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FDA Approves Genentech’s Kadcyla (Ado-Trastuzumab Emtansine), the First Antibody-Drug Conjugate for Treating HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer New Personalized Medicine Helped People in Phase III Study Live Longer, Compared to Standard Treatment -- SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Kadcyla™(ado-trastuzumab emtansine or T-DM1) for the treatment of people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) who have received prior treatment with Herceptin® (trastuzumab) and a taxane chemotherapy. Kadcyla is the fourth medicine from Genentech to receive FDA approval for...

A study in the Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention shows abortion increases the risk of breast cancer for women. C. Yanhua of the First Peoples’ Hospital of Kunming in Yunnan province and his colleagues found the abortion-breast cancer association after comparing data from 263 cases of breast cancer and 457 controls without the disease. Their analysis covers the years 2009-2011. The authors examined information on disease diagnosis, demographics, medical history, and reproductive characteristics of the patients involved and also looked at short menstrual cycle, old age at first live birth, never breastfeeding, history of oral contraceptive use, postmenopausal status...

In a move that could alter the way that breast cancers are treated, researchers have redefined the disease into four main classes and determined that one type of breast cancer has more in common with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer than other breast cancers. The finding that a form of breast cancer may be genetically similar to a type of ovarian cancer underscores a new way thinking about cancer that moves away from defining cancers by the organ of origin. The findings are the result of the largest and most comprehensive study of the genetics of breast cancer to...

Women with certain gene mutations are more likely to develop breast cancer if they were exposed to radiation from chest X-rays or mammograms before age 30, compared with those who have the gene mutations and weren't exposed to radiation, new research suggests. The study included nearly 2,000 women, 18 and older, in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. All of the women had a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which have long been linked to raised risks for breast and ovarian cancer. Forty-eight percent of the women reported ever having an X-ray and 33 percent had undergone...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The last time Alice Heiman participated in the Susan G. Komen walk in San Francisco to raise money for breast cancer, she gathered a group of friends and made a big trip from her home in Reno to support a cause close to her heart. This year, though, nine months after the national organization sparked outrage when it refused to fund Planned Parenthood, she's ignoring donation requests that keep popping up in her inbox and has no plans for a return trip. She's not alone. Just days before Sunday's 5k Race for the Cure along the Embarcadero...

This is a prayer request for my youngest daughter who has been diagnosed with an agressive breast cancer and is facing a bilateral mastectomy this wendesday followed in 2 weeks with removal of her ovaries. Unfourtunatly breast cancer runs in the female side of the family. Her Mother is a 20 year survivor but her Grandmother and Greataunt passed away from it. Any and all prayers are welcome.

My sister Barb has cancer on the brain now. According to her doctors today, she is in dire need of care. Part of the roller coaster of the last few days (especially for me, because I was dead-set against it) is that she has abandoned regular medicine and has gone in for the "naturopath" route of tons of supplements and the like. Now we need to confront her and get her to change her mind. The doctors told her husband it is imperative; time is of the essence. Time is exactly a prime reason I'm against playing around with "alternatives"....

Marvel is teaming with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to observer Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October with several pink-tinged variant covers, plus a one-page advertorial supplement educating readers on the issue. The following comics, all out in October, will have Komen-themed variant covers: · Avengers #31 · Captain America #18 · Captain Marvel #5 · Fantastic Four #611 · Invincible Iron Man #526 · Mighty Thor #21 · Uncanny X-Men #20 · Wolverine #315 "Marvel is proud to partner with Susan G. Komen For the Cure to support their unparalleled efforts to raise awareness about the risk of...

Doctors have successfully dropped the first "smart bomb" on breast cancer, using a drug to deliver a toxic payload to tumor cells while leaving healthy ones alone. In a key test involving nearly 1,000 women with very advanced disease, the experimental treatment extended by several months the time women lived without their cancer getting worse, doctors planned to report Sunday at a cancer conference in Chicago. More importantly, the treatment seems likely to improve survival; it will take more time to know for sure. After two years, 65 percent of women who received it were still alive versus 47 percent...

Across all age groups there was no overall increased risk of breast cancer associated with IVF. However researchers at the University of Western Australia found women who had IVF treatment at a younger age had a higher risk of developing the disease over the following 15 years. Oestrogen, a hormone which is known to fuel certain forms of breast cancer, may be up to 13 times higher during an IVF cycle than normal. Concerns have been raised about the use of strong hormones to stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs during fertility treatment as hyperstimulation can be fatal.

