ACS News Today

According to a new study published this week in Breast Cancer Research, daily aspirin use appears to slightly reduce the risk of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, the most common type of breast cancer. However, the current evidence isn't strong enough to suggest women take aspirin as a preventative measure, and experts caution against regular use of the painkiller for this purpose, warning it can cause serious gastrointestinal bleeding.

Regular exposure to hair dyes, processing agents, and other chemicals used in hair salons and barbershops probably increases cancer risk, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a World Health Organization panel that maintains the world's most commonly-used system for classifying carcinogens. But there’s not enough evidence to say whether personal use of these products is linked to elevated risk, according to the report.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a relatively slow-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, now have a new treatment option. The FDA has approved Treanda (bendamustine hydrochloride), a chemotherapy drug shown to slow progression of the disease. The drug, marketed by the biopharmaceutical company Cephalon, will be available to patients in April.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that colorectal cancer testing in the US has been rising steadily since 2002, a sign of slow but encouraging progress in the fight against a cancer that's largely curable when caught early, and can even be prevented in some cases.

Preventing colon cancer from ever starting is the focus of new colorectal cancer screening guidelines issued Wednesday by the American Cancer Society.

Drugs prescribed to boost red blood cell counts in cancer patients who become anemic may actually be raising patients' risk of death, according to a new study led by researchers at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Just two months after an advisory panel narrowly recommended against approving the drug Avastin (bevacizumab) for breast cancer treatment, the FDA has granted accelerated approval for use of the drug pending ongoing studies.

Uninsured or Medicaid-insured patients are far more likely to be diagnosed with an advanced stage cancer than those with private insurance, according to a new American Cancer Society study of 3.5 million cancer patients with 12 of the most common cancer types.

Cancer mortality rates in the US continue to decline, although the number of actual cancer-related deaths has gone up, according to Cancer Facts and Figures 2008, the American Cancer Society's annual cancer statistics report. While that sounds like mixed news, ACS experts say progress is being made in the fight against cancer.