<h2>The Contraceptive Question</h2>
<p>In recent years, we&#8217;ve seen major advances in the capabilities of contraceptives and their availability around the world. However, there&#8217;s still much more work to be done.</p>
<p>There are risks associated with hormonal birth control, as is the case with most medication. However, the current crop of low-dose contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and implants are typically considered to carry a <a href="https://futurism.com/a-new-treatment-destroyed-breast-cancer-tumors-in-11-days-without-chemo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reduced risk of breast cancer</a> compared to the higher dosages that were once the norm. New research carried out at the University of Copenhagen suggests that this may not be the case.</p>
<figure id="attachment_115342" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-115342 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/12/Cyclic_Oral_Contraceptive_28_Day_Close_Up.jpg" alt="A sleeve of birth control pills with nearly two weeks missing. Hormonal contraceptives like these have been linked to breast cancer, even at small doses." width="640" height="640" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">(Image Credit: Mg39913201 / Wikimedia Commons)</figcaption></figure>
<p>The study suggests that the risk of getting breast cancer is small for women in their teens, 20s, and 30s – but it&#8217;s still there. Some 1.8 million women between the age of 15 and 49 were observed for a period of almost eleven years, for a detailed comparison between those who used hormonal birth control and those that used non-hormonal alternatives like condoms, diaphragms, or copper IUDs.</p>
<p>Crucially, this study looked at methods of hormonal birth control beyond the pill, like IUDs, which haven&#8217;t previously been studied in much detail. &#8220;Very little data was available,&#8221; research epidemiologist Lina Mørch, who led the project, told Futurism via email. She noted that only &#8220;one prior study found a similar risk with use of the hormone IUD.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Increased Risk</h2>
<p>The study found that women who used a form of hormonal contraceptives had an increased risk of about twenty percent, compared to the threat of breast cancer for women who used non-hormonal methods. The longer hormonal contraceptives were employed, the greater the risk became.</p>
<p>It should be noted that this twenty percent increase isn&#8217;t quite as menacing as it might sound. The added risk is similar to that brought about by physical inactivity, excessive weight gain in adulthood, or the consumption of one or more alcoholic beverages on average every day, according to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/06/568836583/even-low-dose-contraceptives-slightly-increase-breast-cancer-risk-study-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a report from NPR</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, the difference is that things like alcohol intake and exercise are in the hands of the individual. Many women have no alternative to using hormonal birth control, as a method of contraception or for other reasons, so they are forced to take on that added risk.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth mentioning that there are proven benefits to using oral contraceptives when it comes to other forms of cancer. There&#8217;s evidence that it can reduce the risk of ovarian and <a href="https://futurism.com/researchers-develop-treatment-fight-endometrial-cancer-nanoparticles/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endometrial cancer</a>, as well as some signs that it can reduce the likelihood of colorectal cancer. Still, the ideal scenario would be a method that offers these advantages without the elevated risk of breast cancer.</p>
<h2>A Better Alternative</h2>
<p>Mørch acknowledges that for some women, the benefits of hormonal birth control might outweigh the risks. &#8220;For the very young women that would apply – if they do not have a family history of breast cancer,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Though the total amount of years on hormonal birth control might be limiting, if possible, since the risk is very dependent on duration of use.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, an increased risk of breast cancer isn&#8217;t the only problem associated with current hormonal birth control. Mørch notes that <a href="https://futurism.com/a-pharmaceutical-company-is-officially-using-cannabis-to-treat-disease/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cardiovascular disease</a> and depression have both been associated with hormonal contraceptives. With that in mind, further research into alternative methods certainly seems desirable.</p>
<p>The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is backing the <a href="http://time.com/2963130/the-future-of-birth-control-remote-control-fertility/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fertility Chip</a>, a device that&#8217;s implanted under the skin that would allow for the release of hormones to be controlled remotely, which is set to release in 2018. While this method still relies on hormones, being able to deactivate the chip easily could help reduce unnecessary usage.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r6x2KVNuJkc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>There are also various efforts to expand the field of male birth control. Projects ranging from a <a href="https://futurism.com/theres-a-new-plan-to-make-male-birth-control-a-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gel that&#8217;s applied daily</a> to a <a href="https://futurism.com/4-a-new-method-of-male-birth-control-just-passed-a-major-animal-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-off injection</a> have shown some promise in early testing.</p>
<p>Current methods of hormonal birth control for women are good, but ultimately imperfect. It&#8217;s crucial that we continue to expand access to contraceptives – but there&#8217;s also a need for research into better and more sophisticated options.</p>


Hormonal birth control increases women's breast cancer risk by 20%, similar to the risk brought on by lack of exercise.

