The recent revelation by Teresa Heinz, wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry, that she has been diagnosed with early-stage cancer in both of her breasts has likely left many women wondering, "Could this happen to me?"
"I have had two operations and my prognosis for a full recovery is good," says Teresa Heinz
Breast cancer survivors who have just a few alcoholic drinks per week are more likely than women who drink little or no alcohol to see their breast cancer return, according to research presented today at an annual meeting of breast cancer specialists.
Women with breast cancer who eat more soy are less likely to die or have a recurrence of cancer than women who eat few or no soy products, according to a new study.
The Senate took another step forward in the health care debate Thursday, casting its first votes on what is certain to be a long series of politically charged amendments.
I've been digesting the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for two weeks now. And I'm still swallowing hard.
The new recommendations for breast cancer screening -- and the public debate surrounding them -- underscore the need to distinguish between rationing and establishing science-based standards of health care. That distinction will be crucial as we strive for better and more affordable care in the United States.
Members of a task force that issued controversial recommendations for breast cancer screenings defended the group's guidelines but acknowledged "poor" communication in explaining them to women.
The breast cancer survivor says she doesn't trust a healthcare system that profits off the sick
It's been a confusing week for women.
The recent revelation by Teresa Heinz, wife of U.S. Senator John Kerry, that she has been diagnosed with early-stage cancer in both of her breasts has likely left many women wondering, "Could this happen to me?"
"I have had two operations and my prognosis for a full recovery is good," says Teresa Heinz
Breast cancer survivors who have just a few alcoholic drinks per week are more likely than women who drink little or no alcohol to see their breast cancer return, according to research presented today at an annual meeting of breast cancer specialists.
Women with breast cancer who eat more soy are less likely to die or have a recurrence of cancer than women who eat few or no soy products, according to a new study.
The Senate took another step forward in the health care debate Thursday, casting its first votes on what is certain to be a long series of politically charged amendments.
I've been digesting the recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for two weeks now. And I'm still swallowing hard.
The new recommendations for breast cancer screening -- and the public debate surrounding them -- underscore the need to distinguish between rationing and establishing science-based standards of health care. That distinction will be crucial as we strive for better and more affordable care in the United States.
Members of a task force that issued controversial recommendations for breast cancer screenings defended the group's guidelines but acknowledged "poor" communication in explaining them to women.
The breast cancer survivor says she doesn't trust a healthcare system that profits off the sick
It's been a confusing week for women.
Young women should have their first Pap test no sooner than age 21, regardless of when they become sexually active, say new guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Earlier screening for cervical cancer may lead to unnecessary and possibly harmful treatments for an increasingly rare cancer, according to ACOG, the leading U.S. professional organization for obstetricians and gynecologists.
A government task force says women in their 40s don't need annual mammograms, but Sara Fought would beg to differ: She says she's alive today because a routine mammogram found cancer when she was 42.
Breast cancer surgeons, cancer organizations and even the White House are expressing concern about new screening recommendations issued by the United States Preventive Services Task Force.
A federal advisory board's recommendation that women in their 40s should avoid routine mammograms is not government policy and has caused "a great deal of confusion," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday.
A vacation to Washington nearly a decade ago led to a life-changing revelation for Kathi Cordsen. Passing by a breast cancer awareness event, her mother blurted it out: Her doctor had just confirmed that she had breast cancer.
Women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer, according to updated guidelines set forth by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Almost half of women who have breast cancer surgery still have pain or numbness two to three years later, according to a new study. Women younger than 40 who receive lumpectomies are at the greatest risk.
Hannah Powell-Auslam of La Mirada, California, had surgery this month to check her lymph nodes, just in case the breast cancer had spread.
Less than an hour before her mastectomy was scheduled to begin, Eve Wallinga's surgeon gave her the bad news: Because of unforeseen complications, doctors wouldn't be able to reconstruct a new breast for her immediately after removing her cancerous breast as planned. She was told she'd have to wait another day for the plastic surgery.
