Young women with breast cancer in their family background who need treatment for the disease themselves need not worry that it will be any less successful for them as for women without a family history, suggests a study comparing sporadic versus hereditary breast cancer.
The authors say younger women have a greater fear of breast cancer recurrence than older women, and that those with a strong family history may have a high level of anxiety.

The large study published in the British Journal of Surgery offers a hopeful conclusion - that young patients "presenting to breast surgical clinics with a positive family history can be reassured that this is not a significant independent risk factor for breast cancer outcome."

The findings are from a large prospective cohort study - so had a strong scientific design for finding links between disease factors and outcomes - and involved 2,850 women under age 41 years who were diagnosed with breast cancer and treated in the UK.

Ramsey Cutress, an associate professor in breast surgery at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust in the UK, did the analysis with colleagues on data from the so-called POSH study (prospective outcomes in sporadic vs. hereditary breast cancer).

The team followed the women for 15 years to record personal characteristics, tumor characteristics, breast cancer treatment, disease-free periods and family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer.

No significant differences in rates of cancer returning after treatment were seen for women with a family history of breast cancer compared with those without.

Cutress sums up how this study means young women with experience of breast cancer in their family now have cause to be less worried:

"Successful treatment for breast cancer is just as likely in young patients with a family history of breast cancer, as in those without a family history.

Patients with a family history of breast cancer can therefore be reassured that their family history alone does not mean that their outcome will be worse."

The 2,850 women analyzed were those from 3,095 recruited to the POSH study who could yield data on whether or not there was a history in their family of breast cancer.

Two thirds of the patients reported no history, while a third reported breast/ovarian cancer in at least one first- or second-degree relative.

Such family relationships include parent or sibling for first-degree relatives, and uncle, aunt, grandparent and so on for second-degree.

Different cancer characteristics but similar chances of staying disease-free

The results for cancer characteristics showed that women with a family history were more likely than those without to have higher-grade tumors (to have grade 3 tumors - 63.3% versus 58.9%), and their tumors were more likely (28.8% versus 24.7%) to be negative for HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) than in the women without heredity.

Women with breast cancer in their family background are more likely to have the disease - but no more likely to relapse after treatment, study finds.

The hereditary element of breast cancer cause in women with a family history is complex - background genetic etiology is "likely to be accounted for by a wide spectrum of genes and modes of inheritance," say the authors. However, they cite a simpler fact in reviewing previous evidence:

"Approximately 25% of breast cancers in developed countries are thought to be related to hereditary factors and these usually present at a younger age than sporadic breast tumors."

The study findings add some clarity for these younger women with family history thinking about the potential outcomes of their disease.

The similar outlook for them as for those without close relatives being diagnosed comes from the following percentage results.

The estimated distant disease-free intervals (DDFI) - measured as the time from the date of diagnosis of invasive breast cancer to distant relapse or death from breast cancer - were, for a 5-year period:

74.9% for the group without family history77.4% for women positive for family history.

The respective 8-year DDFI rates were 68.7% and 72%.

These comparable rates meant "no significant differences in distant disease-free intervals for patients with versus those without a family history," the authors report.

These results for the whole cohort of women remained true when they were stratified to different groups by estrogen receptor (ER) status.

In other breast cancer news last week, a report in the journal Radiology finds a potential role for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast cancer prediction.

Written by Markus MacGill

  Warning: Do not eat while reading Shutterstock
Put your food down for a sec, especially if there's dairy in it. Really, we're warning you.
A woman in Maryland was arrested last week for putting dead skin shavings from her feet into her family’s milk. That’s right—she put skin from her feet into their milk…and they drank it.
Sarah P. Schrock was arrested and charged with poisoning and contaminating food, three counts of assault, and failure to comply with a peace order, according to Southern Maryland Newspapers Online. She was caught when her family members began choking and coughed up what looked like dead skin.
RELATED: 5 Ways to Deal With Stanky Feet
Family member Jessica Whitney Hurry said in court papers that Sarah, who has diabetes, has “trays in her room with the same kind of dead skin shavings that had come off of her feet.” For the record, Sarah denies having anything to do with it.
Sarah isn’t the first person to (allegedly) put something gross in other people’s food. A woman was caught on video last year (photo below), squirting her breast milk into her office’s milk carton, a college student in Michigan was busted in 2012 for putting bleach in her roommate’s iced tea, and a slew of waiters have admitted to spitting in people’s food. But this is the first we’ve heard of foot shavings.

While there’s nothing appetizing about ingesting someone’s dead foot skin, can you actually get sick from it? Unfortunately yes, experts say, and the largest problem is bacterial.


RELATED: The 10 Most Repulsive Runner’s Feet Photos You’ll Ever See
“There could be anything on your feet—literally, anything,” says Dana Cohen, M.D., an internist practicing in New York City. If any kind of bacteria is on someone’s foot and then gets into your food, it can make its way into your stomach and make you sick.
(Would you want peeling skin from someone's foot in your next glass of milk?)
 A photo posted by Clare Bear (@cleegan) on Apr 18, 2015 at 5:39am PDT
Cohen says fecal matter is one of the biggest concerns, especially in warmer weather when a person may be walking outside barefoot and pick up traces of dog poop on their feet. That could then cause diarrhea, vomiting, or worse, she says.
Certified nutritionist and board-certified family physician James Pinckney II, M.D., says people would particularly need to be wary of MRSA, a largely drug-resistant bacteria that can cause a host of infections. Pinckney says it’s also possible that a person could develop an infection from pseudomonas, a bacteria that’s common among people with diabetes like Sarah. “It can cause a gastrointestinal infection, but it’s pretty rare,” he says.
RELATED: 7 Ways to Keep Your Feet Looking Pretty All Summer Long
While all of this is possible, Pinckney says it’s more likely that nothing would happen. “Dust is comprised of 99 percent dead skin cells,” he points out. “It’s probably fairly harmless.”
Moral of the story? Yes, it’s completely and utterly disgusting, but you’re probably going to be okay if someone’s dead skin makes its way into your food.