It's 2017. Our contraceptives are still harming women.

Birth control pills on surface

Health & Medicine

An 11-year study found that hormonal contraceptives, even at small doses, may still carry an increased risk of causing breast cancer.

It's 2017. Our Contraceptives Are Still Harming Women.

Even low-dose contraceptives increase the risk of breast cancer.

It’s 2017. Our Contraceptives Are Still Harming Women.

<h2>High-Risk Breast Lesions</h2>
<p>A new study reveals that a machine learning tool can help to identify which breast lesions, already classified as “high-risk,” are likely to become cancerous. The researchers behind the study believe that the technology could eliminate unnecessary surgeries. Breast lesions are <a href="https://radiopaedia.org/articles/high-risk-breast-lesion" target="_blank">classified as high-risk</a> after a biopsy reveals they have a higher chance of developing into cancer. Surgical removal is typically the recommended treatment option for these lesions due to the increased risk, even though many of these lesions do not pose an immediate threat. With &#8220;less immediate&#8221; cases, surgery may be deemed unnecessary and follow up imaging or <a href="https://futurism.com/new-low-cost-cancer-treatment-could-kill-tumors-with-ethanol/" target="_blank">other treatments</a> may be found to be the preferred course of action — but only if there is a reliable way of differentiating between the lesions.</p>
<figure style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-106660 size-large aligncenter" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/10/breast-lesions-1-1200x1363.jpg" alt="Image Credit: Radiological Society of North America" width="820" height="931" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Machine learning could drastically improve medical treatment for breast lesions. Image Credit: Radiological Society of North America</figcaption></figure>
<p>“There are different types of high-risk lesions,” Dr. <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2017-10/rson-mli101017.php" target="_blank">Manisha Bahl</a>, study author and radiologist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2017-10/rson-mli101017.php" target="_blank">said in a press release</a>. “Most institutions recommend surgical excision for high-risk lesions such as atypical ductal hyperplasia, for which the risk of upgrade to cancer is about 20 percent. For other types of high-risk lesions, the risk of upgrade varies quite a bit in the literature, and patient management, including the decision about whether to remove or survey the lesion, varies across practices.”</p>
<h2>A Machine Learning Solution</h2>
<p>A research team from MGH, MGH breast imaging experts, and researchers from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) collaborated to study how a machine learning tool could be used to discern which high-risk lesions were more or less likely to turn into cancer. Machine learning allows an artificial intelligence (AI) system to learn from its past experiences and improve its performance as a result, similar to the way in which humans learn.</p>
<p>The model, in this case, analyzed traditional risk factors, like lesion histology and patient age, along with a few more novel features like keywords in biopsy pathology reports. The team trained the machine learning model on patients with high-risk lesions confirmed via biopsy who had either had surgery or two-year imaging after the biopsy and high-risk determination. In the group, a total of 1,006 high-risk lesions were identified, and 115 of them, or 11 percent, later developed into cancer.</p>
<p>The researchers trained the model on two-thirds of the high-risk lesions, and then tested it on the 335 lesions that remained. The model correctly predicted cancer upgrades in 37 of the 38 lesions or 97 percent. The team found that, had the model been used, it would have helped to prevent nearly one-third of the surgeries conducted on benign lesions. The machine-learning model also found that the keyword terms “severely” and “severely atypical” in pathology reports were associated with a greater risk of developing cancer.</p>
<p>“Our goal is to apply the tool in clinical settings to help make more informed decisions as to which patients will be surveilled and which will go on to surgery,” Dr. Bahl said in the release. “I believe we can capitalize on machine learning to inform clinical decision making and ultimately improve patient care.” This is just one more example of how <a href="https://futurism.com/end-to-illness-machine-learning-is-revolutionizing-how-we-prevent-disease/" target="_blank">machine learning is transforming</a> how we treat, manage, and prevent disease.</p>


Machine learning and medicine work well together.

