News and features related to breast cancer

1. Weighing the heart risks of the breast cancer drug Herceptin
   

   Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Some breast cancers are known as HER2-positive because they have a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which encourages tumours to grow. One in five women who develop early breast cancer have HER2-positive tumo

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2. Breast cancer study could revolutionise future treatment
   

   18th April 2012 - Doctors might one day be able to predict survival more accurately in women with breast cancer after reclassifying the disease into 10 completely new categories based on the genetic fingerprint of a tumour. Scientists behind the latest research say the discovery amounts to a rewriti

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3. Additional tests detect more breast cancers - but at what cost?
   

   In the UK, women aged 50 years and older are offered the opportunity to be screened for breast cancer every three years. Breast screening is done by mammography. This is a type of X-ray that takes a picture of the breast. Some women are at an increased risk of breast cancer because their breast tiss

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4. Small increase in breast cancer risk from alcohol
   

   Many studies have shown that drinking alcohol is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer for women. Heavy alcohol drinking is thought to increase the breast cancer risk. But we don’t know how big the risk is for light drinkers, who drink no more than one drink a day. (A drink is defined as 12.5

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5. Breast screening: More harm than good?
   

   9th December 2011 - A new study by researchers at the University of Southampton supports the claim that the introduction of breast cancer screening in the UK may have caused more harm than good. Harms included false positives (abnormal results that turn out to be normal) and overtreatment (treatment

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6. Older women 'deserve better breast cancer treatment'
   

   17th November 2011 - Older women who have breast cancer deserve better standards of treatment and support, a charity says. In a new report, Breast Cancer Care puts forward a series of recommendations to improve the situation for the over 65s who have a poorer survival rate than younger women. It is

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7. Anxiety & embarrassment stop women going for breast screening
   

   9th November 2011 - On a scale of fun things to do with your day a mammogram is unlikely to rate highly but for some women overwhelming fear, anxiety and embarrassment are preventing them from ever going for breast screening. Researchers from the Gateshead Foundation Trust looked at why breast scree

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8. Does light drinking increase breast cancer risk?
   

   Several factors can raise a woman's risk of breast cancer, including being older, having children later in life (or not at all), and taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during the menopause. Drinking alcohol can also play a role, with many studies showing that heavier drinking can increase a wo

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9. Review underway into NHS breast screening
   

   26th October 2011 - An independent review of the breast cancer screening programme has been called over claims that the NHS exaggerates its benefits and downplays the risks. The review will be led by the national cancer director for England, Professor Mike Richards, who said he was taking the "curre

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10. Radiotherapy after surgery cuts long-term risk of breast cancer recurrence
    

    Radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery is a recommended treatment for women with early breast cancer. Breast-conserving surgery removes the tumour and its surrounding tissue, leaving the breast otherwise intact. Radiotherapy to the breast then aims to kill any cancer cells left behind. Many st

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