Feb. 22, 2012 -- When women in their 40s get breast cancer, their tumors need less intense treatment and recur less often if they were first detected during routine mammogram screening.

The finding comes from a careful study of nearly 2,000 women diagnosed with first-time breast cancer at age 40 to 49. The women were carefully followed since their diagnosis in 1990 to 2008 (More)
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Jan. 31, 2012 -- For most men with prostate cancer, having radioactive seeds implanted in the prostate is associated with fewer serious side effects than either surgery to remove the prostate or having a beam of high-energy (More)
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Jan. 31, 2012 -- Close to 1 in 4 breast cancer patients who have partial mastectomies undergo a second surgery to remove suspicious tissue, but there is little agreement about when the second surgery is needed.

Researchers found huge variations from institution to institution and from (More)
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Jan. 31, 2012 -- The FDA has approved Erivedge, a once-daily pill that can shrink disfiguring or metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC) tumors.

BCC, the most common form of skin cancer, usually is curable. But in rare cases, the cancer spreads through the body or invades surrounding parts of the body.

These advanced, sometimes disfiguring cancers often (More)
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Jan. 26, 2012 -- A new test that measures the activity of certain genes in cancer cells may help doctors tell which early, non-small-cell lung cancers are the most dangerous.

The hope is that doctors can use that information to figure out which patients might benefit from more aggressive (More)
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Jan. 26, 2012 -- Screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer remain below target levels in the United States and are especially low among Asians and Hispanics, the CDC reports.

Screening rates for breast and cervical cancer have remained relatively stable over the past decade, with about 3 out of 4 eligible women receiving mammograms and 4 out of 5 having Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer. Target rates set by federal officials in the (More)
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Jan. 25, 2012 -- Don't count out the drug Avastin as a breast cancer treatment just yet. But don't count it in, either.

In November, the FDA took the unusual step of nixing Avastin's approval for advanced (More)
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Jan. 23, 2012 -- A drug widely prescribed to treat men with enlarged prostates may also slow the growth of early prostate cancers, according to a new study.

Researchers say the drug Avodart (dutasteride) may reduce the need for aggressive treatments in men who have a very low risk of dying from their disease.

But there are also concerns that the drug and others (More)
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Jan. 12, 2012 -- Have you ever gotten one of those scary chain emails telling you that your deodorant may cause breast cancer? If so, you are not alone. These show up in many people's in-boxes from time to time.

It has to do with certain underarm products that contain preservatives called parabens. These chemicals can act like the hormone estrogen in the body. Estrogen is known to fuel certain breast cancers. Many breast cancers develop in the part of the (More)
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Jan. 4, 2012 -- Cancer death rates for men and women in the U.S. kept dropping through 2008, continuing a nearly 20-year-long trend.

According to a new report from the American Cancer Society, overall death rates have declined for both sexes and nearly every racial and ethnic group. The exception was American Indians/Alaska Natives, whose rates have remained steady.

As a (More)
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