The Sister Study is a clinical trial that is now enrolling patients to determine what environmental factors and genes play a part in developing breast cancer.

Researchers want to find what causes breast cancer, and through understanding this they can work to prevent the disease altogether. There are some known factors to contribute and or prevent the development of breast cancer -- diet, exercise, hormone therapy, breast-feeding and smoking. However, the prevalence of the disease suggest there are other factors at play that we are not aware of at this time.

Women who fit the following criteria are urged to enroll in the Sister Study and join the fight against this disease:

• A sister related by blood, alive or deceased, diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Ages 35 -74 years.
• Living in the United States or Puerto Rico.

The Sister Study is being conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and will be evaluating women from all backgrounds, occupations, races and ethnicities to attempt to identify environmental and genetic factors that may be associated with affecting the risk of breast cancer.

Women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who have negative lymph nodes can take advantage of a test known as OncotypeDX. This test is used to estimate the risk of cancer recurrence in women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. Results presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology said that the test results changed the oncologist's treatment decisions in about 31 percent of cases.

The test is useful in determining which patients are likely to benefit from chemotherapy in addition to hormonal therapy. It can predict the risk of a patient experiencing a recurrence up to ten years following diagnosis. The patient receives a Recurrence Score that ranges from 0 to 100, the higher the score -- the greater risk of recurrence.

This a great way for oncologists to be able to give individualized treatment -- instead of one size fits all. It's important to get chemotherapy if needed but physicians don't want to over-treat and have the unnecessary risk of side effects from chemotherapy treatment if it's not warranted.

Four more breast cancer genes have been uncovered by a team of international scientists, a discovery that may rival in importance the cloning of the BRCA2 gene in 1995. Scientists say women with mutated versions of these genes have a pretty low risk of contracting breast cancer, though, and it's unlikely that screening tests for such mutations will be developed.

Genetic causes of breast cancer account for 5 to 10 percent of all cases. Lifestyle factors, such as smoking and environmental influences, account for the rest.

Until now, only 25 percent of the genes suspected to cause inherited breast cancer had been identified. The four new genes -- FRFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, and LSP1 -- are believed to be fairly common yet account for only four percent of all cases. The genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, in contrast, are not very common but indicate a high risk for disease.

Being susceptible to a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer could be in your genes, according to this. Scientists have identified a genetic marker called 8q24 that ups your chances of getting prostate cancer or having a family member that will by a significant amount. The presence of the marker can be determined by a blood test, and those with it will have to ensure they're more careful about getting screened for cancer. Furthermore, African American men are more likely to be carriers than those of European ancestry.

I've had several family members who've been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it's scary stuff, boys! Get yourself checked out for the sake of yourself and your loved ones.

A new study of mice implanted with human breast cancer cells shows the spread of the disease to the lungs -- a common metastasis site -- is caused by the abnormal activation of four specific genes working together.

The study, published in the journal Nature, indicates that shutting off the genes one by one can slow the growth and spread of this cancer. But turning off all four at one time almost completely stops the process. In mice anyway.

These genes are no strangers to researchers who have known for some time about their existence and functions. They just know more about them now.

The four genes work together at every step of the metastatic process to allow a breast tumor to develop blood vessels, let tumor cells enter the vessel walls and lungs, and permit them to pass out of the lung vessels and resume growth. New analysis shows that blocking these genes significantly reduces the tangle of blood vessels, making it harder for cancer cells to escape.

Researchers, who say the four genes are among 18 they associate with breast cancer metastasis, report that one implication of this study is clear: combined use of drug therapy may be more effective at inhibiting the activity of multiple gene targets.

A new study shows certain genes may make some lung cancer patients more sensitive to chemotherapy. This is a good thing -- increased sensitivity in this case means lower doses of drug therapy work as good or better than higher doses.

Researchers looked at more than 21,000 genes in cells common to non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common type of the disease. Of these genes, 87 came up with heightened sensitivity to the chemotherapy drug Taxol. To be exact, the genes were 1,000 times more sensitive when exposed to the drug for 48 hours.

