Risk Of Breast

Women who gain weight in adulthood -- particularly when they LTC are in their 30s -- face an increased risk of breast cancer, Florida researchers have found.Their study of 218 newly diagnosed breast-cancer patients found that more than 63 percent of the women had gained at least 15 pounds since they turned 30, compared to 50 percent of those in a control group of healthy women.More than 48 percent of the breast-cancer patients had gained 15 pounds or more since age 16, compared to 37 percent of the control group, according to the study, published in the current issue of the journal Cancer.

Actress Angelina Jolie, who got a double mastectomy to lower her chances of breast cancer, will also have her ovaries removed, according to People magazine. Jolie said in a New York Times editorial Tuesday that she had her breasts removed and reconstructed because she has a gene mutation that makes her risk of breast cancer high. Women with the BRCA1 gene mutation also have a high chance of developing ovarian cancer. There is no test to detect ovarian cancer and women often die from the disease because it is diagnosed in the late stages.

The use of prescription antibiotics for conditions such as respiratory infections and rosacea has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in women, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, and a nonprofit health plan found that women who took common antibiotics were up to twice as likely to develop breast cancer as women who had taken none. The study, to be published in tomorrow's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, does not conclude that antibiotics cause breast cancer.

Cheryl Corbin's mother and grandmother had breast cancer, so an oncologist suggested she be tested for an inherited gene mutation linked to the disease. But when the results came in, she didn't show up to hear them. "I was afraid to hear the words," Corbin, 47, said. "There's no turning back from there. " A genetic counselor tracked her down at the University of Maryland Women's Health clinic, where she is an office manager, and told her that she had the mutation that gave her an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer . Corbin had no doubt about her next move - she had her breasts removed.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- American girls are entering puberty at earlier ages, putting them at far greater risk for breast cancer later in life and for all sorts of social and emotional problems well before they reach adulthood. Girls as young as 8 increasingly are starting to menstruate, develop breasts and grow pubic and underarm hair - biological milestones that only decades ago typically occurred at 13 or older. African-American girls are especially prone to early puberty. Theories abound as to what is driving the trend, but the exact cause or causes are not known.

BOSTON -- More than 1 million American women who carry a single copy of a defective gene are believed to be at five to six times the normal risk of breast cancer, say researchers. The gene appears to make carriers -- men as well as women -- at increased risk for cancer from medical X-rays.It has long been known that having two copies of this "bad" gene puts a person at 100 times the normal risk of developing cancer.Since most carriers of the gene do not know they have it, the researchers told the Associated Press yesterday, their work suggests that doctors should cover all women's breasts with lead shields during X-rays and use non-X-ray tests whenever possible.

How dangerous is it to drink wine if you are at risk of breast cancer? My mother died of breast cancer, so I know I am at higher-than-average risk. My husband and I drink a glass of wine with dinner most nights, but I rarely have more than one. Women who drink three glasses of wine daily increase their risk of breast cancer by more than 40 percent (British Journal of Cancer, Nov. 18, 2002). Women who drink alcohol and get little folic acid in their diet (200 micrograms or less) may double their chance of developing this disease.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, on the brink of identifying a gene for hereditary breast cancer, warn that its discovery will present profoundly troubling dilemmas for women found to be susceptible to the cancer.They estimate that one in 200 women -- or 600,000 nationwide -- may carry a gene that gives them an 80 percent risk of getting breast cancer by age 65. When researchers identify that gene -- which could be within a year or two -- these women will confront some terrifying choices with no guarantee of full protection.

The pain of childbirth comes with an often forgotten benefit: Pregnancy reduces the mother's risk of breast cancer. Now, researchers who gathered in Baltimore this week say they may have found a way to mimic nature and reduce the risk for all women. So far, they have only experimented in mice, often a dead end for cancer therapies when the results can't be repeated in humans. But other scientists are particularly hopeful that this research will pan out. Here's how it works: When a woman is pregnant, the fetus produces a protein that shows up in the mother's blood around the 12th week of gestation.

