with the BRCA2 mutation in Iceland and increases the likelihood of breast cancer from 45% in those who have only the BRCA2 mutation up towards 100% in those who also have the BARD1 variant," Decode chief executive Kari Stefansson said in a statement.

The research team has found that women who harbor BARD1 mutation tend to develop breast cancer on both breasts. The Decode team identified 1,090 women in Iceland who had breast cancer, and compared them to 703 Icelandic women who did not have breast cancer. A mutant variant of BARD1 gene was found in 5.4% of breast cancer patients and 3.1% of women who did not have breast cancer. This represents an 80% increase in risk of developing breast cancer.........

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June 19, 2006, 9:23 PM CT

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June 14, 2006, 6:55 AM CT

A Pink Phone To Benefit Breast Cancer Foundation

Now Sanyo and Qwest are jointly offering a pink phone to promote the cause of breast cancer. Ten percent of the sales from this phone would go to Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for raising awareness about breast cancer. At the present time only one model (Sanyo 3100) is available, but the company says more models would be available soon. This phone is tagged as a "pink phone with a heart" and has all new and nice features like a sleek design, dual LCD displays, a built-in camera, walkie-talkie-style communication, wireless download capabilities and an external speaker.

The phone has a friendly flip open design and has a VGA camera with digital zoom and a 65K-color internal display. The phone is compatible with digital and current services like Sprint PCS Vision, Sprint PCS Picture Mail and Ready Link. This phone costs $49.99 with two-year contract and weighs 3.5 ounces. Features of the phone include parental or business call-restriction settings.

"A key to our success at the Komen Foundation is that we collaborate with a variety of organizations to provide creative ways for people to make a difference in the fight against breast cancer," said Cindy Schneible, vice president of cause-related marketing and sponsorship at the Komen Foundation. "We are proud to have the opportunity to partner with Qwest and SANYO to allow wireless phone users to make a bold statement about breast cancer awareness and a valuable contribution to breast cancer research and community outreach programs."........

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June 13, 2006, 6:42 AM CT

Kylie Minogue Returns To Stage

Good news for pop music lovers! Kylie Minogue is back on the stage. Kylie Minogue sang to a delighted crowd in London last weekend in her first live performance since she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. With a sporting short, beautifully cropped hair and her popular wide smile, the 38-year-old joined her younger sister, Dannii, who waccording toforming at the Astoria on Saturday night.

This was a surprise appearance for Kylie and she sang the chorus of Dannii's song "Jump To The Beat".

Daily Mirror showed pictures of the two sisters hugging each other on the stage, with Minogue looking as radiant and sparkling as ever despite her fight against breast cancer.

Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2005 while she was preparing for the Australian leg of her Showgirl Tour.

With the diagnosis of breast cancer Minogue postponed her Australian and Asian tours and had undergone breast cancer surgery in Melbourne and had received further therapy in Europe.........

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June 12, 2006, 6:53 AM CT

A Sea Of Pink Ribbons

Woodward Avenue turned into a sea of pink ribbons when tens of thousand walked and ran through the streets in Detroit. This was in support of the fund-raiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and to raises public awareness of breast cancer.

Thousands of men and women gathered under the sunny skies and joined various programs including walking, jogging and running long distances. The walk and run stated at Woodward and ended at Comerica Park. The morning presented a mixture of sweetness and bitterness as the participants enjoyed the triumphs and remembered their loved ones who lost their lives to breast cancer.

Jan Tevelman, a 55-year-old Sterling Heights resident, has participated for nine years, since her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer.

This year, Tevelman was a volunteer coordinator for various teams in the event. Her sister died six years ago and as a number of as 176 friends and relatives have since run the race in her honor.

"It was a wonderful, wonderful day," Tevelman said. "It means so much to my family to be here. Lots of my sister's friends and co-workers come and join us. It is a wonderful tribute".

In 1982 the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation was founded by Nancy Brinker as a way to honor her sister, who died of the disease at age 36.........

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June 7, 2006, 6:49 AM CT

Yoga Helps With Breast Cancer Treatment

Women who are undergoing therapy for breast cancer may get benefit from yoga according to a recent report from M.D. Anderson cancer center. The study participants performed regular yoga consisting of meditation, relaxation, imagery, controlled breathing, stretching and physical movements. Women who participated in yoga scored much better in physical well being compared to women who did not participate in yoga.

This was a small pilot study, which focused on 61 women who had surgery for breast cancer and were getting radiation therapy. About half of these women took part in twice a week yoga classes. Other half served as control group.

Investigators assessed the two groups of participants using questionnaires. The questionnaire was aimed at evaluation of their general health and measured factors such as ability to lift groceries walk a mile and perform other physical activities. They also were asked about feelings of fatigue, their sense of well being and other aspects of their quality of life.

The study showed that women who participated in yoga consistently had higher scores in almost every area. Improvement was most marked in areas of a physical function. Woman who participated in yoga had better general health, were less fatigued and had fewer problems with daytime sleepiness. But there were no differences between the groups in measurements of depression or anxiety.........

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June 7, 2006, 0:07 AM CT

Breast Cancer In Younger Black Women

For decades, scientists have tried to understand why breast cancer in younger black women is such a significant public health problem.

