Every October, we don pink ribbons, buy pink-hued products, and support charity runs with pink logos.
Has it made a difference? You bet. Thanks to the billions of dollars raised for research, we are starting to win the war against
"The progress we’ve made over the last 20 years has changed the face of the disease for American women," says Dr. Freya Schnabel, director of breast surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center. "We can find it earlier, treat it more effectively, reduce recurrence, and enhance survival." A nipple-fluid test, estrogen-blocking drugs, and customized chemotherapy are just some of the breakthroughs that are helping doctors cure more women every day.
A quick and easy breast-cancer test
Soon, a look at your breast fluids (including breast milk!) may reveal your chances of developing cancer—alerting you if you need to go in for screenings earlier, and possibly helping you catch the disease sooner.
Soon, a look at your breast fluids (including breast milk!) may reveal your chances of developing cancer—alerting you if you need to go in for screenings earlier, and possibly helping you catch the disease sooner.
Nipple fluid is especially telling because it contains cells from the mammary glands, where approximately 95 percent of all breast cancers originate. While a procedure called ductal lavage is already available to high-risk women, tests for the general population are in the works, including an at-home risk kit scientists at the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation are developing, wh
Every October, we don pink ribbons, buy pink-hued products, and support charity runs with pink logos.
Has it made a difference? You bet. Thanks to the billions of dollars raised for research, we are starting to win the war against
"The progress we’ve made over the last 20 years has changed the face of the disease for American women," says Dr. Freya Schnabel, director of breast surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center. "We can find it earlier, treat it more effectively, reduce recurrence, and enhance survival." A nipple-fluid test, estrogen-blocking drugs, and customized chemotherapy are just some of the breakthroughs that are helping doctors cure more women every day
ich captures fluid on a Band-Aid–like strip.
The foundation’s president, Dr. Susan Love, who’s also a clinical professor of surgery at the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, hopes to make the kit as accessible as a home pregnancy test
"If a woman sees a positive test result and it prompts her to get screened, that could be transformative," she says.
The promise of radiation-free screening
Nanotechnology" isn’t just sci-fi mumbo-jumbo: It could be a way to spot cancer far earlier than ever before. A diagnostic test based on this technology uses zero radiation and, unlike mammography, has no risk of false positives, because the nanoparticles used in the test only bind to known cancer cells; magnetic sensors (which work like an MRI scan) pick up the location of the particles, giving an accurate picture of where the cancer lies.
"It’s 1,000 times more sensitive than a mammogram," says test pioneer Edward R. Flynn, PhD, chief scientist of the Senior Scientific Division, Manhattan Scientifics Inc. "I believe it has the potential to catch breast cancer an estimated two and a half years earlier than mammograms." The test is currently being studied at a number of major research hospitals and could be available within three to five years.
A risk-reducing drug
For the past 10 years, a drug called tamoxifen has been the gold standard for helping to prevent breast cancer from developing in women at high risk. Now there’s another option: In findings presented in June, a drug called exemestane slashed the incidence of breast cancer by a whopping 65 percent in post-menopausal women at high risk for the disease.
For the past 10 years, a drug called tamoxifen has been the gold standard for helping to prevent breast cancer from developing in women at high risk. Now there’s another option: In findings presented in June, a drug called exemestane slashed the incidence of breast cancer by a whopping 65 percent in post-menopausal women at high risk for the disease.
Exemestane works by decreasing the amount of estrogen produced by the body, and unlike tamoxifen, it doesn’t seem to increase your likelihood of developing blood clots and uterine cancer.
"For a woman who can’t take tamoxifen because of a personal history of blood clots," says Schnabel, "there’s now a prevention option."
