Breast cancer

Twenty years ago, only 1–2% of women with cancer in one breast opted for a double mastectomy. Today, that number can approach 25%. Why? According to surgical oncologist Todd Tuttle, the spike is largely explained by an inconsistency between real and perceived risk of developing cancer in the second breast.

This Table Detects Breast Cancer Using Sound Waves, Not X-Rays

Traditional mammography machines—besides being uncomfortable—rely on ionizing radiation to image a patient’s breasts. And as all we all know, radiation ironically increases the risk of cancer developing. So a company called Delphinus Medical Technologies has developed a safer alternative called the SoftVue which instead uses ultrasonic sound waves bouncing around inside a large water tank.…

World’s biggest ball pit is a sea filled with one million balls of fun

If you’re wondering where heaven on Earth is, it’s in China. Surprising, I know. But it’s undeniable after you see this ginormous pink and green ball pit found at the Kerry Hotel in Shanghai. It’s the world’s largest ball pit and stretches over 80 feet long and 40 feet wide. The pit is filled with…

Squeezing Boobs Can Stop Breast Cancer

If you need another excuse to show some love to the mammaries, scientists have found that squeezing breasts can actually prevent malignant breast cells from triggering cancer. Yes, squeezing. Guys and gals, do your part in stopping cancer, please. Gautham Venugopalan, a lead member on the research team from the University of California in Berkeley,…

South Korea Rules That a Samsung Chip Plant Gave Its Employee Cancer

Just when it thought allegations of poor working conditions were grounded, Samsung has been accused by the South Korean government of running a chip plant that causes cancer. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-audit-finds-no-underage-workers-but-some-serio-5940185 The Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service claims that it was working at a Samsung Electronics factory that caused the breast cancer of a worker who…

The Best Breast Cancer Scanner Might Be a Souped-Up Sports Bra

Cancer is easier to defeat the earlier it’s detected. And while getting a weekly mammogram to catch breast cancer in its earliest stages is impractical, wearing a smart sports bra that’s just as effective at early detection isn’t. So First Warning Systems’ Breast Tissue Screening Bra has the potential to revolutionize screenings. Using extremely precise…

Watch Porn on Pornhub to Donate Money to Breast Cancer Research

You’ll never feel better about watching porn (other than the last time you watched porn) on Pornhub because the site just announced that it will donate money for every porn video watched in the month of October. It’s for breast cancer research—a great, great cause. Here are the specifics: Hey, we all love boobs! So…

Study Splits Breast Cancer Into Four Treatable Types

For decades, breast cancer was considered a single disease. Recent research, however, suggested it was a number of genetically distinct variations—and now a new study has split the disease into four differently treatable types. https://gizmodo.com/breast-cancer-is-actually-ten-different-diseases-5903362 The study, published yesterday in Nature, is the first comprehensive genetic analysis of breast cancer to date. It suggests that…

Would You Ever Let a Doctor Touch Your Breast With This Weird Glove?

The video above demonstrates the second prototype of the Med Sensation breast exam glove. Developed by, er, students at Singularity University, the glove is stacked with sensors, which are supposed to give doctors unprecedented feedback while performing breast exams. In theory that could lead to better results and saved lives. Except a lot of people…

New Blood Test Could Predict Breast Cancer Years in Advance

A new blood test which identifies a genetic change that doubles the risk of breast cancer could allow doctors to identify women at high risk of the disease years before they develop a tumor. The research, which is published in Cancer Research, analyzed blood samples from 1,380 women of various ages, 640 of whom went…

We’ve Been Treating the Deadliest Form of Breast Cancer All Wrong

One of the worst things you can hear from you doctor is that you, or a loved one, has “triple negative” breast cancer. It stubbornly refuses to respond to the best treatments available, so doctors have to resort to chemotherapy. It strikes 16 percent of breast cancer patients, most of them younger than 40. But…

Mammogram Overdiagnosis Leads to Needless Chemotherapy, Mastectomies

A new study shows that up to 25 percent of women who have harmless breast tumors undergo invasive cancer treatments anyway, because mammograms don’t differentiate between agressive cancers and those that would never cause symptoms. It might sound weird that some cancers would never develop into full-blown disease—but harmless breast cancers apparently exist. Doctors usually…

Breakthrough treatment could fight both leukemia and breast cancer

A new avenue of treatment could fight two of the most prominent cancers — effectively hitting both leukemia and breast cancer. We could soon be inhibiting tumor growth by targeting a single protein, and this could revolutionize treatments of both diseases. Two papers published this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine examine the protein…

Wonder Woman and She-Hulk give themselves breast exams in Mozambique

Call me crazy, but I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Marvel and DC didn’t sign off on these Mozambican print spots depicting comicdom’s foremost superheroines mid-breast exam. You can’t really argue that further breast cancer awareness is a bad thing, but I find the implications of the latter two ads…

Cheating on your low-carb diet helps you lose weight – and could prevent breast cancer, too

Low carbohydrate diets go in and out of fashion for weight loss, but a new piece of research suggests that an occasional low carb day is better than traditional diets for helping to prevent breast cancer. The findings are set to be presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where the researchers describe a…

Portable Breast Cancer Detector Brings Checkups To the Patient

It doesn’t matter how advanced a breast cancer detection system is, it’s only effective if patients have access to it. So Nihon University has developed a portable unit that can be taken to those without access to a hospital. Using a technology known as the phase shift method, the handheld detector emits light with a…

Was the FDA Right to Declare Avastin Ineffective for Breast Cancer?

The Food and Drug Administration declared this morning that the blockbuster pharmaceutical Avastin — one of the world’s best-selling cancer drugs — should no longer be prescribed for the treatment of breast cancer, claiming that the drug has proven to be neither safe nor effective in treating the disease. But is it the right decision?…

Woman Has Her Breasts and Uterus Removed—and She Didn’t Even Have Cancer

A 35-year-old woman preemptively had a hysterectomy and had her breasts removed after she tested positive for a gene strongly associated with breast and ovarian cancer. It sounds drastic, but it’s what some women with the same diagnosis choose to do; the BRCA1 gene gives women like Dana Bushman, combined with her family history of…

The same gene promotes prostate cancer and prevents breast cancer

More and more members of the general public are becoming familiar with the idea that “cancer” is not one disease, but rather a word used to describe numerous diseases with countless underlying causes. Now, researchers have discovered a single gene that promotes one form of cancer when it’s turned on, and another when it’s turned…

A sobering reminder on what breast cancer is (and isn’t)

It’s national breast cancer awareness month, which means you’ll be hearing plenty of reminders about the importance of early detection, and what you can do to catch the disease before it takes your life. And while regular breast exams are obviously valuable, it’s important to remember that the facts behind breast cancer don’t always gel…