Machine learning identifies breast lesions likely to become cancer

Artificial Intelligence

Researchers have trained a machine learning system to discern between breast lesions classified as high-risk to help prevent unnecessary surgery.

Machine Learning Identifies Breast Lesions Likely to Become Cancer

Researchers teach AI to predict which high-risk lesions present the most risk.

<h2>Drug Combination</h2>
<p>A new clinical trial demonstrated positive effects caused by the drug combination lapatinib and trastuzumab against HER2 positive breast cancer in a treatment period of just 11 days.</p>
<p>Led by researchers at the <a href="http://www.icr.ac.uk/">Institute of Cancer Research, London</a>, the <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/">University of Manchester</a>, and <a href="https://www.uhsm.nhs.uk/">University Hospital of South Manchester</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160310125513.htm">the study comprised</a> 257 women with HER2 positive breast cancer who were split into groups and treated for 11 days prior to surgery. Women who were treated with the drug combination were compared to women who received only one the drugs or no drugs before undergoing surgery. To assess results, samples of the tumor tissue were taken from an initial biopsy and once again during surgery, to determine if there was a drop in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10653597">Ki67 protein</a>, which indicates cell proliferation.</p>
<figure id="attachment_75658" style="width: 836px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/03/Breast-Cancer-sybol-1200x803.jpg" alt="A New Treatment Destroyed Breast Cancer Tumors in 11 Days Without Chemo" width="836" height="560" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Credit: William Inglis</figcaption></figure>
<p>Results showed that not only was there a marked drop in Ki67 among subjects who received the combination drug treatment, but 11 percent of those women were classified as having pathological complete response — meaning no active cancer cells were found. An additional 17 percent of the women treated with the drug combination had minimal residual disease.</p>
<p>Judith Bliss, lead researcher from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, emphasized at a EBCC-10 press conference that the short time frame during which this kind of effect was achieved had not been seen before.</p>
<p>&#8220;These results show that we can get an early indication of pathological response within 11 days, in the absence of chemotherapy, in these patients on combination treatment,&#8221; Bliss said, who co-led the trial. &#8220;Most previous trials have only looked at the pathological response after several months of treatment.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Viable Cancer Treatment</h2>
<p>Despite the positive results, researchers assert that further study and confirmation has to be done to support the current findings.</p>
<p>“Our results are a strong foundation on which to build further trials of combination anti-HER2 therapies prior to surgery – which could reduce the number of women who require subsequent chemotherapy, which is also very effective but can lead to long-term side effects,” Bliss said at the press conference.</p>
<p>The drugs <a href="http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/Trastuzumab.html">trastuzumab</a> and <a href="http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancers-in-general/treatment/cancer-drugs/lapatinib">lapatinib</a> are preferable to traditional chemotherapies because they specifically target and kill cancer cells that <a href="http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/her2">over express HER2</a>. <a href="https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/chemotherapy/how-chemotherapy-drugs-work.html">Traditional chemotherapy</a> generally targets any rapidly growing cells — including healthy cells — which can cause side effects such as hair loss and nausea. In <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61847-3/abstract?cc=y=">other similar studies</a>, the drug combination of trastuzumab and lapatinib has also demonstrated impressive response rates, but only after several months of therapy, not in less than two weeks.</p>
<p>Given that this treatment is administered within the two week window between diagnosis and surgery, it could potentially identify patients whose disease is more responsive to the drugs, allowing individualization of therapy. This treatment could allow patients to avoid going through chemotherapy post surgery, lowering their risks of adverse side effects and giving them a better quality of life.</p>
<p>Approximately <a href="http://www.roche.com/dam/jcr:2ac14009-bbe8-4991-a460-acfa600d7e2a/en/med-her2-cancer.pdf">one in five women</a> who are diagnosed with breast cancer are found to have HER2 cancer, which is one of the more aggressive forms of the disease. While is not a cure, this breakthrough serves as a strong basis for further research towards defeating HER2 positive cancers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


An up close image of a cancer cell

This treatment could allow patients to avoid going through chemotherapy post surgery, lowering their risks of adverse side effects.

