Kylie Minogue has stressed her admiration for the medical profession after revealing that the first doctor she saw misdiagnosed her breast cancer.Update from http://www.askanoncologistnow.com. Get answers from board certified Oncologists.

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The extent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s botched breast cancer testing scandal became somewhat clearer Tuesday when the province disclosed for the first time how many patients have died since receiving inaccurate tests.

Update provided by http://www.askanoncologistnow.com

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Canadian women diagnosed with early breast cancer lose, on average, more than a quarter of their typical income during the first 12 months after their diagnosis, according to a study published online February 26 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Read the rest of this entry »

When Edison invented the light bulb, did he accidentally spawn a cancer epidemic? It’s certainly starting to look that way. In study after recent study, exposure to artificial light has been linked to certain kinds of tumors, especially those in the breast. Read the rest of this entry »

In an extended analysis of Web pages dedicated to disseminating breast cancer information, researchers at two University of Texas institutions in the Houston have determined that while most breast cancer data found online was accurate, one in 20 breast cancer Web pages featured inaccuracies and sites displaying complementary and alternative medicine were 15 times more likely to contain false or misleading health information. Read the rest of this entry »

Diagnostic testing to determine the use of targeted therapy is a valuable tool in helping physicians guide treatment options for patients, particularly women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Calibrant Biosystems today announced a research collaboration with the Yale University School of Medicine to identify novel ovarian and breast cancer drug targets from clinical tissue specimens using Calibrant’s Gemini proteomics platform. Read the rest of this entry »

Women who smoke and have a specific genetic makeup are at significant risk for the development of breast cancer, according to a recent study published by the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. Read the rest of this entry »

According to recent research, more than one in 20 patients undergoing breast surgery later develop infections at incision sites. The study also found that breast cancer patients are twice as likely to suffer an infection at the surgery site if they receive an implant instead of their own tissue.

http://www.medindia.net/news/Breast-Infections-Alarmingly-High-After-Reconstruction-Using-Implants-32165-1.htm

 
Carol Cavazos

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ? When Linda Blackmon chose to compete at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, she had no idea what she would be going through or how much of an inspiration she’d become to others.

Blackmon signed up for the stock show cutting horse competition in September. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in October.

But that didn’t stop her from competing.

“I’m kind of in the middle of the treatments, so I’m in pretty good shape right now,” she said.

When she chose January 22 to compete, she said she had no idea it was the same night the stock show went pink for breast cancer awareness.

Blackmon scored a 70, three points less than Tuesday night’s winner.

But after the competition, many already consider Blackmon a winner.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cigarette smoking dramatically increases the risk that a woman who has undergone radiation treatment for breast cancer will develop lung cancer later on, a new study shows.

Radiation after mastectomy may be considered for some high-risk breast cancer patients, Dr. Elizabeth L. Kaufman and colleagues from Columbia University in New York City point out in their report. However, radiation can cause many complications, including increasing the likelihood that a patient will develop lung cancer 10 or more years after treatment, they add.

An earlier, small study by Kaufman and her team had suggested that cigarette smoking could boost this risk even more. To investigate further, she and her colleagues looked at breast cancer patients included in the Connecticut Tumor Registry who had been diagnosed with the disease between 1965 and 1989. They compared 113 women who had developed lung cancer 10 or more years after their breast cancer diagnosis with 364 women who did not.

Non-smoking women who had undergone radiation were no more likely than those who hadn’t had radiation therapy to develop lung cancer, the researchers found. However, women who smoked but didn’t have radiation therapy were nearly six times as likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than non-smokers who didn’t have radiation, while women who smoked and did undergo radiation therapy were at nearly 19-fold greater risk.

Combined smoking and radiation therapy increased the risk that a woman would develop cancer in the lung on the same side of the body as her affected breast nearly 38-fold, while the risk of developing cancer in the opposite lung was more than 10-fold greater.

The findings suggest, the researchers say, that women who have smoked and undergone radiation therapy for breast cancer should undergo screening for lung cancer using a scanning technique called spiral computed tomography.

Furthermore, doctors should consider a patient’s smoking history when discussing her breast cancer treatment options, they add, especially if radiation may offer only a “marginal” survival advantage.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, January 20, 2008.

Breast Cancer -

Also called: Breast carcinoma

Breast cancer affects one in eight women during their lives. Breast cancer kills more women in the United States than any cancer except lung cancer. No one knows why some women get breast cancer, but there a number of risk factors. Risks that you cannot change include

• Age - the chance of getting breast cancer rises as a woman gets older
• Genes - there are two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that greatly increase the risk. Women who have family members with breast or ovarian cancer may wish to be tested.
• Personal factors - beginning periods before age 12 or going through menopause after age 55

Other risks include being overweight, using hormone replacement therapy, taking birth control pills, drinking alcohol, not having children or having your first child after age 35 or having dense breasts.

Symptoms of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in size or shape of the breast or discharge from a nipple. Breast self-exam and mammography can help find breast cancer early when it is most treatable. Treatment may consist of radiation, lumpectomy, mastectomy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

Men can have breast cancer, too, but the number of cases is small.

National Cancer Institute

Start Here

• Breast Cancer(Patient Education Institute) - Requires Flash Player Also available in Spanish
• Breast Cancer (PDQ): Treatment(National Cancer Institute)
  Also available in Spanish
• What You Need to Know about Breast Cancer(National Cancer Institute)
  Also available in Spanish