Breast cancer receives much attention during October's awareness month. Although sightings of pink ribbons and breast cancer-related information increase during the month, it's crucial to keep screenings and clinical breast exams at the forefront of preventive care year-round.

A Mayo Clinic Health System high-risk breast consultant and breast cancer awareness advocate shares the top 10 questions about breast cancer asked by people of all ages and backgrounds.

1. Why do I need to worry about breast cancer and having routine mammograms?
   This is the most common question shared during breast clinic consultations. Many people mention that they don't have any family history of breast cancer. However, approximately just 20% of breast cancer is related to family history and genetic links. People are considered at the highest risk after a breast cancer diagnosis in a first-degree relative, such as a mom or sister.
2. What can I do to prevent breast cancer from developing?
   For most people, the answer is to live a healthy lifestyle, including not smoking, minimizing alcohol consumption and maintaining an ideal body weight through diet and exercise. The majority of the risk for breast cancer comes from being female, having breasts and aging.
3. What steps can I take to be informed of my risk of breast cancer?
   This answer has two parts. The first part is to learn about your family's medical history. The second part is to follow your healthcare team's recommended preventive screening plan, including a mammogram if necessary.
4. Should I continue doing self-checks of my breasts and have an annual clinical breast exam?
   The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the U.S. Preventive Services Taskforce update breast screening recommendations annually, but more research studies need to be done. Your health history and conversations with your healthcare team will help inform the best approach for you. Although not all healthcare professionals perform a yearly clinical breast exam as part of an annual physical, you may choose to perform monthly or quarterly self-checks to increase your breast awareness. Both a yearly breast exam by a medical professional and regular self-checks are recommended if you have a higher risk of breast cancer.
5. What does it mean to have dense breasts, and how does that affect mammograms?
   Approximately 30% of people have moderately dense breasts and up to 10% have extremely dense breasts. While dense breast tissue does affect the detection of breast cancer through mammography, a mammogram is still a recommended annual screening starting at age 40 for people with average breast cancer risk.
6. Does taking a birth control pill increase my risk of developing breast cancer?
   No strong connection has been identified to suggest any such connection in average-risk patients during childbearing years. However, studies suggest that continuing hormone therapy after age 60 can increase the risk of breast and endometrial cancer.
7. Does pregnancy and breastfeeding increase my risk of breast cancer?
   No, it's quite the opposite. The risk of developing breast cancer decreases based on the duration of time spent pregnant and breastfeeding.
8. How do environmental toxin exposure and radiation affect breast cancer?
   Certain factors, such as radiation exposure from previous cancer treatment, working in an environment with toxins, or other radiation exposure can increase your risk of many cancer types, including breast cancer.
9. Should I have genetic testing to determine if I have a family-related risk of breast cancer?
   The short answer is, for some people, yes. However, genetic testing is recommended only after a discussion with your healthcare team or breast specialist about your cancer risks. You may be asked to meet with a genetics counselor to ensure that there is a strong indication for testing.
10. Does my race affect my risk of breast cancer?
    The answer to this question is complex. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African Americans, American Indians, Pacific Islanders and Alaskan Native Americans have a much higher rate of breast cancer and breast cancer-related mortality. However, there are many nuances to this concerning medical equity, racial disparity and other considerations that need to be explored and addressed.

If you have been identified as having a higher risk of breast cancer and referred to a high-risk breast clinic, you can expect a comprehensive meeting with a healthcare professional who is skilled and passionate about breast cancer prevention and survivorship.

Graham King, M.D., is a Family Medicine physician who performs high-risk breast assessments at the Breast Clinic in Mankato, Minnesota.

The post Top 10 questions about breast cancer answered appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Early detection is key to breast cancer survival. But nearly half of all women in the U.S. have dense breast tissue, which can make detecting breast cancer difficult with a mammogram. Mayo Clinic researchers found that adding another test, called molecular breast imaging, or MBI, to a 3D mammogram improved the ability to find cancer in dense tissue by more than double.
 
"A mammogram is an important screening test that has been proven beneficial. But we've learned that in areas of dense breast tissue, breast cancers can hide from detection on a mammogram until they reach an advanced size. Our research focuses on detecting the most lethal cancers, which can include invasive tumors that grow quickly. If these are detected earlier, we likely can save more lives," says Carrie Hruska, Ph.D., a professor of medical physics and the lead author of a study published in Radiology. 

