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Urine Samples Could Reveal Breast Cancer Risk
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 For his part, Dr. Eric P. Winer, director of the Breast Oncology Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, emphasized that the "findings are very preliminary."
"Any test -- particularly an easier blood, urine or saliva test -- that could reliably give us a better sense of risk could be useful," he said. "But we have to be very careful when we apply new tests like this in the clinic to make sure that, before we do so, these tests are shown to be reliable and an improvement over what presently exists. So, there's still a lot of work to be done."
Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer at the American Cancer Society, agreed.
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"In theory, this could be really good," she said. "And biomarkers are an exciting field. But aside from this being preliminary, we also have to deal with the question, what are we going to do with those women who have this biomarker? Because we already have ways to know which women are at increased risk, but we don't have a lot to recommend for them once they're identified."
"So, before going further, we really have to figure out just how high-risk are women with these biomarkers in the first place," Saslow added. "And while we'd all like to find a noninvasive way to detect cancer risk, until such questions are answered, my immediate reaction is a little more negative than positive."
More information
For the latest on breast cancer screening, visit the National Cancer Institute.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 10/3/2008
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SOURCES: Marsha A. Moses, Ph.D., Vascular Biology Program, Children's Hospital Boston; Debbie Saslow, Ph.D., director, breast and gynecologic cancer, American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Eric P. Winer, M.D., director, Breast Oncology Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; May 2008, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention
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