It was a singular act of courage for Angelina Jolie to so openly reveal her fears and preventive double mastectomy. She just amazes, again and again. Along with admiration and sympathy for her, many will be hoping that this extends to greater understanding of the others in much the same boat as Jolie. All sorts [...]

This is “Breast Cancer Awareness” month, the much-hyped recognition of a serious problem that we should be conscious of throughout the year. The associated “pink ribbon” campaign sometimes feels akin to a “Hallmark holiday” sales gimmick, rather than recognition of the pain of breast cancer and need for further research. Carmen Gonzalez just had a [...]

The mammograms most women receive are decidedly two-dimensional. An x-ray machine takes images of the breast from the sides, and radiologists examine the resulting image to see if it offers up any hits of potentially cancerous irregularities. These tests, however, are far from perfect. Normal calcium deposits and fibrous tissue can align to create a [...]

Breast cancer kills nearly 40,000 women in the U.S. each year—a figure that has been in slow decline in the past two decades, despite (and in part thanks to) improved screening technology and an increase in treatment options. The percentage of women who get breast cancer and survive, however, is a trickier statistic to assess. [...]

The multi-billion-dollar cancer drug Avastin is no longer an approved treatment for breast cancer treatment, per a long-anticipated announcement made Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Avastin (bevacizumab, sold by Genentech/Roche) has been on the market since 2004 as a treatment for colon cancer. Following its lukewarm approval in 2008 for use [...]

DENVER—There was substantial public outcry last year when new recommendations for mammograms came out suggesting that women could wait until age 50 to start breast cancer screening—and then only get screened every other year. Figures in support of the new policy were bandied about in the news and in doctors’ offices, regarding lives saved from [...]

NEW YORK—Women who reach puberty early have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who reach it late. So as the age of puberty’s onset among U.S. girls continues to drop, researchers are trying to figure out why—and how this growing risk factor might be avoided.  Although mutations on BRCA genes can increase [...]

Most women would do fine to hold off until age 50 for their first mammograms and skip self-exams for breast lumps altogether, according to new government recommendations released Monday that came as a surprise to many in the medical community—and women in general. The report, issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and published [...]

The number of women who die from breast cancer has decreased slowly (about 2 percent per year) but steadily since 1990, according to a new report by the American Cancer Society (ACS), released to mark the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer—other than skin cancer—for women in the [...]