A New Treatment Destroyed Breast Cancer Tumors in 11 Days Without Chemo

We have a long way to go to a cure, but this is simply remarkable progress.

<h2>TRAPPING CANCER&#8217;S PATHWAY</h2>
<p>Promising data has revealed a new treatment for breast cancer and leukemia. It works by attacking cancer cells&#8217; ability to repair pathways (specifically, damaged pathways) in their DNA.</p>
<p>The team reports that a combination of an experimental, not-yet-approved drug and an epigenetic drug (called alazoparib and  5-azacytidine, respectively) resulted in a strong antitumor response.</p>
<p>The treatment works by targeting the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase enzyme or PARP, which repairs pathways in DNA that tumors use to survive. Talazoparib, a PARP inhibitor, targets the tumor repairing enzyme, changing the properties of DNA in a way that helps it trap the repair enzyme.</p>
<figure style="width: 595px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/10/cancer.jpg" alt="Credit: Amy Dame CC BY-NC-ND 2.0" width="595" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Credit: Amy Dame CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</figcaption></figure>
<p>They tested the drug therapy on breast cancer and leukemia — cancers that depend on self-repairing mechanisms to grow mutated cells. Human breast cancer and leukemia cells, which were grown in mice, faced the combination drug therapy. Ultimately, this resulted in tumors half the size of what either drug could do on its own, the paper notes.</p>
<p>The researchers also found the drug combination increased the time that the repair enzyme was trapped at sites of DNA damage in cancer cells, extending the time from 30 minutes to three to six hours after treatment.</p>
<h2>HOPE FOR TOMORROW</h2>
<p>The team tested the therapy on cancer with the <a href="https://www.knowbrca.org/Learn/brca1-and-brca2-gene-mutations" target="_blank">breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA)</a>, an inheritable gene that appears to increase the risk of breast cancer. And lead research Stephen Baylin says their study could lead to the discovery of further treatments.</p>
<p>This is notable, as breast cancer is the second most common fatal cancer for women.</p>
<p>This year, roughly <a style="background-color: white;" href="http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-key-statistics" target="_blank">246,660 new cases</a> of invasive breast cancer will appear in women in the US alone. Leukemia and related diseases like lymphoma and myeloma — cancers of the blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes — will afflict an estimated <a href="https://www.lls.org/http%3A/llsorg.prod.acquia-sites.com/facts-and-statistics/facts-and-statistics-overview/facts-and-statistics#Leukemia" target="_blank">171,550 people</a> in the US this year.</p>
<p>The causes of cancer are not completely understood, and continuing research like this from Baylin gives hope to patients everywhere.</p>


Hard Science

Researchers have developed a cancer therapy that combines drugs to fix pathways in DNA and block cancer's repair mechanisms.
The therapy could lead to the development of more effective breast cancer treatments, a disease roughly 250,000 more American women face every year.

Changing The Properties of DNA: Scientists Have a New Way to Fight Cancer

Tumor sizes were reduced by half.

