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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1997

The relationship between breast asymmetry, breast size and the occurrence of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the world and in developed countries it is the most common. The early identification of women at risk is therefore of great importance and any additional measures which may aid diagnosis, particularly in high risk groups, would be of benefit. Breast volume and breast asymmetry were calculated from mammograms of 250 women with breast cancer and compared with those of 250 age-matched controls. There was evidence that breast cancer patients had more breast asymmetry and larger breasts than age-matched healthy women. The former observation is the first evidence that high breast asymmetry may be a risk factor for breast cancer. Breast asymmetry is likely to be a predictor of, rather than the effect of breast cancer.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

[Is there progress in chemotherapy for breast cancer?].

Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer in women. The therapeutic approaches to breast cancer have developed rapidly over the past 20 years, due to the increasing knowledge about the biology of breast cancer. Therefore it was possible to increase response rates as well as the duration of response and survival in neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and palliative treatment. This paper gives a review of the current breast cancer trials. Effective new cytotoxic chemotherapy and hormonal therapy agents, as well as the identification of specific molecular abnormalities (HER2/neu) led to the development of targeted therapeutic interventions in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, and palliative treatment of breast cancer. Increased understanding of the biology of breast cancer led to the development of rational therapeutic interventions, which are currently under active clinical development.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1996

Breast self-care practices in women with primary relatives with breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a major threat to the health of women; two-thirds of women diagnosed with breast cancer are likely to die from the disease. In North America one woman in nine will experience breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. In the United Kingdom, the figure is somewhat lower, one in 12, and increasing. Increasing age and a family history of breast cancer are considered major risk factors. With no known primary prevention, early detection measures remain the main hope of decreasing mortality. Despite controversy surrounding the effectiveness of breast self-examination in reducing mortality, breast self-examination or breast self-'awareness' are advocated by health departments and voluntary cancer organizations. In this paper, breast self-care practices of women with a family history of breast cancer are reported. A descriptive study using in-depth semi-structured interviews as the prime data collection procedure was conducted with 55 women who had mothers, sister(s) or mothers and another primary relative with breast cancer. All interviews were tape recorded, transcribed and analysed using latent content analysis and constant comparison techniques. The findings revealed that women constructed their own personal meanings about the benefits and limitations of breast self-examination and their use of this self-care behaviour within their daily lives. Women used breast self-examination as a means of gaining control over their feelings of the threat of breast cancer. Women's earlier involvement with their relative during the cancer experience and their own processing of their personal risk for breast cancer influenced their breast self-care practices.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Immunologic targets for breast cancer.

Breast cancer is an immunogenic tumor. Over the last decade, investigations have shown that patients with breast cancer have pre-existent immune responses, both humoral and cellular, against a variety of proteins expressed in their tumors. Researchers using genomic and proteomic techniques have defined dozens of proteins that may serve as immunologic targets in breast cancer patients. In addition, other investigators focusing on a more directed approach of evaluating well-defined breast cancer proteins that are immunogenic have begun to translate some of the candidate antigens into human clinical trials of immune-based therapies in breast cancer. Immunogenic proteins associated with breast cancer are abundant. The major experimental question now facing breast cancer immunologists is how to prioritize these many candidate antigens for further evaluation for clinical use.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Electric power, pineal function, and the risk of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women in the industrialized world, and the rates of breast cancer incidence are rising. Although risk is high in industrialized societies, it is low in nonindustrialized areas. The search for the causes of breast cancer has not yet yielded a convincing explanation for the geographic and temporal patterns in the occurrence of breast cancer. Generation of electric power is a hallmark of industrialization, and two products of electric power, light-at-night (LAN) and electromagnetic fields (EMF), may affect breast cancer risk. Exposure to either LAN or EMF can decrease production of melatonin by the pineal gland. Melatonin, in turn, has been shown to suppress mammary tumorigenesis in experimental animals. Moreover, recent epidemiological findings indicate an increased risk of breast cancer in workers occupationally exposed to EMF. On the basis of these considerations, it is proposed that the use of electrical power accounts, in part, for the higher risks of breast cancer in industrialized societies.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Evaluation of serum lipids and high-density lipoprotein subfractions (HDL2, HDL3) in postmenopausal patients with breast cancer.

