Breast cancer is a major concern for women of all ages, all over the world. Knowledge of recent discoveries and developments in this area is crucial to women’s health in this area.
Below you’ll find 7 articles discussing recent breast cancer studies, medical reports, and benefits that come from particular therapies.
Sources include CBC, MedPageToday, and the Daily Telegraph.
1. Breastfeeding May Cut Hereditary Breast Cancer Risk
Breastfeeding a baby for even a few months may protect high-risk women from premenopausal breast cancer, researchers found.
Among women with a first-degree relative with breast cancer, those who nursed their children were at a significant 59% lower risk of premenopausal breast cancer than those who had a baby but never breastfed, Alison M. Stuebe, MD, MSc, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reported in the Aug. 10/24 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
2. Radiation Increases Breast Cancer Rates
Researchers recently found a direct positive connection between girls receiving more radiation for cancer and developing breast cancer later in life. A positive correlation meaning the more radiation they received, the more likely they were to develop a tumor later, not, of course, that this is any type of positive thing.
When looking at information such as this, it’s important to note that the effects of radiation are not solely harmful to girls being treated for cancer as children, nor is radiation given to people with cancer the only form of radiation that humans are exposed to.
3. Benefits of Mammograms, PSA Tests Overestimated
Many Europeans overestimate the benefits of breast and prostate cancer screening, which calls into question their ability to make an informed decision, researchers say.
In Wednesday’s online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Gerd Gigerenzer, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, and colleagues said 92 per cent of women surveyed believed the life-expectancy benefit from mammography screening is at least 10 times higher than it really is, or said they did not know how much it helped.
4. Any Spread of Breast Cancer Raises Recurrence Risk
Breast cancer patients with even the tiniest spread of the disease to a lymph node have a much higher risk of it recurring years later and may need more treatment than just surgery, a new study by Dutch researchers suggests.
For years, doctors and patients have struggled with what to do about a microscopic tumour or stray cancer cells in a lymph node. Women with “micro tumours” usually are given estrogen-blocking drugs, chemotherapy or both; those with isolated cancer cells usually are not, because those were thought to be of low concern.
5. Weightlifting Benefits Breast Cancer Survivors
Breast cancer survivors who lift weights are less likely than their non-weightlifting peers to experience worsening symptoms of lymphedema, the arm- and hand-swelling condition that plagues many women following surgery for their disease, according to University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. The findings challenge the advice commonly given to lymphedema sufferers, who may worry that weight training or even carrying children or bags of groceries will exacerbate their symptoms.
6. Benefits of Breast Cancer Screening Questioned
Doubt has been cast on the effectiveness of breast cancer screening after new research suggested 2970 women must be tested in order to save one life.
However experts in the UK immediately criticised the figures saying they were estimates from a selection of sources in America where as real life data from the UK shows only 250 women need to be screened in order to save one of them from dying from breast cancer.
7. Eating Mushrooms May Cut Breast Cancer Risk by Two Thirds
Scientists found that women consuming at least a third of an ounce of fresh mushrooms every day were 64 per cent less likely to develop a tumour.
Dried mushrooms had a slightly less protective effect, reducing the risk by around half.
The study, carried out in China, also showed women who combined a mushroom diet with regular consumption of green tea saw an even greater benefit.
[...] is a collection of 7 articles discussing recent breast cancer studies, medical reports, and benefits that come from particular [...]