
Researchers in the US have identified two new genes associated with breast cancer: MSH6 and PMS2.
The new study suggests that each gene approximately doubles a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer by age 60. The two genes were previously known to cause Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition that raises the risk of colorectal, ovarian, stomach, and endometrial cancer.

A new study has found that acupuncture significantly reduces joint pain for post-menopausal women with early-stage breast cancer taking aromatase inhibitors.
The research, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, involved a randomised controlled trial comparing acupuncture, sham acupuncture and no acupuncture.

A combination of the breakthrough drug Keytruda and Herceptin is well tolerated and has clinical benefits for patients with Herceptin-resistant HER2-positive breast cancer.
The new treatment regimen was tested in a clinical trial on patients with advanced HER2-positive breast cancer that had continued to grow on Herceptin (trastuzumab) therapies.

Increasing the dose intensity of chemotherapy by shortening the time period between treatments may help to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring, a new study shows.
The research, presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, also noted that delivering drugs sequentially rather than at the same time helped to reduce the risk of recurrence and death.

Bariatric surgery (reducing the size of the stomach) for severely obese women could lower their breast cancer risk by more than a third, according to a new study.
The research from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has been published in the journal the Annals of Surgery and reviewed the medical data of more than 100,000 people in the United States.
Lead researcher, Dr Daniel Schauer, says the results were surprising.

Researchers have discovered that women with breast cancer have far less of a particular bacterial species in their breast tissue than healthy women.
The new study, published in the journal Oncotarget, found that breast tissue in women with breast cancer contained far less Methylobacterium.

Ten-year results from a major breast cancer clinical trial suggest that routinely removing the axillary lymph nodes during lumpectomy to remove early-stage breast cancer may not be necessary.
The study was published in the journal JAMA and examined nearly 900 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer to find out if axillary node dissection lead to better long-term outcomes.

Researchers have reviewed the evidence on early menopause in breast cancer patients and have come up with a series of recommendations to safely manage this side-effect.
The recommendations are published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and are the result of a review of a number of clinical trials, observational studies and guidelines.

A new study has found that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity can help to allay fatigue and “chemo brain” in breast cancer patients and survivors.
The University of Illinois research looked at the association between physical activity, fatigue and performance on cognitive tasks in nearly 300 breast cancer survivors.

Scientists have discovered a new stem cell-based cancer treatment that can target and kill breast cancer cells that have spread in mice.
The researchers at the University of California Irvine (UCI) also hope that the new treatment may prevent some of the toxic side-effects of chemotherapy by providing a more localised therapy.