Black women have fewer breast cancers than white women, but their mortality is worse. Black women under the age of 50 have a 77 percent higher mortality rate from breast cancer than white women of the same age.

Results of a study led by researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill schools of Public Health and Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer suggest one reason for these differences.

When younger, premenopausal, black women get breast cancer, they are more than twice as likely as older women, black or white, to get an aggressive breast cancer subtype, the study found. They are also much less likely to get the least aggressive type. A report of the research appears in the June 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The present study adds an important piece to a large puzzle," said senior study author Dr. Robert Millikan. "Prior studies showed that a number of breast tumors in younger African American women are very fast-growing and hard to treat.

"We found something new: Younger African American breast cancer patients show a high frequency of one of the aggressive subtypes of breast cancer called basal-like," said Millikan, associate professor of epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health, a UNC Lineberger member and principal investigator of the Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS). The CBCS, one of the largest black breast cancer databases in the United States, is a population-based case-control study that enrolled women with breast cancer from 24 counties of North Carolina as cases, and an equal number of women without breast cancer as controls. Women who consented to the study were interviewed about their histories, and their tumor tissue was collected. The study mandatory extensive cooperation from all of the women who took part in the study, their physicians and pathologists, and a large number of hospitals in North Carolina.........

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June 5, 2006, 11:26 PM CT

CAD Detects Breast Cancers

Small lesions are very challenging for the radiologist to detect, said Rachel F. Brem, MD, director of breast imaging at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and lead author of the study. The study of 201 women found that CAD was "highly effective in detecting even the smallest lesions, with a sensitivity of 92% for lesions of 5 mm or less," said Dr. Brem. CAD was most effective in detecting cancers measuring 11-15 mm (94%) and least effective in detecting cancers measuring 16-20 mm (80%), Dr. Brem said. Lesion size is important; "cancers smaller than or equal to 1 cm have a better prognosis than cancers greater than 1 cm," she said.

Subtle masses are also difficult to detect, Dr. Brem said. The study found that CAD had a sensitivity of 83% for the smallest masses (those measuring 1-5 mm). It was most sensitive for masses 11-15 mm (91%) and least sensitive for larger masses measuring greater than 20 mm (75%).

CAD systems assist the radiologist by "processing the breast films, using algorithms to detect suspicious areas and highlighting those areas," said Dr. Brem. This study shows that CAD can help in the most difficult-to-detect cases. CAD prompts the radiologist to re-examine the films, and the radiologist decides whether "true areas of concern are present at the highlighted locations before making the final diagnosis," she said.........

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June 4, 2006, 8:32 AM CT

Race And Income And Advanced Breast Cancer

To determine the challenges of coping with metastatic breast cancer, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh schools of Nursing and Medicine evaluated the impact of race and income on women's experiences with the disease. They found that low-income African-American women were more likely to report physical and social distress and uncertainty about their future than other groups evaluated in the study. The results of the study were announced recently at the 42nd American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Atlanta.

"As more and more women are living with metastatic breast cancer, it becomes ever more important to look at how women experience the disease differently based on their unique circumstances," said Margaret Quinn Rosenzweig, Ph.D., assistant professor, department of acute and tertiary care, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. "While we know that equitable therapy and symptom management are critical to breast cancer survival, we know much less about how quality of life and symptom distress vary as per women's race and income level, especially for women living with advanced breast cancer."

The study looked at how women perceived barriers to therapy and to symptom management by evaluating the experiences of 57 women with metastatic breast cancer. Based on self-reporting, women were categorized into four groups: eight low-income African-American women, eight high-income African-American women, 16 low-income white women, and 25 high-income white women. Women filled out questionnaires on socio-demographics, symptom distress and quality of life, and were interviewed by the scientists to assess their experience with symptoms, self-care strategies and barriers to managing their symptoms.........

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June 4, 2006, 8:30 AM CT

Switch From Tamoxifen To Aromasin

New data from the Intergroup Exemestane Study (IES) showed for the first time today that hormone sensitive postmenopausal early breast cancer patients who switched to Aromasin after 2 to 3 years of tamoxifen were 17% more likely to be alive and were 25% less likely to have their cancer return than patients who continued on tamoxifen for a full 5 years of therapy.

"Exemestane is the only anti-hormonal therapy that has been shown to demonstrate improved overall survival over tamoxifen alone," said Lead Investigator Professor Charles Coombes, director of cancer medicine, Imperial College, London. These significant survival benefits were seen in patients who are considered hormone sensitive, which represents 97% of the study population. Although not statistically significant in the intent to treat population, 15% of patients taking Aromasin were more likely to be alive versus those that continued on tamoxifen. These new findings were based on nearly 5 years of follow-up after randomization in the IES trial. IES was a large randomized double blind multinational trial of postmenopausal women with early breast cancer which was designed to compare the clinical benefits of switching 2352 patients to Aromasin after 2 to 3 years of tamoxifen versus continuing 2372 patients on tamoxifen for a full 5 years of therapy. The 5 year follow-up time includes a period of observation lasting over 2 years after completion of all treatment. ........

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