She and her research team studied 2,978 women with dense breasts between 40-75 years old at five separate centers. The study participants received two annual breast cancer screenings that included the combination of a supplemental MBI test and a 3D mammogram, also called digital breast tomosynthesis. 

Breast radiologists detected more cancerous tissue from the combined MBI and mammography screenings compared to either technique alone.

"MBI is a fairly simple, low cost and safe option for women who have dense breasts and are seeking a supplemental screening test," says Dr. Hruska.

MBI combined with a mammogram is available at about 30 sites in the U.S., including Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin; Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Mayo Clinic campuses in Rochester, Phoenix, and Jacksonville, Florida.

With more screening, there is a risk of being called back for additional testing to evaluate the findings. The researchers were pleased to find that although the addition of MBI to mammography led to 279 more women being called back in the first year of screening, this rate of callbacks decreased by half in the second round of screening.

Next steps to improve breast cancer screening

Dr. Hruska's team is working on developing an algorithm that would cut the time it takes from 40 minutes to about 20 minutes or less to capture an image using this technique. This would make it more comfortable for women and enable more women to schedule this screening.

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contact:

• Julie Ferris-Tillman, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
    
   
  

The post Mayo Clinic research improves dense breast cancer screening and early detection appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

From early detection to targeted therapies, breast cancer survival has reached record highs — with Mayo Clinic leading what's next.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — For more than 40 years, Mayo Clinic has been at the forefront of breast cancer innovation, transforming a once-limited diagnosis into a story of record survival rates, groundbreaking therapies and renewing hope for millions of patients worldwide.  

Detecting cancer earlier

Mammography revolutionized breast cancer care in the 1980s by finding tumors earlier, making them more treatable. Advances in digital mammography and 3D tomosynthesis have since improved accuracy, reduced false alarms and revealed cancers hidden in dense breast tissue.

Genetic testing has also reshaped care. Discoveries of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations — and later, additional genetic markers — have allowed healthcare teams to personalize screening and prevention. Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers, such as Siddhartha Yadav, M.B.B.S., M.D., and Fergus Couch, Ph.D., have helped refine risk predictions so patients and care teams can make more informed choices about surgery, surveillance or medication.

"By offering more precise, individualized risk estimates, our work supports shared decision-making between patients and their care teams to reduce the risk of breast cancer," says Dr. Yadav, a Mayo Clinic medical oncologist. He is expanding this work to better understand how inherited genetic changes influence tumor biology, treatment response and long-term outcomes in breast and ovarian cancers.

New tools such as contrast-enhanced digital mammography, which uses a special dye along with mammography, are showing promise in detecting cancers that traditional scans may miss. Bhavika Patel, M.D., a Mayo Clinic radiologist, is leading clinical trials that show its potential to move toward more personalized screening. "We aim to match the right test to the right woman at the right time because earlier detection means treatment can start sooner, which improves outcomes and saves lives," says Dr. Patel.

Dr. Yadav and Dr. Patel predict that over the next 10 years, risk assessment and breast imaging will work together to become even more personalized and integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor care and improve outcomes for every patient.

Understanding breast cancer subtypes

In the 1990s, researchers discovered that breast cancer is a collection of biologically distinct subtypes: hormone receptor–positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This opened the door to more personalized treatment.

At Mayo Clinic, researchers are now pushing this even further with studies led by breast medical oncologists Roberto Leon-Ferre, M.D., and Matthew Goetz, M.D., that suggest people who have early-stage TNBC and high levels of immune cells within their tumors (called immune infiltrating cells or TILs) may have a lower risk of recurrence and better survival rates even when not treated with chemotherapy.

Based on this work, Mayo Clinic Laboratory of Medicine and Pathology routinely reports TILs in all patients with early-stage TNBC. And Dr. Leon-Ferre and Dr. Goetz are developing a national clinical trial to evaluate TIL levels in patients with stage 1 TNBC. "The data will inform whether patients need or do not need chemotherapy, and could change standard practice," says Dr. Leon-Ferre.

New treatments, better outcomes

Tamoxifen was one of the first breakthroughs in hormone-targeted therapy. Two decades later, trastuzumab transformed outcomes for HER2-positive breast cancer. And new classes of drugs — including hormone therapies like aromatase inhibitors, CDK4/6 inhibitors, PARP inhibitors and immunotherapies — have dramatically extended survival for many patients.

