A study of over 50,000 women participating in the United Kingdom NHS Breast Screening Programme has found that, while three-yearly screening intervals are appropriate for the majority of women, approximately one third of women are at higher risk of developing cancer and might benefit from more frequent mammograms.

Analysis of data from the United Kingdom NHS Breast Screening Program has shown significant variations in the outcomes of treatment for women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) between United Kingdom hospitals, according to research. DCIS is a form of breast cancer in which cells in some of the milk ducts in the breast have started to turn into cancer cells.

Extending national breast cancer screening programs to women over the age of 70 does not result in a decrease in the numbers of cancers detected at advanced stages, according to new research. Instead, researchers say that their findings suggest that extending screening programs to older women results in a large proportion of women being over-treated, and at risk from the harmful effects of such treatment, because these women were more likely to die from other causes than from any tumors detected in the early stages of growth.

Extending national breast cancer screening programs to women over the age of 70 does not result in a decrease in the numbers of cancers detected at advanced stages, according to new research. Instead, researchers say that their findings suggest that extending screening programs to older women results in a large proportion of women being over-treated, and at risk from the harmful effects of such treatment, because these women were more likely to die from other causes than from any tumors detected in the early stages of growth.

Both obesity and diabetes have adverse effects on outcomes in breast cancer patients who receive chemotherapy as primary treatment before surgery (neoadjuvant chemotherapy), according to research. Although a high body mass index (BMI) is known to have a negative impact on cancer development and prognosis, until now there has been uncertainty as to whether having a high BMI had an equal effect on patients with different types of breast tumors.

Improvements in treatment, as well as enhanced access to care, underlie the sustained decreases in breast cancer mortality seen in 30 European countries from 1989 to 2010. But there are notable variations between different countries that cannot be explained simply by the resources devoted to cancer care, and these differences need to be studied further.

Improvements in treatment, as well as enhanced access to care, underlie the sustained decreases in breast cancer mortality seen in 30 European countries from 1989 to 2010. But there are notable variations between different countries that cannot be explained simply by the resources devoted to cancer care, and these differences need to be studied further.

Practising sport for more than an hour day reduces the risk of contracting breast cancer, and this applies to women of any age and any weight, and also unaffected by geographical location. Compared with the least active women, those with the highest level of physical activity reduced their risk of breast cancer by 12%, researchers say.

The global burden of breast cancer remained immense in 2013, with over 1.6 million new cases being diagnosed annually. This burden has been increasing at a rate of 3.1% per year, and while the majority of new cases are diagnosed among women in developed countries, the 450,000 deaths per year from the disease are now equally divided between the developing and developed world, researchers state.

Genetic analyses of results from 1125 postmenopausal women being treated for estrogen responsive breast cancer have shown that some of them are more likely than others to have a late recurrence of their cancer and might benefit from ten years of hormone therapy rather than five. The findings are the latest to come from the ATAC trial, a double-blinded phase III clinical trial that randomly assigned postmenopausal women with early, estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer to receive the hormone therapies anastrozole or tamoxifen, or a combination of the two.