For more than 4 decades, the health care industry and millions of people all around the world continue to fight cancer, and so far, there's no end in sight. However, we also hear some great news more often than before. For example, according to a new Canadian study, the chances of breast cancer patients of going through the same thing again has gone down for a long time now.
Dr. Karen Gelmon of BC Cancer Agency stands as a lead author of a study that tries to determine the breast cancer recurrence risk, especially in Canada. Using the data that are available from 1980s until 2000s revealed that the rate had dropped by half.
Specifically, Gelmon and her team looked into the recurrence risk and information of more than 7,000 women who were diagnosed with either early or slightly advanced breast cancer. These data came in two interval periods. One is from 1986 to 1992 and the second one is between 2004 and 2008.
The significantly reduced cancer risk and therefore the higher survival rate may be attributed to many factors. Although the study doesn't really identify the reasons for the marked improvement, one of the explanations is the presence of more potent drugs such as those that target HER2 molecules. These types of molecules tend to promote the growth of breast cancer cells, making them more aggressive and therefore increasing the risk of a relapse. These drugs started appearing in the market during the 1990s, which may explain the lower risk rate of the second group.
More women are also becoming aware of breast cancer and are opting for screening tests such as a mammogram. The likes of Angelina Jolie have decided to undergo preventive measures like mastectomy to reduce the risk of developing cancer after they discovered their "cancer genes."
Recurrence, however, still remains quite high for women who have estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers.