When it comes to understanding the effectiveness and safety of using herbal therapies with other drugs, much is unknown. Now, a University of Missouri researcher will study how black cohosh - an herbal supplement often used to relieve hot flashes in menopausal women - interacts with tamoxifen, a common drug used to treat breast cancer.

A majority of women with breast cancer today are candidates for lumpectomy, allowing for conservation of most of their breast tissue. Results of a UC Davis study, however, show that a number of women whose cancer recurs in the same breast are treated with a second lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy, defying current treatment recommendations and cutting the number of years those women survive in half.

Women taking aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer or prevent its recurrence should think twice before also taking a soy-based dietary supplement, researchers report.

Activation of the Src signaling pathway may cause resistance to standard medical treatment in some patients with breast cancer, and inhibition of this pathway holds the potential to overcome that resistance, according to data presented here at the American Association for Cancer Research Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development meeting.

Acupuncture is as effective and longer-lasting in managing the common debilitating side effects of hot flashes, night sweats, and excessive sweating (vasomotor symptoms) associated with breast cancer treatment and has no treatment side effects compared to conventional drug therapy, according to a first-of-its-kind study presented September 24, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.

Early-stage breast cancer patients who receive a more intensive course of radiation to their whole breast over three weeks is as effective as the standard, less intensive five-week whole breast radiation and offers patients more convenience at a lower cost, thereby providing a better quality of life, according to a randomized, long-term study presented September 22, 2008, in the plenary session at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.

A new study suggests standard radiation therapy for some breast cancer patients may not be medically required and may, therefore, be causing unnecessary serious side effects such as lymphedema and pulmonary problems. The research conducted at Fox Chase Cancer Center involved women who got a mastectomy, but whose lymph nodes were negative.

Women with breast cancer who are treated with lumpectomy and radiation report a high level of overall quality of life several years after treatment that is comparable to a general sampling of the adult women U.S. population according to a survey conducted by physicians at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Spanish researchers led by Dr. Emilio Alba have been studying the effects of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in a group of 155 women who had already been treated with chemotherapy.

Nearly half of women treated for breast cancer did not know that their odds of being alive after five years are roughly the same whether they undergo mastectomy or breast conserving surgery.

An organized population-based breast cancer screening program in Norway and an approach to screening that relies on physician- and self-referrals in Vermont are equally sensitive for detecting cancer, researchers report in the July 29 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. But the recall rate for abnormal mammograms was lower in Norway.

Research reported today should provide relief to women who are worried after a relative's breast cancer diagnosis. The study in the open access journal BMC Cancer shows that a family history of breast cancer does not give a useful indication of the likelihood that a woman will develop it herself at an early age.