Migraines cut breast cancer risk 30 percent: study
In a puzzling twist, women who have a history of migraine headaches are far less likely to develop breast cancer than other women, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. The study is the first to look at the relationship between breast cancer and migraines and its findings may point to new ways of reducing a woman's breast cancer risk, they said. "We found that, overall, women who had a history of migraines had a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer compared to women who did not have a history of such headaches," said Dr. Christopher Li of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, whose findings appear in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

New Book Breaks Ground in Addressing Breast Health of Girls and Teens
A new book by the founder of Breastcancer.org – the #1 online resource for breast health and breast cancer information – and her teenage daughter addresses one of the most confusing and often fearful topics in a girl’s life: her breast development and breast health. In Taking Care of Your “Girls,” acclaimed breast oncologist Dr. Marisa Weiss and her daughter Isabel Friedman cut through all the myths and unreliable information about breasts and breast development. They reveal the real risks and actionable steps girls can take to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer.

New Guidelines Against Breast Self-Examination Could Seriously Endanger Women's Health
“New guidelines recommending that women not perform breast self-examinations (BSEs) could seriously endanger women’s health and lead to later detection of cancers in some women,” says Marisa Weiss, M.D., president and founder of Breastcancer.org and a leading breast cancer oncologist. “These guidelines do not reflect a new point of view, but they are still very bad advice.”

Newly Created Cancer Stem Cells Could Aid Breast Cancer Research
In some ways, certain tumors resemble bee colonies, says pathologist Tan Ince. Each cancer cell in the tumor plays a specific role, and just a fraction of the cells serve as "queens," possessing the unique ability to maintain themselves in an unspecialized state and seed new tumors. These cells can also divide and produce the "worker" cells that form the bulk of the tumor.

Drop In Breast Cancer Incidence Linked To Hormone Use, Not Mammograms
A recent decline in breast cancer incidence is unlikely to be caused by a decrease in mammography screening, according to a study published online August 14 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It is more likely due to the drop in postmenopausal hormone use.

International Trial Of Novel Breast Cancer Drug
A clinical trial of a new targeted breast cancer drug, led by physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, has begun enrolling patients. The TEACH (Tykerb Evaluation After CHemotherapy) trial will investigate the experimental drug Tykerb (lapatinib) in patients with early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer who have not been treated with Herceptin, another targeted drug used for the same type of tumor. The MGH is the lead institution for the international trial, which is being sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Tykerb.

Survival Differences By Race Most Apparent In Advanced Stages Of Breast Cancer
Racial differences in breast cancer survival increase according to stage of disease, a new study finds. Published in the journal Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, a retrospective analysis of survival data demonstrates that within each stage, African American women had larger tumors and were more likely to have disease that had spread to nearby lymph nodes. After controlling for those clinical factors the racial disparities in survival persisted. The investigators say their finding that disparities in survival increased with more advanced disease was surprising and suggested that non-clinical factors contributed to survival differences.

Psychological Needs Of Breast Cancer Patients
Almost half of newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer are found to have clinically significant emotional distress or symptoms of psychiatric disorders before therapy is begun, as per a new study reported in the recent issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society. The study reveals that while virtually all of the women admitted to,experiencing some level of emotional distress, 47 percent met clinically significant screening criteria for emotional distress or a psychiatric disorder, including major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Breast Asymmetry Predicts Breast Cancer
Women who go on to develop breast cancer tend to have breasts that are less symmetrical than women who don't develop the cancer. A study published today in Breast Cancer Research reveals that breast asymmetry could be a reliable independent predictor of breast cancer. The study found that the relative odds of developing breast cancer increased by 1.5 with each 100ml increase in breast asymmetry.

Older Breast Cancer Patients May Be Under-treated
Elderly breast cancer patients who received care in a community hospital setting may have been under-diagnosed, under-staged and under-treated, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

MRI Best To Detect Cancer Spread Into Breast Ducts
MRI is better than MDCT for determining if and how far breast cancer has spread into the breast ducts and should be used before patients receive breast conserving treatment, a new study shows.

New Cause Of Tamoxifen Resistance In Breast Cancer Cells Discovered
When a woman receives a breast cancer diagnosis her entire life may change in the blink of an eye. But the nature of that change is governed by the smallest alterations that take place within the proteins of the tumor cells, determining what treatments she can pursue with a hope of cure and those to which her cancer is resistant.