Breakthroughs in Breast Cancer Research Lend New Insight, Treatment Hopes

There can be no doubt that the public?s awareness of breast cancer has increased considerably in recent years. Once thought not to be a suitable topic for polite conversation, it is now arguably the most talked-about disease facing women. Products from bathrobes to car magnets bear the ubiquitous pink ribbon, and due to an onslaught of aggressive public awareness campaigns, many women can recite the early warning signs of breast cancer from memory.

Still, despite the public?s heightened awareness of breast cancer, this disease remains one of the top health risks facing women today. According to government health data, a new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every three minutes, totaling more than 200,000 new cases each year. And the mortality rate of the disease remains staggering: in the United States alone, 40,000 deaths annually can be attributed to breast cancer.

Although research on breast cancer once lagged behind other diseases, it is now one of the most studied health problems. This week, we?ll review some of the most significant recent findings related to breast cancers causes, diagnosis, and treatment - topics such as breast cancer research, western diet, genes and treatment hopes.

African-American Women Often Have More Aggressive, Deadly Form of Breast Cancer

As a population, African-American women are diagnosed with breast cancer at a lower rate than their counterparts of other races. However, they have a higher risk of dying from breast cancer than any other ethnic or racial group.

Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia recently designed a large-scale study geared to further analyze the unusual epidemiological patterns of breast cancer among African-American women. They used government health statistics, as well as cancer data from several other research centers, as the basis for their investigation.

According to the team?s findings, African-American women were much more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors and more aggressive strains of breast cancer than were their counterparts in other racial and ethnic categories. To a degree, the differences appeared to be based on genetics, as many of the African-American women in the study had forms of breast cancer that have been linked to inherited traits.

However, the research team did not rule out the possibility that environmental factors may also play a role in this divergent epidemiological pattern. Specifically, they noted that African-American women, for a variety of reasons, often tended to seek health care later, meaning that their cancers were often more advanced. The researchers again emphasized the importance of early detection of breast cancers for women in every racial, ethnic, and demographic category.

Early Reports About Breast Cancer Genes May Have Misestimated Mortality Link

The scientific investigation of the role that genes play in breast cancer is a relatively new area of study. It is only in the last decade that the experimental tools have existed to allow researchers to begin to explore this link.

In recent years, some of the preliminary conclusions that were drawn about the role of genetics in breast cancer have been re-evaluated. One study, in particular, has asserted that some early conclusions about breast cancer genes may have been incorrect.

The findings of an analysis undertaken by researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, along with Canadian and Israeli teams of collaborators, indicate that the gene once believed to influence the survival rate for breast cancer may not actually fulfill that role. According to the study, women both with and without the BRCA1 and BRCA2 cancer genes had virtually the same survival rate ten years after a breast cancer diagnosis.

However, the researchers did find that women with the genes did typically develop breast cancer earlier in life than did their non-gene-carrying counterparts. They cautioned that more studies would be needed to further refine the current understanding of the genetic risk factors for breast cancer.

Global Spread of ?Western? Diet Brings Increased Breast Cancer Risk

For years, scientists have lauded the comparatively healthy lifestyles of Asian and Mediterranean cultures as an example to follow for Westerners seeking decreased disease risk and increased well-being. Today, however, the process of globalization has exported many of the poor eating habits of Americans around the world -- and women in many countries are suffering from increased breast cancer rates as a result.

Breast cancer kills 500,000 people globally every year, and scientists have recently begun to note sharp increases in diagnosed cases in countries that have long boasted relatively low cancer rates. A study of over 1500 postmenopausal Chinese women found that among those who had adopted a more ?Western? diet that included sweets, starches, and red meat, cancer rates were much higher than those who still adhered to a traditional Chinese diet.

In addition to increasing breast cancer risk, the adoption of a ?Western? diet was also strongly correlated with increased obesity and other health problems. The research team urged the development of public health campaigns geared to warn those in developing nations of the possible dangers of completely abandoning traditional eating patterns in favor of an often less-healthy Western diet.

Check back each week for more of the latest health science news.