Category Archives: Breast Cancer

No Magic Age To Stop Performing Screening Mammograms

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Cindy S. Lee, MD
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco
Now with Department of Radiology
NYU Langone Medical Center, Garden City, New York

MedicalResearch.com: What led you and colleagues to conduct this study?

Response: I am a breast imager. I see patients who come in for their screening mammograms and I get asked, a lot, if patients aged 75 years and older should continue screening, because of their age. There is not enough evidence out there to determine how breast cancer screening benefits women older than 75. In fact, all previously randomized trials of screening mammography excluded people older than 75 years.

Unfortunately, age is the biggest risk factor for breast cancer, so as patients get older, they have higher risks of developing breast cancer. It is therefore important to know how well screening mammography works in these patients.

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Some Breast Cancer Patients With Complete Response To Neoadjuvant Therapy Can Avoid Further Surgery

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Audree Tadros, MD, MPH Chief Administrative Fellow, Breast Surgical Oncology Training Program Department of Breast Surgical Oncology MD Anderson Cancer Center and

Dr. Tadros

Audree Tadros, MD, MPH
Chief Administrative Fellow, Breast Surgical Oncology Training Program
Department of Breast Surgical Oncology
MD Anderson Cancer Center and

Henry M. Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS Executive Director, Breast Programs MD Anderson Cancer Network PH and Fay Etta Robinson Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research Department of Breast Surgical Oncology Director, Breast Surgical Oncology Training Program

Dr. Kuerer

Henry M. Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS
Executive Director, Breast Programs
MD Anderson Cancer Network
PH and Fay Etta Robinson Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research
Dept of Breast Surgical Oncology
Director, Breast Surgical Oncology Training Program

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) has the ability to confer a pCR (pathologic complete response-when no residual cancer is found) in both the breast and axillary lymph nodes. We know that this is most likely to occur in women with HER2 positive and triple negative disease. The high rate of pCR among these patients raises the question of whether surgery is still required, particularly among those who will receive adjuvant radiation therapy.

Until recently, we lacked the ability to pre-operatively predict patients who achieved a breast pCR. Recently, we completed a clinical feasibility trial examining the ability of image-guided biopsy to predict a pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Our biopsy technique was able to accurately predict a pCR in 98% of patients with only a 5% false negative rate. Based upon these findings, we believe we can accurately determine which patients achieve a breast pCR. This led us to develop a clinical trial to see if breast surgery is redundant in patients who achieve a pCR. An important question that remained was if we are going to omit breast surgery in these exceptional responders, can we also omit axillary surgery?

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Sleep Difficulties Linked to Survival Among Women With Breast Cancer

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald Ph.D. FRQS Postdoctoral research fellow & Clinical psychologist (OPQ) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA 02115

Dr. Trudel-Fitzgerald

Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald Ph.D. 
FRQS Postdoctoral research fellow & Clinical psychologist (OPQ)
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: There is very limited research on the association between sleep characteristics and survival among individuals with cancer. However, this is an important question, especially among breast cancer patients because sleep disturbances are frequently reported by these women. Preliminary studies have suggested that sleep duration is related to mortality. The novel findings of our research indicate that not only sleep duration, but also changes in sleep duration before versus after diagnosis, as well as regular difficulties to fall or stay asleep, may also be associated with mortality among women with breast cancer over a period of up to 30 years.

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Founder of ‘The Pink Fund’ Describes Her Journey With Breast Cancer

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Molly MacDonald

Molly MacDonald

Molly MacDonald
 Founder/President/CEO
SurThrivor™

MedicalResearch.com: Would you tell us a little about yourself, especially your life before/outside of your cancer diagnosis?

 Response: My life before cancer was a struggle of a different sort.  In 1997 I drove up the driveway to our lovely home with five children ages 4-13 safely strapped into the back of my gus guzzling suburban.  As I approached the front of the house, I noticed a small paper, about the 4X10 inches tacked to our front door, and where we lived no one tacked notes to the front door and all service providers went around to the side.

Pulling it off I read that the house was to auctioned off in 30 days.  That night I had a very unpleasant conversation with my husband during which I learned the deal he was pursuing, among other things, had not come to fruition and he was fronting it with our assets.

Within a monthI liquidated what I could, rented a house for cash and began the process of transitioning our lives from a life of luxury to living paycheck to paycheck.

Trying to find work, while navigating a nasty divorce and helping my children adjust was a huge challenge.
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Exposure to BPA Substitute, BPS, Multiplies Breast Cancer Cells

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Sumi Dinda

Dr. Sumi Dinda

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sumi Dinda, PhD, NRP, IC.
Associate Professor
Biomedical Diagnostic and Therapeutic Sciences,
School of Health Sciences and
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
School of Health Sciences
Oakland University
Rochester, MI 48309.


MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Bisphenol-S (BPS), a substitute for bisphenol-A (BPA), has been suggested to be an endocrine disrupting compound interfering with normal hormonal activity. This bisphenol analogue is found in plastic substitutes, paper currency, and most products marked “BPA free.” Endocrine disrupting compounds interfere with the normal hormonal activity in the body.

