Researchers uncover new risk factors for brain metastases in breast cancer patients
Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 14:00
in Health & Medicine
Nearly one-fifth of all metastatic breast cancer patients develop brain metastases and have significantly shorter overall survival than patients who do not have brain involvement. One way to improve the affected patients' survival might be to prevent the brain metastases from arising in the first place. With that in mind, researchers have been working on a predictive model that accurately identifies these high risk patients. Now, Veeraiah Siripurapu, M.D., and colleagues from Fox Chase Cancer Center have verified several factors -- including high tumor grade, negative progesterone receptor status, and inflammatory breast cancer -- that are associated with an increased risk.
