Researchers have identified a damaged gene -- BRIP1 -- that doubles the risk of familial breast cancer in a small percentage of women. BRIP1 is a DNA repair gene that can lead to uncontrollable cell growth if not functioning properly. Researchers have concluded that the damaged gene increases risk for breast cancer from eight to 16 percent by age 70.

These findings won't change patient care but they may offer comfort to women who develop breast cancer and cannot pinpoint the occurrence to the commonly mutated BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes -- mutations that are responsible for the disease 80 percent of the time. And while the study of BRIP1 does add to the pool of research on breast cancer, it does not warrant screening at this time. It's just a small piece of the puzzle that one day may prove significant. For now, the risk of breast cancer resulting from a damaged BRIP1 gene is modest.

John Hopkins Medical Institution investigators had a small but informative clinical trial using a pill that contained chemicals found in turmeric, a spice used in curries, and quercetin, an antioxidant in onions. The trial showed that the pill reduced both the size and number of precancerous lesions in the intestinal tract.

Curcumin is the chemical found in turmeric and is the key agent in the pill that the patients were administered. The amount of quercetin was similar to what normal people might consume on a daily basis. The curcumin administered in the pill was many times more what a person might eat in their daily diet.

A disorder that runs in families called familial adenomatous polyposis can lead to hundreds of colorectal polyps that could eventually lead to colon cancer.

The study showed that the patients taking the pill had an average number of polyps drop by sixty percent and the average size dropped to a little over fifty percent.

The current nonsteroidal anti-inflammory drugs (NSAIDS) have been used to treat patients but can cause significant side effects where the pill in this study had minimal if no side effects at all.