Italian Model Accurately Predicts the Absolute Risk of Breast Cancer

An Italian risk model was just as accurate as a commonly used U.S. model at predicting a future breast cancer diagnosis, according to a new study. The new data may eventually be used to improve both models by adding other risk factors, such as diet.

Adriano Decarli, Ph.D., of the University of Milan in Italy, and colleagues used data from a multicenter case control study in Italy and Italian cancer registries to develop an Italian version of the Gail model, a common model to predict the absolute risk of breast cancer. They assessed the model's ability to predict the observed number of cancers in subsets of the population.

The authors found that the Italian model was equivalent to the Gail model as a predictor of breast cancer. They suggest that the Italian data used to create the model may be useful in revising the Gail model to include additional risk factors for breast cancer.

In an accompanying editorial, Joann Elmore, M.D., of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle writes that risk models still cannot accurately predict an individual's risk of developing breast cancer. "Because we still cannot predict accurately enough which individual woman will or will not develop breast cancer, there is much work yet to do in the field of cancer risk prediction."

Contact:
Article: Adriano Decarli, 39-347-8447457, Adriano.decarli@unimi.it
Editorial: Susan Gregg-Hanson, 206-731-4097, sghanson@u.washington.edu

Some Breast Chemotherapies Can Cause Cognitive Decline

Some types of breast cancer chemotherapy can negatively affect patients' cognitive ability, a new study reports.

Sanne B. Schagen, Ph.D., of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, and colleagues examined cognition in breast cance
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Contact: Andrea Widener
jncimedia@oxfordjournals.org
301-841-1286
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
5-Dec-2006