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<p>A commentary by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researchers published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology Practice </em>suggests that advances in breast cancer prevention research have resulted in new and innovative opportunities to modify breast cancer risk and potentially reduce breast cancer incidence and mortality.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>"It is prudent for health care providers to be knowledgeable about the benefits of assessing individual breast cancer risk, and counsel and implement risk-reducing strategies with their patients, says Sandhya Pruthi, M.D., a Mayo Clinic internist and author of the commentary.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Dr. Pruthi encourages evidence-based, risk-reducing strategies include lifestyle modification, preventive anti-estrogen medications, surveillance breast imaging and genetic testing. Women at high risk of harboring a hereditary breast cancer mutation should consider prophylactic surgery to reduce risk.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>"Physicians should be recommending individualized risk assessments for their patients and counseling them on interventions that range from lifestyle modifications to the use of preventive (anti-estrogen) medications or conjugated equine estrogen," says Dr. Pruthi.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>She says these strategies may be beneficial in reducing hormone-sensitive breast cancer tumors that have a good prognosis, and they also may be beneficial in preventing tumors that are not hormone-sensitive and have a poor prognosis.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>"For many years, breast cancer prevention research has primarily focused on the use of anti-estrogen medications to reduce the incidence of favorable, hormone-sensitive breast cancers, but it is critical that we reexamine and implement other risk-reducing strategies to prevent unfavorable breast cancers, known as triple-negative tumors," says Dr. Pruthi.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>She encourages women and their health care providers to consider a comprehensive approach to breast cancer prevention that includes risk assessment; awareness of modifiable lifestyle factors, including low-fat dietary interventions; and use of medications that reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Dr. Pruthi says her commentary was based on research conducted in two large randomized clinical trials: the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification trial and the Women's Health Initiative randomized trial with conjugated equine estrogen in women with prior hysterectomy. She says both clinical trials demonstrated a reduction in death from breast cancer.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>By Joe Dangor. Source:<a href="https:// newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/ discussion/mayo-clinic-researchers-advocate-new-approach-to-breast-cancer-prevention/"> https:// newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/ discussion/mayo-clinic-researchers-advocate-new-approach-to-breast-cancer-prevention/ </a></p>
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<p>Exclusive content from CARE magazine</p>
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