A new study has demonstrated a significant benefit of adding a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to the standard diagnostic workup following a new diagnosis of breast cancer in one breast.

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By using MRI to examine the opposite breast in a population of 969 women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, researchers from the NCI-funded American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) discovered 3.1 percent of the patients had cancers in the contralateral breast that were missed by standard practice mammography and clinical breast exam. A negative result on the MRI exam of the contralateral breast nearly eliminated the likelihood (0.3 percent) of cancer being found in that breast over the next year, they reported in the March 29 New England Journal of Medicine.  Read more  

More and more Americans are surviving cancer and are continuing to live productive lives. However, many Hispanics and Latinos in the United States have not heard this message, and they have not benefited from advances in early detection and treatment. NCI's new Spanish-language Web site (http://www.cancer.gov/espanol), launched yesterday, strongly communicates the message that cancer can be prevented and treated, in addition to offering information on all aspects of the disease.

From the very beginning, our goal was to create a site tailored to meet the needs of Latinos who seek cancer information online. Rather than simply translating the English version of the site - which would be no small task in itself - we developed a site designed specifically for this audience. The pages are organized around the issues of greatest concern to Latinos, based on surveys and focus groups.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.