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Nicotine Found to Accelerate Breast Cancer

Nicotine speeds the growth of breast tumors and aids the cancer's spread to other parts of the body, a recent study has found.

A large body of previous research on nicotine has implicated the well-known tobacco component in helping to cause a wide variety of cancers, including those of the lungs, head, neck and prostate gland. But this study, published in Cancer Research, is the first to be done on the nicotine-breast cancer connection.

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10 Ways to Lower Your Risk of Breast Cancer

Most of the news we hear about breast cancer deals with addressing the disease after it's already been diagnosed. The best treatment for any disease, is through prevention. Here are 10 ways to lower your breast cancer risk.

1. Exercise and be consistant about it. Moderate physical activity, like brisk walking, 3 times a week can reduce a young woman's risk of developing breast cancer by 33%, and the risk of breast cancer after menopause by 26%.

2. If you smoke, quit now. The sooner, the better.

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Cancer Death Rate Declining

Some good news in the battle against cancer: recent findings in a report published in the latest issue of Cancer shows cancer death rates dropped steadily on average 2.1 percent per year from 2002 through 2004, nearly twice the annual decrease of 1.1 percent per year from 1993 through 2002.

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African American Women and Breast Cancer

“I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to see my children grow up and my grandchild grow, you get this really scary feeling inside,” says Rosamond Stallings. When 45 year old Rosamond Stallings was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 years ago, doctors urged her to immediately have a mastectomy. “They found like six malignant tumors,” says Rosamond.
Recent studies have shown that 30 percent or more of breast cancer patients fail to receive complete treatment, and that African American women are as much as 10 percent less likely than white women to receive optimal therapy. But now, supported by a $10 million grant from the Department of Defense, a study, led by a team of doctors at Columbia University Medical Center, will look at possible reasons for the disparity.

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Breast Cancer Treatment

There is important research that will directly affect one out of every four women diagnosed with breast cancer. Herceptin, a treatment used to boost the benefits of chemotherapy and surgery has been shown to be highly effective, and experts are saying it’s a must-use.

Now, two new studies say herceptin can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and the overall risk of death.

Three years ago, when Wendy Funk she was only 35, she thought her life was over. Diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, her cancer had later spread. “When I had the breast cancer metastasis, they had given me six months to live,” says Wendy.

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BREAST MRI-MAMMOGRAPHY STUDY

There’s good news tonight for women at high risk for breast cancer. Researchers say using breast MRI along with mammography is highly accurate in detecting tumors.

Not only does this mean cancers can be picked up more reliably, but also, women who might choose to get a preventative mastectomy or get their ovaries removed now have the option to watch and wait with confidence.

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BREAST CANCER PREVENTION STUDY

While the number of deaths from breast cancer each year have been declining, they are still staggering: more than 40-thousand women will die this year alone. More than
260,000 women will be told they have the disease.

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BREAST CANCER RECURRENCE MARKER

Researchers have discovered how to identify women with breast cancer who are at risk for having the cancer spread.
This is quite a significant step, because currently, there’s no reliable way to see what cancers will spread and what won’t, and that means it’s hard to say which patients should be treated more aggressively and which can be treated less aggressively

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BREAST CANCER DRUG STUDY

Medical experts are saying that research just released from the medical journal the lancet will have a profound impact on many women battling breast cancer. It shows that one of the most popular and established drugs should be replaced by newer medicines.

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ABRAXANE BREAST CANCER TREATMENT

Four years ago Maryann Dillon was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.
“You’re just numb, any time you receive a diagnosis like that, you’re just numb,” says Maryann.
Maryann says she felt like she was given a death sentence. Because her cancer spread, surgery was not an option so she began intense rounds of chemo and drug therapy.
“They said that I had a year, maybe a year and a half to live. And it was diagnosed as a terminal cancer,” says

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