AFP - A mother who is the first woman in Britain to have a baby selected free of a gene which causes breast cancer has given birth succesfully, doctors said Friday.

AP - Hospitals in about a dozen states are testing whether some simple steps, such as arm-strengthening exercises, could reduce the risk of one of breast cancer's troubling legacies — the painful and sometimes severe arm swelling called lymphedema. Lymphedema has long been a neglected side effect of cancer surgery and radiation: Many women say they never were warned, even though spotting this problem early improves outcomes.

Reuters - Certain breast cancer survivors who load up on fruits and vegetables, eating far more than current U.S. guidelines, can slash their risk the tumors will come back by nearly a third, according to a U.S. study released on Monday.

AP - A new test to predict an ordinary woman's odds of getting breast cancer works better than a method doctors have relied on for decades, researchers reported Friday. The test is the first to combine dozens of genes and personal factors like age and childbearing to gauge risk in women who don't have a strong family history of the disease. They account for three-fourths of all cases.

AP - New research adds fresh hope that a drug that strengthens bones might also fight breast cancer. Women who were given the drug, Zometa, as part of their initial treatment had greater tumor shrinkage and were less likely to need radical surgery, according to a preliminary study reported Thursday at a cancer conference in Texas.

Reuters - The most commonly used breast cancer drug may cause tumors to spread in a small number of women with low levels of a protein which makes cells stick together, British researchers said on Thursday.

Reuters - Researchers who tracked breast cancer rates in Norwegian women proposed the controversial notion on Monday that some tumors found with mammograms might otherwise naturally disappear on their own if left undetected.

AP - If breast cancer runs in the family, women can be at high risk even if they test free of the disease's most common gene mutations, sobering new research shows.

Reuters - In a puzzling twist, women who have a history of migraine headaches are far less likely to develop breast cancer than other women, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

AFP - A group of 80 women from 15 countries scaled a 4,000-metre Alpine mountain Saturday to highlight the need for better breast cancer treatment across Europe.

AP - A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms, doctors reported Wednesday.

Reuters - Women who stay active after being diagnosed with breast cancer -- and even those who take up exercise for the first time after diagnosis -- have a better chance of surviving the disease, a new study shows.

AFP - The risk of patients treated for breast cancer seeing a recurrence of the disease within five years remains low, according to a new study by American scientists.

AP - Remember peeking through a View-Master? Scientists are using the same concept behind the classic kids' toy to try to see mammograms in 3-D.

AFP - European doctors said Friday they had identified a genetic characteristic that strongly worsens survival chances for women with breast cancer who are treated with a common form of chemotherapy.

AFP - Women deficient in vitamin D at the time of a breast cancer diagnosis are more likely to die or see the tumor spread, a Canadian study published in the United States has shown.

Reuters - Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unless they were first-born, study findings suggest.

Reuters - Five percent of breast cancer tumors appear to double in size in just over a month, Norwegian researchers said on Thursday in a study underscoring the potential benefits of more frequent screening.

Reuters - A large U.S. study has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of the most common type of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Reuters - A small trial of an experimental vaccine designed to trigger the immune system to fight breast cancer suggests that it may reduce the risk of death for most patients, U.S. military researchers said on Sunday.

Reuters - Women with high blood levels of an estrogen-like compound found in soy seem to have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, a new study suggests.

AFP - Highly aggressive breast cancers might in future be "put to sleep" rather than attacked with chemotherapy, research from an Australian scientist published Wednesday suggests.

Reuters - GlaxoSmithKline Plc announced further clinical trial results on Sunday underlining the ability of a drug combination including its product Tykerb to fight breast cancer that has spread to the brain.

AP - For the first time, doctors have used stem cells from liposuctioned fat to fix breast defects in women who have had cancerous lumps removed.

AP - Doctors are encouraging a new group of people to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer: men. Male relatives of women with such genes often do not realize that they, too, may carry them, and face greater odds of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer, new research suggests.

AP - Doctors are encouraging a new group of people to consider getting tested for genes that raise the risk of breast cancer: men. Male relatives of women with such genes often do not realize that they, too, may carry them, and face greater odds of developing male breast cancer, as well as prostate, pancreatic and skin cancer, new research suggests.

Reuters - The benefits of Roche Holding AG's cancer drug Avastin in breast cancer should be weighed against some toxic side effects including the potential for death, U.S. regulatory staffers said in documents released on Monday.