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If you live in the United States, you can get excellent breast cancer care. But you could also get care that is wrong for you. This can happen even with good insurance and good doctors. Quality breast cancer care means getting the care that is right for you. Good breast cancer care is based on […]

KnowBreastCancer.org has partnered with patientINFORM to provide free online access to peer-reviewed medical articles. PatientINFORM is a collaborative private-sector initiative of patient health organizations, medical societies, health information professionals, and medical publishers. Through patientINFORM, patients and their family members can access the most important new research articles about diseases and treatments through the Web sites […]

The combination of trastuzumab and lapatinib, two drugs that inhibit HER2, may be better than treatment with either agent alone in the neoadjuvant (preoperative) setting, according to results of a study published in Lancet. “This is the first demonstration that adding a second anti-HER2 therapy, lapatinib, to trastuzumab is superior to trastuzumab alone in patients […]

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have made a discovery that may have important implications for future breast cancer research. These findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to the research team led by Dr. Mina Bissell, human epithelial cells in the breast and […]

Is HER2 testing accurately identifying breast cancer patients who would benefit from targeted therapy? What is HER2? HER2 (also Her-2/neu or ErbB2) stands for Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2, and is one of a family of several receptor proteins. All normal breast cells contain the HER2 gene, which gives instructions to the cell on […]

Who will benefit and what is the optimal treatment protocol? HER2 is short for Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (also be called Her-2/neu or ErbB2). All normal breast cells contain copies of the HER2 gene, which gives instructions to the cell on how to make the HER2 protein. The HER2 protein, also called the […]

Is DCIS breast cancer? How should it be treated? Controversy over Name Cancer or carcinoma implies invasiveness and DCIS is specifically not invasive. Some scientists and medical professionals are calling for the removal of “carcinoma” from the name for the disease. Nomenclature was discussed at the National Institute of Health State-of-the-Science Conference: Diagnosis and Management […]

Does the evidence still support their use in the first-line treatment of breast cancer? The anthracycline debate continues. In 2007, the National Breast Cancer Coalition took the position that “for the vast majority of women with breast cancer, anthracycline-based chemotherapy is no more effective and has the potential for more serious toxicities than other known […]

Does Mammography Screening Save Lives? NBCC Position NBCC believes that there is insufficient evidence to recommend for or against universal screening mammography in any age group of women. Women who have symptoms of breast cancer such as a lump, pain or nipple discharge should seek a diagnostic mammogram. The decision to undergo screening for asymptomatic […]

NBCC Says: The appropriate selection of outcome measures for cancer trials is a focus of ongoing debate. While recognizing that proper outcome selection is influenced by the specific design characteristics and resource limitations of the study, the National Breast Cancer Coalition believes that endpoints should be chosen in a manner that maximizes the usefulness and […]