Less than an hour before her mastectomy was scheduled to begin, Eve Wallinga's surgeon gave her the bad news: Because of unforeseen complications, doctors wouldn't be able to reconstruct a new breast for her immediately after removing her cancerous breast as planned. She was told she'd have to wait another day for the plastic surgery.
A year after beating breast cancer, Peter Criss, a founding member of the rock band KISS, calls himself "the luckiest man in the planet."
I was 18 when I first felt a lump in my breast. Of course, I was convinced that I was going to die. This was three decades ago -- back when we knew far less about breast cancer. A general surgeon removed the lump, which, thank goodness, wasn't malignant.
"We are an army," says Andrea Ivory of the group gathered with her early on a Saturday morning.
Women at high risk of breast cancer can often lower that risk by taking medication, including drugs like tamoxifen or the osteoporosis drug raloxifene (Evista).
It's Saturday night. Three young women are dressed to the nines at a trendy bistro on Rush Street in downtown Chicago. They're having drinks outside on the kind of summer night that makes you fall in love with the city.
Women with a family history of breast cancer may have a new weapon against the disease: breast-feeding. In a new study of more than 60,000 women, nursing a baby for at least three months cut the risk of breast cancer in half for those who had a family history of the disease.
For Dr. Lisa Newman, a 16-hour trip over two days from Michigan to Ghana in Africa is just part of the journey in uncovering clues about a rare form of breast cancer.
Who knew that fighting breast cancer for the third time in seven years would reveal my purpose in life.
If breast cancer is caught in a very early stage, and a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy show no metastasis, can an HER-2 positive type of breast cancer appear later in the lungs, bones, liver, etc.? That is, spread to other parts of the body without any metastasis from the breast tissue itself?
The death rate due to cancer has declined in the United States in recent years, largely due to better prevention and treatment. In fact, 650,000 lives were spared from cancer between 1990 to 2005, according to new statistics from the American Cancer Society.
Women with breast cancer in the United States have an average age of 63 when they are diagnosed, and the disease is more common in older women than younger.
Myriad Genetics, a Utah-based company, vowed Wednesday to "vigorously defend" itself against a legal challenge to its patents on two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancers, its attorney told CNN.
Attention red wine drinkers: Drinking moderate amounts of any kind of alcohol (including wine, beer, and liquor) is associated with a slightly increased breast cancer risk -- and the rosy-hued beverage is no exception.
President Obama's pledge to conquer cancer "in our time" is a great goal, but one of America's top cancer experts isn't sure he'd use the word "cure."
U.S. breast cancer cases have dropped in women aged 50 to 69 in recent years because many women have stopped taking hormone therapy, according to a study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
When Maria Rubeo closed her arm, she felt something "very big -- like a lemon."
Women at high risk for breast cancer are generally advised to have one mammogram and one magnetic resonance image scan every year, and they usually schedule them around the same time, along with a hands-on examination by a doctor. The idea is to get three different views of what's going on in the breasts.
Estrogen therapy is about the last thing you'd expect a doctor to prescribe for a woman with breast cancer: The hormone is famous for coaxing tumors to grow, not shrink. But in a new study, one out of three postmenopausal women with advanced cancer who were given a daily dose of estrogen saw their tumors slow to a stop, and in some cases, even get smaller.
Do more frequent mammograms pick up some breast cancer tumors that might have gone away without treatment? Possibly, according to a controversial study published this week in Archives of Internal Medicine. However, experts caution that the research raises an interesting question, but can't definitively answer it.
When a woman goes through breast cancer treatment, the shape of her chest changes, hair falls out and eyebrows thin. She'd probably tell you she's had better days.
Let's face it: Your mom, your sister-in-law, your co-worker, your best friend from college -- someone you know has had breast cancer. Someone you care about has sat white-faced, clutching the kitchen phone, or in a doctor's office, and gotten the scary news that every woman dreads -- news that one out of eight of us will hear in our lifetime, 250,000 of us this year alone.
The singer reached out to Christina Applegate after the actress's cancer diagnosis earlier this year
For more than 20 years, actress Christina Applegate has kept audiences laughing.
