By analyzing fluid from ducts in the breasts and looking for three markers, or signs, researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore have found early pre-cancerous changes or malignant cells that had not shown up on mammograms.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
In most cases the disease begins in the cells that line the ducts of the breast. Sukumar and her team obtained fluid and cells from the breast ducts of 56 women with a process called ductal lavage. All of the women had clear mammograms but also a high risk of developing the disease. A third is undergoing further tests. In another study of women with breast cancer they found at least one of the three markers in the ductal fluid of 17 of 20 women with the disease.