The future has arrived in the battle against breast cancer—in the form of very advanced, very precise weapons that can help women prevent or fight the disease. Many of those new treatments originate in the labs of UAB researchers, who are constantly making new breakthroughs. That means you and your loved ones can benefit from some of the latest, most innovative prevention and treatment options if you should need them.

“It’s all very exciting,” says Helen Krontiras, M.D., co-director of the UAB Breast Health Center and the Lynne Cohen Prevention Program for Women’s Cancer. “The evolution of different kinds of treatment has greatly improved the outcome of patients diagnosed with breast cancer. We have better chemotherapy, hormonal agents, and hormone blockers, and there are treatments that target certain kinds of breast cancer.”

Here are a few of the discoveries you should know about:

• Certain drugs can help women reduce their risk of developing breast cancer, and UAB is participating in a trial of a new one, Aromasin, that may prevent the disease in high-risk women after menopause. Aromasin limits the body’s ability to produce estrogen, a hormone that encourages growth of breast cancer cells.
• Monoclonal antibodies are lab-produced antibodies that work much like the natural disease-fighters in your immune system. UAB is studying a monoclonal antibody called Avastin (bevacizumab), which limits the ability of tumors to grow and spread by keeping them from developing new blood vessels. The study follows postmenopausal women who received Avastin along with hormonal agents. In several of those patients, the breast tumors have shrunk significantly—and two patients are now entirely cancer-free.
• Another promising study focuses on UAB30, which is a retinoid—a chemically modified form of vitamin A. UAB30 is thought to prevent breast cancer by controlling the way cells grow and spread. UAB researchers are studying retinoids to see if they can prevent and treat hormone-resistant breast tumors and other types of cancer.