SALT LAKE CITY — A mom dying of cancer took to YouTube and inspired a pharmaceutical company to release to her a potentially life-saving drug before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. A compassionate use clause allows for people with no other treatment options to receive experimental treatments prior to FDA approval, which is what Darlene Gant was hoping for on April 16 when she uploaded a 20-minute video to YouTube, pleading with the FDA approve her use of the drug Pertuzumab before its expected June approval date. Gant, 46, had been told earlier in 2012 that...

An injectable form of birth control doubles breast cancer risk among young women, according to a new study. The study examined younger women, ages 20 to 44, and confirmed a link between depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) - the main ingredient in the contraceptive sold under the brand name Depo-Provera - and breast cancer risk.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a move that threatens to further inflame concerns about the rationing of medical care, the nation's leading association of cancer physicians issued a list on Wednesday of five common tests and treatments that doctors should stop offering to cancer patients. The list emerged from a two-year effort, similar to a project other medical specialties are undertaking, to identify procedures that do not help patients live longer or better or that may even be harmful, yet are routinely prescribed

Nithin Tumma, whose research could lead to less toxic and more effective breast cancer treatments, received the top award of $100,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search 2012, a program of Society for Science & the Public. From medical treatments to alternative energy solutions, innovation has been top of mind in our nation's capital this week. Honoring high school seniors with exceptional promise in math and science, Intel Corporation and Society for Science & the Public (SSP) recognized the winners of the nation's most elite and demanding high school research competition, the Intel Science Talent Search. Nithin Tumma, 17, of...

The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 8 December 2011 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61746-7Cite or Link Using DOI The plight of nuns: hazards of nulliparity Original TextKara Britt a, Roger Short b Catholic nuns are committed to leading a celibate, spiritual life in a monastery or convent. In 1713, Italian physician Bernadino Ramazzini1 noted that nuns had an extremely high incidence of that "accursed pest", breast cancer. Today, the world's 94,790 nuns still pay a terrible price for their chastity because they have a greatly increased risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers: the hazards of their nulliparity. Fraumeni and colleagues2 compiled data for...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The story here is 2007. I've had a number of people tell me they didn't know --- they hadn't heard --- about this link between abortion and breast cancer. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. This is 2007. "The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons published a study yesterday entitled, 'The Breast Cancer Epidemic.' It showed that, among seven risk factors, abortion is the 'best predictor of breast cancer,' and fertility is also a useful predictor. The study by Patrick Carroll of PAPRI in London showed that countries with higher abortion rates, such as England & Wales,...

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation’s senior vice president for public policy, Karen Handel, resigned from her post Tuesday morning following the breast cancer group’s decision to de-fund, then re-fund, Planned Parenthood.Due to her outspoken pro-life views when she ran for Georgia governor in 2010, in the days and week following the decision to revoke funding from the abortion provider and the subsequent reversal of that decision, Handel became the name most closely associated with the policy changes that lead to Komen’s decision to pull funding.Noting the important role the breast cancer organization has been playing for more...

Karen Handel, a top Komen official who was said to be instrumental in putting in place the changes in Komen policy that essentially resulted in cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, has resigned her position. As LifeNews reported last week, Komen initially decided in December to revise its grant-making process to funds grants to agencies that provide direct health services for women — which would eliminate Planned Parenthood since it does not do mammograms. After Planned Parenthood, Democratic members of Congress and the media pounced on Komen for its decision, Komen clarified that Planned Parenthood would still be allowed to submit...

On Sunday’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Washington Post columnist George Will said that last week’s decision — and subsequent reversal — by the Susan G. Komen Foundation to take funding away from Planned Parenthood was strictly about abortion and less about women’s health, adding that the case illustrates how far liberals are willing to take the fight to defend abortion. “This is not about women’s health. This is about providing 300,000 abortions a year. Planned Parenthood cleverly cast this saying, ‘We are in the mammogram business.’ They’re not in the mammogram business — they are in the referral of...

Of course, it also doesn't mean they're not going to get anything. The Daily Caller reports that Komen's donations doubled in the two days after the Planned Parenthood assault began, presumably because lots of people wanted to support its apolitical work against breast cancer but did not want to give money to a group that was subsidizing a group that both performs and advocates for abortion. If that describes you, you might consider following the advice of our friend Susan Carusi: Give to a local breast cancer support group, "which provides counseling and assistance to women diagnosed with breast cancer....