Breast Cancer: How Far Have We Come?

An easy at-home test? Drugs that slash your risk? These aren’t science fiction -- they’re real advances that are revolutionizing the way we find, treat and defeat this disease.

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 breast cancer. "The progress we’ve made over the last 20 years has changed the face of the disease for American women," says Freya Schnabel, M.D., 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. 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, which captures fluid on a Band-Aid–like strip. The foundation’s president, Susan Love, M.D., 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.

More from Health.com:
25 Breast Cancer Myths and Misunderstandings
The Burning Question: Are Breast Self-Exams a Waste of Time?
How to Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk at Any Age: A Decade-by-Decade Guide

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, Ph.D., 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.

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. 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 Dr. Schnabel, "there’s now a prevention option."

Treatment That’s Customized For YOU

No assembly-line regimens here: Therapies developed over the last decade (and being developed still) are more fine-tuned to patients’ unique needs than ever before. Several new tests -- to see if cancer is estrogen-sensitive, which types of genes are involved and more -- are helping doctors match patients with the treatments that will work best for them. "Breast cancer is at least three, if not six or eight, different diseases," says Laura J. Esserman, M.D., director of the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. "We have to treat patients according to their tumor type." For example, it’s generally accepted among doctors that women whose test results show a low risk of cancer recurrence do not usually need chemo on top of hormone therapy; a National Cancer Institute study is now investigating whether women with a medium risk of recurrence might also be spared.

Scientists are also looking beyond the tumor cells to their environments. "If you do autopsy studies, it turns out that 30 percent of women have microscopic cancer cells that never become problematic," Dr. Love says. "So, what keeps them from going rogue?" She likens the situation to kids in a bad neighborhood exposed to drug pushers and gang violence. "One aspect of prevention is trying to clean up that neighborhood, whether it’s through exercise, improving metabolism, changing the hormones -- whatever it takes."

Less Radiation, Better Living

Currently, many breast cancer patients get a fairly grueling five-to seven-week course of daily radiation. That process may soon be shorter and safer, causing fewer harsh side effects (which can include intense nausea and hair loss). Two recent trials, for instance, suggest that using half as many radiation treatments -- 15 or 16 instead of 30 -- is as effective as the full regimen. "Reducing treatments can make a big difference in women’s quality of life," says Silvia Formenti, M.D., chair of the department of radiation oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center. Meanwhile, a new procedure offered in select hospitals around the country offers a full course of radiation in a single zap. Intra-operative radiation therapy delivers one focused blast to the tumor site during surgery, sparing underlying organs like the heart and lungs from radiation. Zero follow-up treatments post-surgery means women can get back to their lives sooner.

The Surprising Way You Can Make A Difference

Women diagnosed with breast cancer often participate in clinical trials to receive cutting-edge treatments that may up their odds of survival. But studies rely on healthy women, too -- perhaps like you. "Comparing healthy tissue with cancerous tissue will help unlock the secrets to how breast cancer develops," says Nancy G. Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. What’s more, volunteers are desperately needed. More than 90 percent of all clinical trials are delayed largely because of difficulty finding volunteers, according to 2008 statistics from the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation. Here’s how you can pitch in for prevention:

• Breastcancertrials.org pairs potential subjects with open studies; enter your zip code to find one near you.

• Join the Love/Avon Army of Women to help breast-cancer researchers find matches for their clinical trials. More than 45,000 women are currently participating in more than 40 breast-cancer studies.

• The Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center is the first and only healthy breast-tissue bank in the world. All the tissue collected -- they’ve got samples from more than 1,500 women so far -- will be put online for scientists worldwide to use in their research. Visit komentissuebank.iu.edu to donate yours, and be part of the cure.

Comments

[Tanya TohillFarber]

01:58 PM on 10/04/2011

The Farber Center for Radiation Oncology will take part as a clinical site with Brown University Oncology Group in an AccuBoost Study designed to evaluate the toxicity, recurrence, and cosmetic outcome of AccuBoost as a form of non-invasive accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI). I

Whole breast radiation therapy as a standard technique for adjuvant RT following breast conservation surgery is typically daily treatments for 3.5 weeks to 6.5 weeks. The AccuBoost accelerated partial breast irradiation reduces the volume of breast tissue treated and surrounding organs (heart, lung), in a shorter treatment time (10 treatments over 5-10 days). Patients can be treated twice a day for 5 days or once a day for 10 days in place of whole breast radiation therapy.

