Scientists have found a key reason for the failure of drug tamoxifen in some women with breast cancer.

Scientists, from the Cancer Research UK, identify a molecular imbalance that doesn’t allow the drug to work.

The researchers believe that this detailed understanding will help to develop some more effective treatments for women with breast cancer. Similarly, they added that the finding would also help to explain other examples of drug resistance.

In UK, almost 45,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year and around two-thirds are prescribed the drug. Women often take it for five year after diagnosis.

Almost 25 to 30% women develop resistance to the treatment after some time and it shows that their cancer is more likely to return.

Scientists have been trying to develop ways to identify these women so their treatment may be better tailored without wasting time.

In the study that included 100 breast cancer patients, the researchers found that tamoxifen can work by switching of the breast cancer gene HER2 through a protein known as PAX2.

A report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute says that calcium or vitamin D supplements don’t seem to decrease the risk of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Dr. Rowan T. Chlevbowski (from the University of California, Los Angeles) and colleagues note that the results of observational studies associate higher calcium and vitamin D levels with a lower risk of breast cancer, but yet this topic has not been addressed in a different type of trial.

In this study, 36282 women participants randomly received calcium 1000 mg plus vitamin D 400 IU per day or placebo for 7 years to find the effect of these supplements on hip fractures. A secondary endpoint of the study was the supplements’ effect on invasive breast cancer.

The researchers found that there wasn’t any significant difference in the number of patients who developed invasive breast cancer in the supplement group and the placebo group, as it was 528 versus 546.

A new study says that women with silicone breast implants may develop a rare form of lymphoma.

The study has been published in the Nov.5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical and its Dutch authors say that the absolute risk of developing this rare form of lymphoma is quite small and it can appear in 0.1 to 0.3 per 100,000 women with silicone implants every year.

Dr. Mitchell Smith, who is head of the lymphoma service at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, says: “Doctors must keep this fact in mind, however, women shouldn’t worry about it, as women with implants have one in many hundreds of thousands or even one in million chances to develop that cancer.”

According to Smith, this finding may prove helpful for scientists to understand the biology of this specific malignancy.

A new study says that coffee or other caffeine-rich foods do not seem to raise breast cancer risk.

Dr. Shumin M. Zhang, who is one of the authors of the study, says: “Caffeine doesn’t appear to boost overall risk of breast cancer.

However Dr. Zhang warned, “ if a high amount of caffeine or more than four cups of coffee are daily consumed by the women who have begin breast disease or breast tumors, they have higher risk of breast cancer.”

The study has been sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and it was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine Oct.13 issue.

The researchers noticed that caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, chocolate and several drugs is considered the commonest ingested drug in the world.

Women remain irritated about the exact way to check their breasts for early on symptoms of breast cancer, according to aid organization.

The medical doctors say there is no proof that meticulous monthly self-examination mitigates breast cancer mortalities and it can lead to redundant biopsies.

In the UK, the focal point is on breast consciousness rather than more multifaceted and implicated checks.

However, Breast Cancer Breakthrough said, “A number of UK women trust over the US-based websites recommending self-investigation”.