Mayo Clinic researchers are leading national trials of next-generation therapies, like Dr. Goetz's study of drugs that more effectively block or degrade the estrogen receptor. Other trials are testing whether lower doses of tamoxifen can reduce side effects while still decreasing risk of further breast cancer events.

Tufia Haddad, M.D., breast medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, is leading efforts to identify novel therapies to transform cancer care, such as showing the Aurora A kinase inhibitor, alisertib, can reduce or eradicate breast cancer stem cells within a tumor to shrink or stabilize the disease. Such work was enabled by Tony D’Assoro, M.D., Ph.D., an oncology scientist at Mayo Clinic, who discovered the novel non-Mitotic role of Aurora-A Kinase in promoting the enrichment of cancer stem cells and provided the therapeutic rationale for the clinical development of alisertib. Dr. Haddad is now studying it in combination with different endocrine therapies, in hopes that a lower dose with fewer side effects will be better for patients.

Further, Saranya Chumsri, M.D., also a breast medical oncologist at the cancer center, is leading vaccine clinical trials in HER2-positive and TNBC that may one day prevent cancer from returning altogether.

"In 10 years, we will see growth of a new class of targeted treatment approaches to intercept cancer that is detected at a microscopic stage. Preventing cancer will become the new cure," says Dr. Haddad.

Smarter chemotherapy and genomic testing

Chemotherapy has become smarter and more tolerable with advances like shorter intervals between chemotherapy cycles and better supportive care. Mayo Clinic researchers are now exploring optimized treatment schedules and new combinations.

Genomic tests such as Oncotype DX analyze tumor biology to predict whether chemotherapy will help, sparing many women from unnecessary treatment. Liquid biopsies — blood tests that detect cancer DNA — are beginning to guide real-time treatment decisions.

Advances in surgery and radiation

Surgery and radiation also have evolved with a focus on survival and quality of life. Research proved that breast-conserving surgery with radiation was as effective as mastectomy, and sentinel lymph node surgery reduced the need for extensive operations, sparing many patients from long-term complications.

Judy Boughey, M.D., surgical oncologist and chair of Breast and Melanoma Surgical Oncology at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, led a national study in the 2010s that dramatically changed the management of breast cancer for advanced disease, allowing even more patients to avoid axillary lymph node dissection.

Newer surgical techniques — skin- and nipple-sparing mastectomy, immediate reconstruction, and robotic approaches — are designed with both survival and quality of life in mind. James Jakub, M.D., surgical oncologist, performed the first robotic nipple-sparing mastectomy at Mayo Clinic in 2021 as part of a national clinical trial. Now, Mayo Clinic is the highest enrolling site in this clinical trial with principal investigator Mara Piltin, D.O., a Mayo Clinic surgical oncologist.

"These are significant advances, and in the future, we hope to eliminate surgery within the axilla (armpit area), use ablative therapies for tumors, inject medicines directly into the tumor and preserve sensation to the nipple-areolar during mastectomy," says Sarah McLaughlin, M.D., breast surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Radiation also has become more precise and efficient, with shorter treatment courses and advanced options such as proton therapy. Mayo's Proton Beam Therapy Program has treated 10,000 patients in 10 years — far exceeding national averages — and new technologies like carbon ion therapy are on the horizon.  

A future of hope

Since 1989, breast cancer deaths in the U.S. have dropped nearly 40%. That progress is the result of decades of discovery — better imaging, smarter drugs, less invasive surgery and personalized medicine.

"Breast cancer care is one of the fastest-evolving areas in medicine," says Dr. Boughey. "Every clinical trial takes another step forward to improve outcomes and reduce side effects for patients."

For patients with breast cancer and their families, the last four decades tell a story of hope: survival is higher than ever, treatment is more personalized, and the future has never looked brighter.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center 
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining the cancer center of the future, focused on delivering the world's most exceptional patient-centered cancer care for everyone. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs in cancer detection, prevention and treatment to change lives.

Media contact:

• Brittany Cordeiro, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic leads 4 decades of advances in breast cancer care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new international study led by Mayo Clinic researchers has identified a genetic factor that may explain why some patients with colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver experience more severe liver damage after chemotherapy.