Can taking aspirin or ibuprofen reduce your risk of getting breast cancer? One of the largest studies of its kind suggests that the answer might be yes.
The scene looked like a flashback to ancient China.
The actress tells Oprah about her delayed reaction to her cancer diagnosis and treatment decision
And a month after wedding, she still has to remember to say "wife" instead of "girlfriend"
An experimental menopause treatment drugmaker Wyeth is developing reduced hot flashes, trouble sleeping and other symptoms
Every three minutes in the United States, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.
A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms
"I just wanted to kind of be rid of this whole thing for me," says the actress
When I first heard about digital mammograms, my first thought was, "This could be good."
A new report questions their usefulness, finding that they don't save lives and may lead to twice as many unneeded biopsies
It was a long night, and Susan Niebur was feeling low. Normally, this working mom in Silver Spring, Maryland, can keep a shocking number of balls in the air and still smile. She's a physicist who works part-time as a consultant to NASA; an at-home mom to Matt, 1, and Andrew, 3; an animal-rescue volunteer; and a daily blogger. But Niebur, 35, is also a full-time cancer patient, and one night last fall her characteristic attitude of resolve and optimism failed her. After nearly six months of chemotherapy, the treatment's side effects -- which are cumulative -- were brutal.
Remember peeking through a View-Master? Scientists are using the same concept behind the classic kids' toy to try to see mammograms in 3-D
Cheryl Reed's morning routine starts like that of millions of other mothers around the country. She makes breakfast for her 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, piles them into a minivan and drops them off at school.
Get your daughters off the couch: New research shows exercise during the teen years -- starting as young as age 12 -- can help protect girls from breast cancer when they're grown
A recent green light from regulators could mean a brighter outlook from Genentech when the biotech meets with analysts Friday.
Let's face it: There's no body part women obsess about more than breasts -- their size, shape, sag factor, and whether those strange pains stem from monthly PMS hormones or something more ominous, like breast cancer.
With no work on Wisteria Lane these days (thanks to the Hollywood writers' strike), Desperate Housewives's Marcia Cross put her free time to use this week, lobbying Congress to pass 12-year-old legislation for breast cancer patients.
Genentech, the word's largest biotech in terms of market capitalization, reported a healthy increase in sales and earnings for the fourth quarter.
A new study shows that this once-popular breast-cancer therapy proves ineffective
So you're scared of breast cancer. Smart lady. Nearly 200,000 women will learn they have breast cancer this year, and you don't want to be one of them. You're doing everything you can to make sure you're not next -- doing breast exams, getting mammograms -- but you think it would be great if you could get a test to see if you'll develop breast cancer.
Genentech scientists won't waste any time fretting the FDA panel decision to reject Avastin as a breast cancer treatment. The reason: The biotech giant has at least three clinical breast cancer trials underway - at least one of which is likely to succeed.
Genentech Inc. faces a high-stakes decision by a government panel Wednesday over the cancer drug Avastin.
Cathy Bueti was widowed at the age of 25 when her husband was killed in a car accident. Seven years later, she says, "I finally started to feel like my life was coming back together, then I found the lump."
In discussions about breast cancer, the male form of the disease is often overlooked -- so, men end up going longer without diagnosis or treatment
New research shows the adage "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" doesn't apply in treating breast cancer.
Actress Jaclyn Smith will never forget the day she found out she had breast cancer. And she'll never forget the lesson she learned in those very first moments of being a cancer patient.
Genentech reported a surge in third-quarter earnings that barely beat Wall Street projections, while its revenue increase fell just short of estimates.
A small California drug company hopes to extract the next cancer cure from Chinese herbs
Two studies show that chemotherapy doesn't work equally well for all cancers, raising hopes of tailoring the treatment
We've heard for nearly a decade about the benefits of alcohol -- red wine in particular. It's good for your heart and may have other positive effects. In moderation, we thought, it's not only OK, but actually good for us.
