Cause of Hormone-Breast Cancer Link Found

AUSTRALIAN researchers have discovered why high levels of the female sex hormone estrogen can lead to breast cancer. Scientists at the University of Queensland studied a gene called MYB, known to promote cancer growth, and its reaction to high levels of estrogen. The study confirmed MYB becomes active when exposed to high estrogen levels, results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Dense Breasts, Hormone Levels Are Two Separate, Independent Risk Factors For Breast Cancer

The density of a woman’s breast tissue and her level of sex hormones are two strong and independent risk factors for breast cancer, according to a team of researchers from Harvard and Georgetown universities. The finding dispels the common belief that the risk associated with dense breasts merely reflects the same risk associated with high levels of circulating sex hormones, they say. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

4 New Breast Cancer Genes Identified

Scientists have identified four new breast cancer genes and predict that more clues on the genetics of breast cancer await discovery. The findings may ultimately help scientists understand who's at risk for breast cancer and what to do about it. Doctors already know that variations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes make breast cancer and ovarian cancer more likely. But experts have long suspected that other genes also affect breast cancer. Now, researchers say they've found four genes that affect breast cancer risk. But the new findings don't explain all cases of breast cancer. A complex mix of genetic and lifestyle factors likely affect breast cancer risk....Easton's team screened the genes of nearly 4,400 women with breast cancer and 4,300 women without breast cancer. They checked their results in more than 44,400 other women, roughly half of whom had breast cancer. Four genes -- the FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, and LSP1 genes -- had variations that were more common in women with breast cancer than in women without breast cancer, the study shows. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Rogue Gene Linked To Breast And Childhood Cancer Risk

Women who inherit one damaged copy of a gene called PALB2 have double the risk of developing breast cancer. And children who inherit two damaged copies have a newly identified serious disorder linked to childhood tumours, according to the findings from two papers published by scientists in Nature Genetics. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Researchers Find Two Biomarkers With Potential To Predict Breast Cancer Spread

Expression of two different proteins taken from primary tumor biopsies is highly associated with spread of breast cancer to nearby lymph nodes, according to researchers who say this protein profile could help identify at an early stage those patients whose disease is likely to metastasize. In the December 15 issue of Cancer Research, the researchers say over-expression of one unidentified protein and under-expression of another is 88 percent accurate in identifying breast cancer that has spread in a group of 65 patients, compared to an analysis of lymph nodes and outcomes. If the predictive and diagnostic power of these proteins is validated, they could be analyzed in primary tumor biopsies that are routinely collected at the time of diagnosis, saving some women from extensive and possibly unnecessary treatment as well as from undergoing a second surgery to collect lymph nodes for analysis, the researchers say. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Genomic Health Announces Multiple New Findings On Oncotype DX(TM) Based On Evaluation Of More Than 20,000 Tumor Samples

Genomic Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GHDX) today announced the results of several studies looking at the roles and relationships of genes measured by the company's Oncotype DX breast cancer assay, including an analysis of more than 10,000 node-negative tumors indicating that all 21 genes impact the assessment of an individual woman's tumor. This research was presented at the 29th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.Oncotype DX measures the expression of 16 cancer-related genes plus 5 reference genes of an individual tumor to generate a "Recurrence Score" to quantify risk of recurrence and likelihood of response to chemotherapy. To assess the degree to which components of this multi-gene assay influence the Recurrence Score, researchers measured expression of the 16 individual cancer genes relative to reference genes in 10,618 tumor specimens on a scale of 0 to 15, where a one-unit increment is associated with a twofold change in expression. Results suggest that every cancer gene used in the Oncotype DX 21-gene panel impacts the Recurrence Score due to the potentially large variation in quantitative expression for each gene in different patients. The study found this result even though expression of certain genes and gene families; including ER, HER2 and a group of five genes linked to proliferation, have the largest coefficients used in calculating the Recurrence Score. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Breast cancer may be sexually transmitted

A new study has revealed that breast cancer could be sexually transmitted. Emeritus Professor James Lawson of the University of New South Wales and colleagues have found the same form of the human papillomavirus (HPV) associated with cervical cancer in almost half the breast tumor samples they tested. It`s the first study of its kind in Australia, although international studies have also found cervical cancer-related HPV in breast cancer cells. He says while the evidence is far from conclusive, "it`s possible and totally worthy of investigation" to suspect that HPV could also cause breast cancer. Lawson says it`s possible that HPV is spread by sexual activity or during showers or baths, when the virus could be transferred from the genital area to the breasts via the nipple ducts. --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Bisphenol-A May Trigger Human Breast Cancer

A new study finds the strongest evidence yet for the hypothesis that widespread environmental exposure to bisphenol A during fetal life causes breast cancer in adult women. [The researchers] exposed pregnant rats to bisphenol A at doses ranging from 2.5 to 1,000 µg per kg of body weight per day. By the time the pups exposed at the lowest dose reached the equivalent of puberty (50 days old), about 25% of their mammary ducts had precancerous lesions, a proportion three to four times higher than among the nonexposed controls. Mammary ducts from all other exposure groups showed elevated levels of lesions. Cancerous lesions were found in the mammary glands of one-third of the rats exposed to 250 µg/kg/day.
Bisphenol A, a known estrogenic compound, is ubiquitous in the environment. Many people receive exposures of about 2.5 µg/kg/day, and mammary gland development in rats and humans is very similar. Therefore, Soto says, "bisphenol A could be one factor causing the increase in breast cancer incidence over the past 50 years." --Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--

Possible Link Between Prostate Cancer and Female Sibling Breast Cancer

Black men with prostate cancer were four times more likely than other black men to have a sister diagnosed with breast cancer, a University of Michigan study shows. When about 200 men were questioned about family medical history in a Flint men's health study, the men with prostate cancer also were much more likely to have a brother diagnosed with prostate cancer. That confirmed a link found in previous studies.
--Click the title of this post to read the full article from its source--