The risk of developing breast cancer may have been underestimated in African-American women, according to the results of a recent study. The Breast Cancer Assessment Tool, also known as the Gail model, is frequently used to estimate a woman’s risk of breast cancer based upon several factors including family breast cancer history and age at first childbirth. However, the original model was developed based on data from white women, which researchers believe may differ from breast disease characteristics of African-American women. Researchers have recently developed a new version of the model, called CARE, using data from African-American women, which they believe more accurately predicts these women’s risk of breast cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the drug raloxifene (brand name, Evista) to reduce the risk of invasive breast cancer in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis and in post-menopausal women at high risk for invasive breast cancer. Before the approval, tamoxifen was the only drug FDA-approved to prevent breast cancer in high-risk women. The FDA's approval of raloxifene provides eligible women with another option to help guard against breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 62,000 news cases of carcinoma in situ will be diagnosed this year. A common type of carcinoma in situ called DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ or intraductal carcinoma) accounts for nearly 25% of all breast cancer diagnoses. With DCIS, the cancer cells are confined to milk ducts in the breast and have not spread into the fatty breast tissue or to any other part of the body, such as the lymph nodes. This article provides information about DCIS, including how it is diagnosed and treated.

Unlike DCIS, metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage (stage IV) of breast cancer. Cancer cells have spread past the breast and axillary lymph nodes to other areas of the body where they continue to grow and multiply. In 10% of breast cancer diagnoses, the cancer has already spread to distant organs in the body. This article discusses the types of advanced breast cancer, where breast cancer may spread, and how the disease is diagnosed and treated.