After rising for more than two decades, the incidence of breast cancer in the United States decreased sharply in 2003 and remained low for another year, researchers are reporting.

The researchers attribute the drop to a decrease in the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that occurred at about the same time. Starting in mid-2002, millions of women stopped using HRT after an NIH study linked certain hormones to health risks, including breast cancer. Read more  

It was nearly 20 years ago when I first came to NCI, spending 2 years conducting basic research on lung cancer at the U.S. National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. I eventually took a post abroad in the Netherlands, but I am elated to return to NCI as the new chief of the Medical Oncology Branch in the Center for Cancer Research (CCR).

I greatly enjoyed my 16-year tenure at the Free University Hospital in Amsterdam. But it is a welcome opportunity to once again be part of NCI and its efforts to spearhead continued advances in cancer research and to train the next generation of cancer researchers. Read more  

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