You can call them for more info. 212 300-0663

[Chuck Bluestein]

02:02 PM on 10/03/2011

They have also done a lot of research on nutrients that can help with breast cancer. In 2007 Time Magazine chose vitamin D as one of the top 10 medical breakthroughs of the year. In 2010 the RDA of vitamin D was tripled! For decades vitamin D has been the undisputed cure for rickets. Moores Cancer Center is proposing that cancer is a vitamin D deficiency.

The sunshine vitamin (vitamin D) is especially effective against breast cancer according to Dr Oz video, Christiane Northrup M.D. (author of best selling books on women's health) article on Oprah's website, article on webmd.com and Andrew Weil M.D. http://bit.ly/nwbS8X

[kerriberri]

09:43 PM on 10/04/2011

Great points; there are also growing studies and lots of anecdotal evidence that iodine deficiency can be a cause of breast cancer (and obesity). Urge people to research this for the sake of their own health, particularly women.

Nice post; new fan.

[Chuck Bluestein]

10:55 AM on 10/05/2011

Yes for someone to have a health problem, they can be doing everything right, but just one little thing wrong can cause serious health problems. On the other hand to have good health you have to be doing everything right. Iodine is an important trace mineral. People should make seaweed, like kelp, a part of their diet. Seaweed is very high in trace minerals like iodine since it come from the sea. There is not enough trace minerals in the soil.

The Japanese are the longest living people of any country and they eat a lot of seaweed. Lack of exercise can contribute to getting cancer. So can being overweight. This has the info on all of these. http://bit.ly/eco-c There are anti-inflammatory foods like the spice tumeric and green tea. Anti-inflammatory foods reduce lifestyle diseases that get worse as you get older (not from bad genes) like cancer, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease and others. Have you read about the new study showing that tumeric and vitamin D reduce the placque in the brain that causes Alzheimer's disease?

[FrenchKissed]

06:53 PM on 10/07/2011

Doesn't seem very likely given that we iodize salt. Clearly genetics play a big role in breast cancer, as does childbirth and the age at which a woman carries out her first full term pregnancy.

[rodjard]

09:53 PM on 10/02/2011

Iodine and magnesium---------as much as you can tolerate.
Go to breastcancerchoices.com and beleive every word of it for a fact.
If mainstream medicin hasn;t reachese same conclusions and stopped
catering to drug companies keeping us sick so they can sell us more
drugs then we have not and will not make any progress.
It is not the cure, but the proffit that is the priority. You are the Victim
every time your doctor tells you another lie that he has been trained to tell you
by the insurance and drug company.

[kerriberri]

09:47 PM on 10/04/2011

Great post (just saw it after posting a comment above about iodine).

Iosol (starts with an "i", ends with an "ell" is a good form that can be applied directly to the skin (and/or breast area). Google it and/or research at iherb.com and amazon.com,

Thanks for posting your info & link; I wish more people would take responsibility for their own health. New fan (love your microbio)!

[FrenchKissed]

07:04 PM on 10/07/2011

Sure, because there has never been a pharmaceutical employee who has died of, or lost a loved one to, cancer.

There would be so much money in a cure for cancer that even if the pharmaceutical industry was as heartless and money driven as you think it is, they would be rushing to get it to market if they discovered it. Cancer is a very complex disease, and the drug companies are spending many billions of dollars a year trying to come up with a cure. Meanwhile top executives, senior researchers and board members of the pharmaceutical industry have died of cancer. And you better believe they would have done something about it if they could.

Alternative medicine is a $38 billion a year industry in the US alone. They take money from desperate and dumb people alike with no true success stories. Don't tell me the drug companies are only about the money when the gurus of natural medicine are living in 5000 square foot, multi-acre estates that they made selling snake oil.