The top-selling drug in America is Premarin, a combination of estrogens refined from pregnant mares' urine. This formulation has been on the market for more than 50 years. Few drugs have experienced such phenomenal success for such a long time.Initially, Premarin was prescribed to relieve hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause. In the 1960s and early 1970s this drug became extremely popular. Many women were led to believe that hormones could keep them looking young indefinitely. The book "Feminine Forever" endorsed estrogen replacement therapy.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- American girls are entering puberty at earlier ages, putting them at far greater risk for breast cancer later in life and for all sorts of social and emotional problems well before they reach adulthood. Girls as young as 8 increasingly are starting to menstruate, develop breasts and grow pubic and underarm hair - biological milestones that only decades ago typically occurred at 13 or older. African-American girls are especially prone to early puberty. Theories abound as to what is driving the trend, but the exact cause or causes are not known.

MARYLAND Place to call her own About 40 percent of Baltimore homebuyers last year were single females, nearly double the national average and the Baltimore County rate, according to an industry survey. No one is sure why. pg 1a Barbecue ignites blaze A Memorial Day barbecue ignited a blaze that severely damaged two townhouses in White Marsh and sent two firefighters to hospitals with minor injuries and heat exhaustion. pg 1b WORLD U.S. and Iran talk As expected, there were no major breakthroughs as U.S. and Iranian diplomats held their first formal direct talks in more than a quarter of a century to discuss security in Iraq.

In a long-delayed harvest from the human genome project, researchers say they have found six new sites of variation in the genome that increase the risk of breast cancer. Together with genes known earlier, the discovery means that a sizable fraction of the overall genetic risk of breast cancer might now have been accounted for, researchers say, and much of the rest could be captured within a few years. The findings do not point to any new treatment and are too little understood to serve as the basis for a diagnostic test.

An increasingly popular technology that uses computers to scan mammograms produces worse results than human reviewers using their eyes and experience, researchers reported yesterday. Radiologists using computer-assisted detection software were more likely to interpret a benign growth as potentially cancerous, researchers said in the New England Journal of Medicine. The false-positive readings led to additional scans and needless biopsies, adding $550 million to the annual cost of breast cancer screening in the U.S., researchers said.

Does vitamin D reduce the risk of cancer? Several recent studies presented at meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology suggest that adequate consumption of vitamin D - which most Americans do not get - is linked to lower risks of breast cancer. One study, from researchers at the University of California, San Diego, looked at pooled data on 1,760 women and found that the highest level of vitamin D consumption was correlated with a 50 percent lower risk of breast cancer.

Women who take an estrogen hormone supplement longer than 15 years are at a significantly increased risk of developing breast cancer, according to a long-term study of nurses' health published yesterday. But the research, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found no increased risk of breast cancer in women who had taken estrogen for less than 10 years. Researchers said the findings should be reassuring for women who want to use estrogen for a short time to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness.

Women who live in Northern cities where towering buildings block what feeble winter sun there is may have a higher risk of breast cancer than women in sunny regions, a new study suggests.Researchers theorize that the women in these darker cities are not exposed to enough sunlight to allow their bodies to synthesize vitamin D.The study, by two University of California researchers, compared breast cancer death rates with the amount of solar radiation calculated to be striking the ground at 87 regions around the United States.

What a mother-to-be eats may affect her daughter's risk of breast cancer, new studies in rats indicate.Scientists from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, fed pregnant rats diets high in a type of fat found in corn oil, n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid. When the baby rats were born, the researchers fed them the standard lab rat chow.Compared with female offspring of rats that ate low-fat diets, the young rats entered puberty earlier, and their mammary glands had more of the types of cells that can turn cancerous later in life.

How dangerous is it to drink wine if you are at risk of breast cancer? My mother died of breast cancer, so I know I am at higher-than-average risk. My husband and I drink a glass of wine with dinner most nights, but I rarely have more than one. Women who drink three glasses of wine daily increase their risk of breast cancer by more than 40 percent (British Journal of Cancer, Nov. 18, 2002). Women who drink alcohol and get little folic acid in their diet (200 micrograms or less) may double their chance of developing this disease.

The pain of childbirth comes with an often forgotten benefit: Pregnancy reduces the mother's risk of breast cancer. Now, researchers who gathered in Baltimore this week say they may have found a way to mimic nature and reduce the risk for all women. So far, they have only experimented in mice, often a dead end for cancer therapies when the results can't be repeated in humans. But other scientists are particularly hopeful that this research will pan out. Here's how it works: When a woman is pregnant, the fetus produces a protein that shows up in the mother's blood around the 12th week of gestation.