Fog Blog Breast Cancer Update Log:

TOP 5 BREAST CANCER BREAKTHROUGHS IN 2017!....We are moving forward in the fight against breast cancer. In 2017 alone, a PubMed search generated nearly 13,500 articles related to breast cancer research published in peer-reviews to date. This made selecting our top five breakthroughs quite a challenge. This is a good problem to have.Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women. Nearly 253,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. This number has remained constant for the last 10 years. The good news is that mortality rates have decreased an average of 1.8% each year from 2005 to 2014. Increased survival rates coupled with ongoing innovative research provide hope for the future.Below are our top five breakthroughs in new breast cancer treatments or developments in potential markers and causes for 2017. THIS IS THE 1ST ONE FOR THIS WEEK.......The link between BRCA1 and BRCA2 and breast cancer risk is well established. While everyone has these genes, some people have an inherited mutation in one or both of these genes that increases the risk of breast cancer. These mutations affect between 1 in 400 and 1 in 800 people in the U.S. Many women with this mutation decide to have preventive mastectomies due to their higher risk of breast cancer.The drug Lynparza (olaparib) is already FDA-approved for women with BRCA-related ovarian cancer. Therefore researchers theorized it might be helpful in treating breast cancer related to the same gene mutation. A study was conducted on 302 women with the inherited BRCA mutation who had metastatic breast cancer (cancer that spread to other areas of their body). Olaparib delayed cancer progression by about 3 months and caused tumors to shrink. After 14 months of treatment, women an olaparib regimen had on average, a 42% lower risk of cancer progression compared to those who received another round of chemotherapy. Although more studies are needed, these findings may be practice-changing. If approved, olaparib could postpone IV chemotherapy and its associated side effects like hair loss and low white blood cell counts.