CBCRP-Funded Research in the Media

Breast Fluid May Mean Cancer Risk

WASHINGTON—Researchers who studied specimens from thousands of women suggest that the presence of abnormal cells in breast fluid may predict a doubled risk of breast cancer.

In a study appearing Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the researchers said that analyzing fluids extracted from nonpregnant and nonlactating women showed that those with abnormal cells were twice as likely to develop breast cancer. “Our study shows that if you can get fluid from a woman and there are abnormal cells in that fluid, then it is an indication of increased risk of breast cancer,” said Margaret R.

Wrensch, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and first author of the study.

—From a December 4, 2001 Associated Press Report.

Doc No Holiday

SAN FRANCISCO—Dr. Arthur Coleman is 81 years old and can't quit. He is the only privately practicing family physician left in San Francisco's neglected Bayview-Hunters Point district, where the city's largest concentration of African Americans lives.

Coleman, a man who knows exactly how badly he's needed, still works seven days a week and even makes house calls, toting a black leather medical bag.

When Coleman leaves his practice—and he's not saying when—the neighborhood loses its first black doctor, a 50-year health care and civil rights advocate, and a relic of a bygone era when the family doctor would call after hours just to see how you're feeling.

—From a profile of Dr. Coleman in the San Francisco Chronicle, May 23, 2001.

With funding from the CBCRP, Dr. Coleman added research to his 7-day-a-week medical practice. During 2000, he and a colleague completed a study on barriers African American women face in getting timely follow-up care after they have abnormal mammograms.

Laser May Be Breast Cancer Tool

IRVINE—Researchers at the Beckman Laser Institute developed a painless scanner that they believe can better diagnose breast cancer in young women.

After 10 years of working out complicated equations and building a hand-held laser scanner, institute professor Bruce Tromberg and his team found that lasers similar to those in CD players can detect the kinds of subtle changes in tissue that lead to cancerous growths.

—From a February 2001 article in the Orange County Register.

Medical Breakthroughs: Chinese Breast Cancer Therapy May Help Fight Disease

BAKERSFIELD—Chinese herbs. Some swear by them, while others scoff. Now, doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, are trying to find out, once and for all, if they work.

Oncologist Debu Tripathy, M.D., is studying 60 women with early stage breast cancer to see if herbal therapy can help reduce the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy. He says, “All our patients ask us about this and we really don't have good information to give them.”

—From a February 7, 2002 segment on KGET 17 TV News in Bakersfield.

Dr. Tripathy's research on Tibetan herbal medicine for breast cancer was also profiled on January 1, 2001, on the NBC program Dateline.