Breast cancer patients are known to be at increased risk for developing other chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease. Studies by different investigators have shown a correlation between increased dietary fat or hypercholesterolemia and the occurrence of breast cancer. Since previous studies on lipoprotein subfractions in this type of cancer have been inconsistent, we evaluated the lipids and lipoprotein subfraction levels in postmenopausal patients with breast cancer in an attempt to identify the risk for the development of cardiovascular disease. The study included 132 patients, 56 of which were suffering from breast cancer, 32 from pancreatic and 44 age-matched controls. Total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides and lipoprotein fractions as well as TC/High density lipoprotein (HDL) and HDL2/HDL3 ratios were estimated by standard laboratory techniques. An increase in triglycerides and a decrease in HDL-cholesterol, especially in the HDL2 subfraction, were observed in patients with breast cancer as compared to the controls (P < 0.05). The maximum changes in TC, and HDL concentrations were observed in patients with advanced disease. Analysis of indexes of atherosclerosis (TC/HDL, and HDL2/HDL3 ratios) demonstrated that breast cancer patients had significantly higher TC/HDL ratio (6.44+/-1.24) compared with controls (3.43+/-0.57, p = 0.001), and patients with pancreatic cancer (3.79+/-0.15, p = 0.027). The results have demonstrated an unfavourable lipid profile in untreated breast cancer patients with high atherosclerosis indexes. This observation is of great importance, considering the potential use of endocrine therapy that could result in further deterioration of lipid indexes. We propose the evaluation and monitoring of lipid profile prior and after the induction of hormonal therapy in breast cancer patients, as a routine in clinical setting.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Prevalence of aneuploidy, overexpressed ER, and overexpressed EGFR in random breast aspirates of women at high and low risk for breast cancer.

Breast tissue biomarkers which accurately predict breast cancer development within a 10 year period in high risk women are needed but currently not available. We initiated this study to determine 1) the prevalence of one or more breast tissue abnormalities in a group of women at high risk for breast cancer, and 2) if the prevalence of biomarker abnormalities is greater in high risk than in low risk women. Eligible high risk women were those with a first degree relative with breast cancer, prior breast cancer, or precancerous mastopathy. Low risk women were those without these or other major identifiable risk factors. Ductal cells were obtained via random fine needle aspirations and cytologically classified. Biomarkers included DNA ploidy, estrogen receptor (ER), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The prevalence of DNA aneuploidy was 30%, overexpression of ER 10%, and overexpression of EGFR 35%, in the 206 high risk women whose median 10 year Gail risk (projected probability) of developing breast cancer was 4.5%. The prevalence of aneuploidy and overexpressed EGFR was significantly higher in the high risk women than in the 25 low risk controls (p < 0.002), whose median 10 year Gail risk was 0.7%. The difference in the prevalence of ER overexpression between high and low risk groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.095). This may be due to the low prevalence of overexpressed ER and the small number of controls. A significant difference was noted in the prevalence of one or more abnormal biomarkers between the high risk and low risk women (p < 0.001). A large prospective trial is needed to determine if one or more of these biomarkers, is predictive of breast cancer development.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

[Minimally invasive surgery for breast cancer].

Breast conservation surgery has become a standard operation as a minimally invasive surgery for breast cancer in Japan. Now sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB), day surgery, and endoscopy assisted surgery are being introduced as more minimally invasive surgeries for breast cancer. When blue dye and/or isotope are injected into the peri-tumoral breast gland, the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) can be detected easily, and node negative patients can be selected with certainty. When no metastasis is found in SLN by frozen section, T1N0 breast cancer patients can be treated without lymph node dissection. Using this technique, day surgery for patients who have clinically node-negative small breast cancer (less than 1.5 cm in diameter) is performed under local anesthesia. We have developed an endoscopy assisted conservation surgery for breast cancer. Using endoscopy, partial or total glandectomy with radical axillary lymph node dissection is performed via a 5 cm skin incision on the middle axillary line. When the amount of glandectomy is over one third, we perform immediate reconstruction using the latissimus dorsi. These minimally invasive surgeries for breast cancer will result in a better quality of life for breast cancer patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Effect of pregnancy on prognosis for young women with breast cancer.