Chemotherapy is a very blunt instrument, says one researcher. Locating genes that make chemotherapy drugs more potent at lower doses is a critical step toward tailoring treatment and minimizing side effects for patients.

Two other drugs -- Navelbine and Gemzar -- were tested on six of the Taxol-sensitive genes. The genes did not respond to these drugs.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has lost five family members to cancer -- and she fears the disease may one day strike her. So she's taking action now and is trying to beat back the cancer curse that seems to loom over her loved ones.

Ever since losing her famous father in 2002 to throat cancer, Paltrow has been approaching life from a biological perspective.

"Cancer has been the curse of my family,"she said. "I am challenging these evil genes by natural means. I am convinced that by eating biological foods it is possible to avoid the growth of tumors. I began this crusade soon after my father's death. Since then the fight against tumors has been my mission."

Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay's Chris Martin, have embraced a strict vegetarian diet for their young family, and they hope their commitment to healthy eating will ward off the illness they fear may be headed right for them.

A lab in Oklahoma is studying genes for combinations that predict breast cancer risk. A look into the 100 genes gathered from each woman -- via mouthwash -- allows researchers to categorize women with standard, moderate, or high risks of developing the disease.

The study begins with a lengthy questionnaire about medical history and leads to the collection of a DNA sample. Women simply rinse their mouths with a standard mouthwash and wait for results.

Geneticist Dr. Kara Casas says she hopes that regardless of results, women will choose a healthy lifestyle with a diet low in fat and alcohol consumption and with lots of exercise too. But those in the moderate and high-risk groupings will be advised to make other lifestyle changes to help decrease their chances of getting breast cancer. They may be asked to regulate estrogen levels, for example, and to report regularly for mammograms at an earlier age.

Casas says all women have some risk of developing breast cancer. But knowing what these risks are can help them better protect themselves -- which makes tests like this so important.

A total of 12,000 samples will collected for an FDA trial. For more information about this study in mouthwash, call 903-510-1173.

Women with early stage breast cancer now have a new tool at their disposal. The tool -- called MammaPrint -- is newly approved by the FDA and while it is not yet a perfect measure, it can be used along with other information to estimate whether breast cancer is likely to return in five or 10 years.

The value of this test, that measures through computer analysis the activity of 70 genes using a sample of tissue removed from a breast tumor, is that doctors and patients can better determine course of treatments.

MammoPrint offers two results -- high risk and low risk -- and accurately picked in studies which women were at low risk at least 90 percent of the time. However, for women who were told they were at high risk for recurrence as a result of the test, just 23 percent experienced a relapse.

"You can't go all the way to the bank with this test," says FDA official Dr. Steven Gutman who argues the test is still better than having no information at all.

Agendia, the Dutch maker of MammoPrint, is exploring ways to make this one-of-a-kind product available in the United States. It has been used in the Netherlands since 2005.

"This test has enormous implications for the short-term future of cancer research in general, and is one of the truly great breakthroughs of our time," says Cancer Blog reader Gregory Pawelski with whom I am grateful for sharing this story tip with me.

One or more extra or missing chromosomes can both fuel tumor growth and act to suppress tumor growth, according to University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine researchers.

Heralded as a discovery that solves a 100-year-old genetic puzzle because the hypothesis was first suggested by German biologist Theodor Bover that long ago, researchers sought to determine if the wrong number of chromosomes contributed to tumor growth, or was a consequences of damage in cancerous cells.

While studying aneuploidy -- which is what the occurrence of one or more extra or missing chromosomes is called -- in mouse models, the researchers found that the same genetic mechanism that promotes tumor growth can slow tumor growth.

"This study opens up a whole series of potential therapeutic targets for cancer," said Beth A.A. Weaver, of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and UCSD Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, the study's first author. "By increasing the level of genetic damage, we can kill tumor cells."

