Hormones

Estrogen-blocking medication coupled with yearly screening lowers the risk of invasive breast cancer and death from breast cancer by 40% and 57% respectively, but may also cause a range of mild to serious side effects. =

Two years of hormonal therapy after surgery to remove ER-positive breast cancer in pre-menopausal women helped reduce the risk of metastatic recurrence.  

Better quality of life with treatment break during extended adjuvant therapy Source: Breast Cancer Control Similar With Intermittent, Continuous Endocrine Therapy | MedPage Today

  Researchers find nearly 300 chemicals linked to breast cancer-contributing hormones in everyday products, and call for a renewed focus on women’s exposure risks. Source: Breast cancer: Hundreds of chemicals identified as potential risk factors – EHN

Receiving 3 to 5 years of bisphosphonate treatment after surgery and chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer doesn’t improve survival any more than receiving 2 years of bisphosphonate treatment. Source: More Than 2 Years of Bisphosphonates for Early-Stage Breast Cancer Doesn’t Offer More Benefits

Hormone therapy is a type of treatment for hormone-sensitive breast cancers. Learn more about how it works, side effects, alternatives, and more. Source: Hormone therapy for breast cancer: How it works and more

City of Hope has identified how cancer cells in patients with early-stage breast cancer change and become resistant to hormone or combination therapies, according to a new study published in Nature Cancer. Source: Study Details How Breast Cancer Becomes Resistant to Treatment | City of Hope

“Concerns about adverse effects of prolonged bisphosphonate treatments, such as atypical bone fractures and osteonecrosis of the jaw, as well as results from both preclinical and clinical studies indicating that the benefit of bisphosphonates continues after termination of treatment, are additional reasons to question the necessity of extended bisphosphonate therapy,” they noted. Source: Time to […]

Patients undergoing hormone therapy for breast and prostate cancers may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) as they age and should be closely monitored for potential cardiovascular events, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA). Source: AHA: Monitor CVD Risks in Cancer Patients on Hormonal Therapy | MedPage Today

People taking hormonal therapy medicine to treat breast or prostate cancer have a higher risk of heart attack and stroke as they get older and should be monitored regularly to detect any problems, according to a scientific statement by the American Heart Association. Source: People Taking Hormonal Therapy for Breast Cancer Have Higher Risk of […]

New research from BCRF-supported researchers and others has shown that poor metabolic health is a much stronger predictor of breast cancer risk than body mass index (BMI)—an insight that could lead to personalized interventions. Read more on our blog. Source: AACR 2021 Highlights: Digging Deeper into the Breast Cancer-Obesity Connection | BCRF

Exposure to certain endocrine-disrupting chemicals could elevate the risk of breast cancer, according to a new comprehensive systematic review of epidemiological research. Source: Review summarizes known links between endocrine disruptors and breast cancer risk – Nexus Newsfeed

Learn about the types of hormone therapy used to prevent and treat breast cancer (including antiestrogens, LH-RH agonists, aromatase inhibitors, and SERMs) and their possible side effects. Source: Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Fact Sheet – National Cancer Institute

For some people with ER-positive breast cancer, a new imaging test may one day help guide decisions about receiving hormone therapy, results from a small study show. The test uses an imaging tracer called FFNP that can show whether the estrogen receptors in tumors are active and responsive to estrogen. Source: Imaging Test to Guide […]

The study examined 1,918 postmenopausal women split into two groups. Source: Women Who Take An Estrogen Suppressing Drug For Up To 15 Years Could Reduce Breast Cancer Recurrence, Study Shows | The Breast Cancer Site News

The Breast Cancer Index assay is the only of its kind to be recommended in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines for the treatment of breast cancer as being predictive of extended adjuvant endocrine therapy. Source: NCCN Now Recommends Breast Cancer Index for Predicting Benefit from Extended Endocrine Therapy | Cancer Network

New research suggests that androgen receptor-stimulating drugs may treat some forms of breast cancer more effectively than other therapies. Source: Breast cancer: Androgen therapy shows promise in preliminary study

“Almost every patient will acquire resistance to endocrine therapy over time,” Rugo told MedPage Today. “Some patients will develop resistance in the first year of treatment — sometimes within months — and some can stay on their first-line endocrine therapy for 7 to 10 years.   Source: Clinical Challenges: Acquired Endocrine Resistance in Breast Cancer […]

A new study provides new estimates of the increased risks of breast cancer associated with use of different hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations. Source: New estimates of breast cancer risks associated with HRT – Nexus Newsfeed