Breast cancer in women under 30 years old carries a poor prognosis, for reasons that have not been identified. This study aimed to identify prognostic factors in this age group. Special attention was paid to the history of pregnancy. The clinical presentation and course of breast cancer was documented for 407 women, aged 20-29 years, who registered between 1978 and 1988 at one of nine cancer centres. Eligible patients had histologically confirmed local or regional invasive breast carcinoma, and received part or all of their initial therapy at the participating hospital. For patients whose breast cancers were diagnosed during pregnancy, the risk of dying from breast cancer was significantly greater than that of women who had never been pregnant (relative risk 3.26 [95% CI 1.81-5.87], p = 0.0004). Adjustment for number of axillary nodes affected and tumour diameter reduced the relative risk only slightly (2.83 [1.24-6.45], p = 0.023). For each 1-year increment in the time between the latest previous pregnancy and breast cancer diagnosis, the risk of dying decreased by 15% (relative risk 0.85, p = 0.011). Thus concurrent or recent previous pregnancy adversely affects survival of breast cancer in young women. The size of the effect is such that it probably contributes substantially to the poor prognosis of breast cancer in this age group as a whole.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Aspects of breast cancers.

Breast cancer is the commonest killing malignant disease of women in the European Community. The average annual age standardised mortality rate among the 12 EEC countries ranges from 28.5 to 13.7 per 100,000 females. In Ireland, breast cancer is treated primarily by general surgeons. At our Breast Institute at St. Vincent's Hospital where we see 100 patients with breast diseases weekly it is policy to recommend quadrantectomy, total axillary dissection and radiotherapy (QU.A.R.T.) for patients with T1 and T2 tumours if they are peripherally placed within the breast. Complete axillary dissection in early breast cancer provides accurate staging and virtually eliminates axillary recurrence and the dissection is standardised and audited in our unit. Audit of axillary dissection improves the lymph node yield and enhances the completeness of the procedure. Sophisticated mammography improves the detection of small tumours but even excellent mammography may fail to identify malignant disease. Screening programmes for early breast cancer detection should be based on clinical examination in addition to mammography and some 15% of our patients with palpable breast cancer had falsely negative mammograms. Before operation, extensive scintigraphy and sonography is carried out before primary treatment is undertaken. After treatment, clinical and biochemical surveillance is carried out. We have found the lysosomal protease, Cathepsin D to be a useful marker of progressive disease and prognosis in patients with breast cancer. Routine postoperative CEA and CA15.3 are also valuable markers and a high or rising CA15.3 often precedes clinical or investigative evidence of recurrence. In addition, assay of c-erB-2 protein by ELISA is also a simple, rapid quantitative prognostic guide in patients with breast cancer.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗
PubMed2000

Developmental, cellular, and molecular basis of human breast cancer.

Breast cancer, which is the most common neoplastic disease in females and accounts for up to one third of all new cases of women's cancer in North America, continues to rise in incidence. In addition, the mortality caused by this disease has remained almost unchanged for the past 5 decades, becoming only second to lung cancer as a cause of cancer-related death. The failure in eradicating this disease is largely due to the lack of identification of a specific etiologic agent, the precise time of initiation, and the molecular mechanisms responsible for cancer initiation and progression. Despite the numerous uncertainties surrounding the origin of cancer, there is substantial evidence that breast cancer risk relates to endocrinologic and reproductive factors. The development of breast cancer strongly depends on the ovary and on endocrine conditions modulated by ovarian function, such as early menarche, late menopause, and parity. However, the specific hormone or hormone combinations responsible for cancer initiation have not been identified, and their role as protective or risk factors is still incompletely understood. A highly significant female hormone is estrogen, which is involved in the development of a variety of cancers, but it is still unclear whether estrogens are carcinogenic to the human breast. An understanding of whether estrogens cause mutations, and, if so, whether they act through hormonal effects activated by receptor binding, cytochrome P450-mediated metabolic activation, or compromise the DNA repair system, is essential for determining whether this steroid hormone is involved in the initiation or progression of breast cancer. This knowledge has to be based on a multidisciplinary approach encompassing studies of the development of the breast, influence of hormones on the differentiation of individual structures, and their interrelations in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. The analysis of the mechanisms involved would require confirmation in the adequate in vitro models and determination of the role played by genomic alterations in both cancer initiation and progression.