[rodjard]

07:39 PM on 10/07/2011

I was on thyroid, type 2 diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension, medecine and
was declared diisabled by veterans, medicaid and hmo doctors over a 20
year period. After being left with no medical care because of the infamous
doenut hole, I sought other remedies. The very first time I took Iodoral, iodine
I felt an immediate response to my low thyroid condition.
All I ever needed all that time was enough iodine. I was lied to and not properly
tested for that condition which was at the root cause of all the others by every single one of those doctors. At 64 I take no prescription meds and am in the best health of my life now.
I am telling you this from first hand knowledge of my own experience, I will never beleive another doctor.
These are the bareboned facts.

[rodjard]

07:51 PM on 10/07/2011

Go to breastcancerchoices.com and read it and beleive it.

You may be an unaware victim, however you don't have to remain so
If you are a doctor, ponder how you may also have been misled.

[ae12wrangell]

03:03 PM on 10/02/2011

Thing's have changed, sort of. The tough part is; everybody in my family who has died, (except 3) have died of some form of cancer. What I hope to live to see is; the end of cancer, altogether, and the end of AIDS. Then, when it's time to die, we do so of old age, or a heart attack. No More Cancer!!

[SammieIAmmie]

01:19 PM on 10/02/2011

Certainly we have come a very long way in awareness! I am 55 years old and when I was a teenager my mother's friend developed breast cancer - no one was allowed to talk about it because it was somehow shameful and had to be kept secret as if she had done something wrong! Needless to say, that attitude kept women from breast self-exam and from seeking treatment until it was too late. I would, however, like to just see more cancer-prevention awareness on a more general level. There are so many cancers out there that need our due dilligence and awareness!

[aearthling59]

12:11 PM on 10/02/2011

The cures have increased to save a lot of my friends and relatives, what they have failed at is what has caused the increase in cancer rates.

When I was young I only heard of one person with cancer, now I know at least 15 including myself who had uterine cancer.

[mg9mike]

11:27 AM on 10/02/2011

The reason we have cancer is mostly due to what we eat that, and the fact our food supply is a miserable failure. Link that with the fact that the drug companies make Trillions in profits for the suffering of the sick and infirmed they would Not Allow any cures to potential people who could use it because it would impact thier bottom line. Here's 2 things you can do to help yourself. 1. Don't eat anything that comes thru you car window. NOTHING !!!! 2. Dont eat anything that we did not eat 100 years ago. that means fruits, vegetables,grains,meat but only limited amounts. You can buy Organic but, that is a farce along with The Moon Landing, Green Power and Honest Politicians. We have poluted the planet and us to go with it. Question everything. Clean drinking water is the NEW GOLD. I know it is hard to take care of ourselves in the FAST FOOD world we live in but you can improve your odds and your childrens. Oh, yeah. The next time you hear of a lake or pond with Milfoil in it, dont let them put Agent Orange in it like they did in Mascoma Lake in Enfield, NH that now supplies the drinking water for several towns around. Need I say More ? They are doing the same thing in Moultonboro , NH right now.

[tomconte]

10:26 AM on 10/02/2011

I too had a mother who died over 50 years ago and had the same treatment as my neice just 5 years back. There is no incentive to cure or to find a cure.Think about it how much money is made just to treat it each year as to cure it. Think of pollio, if J Salk had not found the cure and give it to the world, then we would continue to have hospitals with iron lung wards. Face it there is never going to be a cure all the donations go into pockets. Has any one ever done a assetment on how much the cancer socity takes in and how much go to "research". It is all about MONEY! Hospital, drug companies, doctors a whole industy revolves around the word CANCER, it is a cash cow!!

[eweb544468]

01:47 PM on 10/02/2011

for years I have the same thoughts. It is so very sad .I have skin cancer and lost half of my nose.

[FrenchKissed]

07:18 PM on 10/07/2011

The drug companies are trying very hard to find a cure for a very difficult disease (that isn't a single disease but rather a classification of diseases). How many drugs from 50 years ago are patented? Don't you think a cure that would make someone cancer free would sell better than chemo and radiation therapy even if it cost four times as much?

