Women with a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer seem to do better if they are treated with a combined anthracycline and taxane chemotherapy regimen before surgery, together with trastuzumab (Herceptin) before and after surgery, according to results from the largest multi-centre trial to investigate this treatment.

Two targeted medications designed to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer are being tested in a new study involving 8,000 participants in 50 countries across six continents -- a clinical trial that investigators hope will provide a new model for global cancer research.

The best long-term therapy for breast cancer survivors might have nothing to do with doctors or self-help books, a health researcher at McGill University says. Her prescription? Dragon boat racing.

The positive results of the first nationwide clinical study showing the benefits of an antiangiogenic agent in breast cancer therapy are reported in the Dec. 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women.

A new study finds treatment for breast cancer differs between African-American women and white women, though the differences are partly dependent on insurance type. The study appears in the November 15, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

University of Iowa researchers have discovered a gene that plays a linchpin role in the ability of breast cancer cells to respond to estrogen. The finding may lead to improved therapies for hormone-responsive breast cancers and may explain differences in the effectiveness of current treatments.

A follow up to a previous study on group therapy in breast cancer patients finds group therapy does not prolong the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer. Published in the September 1, 2007 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the new case-control trial finds patients with metastatic breast cancer who took part in weekly group psychotherapy had similar survival rates as those given literature-based patient education.

Estrogen, which binds estrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha), is a risk factor for breast cancer development. However, one-third of new breast cancers lack detectable ER-alpha. These ER-alpha–negative cancers are more aggressive and have a worse prognosis than do ER-alpha–positive breast cancers, and have been thought to be estrogen independent.