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Women with certain gene mutations are more likely to develop breast cancer if they were exposed to radiation from chest X-rays or mammograms before age 30, compared with those who have the gene mutations and weren't exposed to radiation, new research suggests. The study included nearly 2,000 women, 18 and older, in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. All of the women had a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which have long been linked to raised risks for breast and ovarian cancer. Forty-eight percent of the women reported ever having an X-ray and 33 percent had undergone...

Just-released research about a new class of drugs called “PARP inhibitors” is the most exciting development in cancer research in a decade or more. In just a few years it could save thousands of lives. In the longer term, the drugs could represent a transformational approach to understanding and treating several forms of the disease. All this enthusiasm is based on a small report published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. It focuses on one clinical trial in its earliest stage in 60 patients with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. Some — but not all — of the...

Women's Health News Breast cancer risk varies widely among women who are carriers of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, according to a new study published in the January 9, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Our results underscore the conclusion that there is no single risk associated with BRCA1 or BRCA2 carrier status," said lead author Colin Begg, PhD, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, "and the risks in carriers and their relatives must be influenced by other risk factors." Previous studies have reported on the overall increased...

Jill Doimer's mother died in 2002 from ovarian cancer, detected too late to be effectively treated. So Ms. Doimer is eagerly awaiting the introduction of a new test that holds the promise of detecting early-stage ovarian cancer far more accurately than any test available now, using only blood from a finger prick. Not only does she plan to be tested, but an advocacy group she helped found, Ovarian Awareness of Kentucky, also intends to spread the word to women and doctors. "If it's going to happen to me or anyone I know, I want it to be caught at an...