For patients with colorectal liver metastases, surgery offers the best chance of long-term survival. To improve outcomes, many patients receive chemotherapy before surgery. While this approach can shrink tumors to make them more operable, one potential side effect is injury to the liver. Until now, it hasn't been clear why certain patients' livers are more prone to chemotherapy-associated liver injury.

"This is the first study to clearly show that a genetic predisposition plays a significant role in how the liver tolerates chemotherapy," says Patrick Starlinger, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center hepatobiliary and pancreas surgeon and senior author of the study published in The Lancet eBioMedicine.

In this study, the researchers reviewed 551 patients who had chemotherapy followed by surgery to remove the tumor. They looked at liver health tests to see how chemotherapy affected liver function and genetic markers that are already linked to liver disease in other settings. 

They found that a specific gene variant in the PNPLA3 gene, which is known to affect fat metabolism in the liver, was strongly linked to liver injury after chemotherapy. Patients with two copies of this variant were especially vulnerable, and all of them developed signs of significant liver injury after chemotherapy.

Genetic differences help explain global variation

According to Dr. Starlinger, the PNPLA3 variant is common worldwide, but its prevalence differs by population. For example, in Japan, the mutation is present in more than 41% of the population. It's found in more than 71% among people of Peruvian descent, but fewer than 10% of people in some European populations have it.

Because the genetic variation is more common in certain groups, such as people of Asian or Latin American descent, this may help explain why previous studies in different countries have reported conflicting results about the benefits of giving chemotherapy before and/or after surgery when treating colorectal liver metastases.

Personalizing care to maximize benefit, minimize risk

The findings suggest that a blood test to check for the PNPLA3 variant, along with monitoring liver health, could help doctors identify patients at higher risk for liver damage from chemotherapy.

"These findings offer us insight into how we can adjust treatment strategies to best manage the care for patients diagnosed with colorectal liver metastases, while potentially avoiding a negative side effect of chemotherapy," says Dr. Starlinger. "Chemotherapy may still be an appropriate treatment option, and with this information, we can personalize treatment for each patient — for example, tailoring chemotherapy or allowing more time for the liver to recover before surgery."

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

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About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contact: 

• Chloe Corey, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post New study links genetic variation to chemotherapy-related liver damage in patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers will present their latest radiation oncology findings at the 2025 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting, scheduled to be held Sept. 27–Oct. 1 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The ASTRO Annual Meeting is recognized as the largest radiation oncology gathering in the world, and this year's event will feature 14 education sessions and 45 abstracts highlighting Mayo Clinic's advancements in radiation oncology.

Mayo Clinic's presentations this year span innovative clinical research, advanced imaging techniques and innovative treatment approaches that are reshaping radiation oncology and diversifying its benefits to patients.

Highlights of the event include:

Education Session: Liquid Biopsy Early Detection of Cancer
Presentation time: Saturday, Sept. 27, 1:17–1:32 p.m. PDT
Session title: PRO 04 - Liquid Biopsies in Cancer
Description: Dr. Aadel Chaudhuri will co-lead this session highlighting Mayo Clinic's leadership in advancing liquid biopsy (circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA) technologies for cancer care, with a focus on clinical applications in post-treatment monitoring and early detection. The session is designed for clinicians and colleagues, emphasizing practical use, near-term innovations and Mayo's role in shaping precision medicine.
PRESENTER: Aadel Chaudhuri, M.D., Ph.D., radiation oncologist

Scientific Session: 127 - Mid-Treatment ctDNA to Predict Outcomes in Stage IIB-IIIC NSCLC Treated with MRI-Adapted Chemoradiation
Presentation time: Sunday, Sept. 28, 2:30–2:40 p.m. PDT
Session title: SS 05 - Lung 1: NSCLC Locally Advanced and Oligometastatic
Description: This study showed that a simple, Medicare-covered blood test could help care teams identify — before treatment begins — which patients with stage 3 lung cancer are most likely to benefit from treatment and which may be at higher risk of relapse. Repeating the test during the second week of therapy revealed early signs of whether treatment was working, well before changes appeared on scans. This could potentially create an opportunity to adjust treatment sooner, possibly sparing patients from ineffective therapy and added side effects.
PRESENTER: Ayesha Hashmi, M.D., postdoctoral research fellow, Radiation Oncology (senior author is Aadel Chaudhuri, M.D., Ph.D.)

