News tagged with 'American Cancer Society'

Young women with a high-risk of breast cancer may want to pay attention to the latest findings released Monday suggesting even low doses of radiation from mammograms may increase their risk of breast cancer.

In a sudden turnabout, a major policy setting organization is discouraing regular mammograms for women in their 40s, saying the anxiety from false positives and surgical procedures outweighs the benefits.

There is good new and bad news to report about breast cancer, but overall, the American Cancer Society in this 2009-2010 report says that the deaths rates have been steadily declining about 2 percent a year.

A virus may be linked to the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. If a test can be developed, it will potentially help identify which cancers should be treated, and which can progress under watchful waiting.

The PSA test for prostate cancer is not specific enough to determine if a cancer is fast growing or not, and as a result, many men are treated aggressively for prostate cancer, which carries its own risks and side effects.

Saying things like they find it a "dirty habit," increasingly teens are turning away from smoking, according to this survey from the University of Michigan of 45,000 high school students.  That reflects the trends among adults, although the number of deaths from smoking are on the rise.

A new plan released this week by the National Working Group for ACTTION says by 2020, all cigarette smokers will have access to smoking cessation treatments. But for now, start by joining Smokeout 08 and quit for a day, then quit for life, urges the American Cancer Society.

The number of Americans who smoke cigarettes has fallen below 20 percent, for the first time since the mid-1960s, according to a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While this is good news, deaths related to cigarette smoking are still on the rise.

New research finds 75 percent of current smokers trying to quit are highly nicotine-dependent, an 15-year high. Experts note nicotine dependence widely varies from smoker to smoker.

Milk duct breast cancer had typically had a worse prognosis in younger women, but this research out of Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center, found that a combination of multiple surgeries, radiation and targeted radiation led to outcomes similar to survival for older women. 

In the U.S. 16,000 to 24,000 people who never smoked, die from lung cancer. It has perplexed researchers who suspect that genetic susceptibility may be one factor along with exposure to polluted air, asbestos, radon, solvents and second hand smoke. Now a new study of 2.4 million nonsmokers who contracted lung cancer provides a new look at the issue.