#BreastCancerAwarenessMonth
Breast cancer treatments are always evolving and improving. In 2019, fresh perspectives to approach cancer therapy led to exciting breakthroughs for treatments in research.

Today’s treatments are more targeted and capable of altering the breast cancer disease course while also maintaining your quality of life. In recent years, many therapeutic options have emerged for treating stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, greatly improving survival rates.

Breast cancer treatment research is ongoing and always improving the lives of those living with the condition. Here are the breakthrough treatments of 2019 as well as current treatments and information on finding a cure.

In a major breakthrough an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has potentially identified what makes SARS-CoV-2 highly infectious and able to spread rapidly in human cells. The findings, published in Science today [20 October] describe how the virus’s ability to infect human cells can be reduced by inhibitors that block a newly discovered interaction between virus and host, demonstrating a potential anti-viral treatment.

A team of New York University scientists has developed a method using holographic imaging to detect both viruses and antibodies. The breakthrough has the potential to aid in medical diagnoses and, specifically, those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our approach is based on physical principles that have not previously been used for diagnostic testing,” explains David Grier, a professor of physics at NYU and one of the researchers on the project, which is reported in the journal Soft Matter. “We can detect antibodies and viruses by literally watching them stick to specially prepared test beads.”

If fully realized, this proposed test could be done in under 30 minutes, is highly accurate, and can be performed by minimally trained personnel. Moreover, the method can test for either the virus (current infection) or antibodies (immunity).