Breast cancer patients who participated in a remote weight loss intervention program lost an average of 4.7 percent of their baseline body weight after one year, while those in the education only control group gained an average 1 percent of their baseline weight, according to a new report from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators. The findings from the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) clinical trial set the stage for ongoing research to determine if weight loss following breast cancer treatment can reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and extend survival.

About The Study: In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, a telephone-based weight loss intervention induced significant weight loss in patients with breast cancer with overweight and obesity across demographic and treatment factors. Further follow-up of the Breast Cancer Weight Loss trial will evaluate whether the weight loss intervention improves disease outcomes.

A new study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has found that adding the targeted therapy everolimus to standard carboplatin chemotherapy extends the time before disease progression in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat forms of breast cancer.

Santa Monica Breast Surgeon and Founder of the Pink Lotus Breast Center Kristi Funk, MD, FACS, received the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine at the International Conference on Nutrition and Medicine (ICNM) on Aug. 15. The award was presented by Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a public health advocacy nonprofit with more than 17,000 doctor members.

University of Arizona researchers devised a new method to deliver cancer chemotherapy drugs to pancreatic and breast cancer tumors more effectively and with less damage to healthy tissues than standard forms of chemotherapy. They repackaged the drug paclitaxel, creating a new formulation that may help overcome some common limitations of chemotherapy drugs, including toxicity, setting the stage for a promising new platform for treating cancer and other diseases.

When triple-negative breast cancer grows, the fat cells around it seem to shrink.  

UCSF researchers have discovered that the cells of these tumors, which are among the deadliest types of breast cancer, build molecular tunnels, called gap junctions, into nearby fat cells. The tumor cells then send instructions that trigger the fat cells to release stores of energy that could feed the cancer.