Bisphenols, specifically, disrupt the proper functioning of estrogen receptors, such as ERα causing interference with the normal activity of the hormone estrogen. Studies suggest BPS induces ERα pathways via its estrogen-mimicking properties in the body causing increased cell proliferation resulting in increased breast cancer risk. Despite the hope of a safer substitute, studies have shown that BPS exhibits similar estrogenic activity compared to its analogue BPA, due to their structural commonalities.

BRCA1 is a commonly mutated gene in breast cancer; therefore, it is also important to study the effects of BPS on the expression of this protein. The potency of the endocrine disrupting abilities of BPS compared to BPA could show whether BPS is a suitable alternative to BPA in many everyday products.

The results of this study may contribute to the understanding of the relationship between ERα, BRCA1 expression and Bisphenol-S in breast cancer treatment and prevention.

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Study Finds Statin Use Not Associated With Breast Cancer Prognosis

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Amanda Leiter, MD MSCR Medical Resident, Internal Medicine Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Leiter

Amanda Leiter, MD MSCR
Medical Resident, Internal Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Black women are more likely than White women to have breast cancer with poor prognostic features, which cannot be completely explained by differences in screening, treatment and established risk factors for breast cancer mortality. Black women have higher rates of obesity, insulin resistance and dyslipidemia when compared to White women. Prior studies have shown a decreased risk of breast cancer recurrence and improved survival with statin use.

As statins have an association with decreased breast cancer recurrence and potentially improved survival, disparities in statin use between Black and White women with breast cancer are important to investigate. We aimed to elucidate whether or not statin use differs between Black and White women with breast cancer and if racial disparities in breast cancer can be partially explained by differences in statin use.
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Rate of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy Varies Among States

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PHD
Vice President, Surveillance and Health Services Research
American Cancer Society, Inc.
Atlanta, GA 30303

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Previous studies reported that Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy (CPM) increased in the United States among women diagnosed with unilateral early-stage breast cancer with surgery without evidence for survival benefit. Previous studies also reported that receipt of this procedure is more common in younger than older patients, in white than in black patients, and in privately insured than uninsured patients. However, the extent of variation in receipt of CPM by state of residence was unknown.

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Large Regional Variations in Rates of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Rebecca Nash, MPH
Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) in women with invasive early-stage unilateral breast cancer has significantly increased in the U.S. over the past decade, despite the lack of evidence for a survival benefit. This procedure is particularly common among patients younger than 45 years old. It is also more common in whites compared to blacks, and in privately insured patients compared to uninsured or Medicaid insured patients. However, the extent of regional variation across the United States was unknown.

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Gene Expression-based Breast Cancer Index Can Improve Decision Making For ER+ Patients

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Tara Sanft, MD Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) Medical Director of Adult Survivorship Yale Cancer Center Survivorship Clinic

Dr. Tara Sanft

Tara Sanft, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology)
Medical Director of Adult Survivorship
Yale Cancer Center Survivorship Clinic 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Previous studies have demonstrated the benefit of extended endocrine therapy (EET) for hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer in preventing late relapse, however that benefit is limited to 3-5% of women where late recurrence was prevented or staved off. However, EET has become common practice and as a result we are exposing many patients to risks of side effects and toxicities associated with anti-estrogen therapies when they may not be benefitting, and, conversely may not be treating the patients that might actually benefit. There is a real need to better identify the patients who are both at most risk of late distant recurrence, and most likely to benefit from EET.

This prospective study included 141 patients with a mean age of 62. In the study, 83% of patients were postmenopausal, 73% were stage I.

Breast Cancer Index (BCI) is a gene expression-based test and is the only currently available validated biomarker that is both prognostic for late distant recurrence and predictive for likelihood of benefit from EET. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the impact of BCI on: physician EET recommendations; physician confidence; patient satisfaction, anxiety, and decision-conflict; and the cost impact of BCI.

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BRCA Testing Shifts From Cancer Patients to Unaffected Women

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Fangjian Guo, MD, PhD Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston TX

Dr. Fangjian Guo

Fangjian Guo, MD, PhD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women’s Health
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston TX

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: BRCA testing in patients diagnosed with early-onset breast or ovarian cancer can identify women with high-risk mutations, which can guide treatment. Women who learn they have a high-risk mutation may also want to inform family members that they may also carry a high-risk mutation.

Additionally, BRCA testing can be used to identify high-risk mutation carriers before they develop breast or ovarian cancer. Carriers can then manage their cancer risks with screening (MRI/mammogram), chemoprevention, or prophylactic surgery. Current guidelines recommend BRCA testing for individuals who are considered high-risk for breast or ovarian cancer based on personal or family history.  However, this practice fails to identify most BRCA mutation carriers. It is estimated that more than 90% of mutation carriers have not been identified. One of the issues is that many women who do get tested are actually low-risk and do not have any personal or family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

This study assessed how BRCA testing was used in the US health care system during the past decade. We found that in 2004 most of the tests (75.7%) were performed in patients who had been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer. Only 24.3% of tests were performed in unaffected women. However, since 2006, the proportion of BRCA tests performed in unaffected women has increased sharply, with over 60% of the tests performed in unaffected women in 2014.

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