The pharmaceutical industry isn't a single entity. It's make up of individual drug companie

[kpamesa]

01:01 AM on 10/02/2011

From what I've personally witnessed the correct answer has to be "not very far". My mother had a double PREVENTATIVE mastectomy 38 years ago at the recommendation of her doctor because her 2 sisters had passed from breast cancer. NOW TODAY doctors are trying to convince women that this is the NEWEST cutting-edge technology available. My question has to be - what in God's name happened to the 38 years between then and now?

[a riot]

11:25 PM on 10/01/2011

If any other industry solved problems at the rate the medical industry does, they would have long been out of business. Only a tightly controlled monopoly could dither for so long and accomplish so little. In the last 20 years, we've built an entire telecommunications industry out of nothing spanning the globe with satellites sending brain MRI scans across the world in seconds so that doctors can collaborate using their cell phones and what has been accomplished in cancer detection or treatment in real terms? If they haven't cured cancer by now, its because they don't want to.

[mychris52]

03:13 PM on 10/01/2011

Having been involved in the BC movement since the death of my wife 20 years ago.I get sick to my stomach with all the pink. Breast Cancer Action has a slogan "think before you pink". What is never talked about is that BC awareness month is a product of a drug company that markets cancer causing drugs. The researchers all are looking for a magic bullet to treat this disease. chemotherapy & radiation which has been proven to not help at all, but in fact increases the risk of cancer. Then we have the "targeted drugs" a cash cow for the drug comanies.
Avastin $100,000 a year with questionable results. or Zevalin $30,000 for a single treatment..
The facts are that there has been virtually no progress in the war on cancer only hype. Or we have the drugs to control anemia, Epoetin and EPO. caused by chemotherapy. Add to that we have procrit,epogen which the FDA concludes that they neither extend survival or improve the quality of life. The hoopla over PINK is just that the facts are that money will not find a cure only innovative research , and that is not the traditional search for a magic bullet. Why not support research into the fact that cancer patients are all deficent in Vitamin D?

[FrenchKissed]

07:36 PM on 10/07/2011

I can guarantee you that the makers of Avastin would have been much happier if it completely cured all who took it of cancer. But cancer is a complex disease, and while it works well for some, others don't have as favorable results.

Epoetin, EPO and epogen are all the same thing. I had my dog on it (admittedly, she has since passed) and I thought the results were fantastic. It was never meant to cure a disease, but it increased her RBC count and she had more energy as a result.

I am very sorry about the loss of your wife to cancer. I agree with your sentiment over the pink ribbon campaign. Most of the money raised goes to education about breast cancer, and I think they should spend more of it looking for a cure.

[hrobey]

02:23 PM on 10/01/2011

You people who have had enough of the Breast Cancer cause haven't walked in my shoes! If it wasn't for the Cause, I would not be here typing this post!!!!! 1 in 8 women WILL get some sort of BC. There is more than 1 type of BC, some of those can be inherited by family members who can possibly get other types of cancer ( colon,kidney, & other). BTW men CAN get breast cancer also. So the Breast Cancer Cause's research DOES help to learn & help prevent more than one type of Cancer!

[George Adkisson]

01:32 PM on 10/01/2011

We would have not made such progress if it were not for the backwards results of not having a cure for any type of cancer, or the cancers would all be gone.The historical proves...the further we have looked in one direction, gave the increase of more numbers and types from the resulting non focus of the causes rather than the cures.
Being a friend to some who have actually experienced the ordeal has only made us all aware of who actually wants the preventative vs the ones that want the cure...stems from a causal governed with money results the effectual, and will eternally.

[FrenchKissed]

07:41 PM on 10/07/2011

With the exception of HPV related cancers, there is no hope of finding a cure that prevents cancer from ever happening. People will continue to have cells mutate and need treatment for it. The ability to stop cells from mutating and prevent the progression of cancer would be a wonderful finding both for the drug companies and for anyone whose life is affected by cancer.

[db025]

12:19 PM on 10/01/2011

Breast Cancer: How Far Have We Come?

A whole lot further than we've come with testicular and prostrate cancers!

[deb0214]

12:44 PM on 10/01/2011

To quote Wanda Sykes, "A man hasn't walked one mile for his (d)olls".......

[sponsi]

11:09 AM on 10/01/2011

Breast Cancer: How Far Have We Come?

Not far enough.