A preliminary analysis of ongoing research suggests that high-risk women with breast cancer who do not have a BRCA1/2 mutation may face a greater chance for developing a second breast cancer than previously thought. With the increased risk of cancer in these women, should sentinel node biopsy be considered at the time of prophylactic mastectomy, and how can women best be counseled after these findings?

According to a recent study, led by Virginia Kaklamani, MD, an oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and assistant professor of medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, variations of the adiponectin gene, which regulates a number of metabolic processes, may increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.

A connection between vitamin D level and the risk of developing breast cancer has been implicated for a long time, but its clinical relevance had not yet been proven. Sascha Abbas and colleagues from the working group headed by Dr. Jenny Chang-Claude at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), collaborating with researchers of the University Hospitals in Hamburg-Eppendorf, have now obtained clear results:

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) falsely detects breast cancer in five out of every six positive scans according to new research into the use of MRI for women with a high, inherited risk of developing the disease. However, this high rate of false positives does not have a major impact on a woman’s decision whether or not to have a prophylactic mastectomy.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have developed a way to quickly estimate a woman's risk for invasive breast cancer. The new model, based on a measure of breast density that is already reported with the majority of mammograms today, is the first to be validated across multiple ethnic groups living in the United States.

Hormone replacement therapy poses a risk for women to develop breast cancer. This risk is only a little higher, but many women undergoing the therapy will worry a lot more about abnormal mammograms or decide to have breast biopsy which they could avoid under different circumstances.

The time has come for breast cancer risk assessment, counseling and genetic testing to move from cancer specialists to the realm of primary care, according to a presentation at the AAAS annual meeting, held this year in Boston.

A new study may explain why women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene face up to an 85 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer.

If there were a pill that would cut your risk of breast cancer in half, would you take it" What if you were told your risk of breast cancer was already below average"

A new service is available to help women work out whether they have an increased risk of getting breast cancer. It is an online calculator and its aim is to give women earlier diagnosis and treatment.

In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman’s hips and her daughter’s risk of breast cancer.

Researchers in a multicenter international study have identified a new gene that, if mutated, may increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer by more than a third.