As an organization that serves young women affected by breast cancer, we make sure to keep up with the latest news so we know what our women face when it comes to treatment and beyond. In this blog series, we will share the previous month’s news that we feel is most interesting and relevant.
July 13: Breast cancer mortality has decreased for all racial and ethnic groups over the past three decades, and Black and Latino women have seen greater improvements in survival, according to a recent study, but Black women continue to have substantially higher breast cancer mortality than white women. Read he full story in Cancer Health HERE.
July 14: A new study has found an association between alcohol and a substantially higher risk of several forms of cancer, including breast, colon, and oral cancers. Increased risk was evident even among light to moderate drinkers (up to two drinks a day), who represented 1 in 7 of all new cancers in 2020 and more than 100,000 cases worldwide. Read the whole story in Science Daily HERE.
July 15: A new study from the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention estimates that annual costs associated with metastatic breast cancer among United States women will total $152.4 billion in 2030 — nearly two and a half times the estimate for 2015 costs — due to an increase in cases among younger women. The cost of breast cancer in the U.S. is more than the cost of any other cancer. Metastatic breast cancer, in which the cancer has spread to other regions of the body, is the most expensive to treat. Read the full story from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health HERE.
July 16: Delayed mammograms and breast cancer diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic may have a small long-term impact on breast cancer mortality rates up to 2030, according to results of a study with simulation modeling, but the expected impact is not as high as some experts expected. Read the full story in Cure Today HERE.
July 22: In a new study, researchers found 296 commonly used chemicals that caused an increase in levels of estrogen, progesterone, or both. Of these chemicals, 71 caused an increase in both hormones. The findings suggest that some of these synthetic chemicals could increase the risk of breast cancer. Read more in Medical News Today HERE.
July 26: A new study in mice suggests that a drug candidate for estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer called ErSO not only kills 95%-100% of primary breast tumors, but also metastatic cancer in bone and the brain, liver, and lungs. Future clinical trials will reveal whether the drug is an effective and safe treatment for metastatic breast cancer in humans. Read the full story in Medical News Today HERE.
July 27: U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the immunotherapy Keytruda as a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease with an increased risk of recurrence.The combination therapy is the first time that a treatment regimen using an immunotherapy has been approved for patients with early-stage TNBC. Read the whole story on Reuters HERE.