Scientific Session: 144 - Early Outcomes of a Phase III Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Ultra-Hypo Fractionated 5 Fraction Treatment vs. Hypofractionated 15 Fraction Treatment for Patients Receiving Regional Nodal Irradiation
Presentation time: Sunday, Sept. 28, 5:25–5:35 p.m. PDT
Session title: Breast Cancer 1: Redefining Radiation Schedules: Hypofractionation and APBI Across the Breast Cancer Spectrum
Description: This is a phase 3 clinical trial that compared a five-fraction course of regional nodal irradiation to the standard 15 or more fractions used in breast cancer, finding that toxicity, quality of life and implant outcomes were more favorable with the shorter regimen. This supports five treatments as a safe and more convenient alternative.
PRESENTER: Carlos Vargas, M.D., radiation oncologist

Poster Q&A: 2596 - CSF-Derived cfDNA Methylation Profiling to Distinguish True Progression from Radiation Necrosis and Pseudoprogression in GBM Patients
Presentation time: Monday, Sept. 29, 8–9 a.m. PDT
Session title: PQA 03 - Central Nervous System, Professional Development/Medical Education
Description: This study evaluated whether a test measuring DNA in cerebrospinal fluid could serve as a useful companion to post-radiation imaging in glioblastoma. If effective, this test could help distinguish true tumor progression from treatment-related changes, guiding whether patients need a biopsy or can be safely monitored.
PRESENTER: Lili Greiner, research assistant, Liquid Biopsy and Translational Immunogenomics Lab (senior author is Aadel Chaudhuri, M.D., Ph.D.)

Presidential Address
Presentation time: Monday, Sept. 29, 1:02–1:30 p.m. PDT
Session title: Address 02 - Presidential Address
Description: In his presidential address, Dr. Sameer Keole, a Mayo Clinic radiation oncologist, will discuss the meeting's theme, "Rediscovering Radiation Medicine and Exploring New indications," radiation therapy's potential uses for nonmalignant disease and the future of radiation oncology.
PRESENTER: Sameer Keole, M.D., president of ASTRO

Learn more about 2025 ASTRO.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center 
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining the cancer center of the future, focused on delivering the world's most exceptional patient-centered cancer care for everyone. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs in cancer detection, prevention and treatment to change lives.

Media contact:

• Brittany Cordeiro, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic experts present key radiation oncology findings at ASTRO appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

QUESTION: I'm a guy in my late 40s and trying to pay more attention to my health. But I'm confused about whether I should be screened for prostate cancer. Can you help?

ANSWER: The importance of all health screenings is that they can detect issues early. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, and the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the U.S. 

While many prostate cancers grow slowly and remain localized, other types are aggressive and spread quickly. Screening can find prostate cancer early, when it's still confined to the prostate gland. That's when patients have the best chance for successful treatment. If caught early (stage 1), the survival rate after five years is almost 100%. At stage 4, the survival rate is 37% to50% at the five-year mark.  

It's recommended that men begin talking about prostate cancer screening with a healthcare professional around age 50. During this discussion, you and your clinician will decide if the prostate-specific antigen test is right for you based on your personal risk level and age, as well as the chance of overdiagnosis or underdiagnosis, possible biopsy complications, and testing intervals.

The screening is relatively simple. The most common is a prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test. It's conducted by your primary care clinician once a year. Here's what you need to know about the PSA test:

• It's a blood test used to measure the amount of prostate-specific antigen in your blood. 
• High levels may indicate the presence of cancer. However, other conditions may also increase this level.
• Screening intervals are personalized. Based on test results, men with low long-term risk may decide to discontinue testing or lengthen the time between tests. Those with higher PSA levels may require more frequent screening.

Who's at risk?

Risk factors include age, family history and race. 

Age: The risk for prostate cancer is highest beginning at age 50 or older.

Family history: If you have a blood relative who has or has had prostate cancer, a family history of genes such as BRCA1 or BRCA2 that increase the risk of breast cancer, or a strong family history of breast cancer, your risk may be higher. 

Race: In the U.S., prostate cancer is deadlier for Black men than for men of other races. They're more likely to get prostate cancer and more than twice as likely to die from it than other men. Black men should consider being screened starting at age 40.