Twenty years from now, no one will die of cancer and heart disease, according to an expert in Perth, who believes advances in genetic technology will one day leave death by cancer in the dust.

Professor John Shine, director of the Garvan Institute for Medical Research in Sydney, says people will still get cancer -- they just won't die from it. He shared last week at a genetics conference in Perth, "I think there's no doubt death from cancer will be confined to the annals of history, And I think a very similar thing will apply to heart disease."

Despite reservations from some about genetic technology, Shine believes the desire to combat cancer -- once and for all -- will prevail over political opinion. And so that leaves only technical obstacles in the way. It's just a matter of time before these scientific hurdles are no longer issues.

Shine, known as the father of cloning, pioneered gene research in the 1970s when he identified the genes for insulin and the human growth hormone.

In a surprising discovery, 200 mutated genes linked to the development, growth and spread of breast and colon cancers have been identified by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists. This information might provide vital research into the future treatment for these cancers.

Other cancers can be studied using the methods these researchers, called the Hopkins gene hunters, used in discovering the 200 genetic mutations for breast and colon cancers.

"This gives us some understanding of why breast and colon cancers, and most likely other cancers as well, are very different diseases and develop through different processes. When we say this will drive cancer research for the next couple of decades, this is one of the reasons," states Kenneth Kinzler, Ph.D., professor of oncology and co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins. "Now researchers will study how these mutations occur in breast and colon cancers, perhaps searching for environmental agents or cellular processes that drive these changes."

To read more detail on this study and discovery, visit Genome Code Cracked for Breast and Colon Cancers. An MP3 file and XML for iPods has been provided so that you can listen to Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists discuss this research.

On August 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) held a dedication ceremony for the new USDA Agricultural Research Service's Western Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) at the University of California-Davis.

One of six human nutrition research centers in the nation, the research center employs a team of 85 scientists, technicians and other specialists includes experts in nutrition, exercise physiology, chemistry, immunology and related disciplines.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers surveyed the parents of 636 children -- parents of 318 children that had been diagnosed with brain tumors and parents of 318 children who were healthy. Based on the knowledge that heat damages sperm, they asked the parents to try to remember the frequency of exposure to excessive heat -- saunas, hot tubs and electric blankets -- in the three months leading up to the conception of their child. If the average age of children diagnosed with the two brain tumors the researchers were focused on, medulloblastoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors, then the parents were being asked to remember back on average four to ten years.

According to the researchers report, heat exposure among the men in the three months before conception appeared to be linked to brain cancer risk among the children. The researchers do conclude by stating that the idea that paternal heat exposure before a child's conception and increased risk of these childhood brain cancers must be considered speculative until more proof is found.

The last statement made by the researchers might be the most significant. Now that I have told you what BBC News is reporting about this study, which I assume the researchers in some form released to the news media, let me say I believe you could fly a space shuttle through the speculative link between heat-damaged sperm and childhood brain tumors based on a survey. How good is your long-term memory in recalling daily life four to ten years ago? How many ways can a man's sperm become overheated?

I hope in the case of this study, the news will come with a substantial and cautionary warning that it might very well be a connection of dots that do not connect. I can think of nothing more additionally painful for a worried father who is facing his child's cancer diagnosis, than to have it even suggested that his overheated sperm might be the reason for his child's suffering -- when in fact it might have nothing at all to do with his child's brain tumor. The only known fact about childhood brain tumors is that researchers are looking into environmental and genetic factors for clues, and there is little concrete evidence as to what causes childhood brain tumors.

Oh hello! Here's a little study that I am certain many parents are going to shake their collective heads at when it comes to the published results. First, this study is based on a questionnaire so I am not at all convinced there are hereditary genes at work -- simply because the researchers did not do an under-the-microscope study to find out if there are genes, and identify which ones, affecting our food preferences.

From my understanding, I believe genetics are a primary determining factor in what we do and do not inherit. I could be wrong. In the meantime, I am standing by my initial concept of genes in the role of heredity. Back to food preferences.