Women Calculate Breast Cancer Risk with New Web Site

A new Web site, www.breastcancerprevention.com, educates women about breast cancer risk and provides information about an ongoing trial to prevent the disease. Breast cancer will strike 200,000 women in North America in this year alone. More than 40,000 women will die from the disease. Until recently, women had no way to accurately estimate their individual risk for developing breast cancer, nor did they have options to prevent the disease.

The new Web site is sponsored by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), a world renowned, non-profit cancer research group that is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Researchers from the NCI and the NSABP have developed a computerized formula, known as the Gail model, that allows a woman to estimate her risk of developing breast cancer in the next five years and in her lifetime. The model uses factors such as age, family history of breast cancer, and other personal individual factors to determine these estimates. Most importantly, this process has been scientifically analyzed and found to be reliable.

"In my practice, I find that women tend to overestimate their breast cancer risk leading to increased anxiety about developing the disease. Information my patients get about their personal breast cancer risk from the Web site allows me to have a personal conversation with them and to map a strategy for good breast care" said James L. Wade, MD, Medical Director of the DMH Cancer Care Institute.

A decade ago, women at increased risk for breast cancer had no option other than screening designed to detect the disease in its earliest stage—that no longer is the case. In 1998, researchers released findings from the NSABP’s Breast Cancer Prevention Trial showing that the commonly prescribed drug tamoxifen—used for over twenty years to treat the disease—could prevent breast cancer from occurring in almost half the women at increased risk for it. Subsequently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of tamoxifen to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Armed with this finding, the NSABP and the NCI began a follow-up study, the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR). Women who access www.breastcancerprevention.com can learn more about STAR and compare the proven benefits of tamoxifen to the promising effects of raloxifene (in postmenopausal women at increased risk of the disease).

Medical professionals strongly encourage all women to go through this risk assessment process to learn more about their breast cancer risk.

STAR is one of the largest breast cancer studies ever undertaken and will include more than 22,000 postmenopausal women at over 500 sites in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. To date, over 14,400 women are participating in STAR. Once enrolled, women take either tamoxifen or raloxifene daily for five years and obtain close follow-up examinations. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in Wilmington, Delaware, the maker of tamoxifen, and Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, the maker of raloxifene, are providing the drugs at no cost to study participants.

In addition to visiting the Web site, postmenopausal women at increased risk for breast cancer in the Macon County area, can contact DMH Clinical Research at 876.6610, or call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) for more information about STAR.

302 West Hay, Suite 117A Office Hours: 8:00a.m. - 4:30p.m. Monday - Friday 217-876-4377 Fax: 217-876-4374 Email: Pamela McMillen, R.N., B.S.N. Email: Heather Ludwig, R.N., B.S.N.

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