No one is suggesting women use the abortion pill RU-486 to keep a well-known breast cancer gene from doing its dirty work, but scientists have successfully used this pill to keep tumors at bay in mice bred with the BRCA1 gene. And while this breakthrough may not benefit the human population just yet, it does indicate there may be something on the horizon to help women who carry the gene and are destined to develop breast cancer.

The BRCA1 gene spurs the sex hormone progesterone that RU-486 happens to block. If researchers could create a safer hormone blocker, it may offer an alternative for women with the bad gene. Today, there are just a few options for these women -- and all of them are anxiety-producing.

Currently, women can receive more frequent cancer screenings to catch cancer in its earliest form, remove both breasts while they are still healthy, take the hormone-blocking drug Tamoxifen, and remove the ovaries to cut the risk of both breast and ovarian cancers. A better option is necessary for women faced with an almost certainty of developing cancer.

The deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society calls this study elegant research. But he stresses that "it would not be appropriate in any way, shape or form that women start taking RU-486 for this purpose." Long-term use of this abortion drug can cause other side effects, including immune system suppression.

Cancer specialists applaud this development. Yet they caution women to not get their hopes up yet. They say this is an avenue worth pursuing on a research level. But it's clearly too soon to start recommending use of an agent like RU-486 for breast cancer prevention.