Las Vegas, Nv –April 1, 2009–The HALO Breast Pap Test gives doctors and patients a new method to monitor breast cancer risk, quickly and easily. All women are at risk for developing breast cancer. Unfortunately, by the time a woman can actually feel the lump, the disease is no longer in its earliest, most treatable stage.

The HALO Breast Pap Test is performed in a primary care physician’s or ob/gyn’s  office, where women generally present for basic health care. This five-minute, noninvasive exam-which involves the placement of cups over the breast-uses warmth, compression and a vacuum to collect nipple aspirate fluid, which is sent to the lab for analysis like cells from a cervical pap. About 1 percent of women are expected to have atypical ductal hyperplasia, and they’ll likely be referred to breast specialists such as surgeons and radiologists to be managed as high-risk patients.

The important point is, this new screening test could allow us to identify high-risk patients that otherwise go undetected. It has particular value in identifying women younger than we often see. Many fortysomething women have breasts that are too dense to benefit from a standard mammogram, and women below 40 aren’t routinely screened. The HALO test can be used on women as young as 25, providing a tool for those women who are harder to diagnose and are diagnosed with larger tumors. The most exciting aspect of this easy-to-use, cost-effective tool may be that it better enables us to manage our breast imaging resource and apply the best diagnostic modalities to high-risk women, where we’ll have the greatest impact on breast health care.

Until recently, the standard care for screening women to assess their breast health and risk of developing breast cancer was review of family history, physical breast exam, plus regular mammography for women over 40 or 50.

However, clinical experience has shown that none of these methods are effective in identifying cancers at the cellular level. By the time cancer is detected by either physical examination or mammography, a woman may have had the disease for six to ten years, with significant risk of serious consequences – including death.

Now, the HALO Breast Pap Test can detect cellular abnormalities years before a larger, potentially cancerous lesion might develop.

HALO is a complement to mammograms. Mammograms look for lesions (cancer) and are most effective as women age. HALO is looking for abnormal cells, years before they might turn into a lesion, and the test is effective in women as young as 25. If you already have a growth in your milk ducts when you first have a HALO test, it is possible that the affected duct could be blocked so that HALO could not collect a fluid sample. This is why it’s important to continue with routine mammograms and breast exams.

The Pap test is arguably the most successful cancer screening technology in history. The effectiveness of the Pap test in reducing the death rate of cervical cancer is directly related to the ability to determine precancerous conditions in the cervix before a cancer forms. Combined with repeated testing, i.e. annual well-woman visits, the Pap test’s simplicity and low cost led to widespread adoption. The annual death rate from cervical cancer has decreased over 70% since its introduction.

A noninvasive “Pap Test for the Breast” designed for the primary care setting may yield similar results, if simplicity and low cost lead to widespread adoption of Nipple Aspirate Fluid (NAF) cytological screening for benign breast disease. Most all breast cancers begin in the milk ducts; breast ductal epithelium undergoes pre-neoplastic changes that are recognized histologically and cytologically. This progression of disease is quite similar to that of cervical cancer. Just as an abnormal Pap test is an important tool in identifying cellular changes in a woman’s cervix, the same applies to cellular changes within her breast ducts. Like the cervical Pap test, HALO can detect abnormal cells years before a larger, potentially cancerous lesion might develop. There is a strong correlation between benign breast disease and the risk of developing breast cancer.  If you have a postitve HALO, your doctor will discuss your options with you.

Like cervical cancer, breast cancer typically grows slowly, taking, on average, 8 years before it can be detected by mammography, or up to 10 years before the lesion is palpable. The inability of current breast screening methods to detect cellular changes at an early stage of development, as the Pap test does for cervical cancer, is one reason for the lack of significant reduction in the death rate of breast cancer.

In the United States, medical treatment for breast cancer exceeds $8 billion per year. The five-year survival rate for localized breast cancer (Stage 0 or 1) is 100% compared to 20% when the cancer has spread to other areas (Stage 4). Finding cancer early saves lives and has financial benefits; finding women at high risk is an important tool in finding breast cancer earlier.

Click here to find a doctor in your area that offers the HALO Test.  Be sure to talk to your doctor about any issues you may have. Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed to bring up sensitive topics. Doctors often are so focused on making sick people better – or so rushed – they forget to talk about important health matters like diet and weight, exercise, stress, sleep, tobacco and alcohol use, sexual practices, vaccines, and tests to find diseases. Find out what tests you might need for your age, such as a mammogram or colonoscopy, and ask your doctor about getting them.

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