Active surveillance

Not all prostate cancers need to be treated — some can remain under active surveillance. When prostate cancer is found early, it can be watched for many years. If it becomes aggressive, treatment can begin. In active surveillance, regular follow-up tests may be performed to monitor the progression of your cancer.

Treatment options

Along with active surveillance, a full range of treatments for prostate cancer is available, including radiation, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, cryosurgery and surgery, including robotic removal of all or part of the prostate.

Many patients who have just a few sites of metastatic disease, meaning that the cancer isn't widely spread, also can benefit from aggressive treatment. This treatment combines radiation and oral or IV cancer medication therapy to put the cancer into remission and extend the patient's life. 

Another radiation technique includes intensity-modulated proton beam therapy with pencil beam scanning. This localized treatment can minimize significant adverse events from the treatment.

Talk with your healthcare professional to learn more about prostate cancer screening and if it's right for you.

Mohammed Solaiman, M.D., Family Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System, St. Peter, Minnesota

The post Mayo Clinic Q&A: Should I get screened for prostate cancer? appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A decade after opening, the Mayo Clinic Proton Therapy Program­ in Rochester, Minnesota, has treated 10,000 patients. Annually, the program treats 30%–40% more patients than most comparable centers in the country. And, with new technology and facility expansions, it will soon be able to treat nearly 75% more patients each year with even more precise and effective therapies.

Nadia Laack, M.D., chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Anita Mahajan, M.D., radiation oncologist and medical director of Mayo Clinic’s particle therapy center, discuss how Mayo is using tomorrow's standard of care today.

A bold step toward precision and efficiency

Mayo Clinic took a bold step by launching its program in 2015 with pencil beam scanning — an ultranarrow beam that conforms its radiation dose to the shape of the tumor. This allowed a focus on accuracy for complex tumors, many of which were considered untreatable due to their location.

Mayo Clinic, with technology vendors, has continued to elevate this therapy by developing precise tracking technology such as its custom eye-tracking device for melanoma of the eye.

The team's high level of fine-tuning extends to its scheduling. "Most proton systems have one accelerator for four rooms, treating only one at a time," explains Dr. Mahajan. "A patient could be set up in their room, but waiting an hour."

To solve this, Dr. Mahajan helped develop a system that radiation therapists use to communicate and coordinate beam use to minimize patient wait time and discomfort and allow more patients to be treated.

Locking in on a moving target

Heartbeats and breathing create constant movement in the body, making chest and abdominal tumors a moving target and previously impossible to treat safely.

"With our colleagues in Arizona and the vendor, we developed a way to track lung tumors to ensure the beam only turns on when it's within target," says Dr. Laack.

This technology helped extend proton beam therapy's effectiveness beyond cancer.

"Cardiac ablation with proton beam is an example of how we've taken everything to the next level," says Dr. Laack. "Our physicists and the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine developed tools that now allow us to confidently and accurately deliver radiation doses to the heart."

Automating an improved patient experience

Mobility restrictions and constant adjustment can be uncomfortable and time-consuming for patients. They can slow down treatment. Regular bodily functions, including gas, bowel movements and fluid retention, also require ongoing rescanning and radiation plan adjustments for treatment accuracy.

Plan adjustments previously delayed treatment by several days. Automation has helped reduce turnaround time to just one day.

"It's remarkable to have next-day planning because of automation," adds Dr. Laack. "But we can imagine a future where patients lie down comfortably, and we scan and treat them with a custom plan tailored to their current anatomy."

Building on a future-ready foundation

Mayo Clinic is amid a leap forward in heavy particle therapy, decades in the making.

"For 20 years, we've studied data and deepened our understanding of tumor genetics so we could offer the most comprehensive treatment portfolio," says Dr. Laack.

This commitment manifested in the June 2025 opening of the Duan Family Building in Jacksonville, Florida. The building will house the first carbon ion therapy facility in the Americas and introduce powerful radiation delivery for complex and proton-beam- resistant tumors.

In August 2025, the Andersen Building in Rochester also reached a major milestone, adding 360-degree gantry technology that delivers proton beam within a millimeter of accuracy and real-time CT imaging to enable faster, more precise treatment for nearly twice as many patients.

"It's an engineering marvel that represents innovation, collaboration and hope," says Dr. Laack. "It's the promise that every patient who walks through our doors will receive the most precise, personalized and compassionate care available anywhere in the world."