“Our findings suggest the drugs may kill some cells and switch others into this sleeper state. If we can unlock the secrets of these dormant cells, we may be able to find a way of preventing cancer coming back, either by holding the cells in permanent sleep mode, or be waking them up and killing […]

Researchers have developed a new method that can make it easier for public authorities to assess the health risks of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment. Source: New method estimates risks of hormone-disrupting substances in drinking water – Nexus Newsfeed

Can having children increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer? Source: Doctor States Women Who Have Their First Child After The Age Of 35 Have A Slightly Higher Risk Of Breast Cancer | The Breast Cancer Site Blog

The obesity paradox, where high patient body mass index (BMI) is correlated with improved overall survival in patients with cancer, has had few plausible explanations to date Source: Solving the Obesity Paradox in Oncology – Cancer Therapy Advisor

Biotheranostics’ Breast Cancer Index can help distinguish which breast cancer patients will derive a benefit from prolonged endocrine therapy — allowing those who don’t to stop treatment and avoid its unpleasant side effects, new data suggests. Source: Breast Cancer Index Identifies Who Will Benefit From Prolonged Therapy, New Data Shows

Women who have survived breast cancer are often prescribed aromatase inhibitors to help prevent recurrences, but the drugs can cause the unpleasant side effect of joint pain. A new study finds that acupuncture offers the most relief from the pain. Source: Acupuncture Helps Breast Cancer Survivors Beat Joint Pain | Everyday Health

Investigators found that incident osteopenia and osteoporosis are significantly higher in young survivors of breast cancer. Source: Younger Breast Cancer Patients at Higher Risk for Osteoporosis – Cancer Therapy Advisor

Younger survivors of breast cancer appear to be at higher risk for osteopenia and osteoporosis compared with cancer-free women

A topical form of tamoxifen, called 4-OHT, is being tested to see if it can prevent breast cancer as effectively as oral tamoxifen but with fewer side effects. Source: Can Topical Drugs Help Prevent Breast Cancer? – National Cancer Institute

Hormone therapy was linked with a much higher risk of developing diabetes (hazard ratio [HR], 2.4). The risk was particularly high among those who received an aromatase inhibitor (HR, 4.27), though was still noted among those who received tamoxifen (HR, 2.25). Source: Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer May Cause Diabetes – Cancer Therapy Advisor

“The evidence for adverse reproductive outcomes (infertility, cancers, malformations) from exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals is strong, and there is mounting evidence for effects on other endocrine systems, including thyroid, neuroendocrine, obesity and metabolism, and insulin and glucose homeostasis Source: How to avoid hormone disrupting chemicals – Nexus Newsfeed

If doctors knew a woman’s risk of late distant recurrence, they could recommend extended hormonal therapy only for women who would benefit from it. CTS5 was able to accurately separate the women into groups of low, intermediate, or high risk of late distant recurrence after 5 years of hormonal therapy. The tool found 42% of the women had low late distant recurrence risk, so the risks of extended hormonal therapy outweighed the benefits for these women.

Most of our food containers — from bottles to the linings in aluminum cans to plastic wraps and salad bins — are made using polycarbonate plastics, some of which have bioactive chemicals, like bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. These man-made chemicals can leach from the containers or wrappings into the food and drinks they’re holding — especially when they’re heated. Research released earlier this year found that more than 90 percent of bottled water from the world’s leading brands was contaminated with microplastics, sparking a review of plastics in drinking water by the World Health Organization.

Vitamin D is crucial to our health, and now, new research has found a ‘marked’ association between blood levels of this vitamin and breast cancer risk. Source: Vitamin D may decrease breast cancer risk, study reports

Zoledronic acid directly inhibits UGT8 and is already in widespread use. In fact, this medication is on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of safe and effective medicines that are deemed “essential for global health.

In one of the largest investigations of its kind conducted to date, researchers found that one-third of the women included in the study had low levels of skeletal muscle mass—a condition known as sarcopenia—at the time of their diagnosis. And having low levels of muscle mass was associated with a higher risk of dying compared with women who had adequate muscle mass, the researchers reported April 5 in JAMA Oncology.

In mice, interfering with the natural cycle of a certain hormone spurs development of more fat cells.This finding may help explain why stress and conditions associated with abnormal steroid hormone levels can cause obesity. Source: Disrupting normal hormone cycle spurs fat cells | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The SBMI calculator functions on the basis of the newly developed Smart Body Mass Index. The SBMI differs from the BMI in three important aspects. Firstly, it takes age and sex into account, besides weight and height. Secondly, the SBMI is a purely comparative figure (without any physical units) on a scale of 70 points. […]