Breast Cancer

NEW YORK--The National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) has just published the 1996-1997 edition of the NABCO Breast Cancer Resource List, made possible through an educational grant from Glaxo Wellcome Inc

Although radiation therapy following lumpectomy for lymph node-negative breast cancer significantly reduces both local and distant disease recurrence, overall mortality is not substantially better in women who receive radiation than in those who do not, according to a Canadian study update report in the November 20th Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed nondermatologic cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States. In 1996, a total of 184,300 new cases of and 44,300 deaths from invasive breast cancer are projected among women. To assess trends in incidence and death rates for breast cancer among US women, the CDC analyzed national incidence data from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and death-certificate data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

A national study underway at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will determine whether breast cancer patients can benefit from a biopsy procedure that has been successfully used for skin cancer patients. Patients with melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer, have benefited from an advance that has reduced the pain and complications of surgery performed to ascertain whether their cancer has spread.

NEW YORK--When diagnosed with breast cancer, "women have very different coping styles," Amy Langer said at a media briefing on molecular diagnostics in breast cancer, sponsored by Pharmacia Biotech.

NEW YORK--There is sufficient evidence that the timing of breast cancer surgery affects outcome to warrant further inquiry, William J. Hrushesky, MD, said at the 14th Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium.

Long-term exposure to estrogen, as measured by bone mineral density, can more than double the risk of breast cancer, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and reported in the November 5th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. Estrogen replacement therapy is often prescribed in women during menopause to reduce hot flashes and other uncomfortable symptoms of this transitional period.

WASHINGTON--In an extraordinary decision, the steering committee of the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer (NAPBC) voted to reject nearly the entire $14.75 million that Congress provided it for use in fiscal year 1997.

WAYNE, NJ-Initial testing of the Symptom Experience Scale (SES), designed to measure women's experiences of symptoms associated with treatment for breast cancer, found six factors that used all 24 SES items and accounted for 83% of the variance, report Nelda Samarel, EdD, RN, of William Paterson College of New Jersey, and her colleagues.

WILMINGTON, Del-The Breast Cancer Patient Education Service, recently established by Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, allows breast cancer patients and their families to obtain patient education materials on tamoxifen (Nolvadex) with one phone call.

A team of researchers at Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center have isolated and cloned a gene that may play a role in breast cancer.

The option of reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer is often not discussed with indigent patients, according to a study presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) held in Dallas, Texas.

WASHINGTON--Breast cancer mortality continues to drop among white women in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, and, for the first time, it has dropped in black American women, NCI Director Richard Klausner said in his delivery of the 6th Annual Jo Oberstar Memorial Lecture at the George Washington University School of Medicine.

NEW YORK-Screening for breast cancer in the workplace saves money as well as lives, according to a study commissioned by Zeneca Inc. To emphasize this important message to business, the results were presented in a news conference held on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange.

BETHESDA, Md-NIH plans a consensus development conference to assess the most recent data on the efficacy of mammography in screening women age 40 to 49 for breast cancer. The agency plans to convene the conference on January 21-23, 1997, on the NIH Bethesda campus.

NEW YORK-DNA sequencing is the gold standard for determining the presence or absence of p53 mutations in breast tumors, said Jorge A. Leon, PhD, corporate director for biotechnology research and development, Corning Nichols Institute/Corning Clinical Laboratories.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala--In 1994, the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Alabama at Birmingham commissioned photojournalist Melissa Springer to create an exhibit celebrating breast cancer survivors. Her finished project has now been published as A Tribe of Warrior Women.

CHICAGO--The Truquant BR RIA blood test (manufactured by Biomira Diagnostics, Inc.) has been shown to be a highly specific predictor of recurrent breast cancer. In clinical trials, positive test results predicted relapse 83% of the time, providing as much as a 12-month (average, 5 month) warning over clinical symptoms and/or other diagnostic methods for breast cancer recurrence.

Researchers at Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that a newly identified liver cancer gene is also defective in more aggressive breast tumors that may not respond to certain common types of chemotherapy.

NEW YORK--Michael Korda, best-selling author and editor-in-chief and vice president of Simon and Schuster, had never heard of PSA until a routine test showed that his was elevated; he had never thought about prostate cancer as something that could happen to him. After all, he was asymptomatic, a "fanatic exerciser," had given up smoking 20 years ago, and ate carefully.

OKLAHOMA CITY--Project Wo-man, a committee of the American Cancer Society (ACS)--has published a book depicting the experiences of Oklahoma women with breast cancer as expressed by the women themselves, their friends, children, and other loved ones through stories, photographs, and artwork (see illustrations at right and on page 1).

BETHESDA, Md--Daniel B. Kopans, MD, of the Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, has received the 1996 Rose Kushner Award for Writing Achievement in the Field of Breast Cancer for best scientific article.

BETHESDA, Md--The Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT), launched in 1992, will need fewer women than originally estimated for completion. Although planned for 16,000 women, the trial now has more than 12,000 enrolled, and needs only another 1,000 for completion, which is expected next year.

This well-written article can benefit only from reinforcement of a few of its major points, some supplemental discussion about the important role of biologic models in understanding and managing breast cancer development, and a note about the critical need for research and perspectives from the social sciences concerning this subject. I say "only" because this article beautifully and clearly explores some of the language of epidemiology critical to the subject, language which is becoming increasingly important in routine medical practice. Practitioners and, increasingly, the public (medical "consumers") are concerned with risks and numbers.

An expert panel of nine international cancer researchers and practicing oncolo-gists met in Boston to discuss the past, present, and future uses of antiestrogens in the treatment of breast cancer. This article represents the first in a series of reports based on the symposium presentations that will be featured in subsequent issues of Oncology News International.The symposium was sponsored by Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.