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Breast Cancer
Get the Facts
By Lisa Hurt Kozarovich
A blood test called the NMP66 is currently being researched as a potential method to screen for breast cancer, according to Matritech, Inc., a Massachusetts-based company that is developing the test. The test, which detects proteins in a woman's blood that correlate with breast cancer, is in the clinical trial stages in the United States and Germany and could be available to the general public later this year. According to spokeswoman Brooke Tyson, the test could have several advantages over the mammogram such as being able to detect tumors too small to be seen on a mammogram and being more cost-effective.
Other new diagnostic tools include the digital mammogram, which can help better screen younger women with dense breast tissue, Dr. Oratz says.
Another area of confusion regarding breast cancer are the risk factors – particularly taking birth control pills and smoking.
While Dr. Oratz agrees that smoking is not connected to breast cancer and family history is, she's not made up her mind on the issue of birth control pills. Although a study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that birth control pills are not a factor in breast cancer, Dr. Oratz says there are many studies that show some link.
What is clear, according to Dr. Oratz, is the link between long-term hormone replacement therapy (10 or more years) and breast cancer. Also certain, she says, is that a woman with a family history of breast cancer is more likely to develop the diease. But women need to know that the cancer-causing gene can come from the mother's or father's side. Other facts, like how many family members had breast cancer and how old they were when they were diagnosed, help factor a woman's risk, too.
