Molecule May Help Doctors Treat Breast Cancer Patients

CHICAGO -- In a development that could greatly enhance doctors' ability to tailor cancer treatment to those who need it most, researchers have identified a tiny molecule that makes breast cancer cells spread to other organs. More than 200,000 U.S. women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer, and virtually all of them are treated with some combination of surgery, drugs and radiation. Scientists have known for years that most don't need such aggressive treatment, but so far medicine cannot tell for sure which tumors are life-threatening. A team of biologists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported this week study was posted online Wednesday in the journal Nature that a speck of genetic material known as microRNA-10b is res...