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Brittany Cordeiro, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post 10 years, 10,000 lives: Mayo experts highlight the journey and future of proton beam and particle therapy at Mayo Clinic appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I've heard that ovarian cancer is hard to detect. Can you tell me more about the symptoms and if there are any screenings?

ANSWER: Ovarian cancer is relatively rare. However, it's often fatal in later stages of the disease. The cancer begins in the ovaries and spreads to the abdomen and pelvis if it isn't diagnosed and treated early. It primarily affects older women; about half of those diagnosed are age 63 or older.

Here are some statistics for ovarian cancer:

• In the U.S., it's the second-most common female reproductive organ cancer after uterine cancer.
• The risk of getting ovarian cancer in a woman's lifetime is about 1 in 91. Nearly 21,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year.
• Roughly 250 women die of this disease each week.
• Even though uterine cancer is 3 times more common, the number of women dying from ovarian cancer each year is almost the same (around 13,000 deaths). This death rate points to the difficulty of detecting this aggressive form of cancer.

Recognizing the symptoms

As with any cancer, early diagnosis of ovarian cancer can improve the chances of successful treatment. If you are experiencing these symptoms, see your healthcare clinician:

• Quickly feeling full when eating
• Abdominal bloating or swelling
• Weight loss
• Frequent need to urinate
• Changes in bowel habits
• Discomfort in the pelvic area

Understanding the risk factors

A family history of ovarian cancer and personal factors can increase your risk of ovarian cancer, including:

• Obesity
• Hormone replacement therapy
• Personal history of cancer or endometriosis
• Increasing age or reproductive history and infertility

Some factors that can decrease your risk include:

• Oral contraceptive use
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes
• Hysterectomy or tubal ligation
  

Detecting ovarian cancer

There are well-established screening programs for certain cancers, such as breast, colon and cervical cancer, which can help prevent these cancers from developing. Screening also can detect cancer at an early stage when treatments are more effective.

Unfortunately, there isn't a universal screening program for ovarian cancer. That's because testing options often lead to high rates of false-positive and false-negative results. Also, ovarian cancer doesn't predictably develop precancerous cells, and it's difficult to get tissue samples from the ovaries.

The most relevant tools for finding ovarian cancer are imaging tests, such as an ultrasound, and tumor markers that can be found in the blood, such as cancer antigen 125, or CA 125.

Ultrasounds are good at identifying cysts or other masses growing on the ovaries. The challenging part is that these masses are quite common, and most are not cancers. While the appearance of an ovarian mass can give some clues about its chance of being cancerous, with an ultrasound, it's often difficult to tell the difference between masses that are cancers and those that aren't.

What is CA 125?

CA 125 is a protein in the blood that can be elevated when ovarian cancers are present. However, it also can be elevated with other conditions, such as menstruation, uterine fibroids and endometriosis, leading to false-positive results. 

Early detection is the goal of a good screening program, but CA 125 can miss a significant number of early-stage ovarian cancers.

Ultrasounds and CA 125 tests have been evaluated as potential screening tools. Unfortunately, they can't consistently detect ovarian cancer early enough to improve patient outcomes. They also have a high false-positive result rate, increasing the risk of unnecessary stress, anxiety and surgery.

However, in some situations, these tests are used to screen for ovarian cancer, such as in patients with genetic mutations that put them at high risk for cancer and in patients previously treated for ovarian cancer.

By Sandeep Basu, M.D., Breast Cancer Care, Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic Health System, Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Related post:

• Mayo Clinic researchers capture first signs of ovarian cancer risk

The post Mayo Clinic Q&A: Get the facts on ovarian cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Clinicians typically classify meningiomas — the most common type of brain tumor — into three grades, ranging from slow-growing to aggressive.

But a new multi-institutional study suggests that appearances may be deceiving. If a tumor shows activity in a gene called telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), it tends to recur more quickly, even if it looks low-grade under the microscope.

"High TERT expression is strongly linked to faster disease progression," says Gelareh Zadeh, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic and senior author of the study. "This makes it a promising new biomarker for identifying patients who may be at greater risk of developing aggressive disease."

An early warning sign

Meningiomas — tumors of the meninges, the protective tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord — are generally considered benign. But a small subset of these tumors has a mutation in the TERT gene, which is linked to faster growth and a shorter time before the tumor returns after treatment.

