breast cancer tagged posts

A new imaging technique based on light and sound produces images doctors can use to distinguish cancerous breast tissue (below the dotted blue line) from normal tissue more quickly than is currently possible. Pathologists routinely inspect surgical specimens to make sure all cancerous tissue has been removed. The new technique (right) produces images as detailed and accurate as traditional methods (left), but in far less time. The researchers are working to make the technique fast enough to be used during a surgery, so patients don’t have to return for a second surgery. (Image: Terence T.W. Wong)

Of the quarter-million women diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the US, about 180,000 undergo surgery to remove the cancerous tissue while preserving as much healthy breast tissue as possi...

Dr Katie Meehan from UWA’s School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is leading the project, which is currently recruiting participants with breast cancer.

Researchers at The University of Western Australia are working on a quick, simple and less invasive blood-based test that can detect breast cancer progression or relapse much earlier than current methods such as mammogram, MRI or biopsy. Dr Meehan said through testing before, during and after treatment, the researchers intended to develop a new test that would improve cancer progression, monitoring and health outcomes.
“Women in rural and remote areas would benefit significantly from the new diagnostic blood test to monitor for low levels of residual or recurrent disease,” Dr Meehan said.

“Currently it’s costly, time-consuming and p...

Bacteria that have the potential to abet breast cancer are present in the breasts of cancer patients, while beneficial bacteria are more abundant in healthy breasts, where they may actually be protecting women from cancer. These findings may lead ultimately to the use of probiotics to protect women against breast cancer.

In the study, Reid’s PhD student Camilla Urbaniak obtained breast tissues from 58 women who were undergoing lumpectomies or mastectomies for either benign (13 women) or cancerous (45 women) tumors, as well as from 23 healthy women who had undergone breast reductions or enhancements. They used DNA sequencing to identify bacteria from the tissues, and culturing to confirm that the organisms were alive.

Streptococcus thermophilus

Women with breast cancer had elevated levels ...

Metformin

In one study (abstract 1569), the first to examine the effect of metformin on survival rates for breast cancer patients, researchers examined clinical outcomes for 1,215 patients who were diagnosed and underwent surgical treatment for breast cancer between 1997 and 2013. 97 patients examined reported using metformin before their diagnosis, and 97 reported use of the drug after diagnosis.

Results of the study showed that patients who used metformin before being diagnosed with breast cancer were more than 2X likely to die than patients who never used the drug, while patients who began using metformin after their cancer diagnosis were almost 50% more likely to survive than non-users.

“While use of the drug may have a survival benefit for some breast cancer patients, those who develo...