The latest in breast cancer research
According to state health statistics, roughly 13 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in New Jersey are younger than age 45, while nearly half of the women diagnosed with the disease and seen at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) are not yet 50. Why do some women develop breast cancer so much earlier than others? The goal of an ongoing clinical trial is to identify genetic markers for this disease that remains the second-leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States.

The study that investigators at CINJ are conducting is a blood study. They’re enrolling women and men who have had breast cancer, as well as those who have not, isolating their DNA, and looking for specific genes to see if there are differences in the DNA sequence between those who do and don’t have breast cancer.

“What we’ve seen so far is that there are DNA sequences that have identified groups of women who are at a higher risk for developing breast cancer at an earlier age — almost a decade earlier than their counterparts,” says Dr. Kim M. Hirshfield, M.D., Ph.D., lead investigator in the current study and assistant professor of medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Hirshfield and her team are thinking that risk factors for breast cancer are not determined by a single gene or region, but rather a combination of those genes and gene regions.

To learn more about this study and the latest in breast cancer research, pick up the latest issue of New Jersey Countryside Magazine, available now at bookstores, on newsstands and by subscription. Click here to get one free bonus issue and save more than 80% on a subscription.