Bristol-Myers Squibb faces a moment of truth this month when the FDA decides whether its experimental chemotherapy for breast cancer is good enough for the U.S. market.
Invasive breast cancer rates have fallen since the substantial decline in postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy occurred, even after a decline in breast cancer screening rates, according to findings published in the 5th Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Eli Lilly & Co.'s osteoporosis drug Evista reduces the risk of breast cancer in some patients, but at a cost of an increased risk of serious side effects, regulatory reviewers said in documents released Friday.
Breast cancer survivors who ate more fruits and vegetables were not more likely to avoid a cancer recurrence
What's scarier than mad cow disease? Nothing, really -- except illnesses that are 10 billion times more likely to hurt you. Think about it this way: Your risk of getting mad cow is much lower than your odds of winning the Powerball lottery. In short, it's not likely to happen. What could happen? In her lifetime, the average woman has a 1 in 2 chance of developing osteoporosis and a 1 in 3 chance of heart disease.
It started with a pain behind the nipple. Within a few weeks, a lump started to grow. It got bigger and more painful until a doctor finally diagnosed stage 4 breast cancer. It's a story shared by thousands around the United States, only in this case, the patient's name is Bill Morley.
A genetic mutation that raises the risk of breast cancer is found in up to 60 percent of U.S. women, making it the first truly common breast cancer susceptibility gene, researchers report.
Stalled sales, failed drug experiments and an SEC inquiry are among the problems nagging at Amgen and Genentech as the world's two biggest biotech companies get set to report first-quarter earnings.
The American Cancer Society is recommending MRIs in addition to mammograms for certain women considered to be at unusually high risk for breast cancer. Here are more details:
In light of Elizabeth Edwards' recurrent breast cancer, CNN Medical News producer Shahreen Abedin spoke with Dr. Rache Simmons, breast surgeon at the New York-Presbyterian Weill-Cornell Medical Center's Breast Cancer Center. Dr. Simmons has never treated Elizabeth Edwards, so the answers she gives are mainly about metastatic breast cancer in general, unless otherwise specified.
Elizabeth and John Edwards on Thursday described her cancer recurrence as a chronic condition that she'll have the rest of her life.
The Food and Drug Administration approved GlaxoSmithKline's breast cancer drug Tykerb, the drug company said Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a breast cancer treatment from GlaxoSmithKline on Tuesday, analysts say.
Nancy Brinker said that her sister might not have foreseen her legacy, but she knew Brinker would tackle breast cancer head on.
Scientists said on Thursday that an experimental drug from GlaxoSmithKline to treat late-stage breast cancer has also shown promise in treating early stages of the disease.
The number of new breast cancer cases dropped by 7 percent in 2003, according to research presented at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday. But some cancer experts wonder whether the decline will last. CNN's Soledad O'Brien discussed the new findings with Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month draws to a close, CNN.com asked readers to share their stories. Here is a sampling of responses, some of which have been edited:
This summer retired computer consultant Carleton Neville went online, took out his credit card, and ordered a $500 colon cancer test from DNA Direct, a San Francisco genetic-testing service.
Sandra Mahncke thought she was coming down with the flu in late April, but instead of a quick recovery, she has spent the last five months in a race for her life.
Earlier this year, rock singer Sheryl Crow underwent minimally invasive surgery for breast cancer.
Tykerb, an experimental new drug from GlaxoSmithKline, significantly slowed the spread of breast cancer in clinical trials, according to study results released Saturday.
Despite the Memorial Day holiday, there was no rest for obesity researchers in the major medical journals.
Amgen and Genentech, the long-ruling kings of the cancer drug market, could find the lucrative business growing more crowded as potential new competitors come to market.
More than 30 years have passed since President Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer," and while no single cure has been found, many new treatments have come to market.
European health authorities have recommended the approval of Herceptin for a broader use in breast cancer treatment, which might help Genentech get the drug approved for a larger patient population in the U.S.
Getting sued seems to be the price of doing business for Big Pharma, and Wyeth has once again joined the ranks of the defendants.
Unexpected benefit
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