Thanks to increased research funding and breakthrough treatments for breast cancer, mortality rates for the disease fell 1.9 percent from 1998-2006. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer for women, regardless of age or race. Although the disease can affect men as well, for every one case of male breast cancer, there are 100 cases of female breast cancer.
O-GlcNAc Sugar
Cancer cells are attracted to sugar. They absorb nearly 10 times the amount of sugar than normal cells absorb. Cancer cells use the sugar to grow and spread throughout the body. Researchers at Drexel University, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are trying to exploit that sugar addiction. While studying a particularly aggressive type of cancer, they noted that the cells had elevated levels of O-GlcNAc, a sugar protein. In a May 2010 article in "Oncogene," Dr. Sherrie Caldwell wrote that reducing access to O-GlcNAc reduced the growth of cancer cells.
Nanotechnology
An exciting breakthrough treatment for breast cancer is the use of nanoparticles, extremely small material that physicians inject into the body to help destroy cancer cells. Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana have successfully used gold nanoparticles to improve breast cancer detection. At Northwestern University in Illinois, researchers have utilized arsenic nanoparticles to attack breast cancer cells. In the July 2010 issue of "Clinical Cancer Research," Dr. Richard Ahn wrote that arsenic nanoparticles successfully reduced the size of triple negative breast cancer tumors, a cancer with a particularly low survival rate.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy
Chemotherapy, a common method of treating breast cancer, inundates the body with dangerous cancer-killing chemicals. Healthy cells are also killed during the process. Conversely, selective internal radiation therapy, or SIRT, is much more discriminating. During the SIRT process, doctors project millions of microscopic, radioactive particles directly toward the cancer tumors, protecting nearby healthy cells. As of 2010, the process has only been used to treat metastasized breast cancer.
References
- CDC: Breast Cancer Trends
- CDC: Fast Facts
- "Oncogene"; Nutrient Sensor O-GlcNAc Transferase Regulates Breast Cancer Tumorigenesis; Sherrie A. Caldwell M.D.; May 2010
- "Clinical Cancer Research;" A Novel Nanoparticulate Formulation of Arsenic Trioxide; Thomas V. O'Halloran, Ph.D.; July 2010
