Testing can reveal whether you carry a genetic variant that increases your chance of developing breast and ovarian cancers, allowing patients to take measures to catch and treat cancer early. Some even choose preventive procedures, like Angelina Jolie, who underwent a mastectomy after learning she carried a pathogenic variant of BRCA1. But lack of testing means many people don’t know they could be at heightened risk. Now a new study published in Frontiers in Genetics shows that 19.7% of breast and ovarian cancer patients’ family members in Estonia carry potentially dangerous genetic variants. This included 34% of men tested and a high proportion of patients too young to have received regular screening.  

Together, these recognitions illustrate Ochsner MD Anderson’s focus on delivering coordinated comprehensive cancer care from prevention and screening to diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. Ochsner MD Anderson’s multidisciplinary approach brings together specialists across cancer disciplines to support patients with complex and varied needs.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new therapy regimen for patients with “double-positive” metastatic breast cancer based on results of the phase 3 PATINA study led by Otto Metzger, MD, Associate Medical Director of International Strategic Initiatives at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The PATINA trial demonstrated that the addition of the CDK 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib to standard therapy in patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer resulted in a more than 15-month improvement in progression-free survival. The findings were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and also presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December 2024.

Between 2015 and 2022, men were more likely than women to be diagnosed with regional and/or distant stages of 20 nonreproductive solid cancer types in the United States, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).