TERT is the active part of telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes. In most healthy adult cells, TERT is switched off. But if it becomes switched back on, it can fuel cancer development by driving unchecked cell growth.

In this study, the researchers wanted to see whether high TERT expression, even in the absence of the TERT genetic mutation, also predicted worse outcomes. They looked at more than 1,200 meningiomas from patients across Canada, Germany and the U.S., and they found that nearly one-third of them had high TERT expression despite not having the mutation.

These patients had earlier tumor regrowth compared to those without TERT expression, though their outcomes were better than patients with full-blown TERT mutations.

"TERT-positive tumors behaved like they were one grade worse than their official diagnosis," says Dr. Zadeh. "For example, a grade 1 tumor with TERT expression acted more like a grade 2."

Guiding treatment decisions

The findings suggest that testing for TERT activity could help doctors predict which patients are at higher risk for recurrence and may need closer monitoring or more intensive treatment.

"Because meningiomas are the most common primary brain tumor, this biomarker could influence how thousands of patients are diagnosed and managed worldwide," says Dr. Zadeh.

"TERT expression can help us more accurately identify patients with aggressive meningiomas," Chloe Gui, M.D., a neurosurgery resident at the University of Toronto, Mayo Clinic research collaborator and the study's lead author, explains on a podcast hosted by The Lancet Oncology. "This information allows us to offer treatment tailored to the tumor's behavior." "This information allows us to offer treatment tailored to the tumor's behavior."

The team is currently investigating ways to incorporate TERT expression into the clinical workflow. The research is part of a larger effort at Mayo Clinic called the Precure initiative, focused on developing tools that empower clinicians to predict and intercept biological processes before they evolve into disease or progress into complex, hard-to-treat conditions.

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding. 

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and to providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post New genetic biomarker flags aggressive brain tumors appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A Mayo Clinic study finds that a shortened, less intense course of radiation and chemotherapy after minimally invasive surgery for HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV+OPSCC) results in less toxicity, substantially lowering the rates of treatment-related side effects while maintaining high cure rates. The findings were published in The Lancet Oncology.

"This is a game-changer for patients," says Daniel Ma, M.D., senior author of the study and head and neck radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. "We've significantly reduced the burden of long-term side effects without compromising the effectiveness of the treatment. This shorter, less intensive regimen allows patients to return to their lives more quickly and with a better quality of life."

Standard treatments for HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer typically involve seven weeks of daily radiation and chemotherapy, or surgery followed by six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. While highly effective, these treatments often lead to significant long-term side effects due to high toxicity, such as jawbone failure, dry mouth, changes in taste and challenges with swallowing. "These greatly affect the quality of life for patients, many of whom are young, in their 40s and 50s," says Dr. Ma.

In the randomized phase 3 study, Mayo Clinic researchers compared the standard treatment to a new approach involving minimally invasive transoral surgery followed by a two-week course of gentler radiation therapy called de-escalated regimen of adjuvant radiotherapy (DART). DART uses about half as much radiation and a reduced dose of chemotherapy, one-fifth of the standard dose.

The results demonstrated that the less intensive treatment approach significantly reduced both severe (grade 3 or higher) and moderate (grade 2) toxicities, indicating fewer adverse events and improved symptom burden for patients following treatment. Importantly, disease control rates were comparable to the standard treatment for intermediate-risk patients.

For specific high-risk patients, namely those with five or more lymph nodes and disease extending outside of the lymph nodes, the standard treatment showed slightly better disease control, potentially due to chemotherapy-related factors rather than radiation. The researchers add that these patients should still receive the standard six-week treatment.

The study involved 228 patients treated at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Arizona. The researchers say that this study represents the largest cohort of postsurgical de-escalation patients in the published literature.

Further, ongoing research will continue to explore using biomarkers such as circulating DNA to find the best patient populations for this treatment strategy.

Review the paper for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding. 

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center 
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining the cancer center of the future, focused on delivering the world's most exceptional patient-centered cancer care for everyone. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs in cancer detection, prevention and treatment to change lives.

Media contact:

• Kelley Luckstein, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Shorter, less intense radiation-chemo regimen effective for HPV-linked oropharyngeal cancer, Mayo study shows appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.