New Project Captures Underrepresented Voices Of Young Breast Cancer Patients

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Article Date: 10 Sep 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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There are more than 250,000 women under the age of forty that are living with breast cancer and 11,000 will be diagnosed in the next year.

Television-star Christina Applegate's tumor was detected through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which was ordered by her doctor, according to her publicist. That decision proved lifesaving because the cancer was caught early-when it is most likely to be treated and cured.

While the highly sensitive MRI is excellent at detecting tumors in young women whose dense breast tissue often hides tumors on mammogram X-rays, it is also a very expensive procedure, and one that frequently detects false abnormalities that necessitate biopsies. For this reason, the test is recommended only for those at increased risk of breast cancer. Incidents of breast cancer is very uncommon in those under fifty, so most doctors do not screen women in their thirties. Applegate's mother had previously battled breast cancer, but that by itself is not usually enough to justify an MRI in a woman so young. Since her announcement, Applegate has since undergone a double mastectomy.

"Ms. Applegate's story underscores a vital medical issue: young women are underrepresented in many research studies, as no effective screening tools exist and little research on gene profiling is available for this growing group of survivors," said Simon Chin, President and CEO of Iris BioTechnologies, who participated in this year's Zero Breast Cancer's annual Dipsea Hike/Run Fundraiser, in honor of Annie Fox, a courageous and extraordinary young woman who lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of thirty-five.

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey reintroduced the Annie Fox Act in 2007, which would provide $9 million annually to fund more breast cancer research in women under age 40. Zero Breast Cancer , a patient advocacy organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, is leading the effort to get this legislation passed.

"A great deal of progress is being made to help young women with breast cancer but it will take many more young women getting personally involved to make prevention and personalized medicine a reality. A project called BioWindows™ may be a good place for young women and their families to start."

The BioWindows online survey addresses not only family histories, but also medical and lifestyle factors that are possible causative agents. By building a personal medical and lifestyle family tree, women of all ages diagnosed with breast cancer will have valuable information at their fingertips to help their physicians make more personalized treatment decisions.

"The goal is to have the majority of survivors under the age of forty build a database that might begin to uncover the intricacies of the disease," adds Mr. Chin. "The information provided could give medical professionals a snapshot of what has and hasn't worked in this population. The goal is to help physicians prescribe the best treatment plan."

http://www.Biowindows.com

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