Breast↗
PubMed1997

[An integrated early detection concept in women with a genetic predisposition for breast cancer].

Breast cancer is in 5% of cases due to a genetic disposition. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are by far the most common breast cancer susceptibility genes. For a woman with a genetic predisposition, the individual risk of developing breast cancer sometime in her life is between 70 and 90%. Compared to the spontaneous forms of breast cancer, woman with a genetic predisposition often develop breast cancer at a much younger age. This is why conventional screening programs on the basis of mammography alone cannot be applied without modification to this high-risk group. In this article, an integrated screening concept for women with genetic predisposition for breast cancer using breast self-examination, clinical examination, ultrasound, mammography and magnetic resonance imaging is introduced.

BRCA1 Protein↗
PubMed2003

[Gene therapy for breast cancer].

Breast cancer is sensitive to chemotherapy and endocrine therapy, but the prognosis of advanced or relapsed breast cancer is unsatisfactory. Gene therapy is promising as another useful therapeutic approach for advanced breast cancer. Strategies of gene therapy for breast cancer in ongoing clinical protocols can be divided into four: (1) suppression of oncogenes or transduction of tumor suppressors; (2) enhancement of immunological response to cancer cells; (3) transduction of suicide genes; and (4) protection of bone marrow using drug resistance genes. We have started a clinical study of gene therapy for breast cancer using multidrug resistance gene (MDR1), in which advanced or relapsed breast cancer patients received high dose chemotherapy and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) with MDR1-transduced hemopoietic cells, and then were treated with docetaxel. Two patients have been treated so far, and in vivo enrichment of MDR1-transduced cells with docetaxel treatment after PBSCT was seen in both cases. Both patients are in complete remission and have no apparent adverse effect from MDR1 gene transduction.

Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic↗
PubMed1996

Epidemiology and prevention of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, accounting for 32% of all newly diagnosed cancers. Demographic characteristics associated with an increased risk include increasing age, birth in North America or northern Europe, high socioeconomic status, never having been married, and, for breast cancer diagnosed after 45 years of age, the white race. Early age at menarche, late age at menopause, late age at first full-term pregnancy, and low parity increase risk, while removal of the ovaries at an early age is protective. Obesity increases risk in postmenopausal women. Having a first degree relative with breast cancer confers an increased risk, especially if both a mother and a sister have had breast cancer at an early age. Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are associated with an inherited susceptibility to breast cancer at an early age. Other markers of increased risk include atypical and hyperplastic epithelial cells in nipple aspirate fluid, nodular densities on mammogram, and biopsy-confirmed benign proliferative breast disease. Little can be done at present to reduce breast cancer risk through primary prevention, but secondary prevention by mammographic screening in women of age 50 and older reduces mortality from breast cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Linkage to BRCA2 region in hereditary male breast cancer.

Breast cancer is rare in men, and family history of the disease is a risk factor. The recently discovered BRCA2 gene on chromosome 13q is thought to account for some families with increased risk of breast cancer, including male breast cancer. We describe a family with multiple cases of male breast cancer but, interestingly, no increase in female breast cancer. Linkage to the BRCA2 region is demonstrated and all the affected men share the same haplotype for the BCRA2 markers and loss of the other alleles in their tumours.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Genetic and hormonal risk factors in breast cancer.

Breast cancer poses a serious public health problem, and it is hoped that identification of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to the development of breast cancer will enhance prevention efforts. Two breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) have been identified, and germline mutations in these genes are thought to account for between 5% and 10% of all breast cancer cases. Current findings suggest that mutations in other highly penetrant genes may play an important role in breast cancer susceptibility, and studies aimed at the isolation of these genes are under way. In addition, common variants in a number of gene classes are thought to act as low-penetrance susceptibility alleles, and efforts to identify and characterize these variants are under way. This review discusses the genetic components of susceptibility to breast cancer from the standpoint of both human genetics and rat models.

Alcohol Drinking↗