<h2><b></b>UNNECESSARY BIOPSIES</h2>
<p>A team from the Houston Methodist Research Institute says they have developed artificial intelligence software capable of analyzing mammograms for breast cancer with 99 percent accuracy. The technique involves scanning patient charts and cross-checking them with results from mammogram X-rays and clinical reports.</p>
<p>“The imaging characteristics of breast cancer subtypes have been described previously, but without standardization of parameters for data mining,” according to the study <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.30245/abstract;jsessionid=006C3E4DFF77C746C8A85631A70065D8.f01t01">published in Cancer</a>.</p>
<p>But their algorithm allows for a more comprehensive and accurate analysis that helps avoid false positives — a very common incident.</p>
<p>&#8220;We figured out you can mine a clinical report for additional information,&#8221; said lead researcher Stephen Wong. &#8220;Most of the clinical reports are not in a structured format, they are in free form text. So if we can run an AI program to extract the medical information and build a risk assessment model we can score the information and reduce unnecessary biopsies.&#8221;</p>
<p>Their AI algorithm has been certified by the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System as category 5 (BI-RADS 5), a mammogram that “is almost certainly predictive of breast cancer with a positive predictive value of about 95%,” <a href="http://breast-cancer.ca/bi-rads/">according to Canadian radiologist Steven Halls</a>.</p>
<p>Wong hopes their algorithm will set a standard for accurate assessments of breast cancer risk.</p>
<h2>FALSE POSITIVES</h2>
<p>Women who undergo false positives often suffer from the stress and fear a biopsy causes years after the test, according to a 2013 study from the University of Copenhagen.</p>
<figure style="width: 555px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/09/breast-biopsy.jpg" alt="Stereotactic breast biopsy. Vero Radiology Associates." width="555" height="300" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stereotactic breast biopsy. Vero Radiology Associates.</figcaption></figure>
<p>“False-positive findings on screening mammography causes long-term psychosocial harm,&#8221; John Brodersen and Volkert Dirk Siersma of the University of Copenhagen said in <a href="http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/18/17360944-mammogram-scares-leave-lasting-fears-research-finds?lite"> a report</a>. &#8220;Three years after a false-positive finding, women experience psycho-social consequences that range between those experienced by women with a normal mammogram and those with a diagnosis of breast cancer.&#8221;</p>


A team has developed artificial intelligence software that analyzes mammograms for breast cancer with 99 percent accuracy. This could help keep women from undergoing unnecessary biopsies, and would shield them from the agony of false positives.

Artificial Intelligence Reads Mammograms With 99% Accuracy

It would minimize false positives and the psychosocial damage they cause women.

<h2><b>AI Wins in Cancer Detection Contest</b></h2>
<figure id="attachment_41534" style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-41534 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/06/breast-cancer-cell-460x276.jpg" alt="breast-cancer-cell-460x276" width="460" height="276" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><em>Science Photo Library</em></figcaption></figure>
<p>A <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2VcgHMD6HdiZE1saDNNTnVTdHM/view" target="_blank">group of researchers</a> from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) have developed a way to train <a href="https://futurism.com/in-just-3-days-ai-solves-biology-mystery-how-flatworms-regenerate-into-new-organisms/" target="_blank">artificial intelligence</a> to read and interpret pathology images.</p>
<p>Scientists tested the artificial intelligence (AI) during a competition at the annual International Symposium of Biomedical Imaging, where it was tasked to look for breast cancer in images of lymph nodes. It turns out it can detect breast cancer accurately 92 percent of the time and won in two separate categories during the contest.</p>
<p>Andrew Beck from BIDMC says they used the deep learning method, which is commonly used to train AI to recognize speech, images and objects. They fed the machine with hundreds of slides marked to indicate which parts have cancerous cells and which have normal ones. The AI had difficulty identifying some samples, but scientists fed it more difficult samples until it learned its lesson.</p>
<h2><b>AI + Humans = Win</b></h2>
<p>Despite this success, AI is still no match for human pathologists, who are accurate 96 percent of the time. However, this contest clearly shows that there is much to be gained with further study and innovation.</p>
<p>Beck says what’s remarkable is when they <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/19/ai-breast-cancer-diagnosis/" target="_blank">combined pathologists&#8217; analysis</a> with those of the AI, the results showed 99.5 percent accuracy. &#8220;Our results in the ISBI competition show that what the computer is doing is genuinely intelligent and that the combination of human and computer interpretations will result in more precise and more clinically valuable diagnoses to guide treatment decisions.&#8221;</p>
<p>No one who has ever said that two heads are better than one, specified that both heads had to be human.</p>


Scientists trained an AI machine to detect breast cancer in images of lymph nodes.

/Breast Cancer

Health & Medicine

It’s 2017. Our Contraceptives Are Still Harming Women.

Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning Identifies Breast Lesions Likely to Become Cancer

Health & Medicine

A New Treatment Destroyed Breast Cancer Tumors in 11 Days Without Chemo

Hard Science

Changing The Properties of DNA: Scientists Have a New Way to Fight Cancer

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence Reads Mammograms With 99% Accuracy

Artificial Intelligence

This Artificial Intelligence was 92% Accurate in Breast Cancer Detection Contest

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