Breast Cancer Research

Because of the years of continuous breast cancer research that has been carried out this has helped to change the natural history of breast cancer.  It has provided the medical profession with significant progress in both detecting and treating this disease.  The current research carried out on this disease focuses more than ever now on the impact that the treatment of breast cancer is having on the health of people.  At the symposion held for the public before the annual BCRF luncheon a number of top ocologists and scientists who are working in the breast cancer research field underlined recent changes which have occurred to breast cancer treatment.

Some of the people taking part in the symposion summarized a number of conclusions reached in relation to several studies carried out on breast cancer issues:-

Firstly, that the treatment of breast cancer has been to 2-9 months during the last 20 years, but post treatment recovery is usually taking two years or more.

Secondly, women are more worried about the risks of death that have become associated with the diagnosis of breast cancer and many more are now willing to undergo the difficulties faced when being treated with chemotherapy in order to reduce it.

There have been a number of high risk groups found in people being treated for breast cancer, they include young women who will have their fertility compromised by under treatment they undertake or those women who do not receive enough support from their family or from society in general during their treatment.

It has been found that women who receive a positive result for breast cancer are now rearranging their life priorities.
A return to their usual activities before the diagnosis is essential to any patient during the early treatment stages and survival period.

Those that are overweight or obese are likely to have a recurrence of breast cancer and the “insulin resistance syndrome” can also sometimes provide an indication the risk of getting breast cancer or a recurrence has increased.  In fact women need to be made more aware that obesity or being overweight is a high risk factor for developing breast cancer and by changing their diet and carrying out physical exercise will help to lessen this risk.

At present breast cancer research is focusing on a new drug called Hercepting and its effects on cardiac diseases.  At present evidence shows that there is slight but real risk of a patient developing a cardiac disease whilst taking Hercepting, and those patients who are taking this treatment need to be monitored closely to reduce these risks.

But recent research carried out involving Herceptin in treating breast cancer has shown that it is effective in reducing a recurrence of the disease.  2 clinical tests carried out have shown that when Herceptin is used in association with chemotherapy the recurrence of breast cancer in patients with HER-2 positive cancer was reduced by 50%.

There are studies now being carried out to what way women are reacting to the treatment they are receiving for breast cancer.  It has been found that those who take an active approach in dealing with their condition are likely to feel better than those who are more prone to depression.  At present psychologists are working on ways of developing strategies for dealing with a patient’s needs and thus helping them to cope with the disease.

As well as patients having psychological problems when they are diagnosed with breast cancer almost 30% of survivors of this disease will suffer from lymph edema.  This is a chronic swelling of the after breast cancer surgery and is caused by the removal of the patients lymph nodes.  Because of the high number of patients now being treated for this condition a large number of researches are occupied with ways of preventing and developing lymph edema.

As breast cancer is one of the most common cancers around the glove, the results now been provided through research and development of new treatments needs to be translated for use in developing countries also.