The latest breast cancer research to know about

It’s estimated that more than 325,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime (according to BreastCancer.org). This is a lot of ladies (and a small number of men as well), and we all know that breast cancer is the subject of a lot of research. Treatments and reconstruction techniques have advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, but a good portion of this research is dedicated to prevention, and I wanted to share the latest developments that just might help eradicate breast cancer in years to come. The more you know the better, right?

Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center is studying a vaccine that could enlist the help of the immune system to identify and destroy breast cancer cells. It’s important to note that this vaccine is only intended to prevent triple-negative breast cancers, which are among the most aggressive.

Because triple-negative cancers lack a hormonal component, the most common breast cancer drugs that target estrogen, progesterone and HER2 hormones are not effective options for these patients. This vaccine goes after a protein that is found in more than 70% of triple-negative breast cancers, and the first stage of the study will include a small number of women who have already been diagnosed and tried other treatments. If proven safe, the study will expand to women who are at increased risk for this type of cancer in order to assess its preventative performance.

There’s another big development, and this one may be a game-changer for breast cancer screening. Researchers are working on a blood test that could identify breast cancer markers, in hopes of catching the disease before it has a chance to advance. Just keep in mind that the ultimate goal of this blood test is to complement screenings like mammograms and MRIs—not replace them. This potentially means that cancers that go undetected by imaging could be caught early on. In my case, my cancer was found on an MRI, but it was so small it would not have been seen on a mammogram. I can’t even think about what would have happened if my cancer wasn’t found when it was, so this blood test would be HUGE for all women.