From KMOV-TV, Tuesday, October 21, 2003

(KMOV) -- Women at high risk for developing breast cancer now have more access to ductal lavage, a once experimental test to earmark early indicators of cancer. Two sisters hope this test will protect them from a family history of breast cancer.

Sisters Christine Latinette and Theresa Turner lead very different lives when it comes to work, children and marriage, but they have one thing in common that neither can escape.

"My mother was diagnosed at 54, died at 56. Her mother died of breast cancer. I have an aunt on my mother''s side who died young and past away with breast cancer," Turner said.

Last year, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in her left breast. As a young woman, she didn''t want a radical double mastectomy, so her doctor suggested a relatively new procedure called ductal lavage on her right breast.

"Ductal lavage, I was told, was a tool that would help determine if there is any cancerous activity, very early stages of cellular activity, in the duct of the breast," she said.

That''s important because 90 percent of breast cancers begin in the milk ducts. Ductal lavage won''t detect lumps outside the ducts, but Dr. Jill Dietz of Barnes-Jewish Hospital said it can be a forewarning of what''s to come.

"It enables us to look further or perhaps intervene in order to prevent that patient from developing a breast cancer," Dietz said.

As part of a clinical trial, Latinette went through ductal lavage. Her tests came back negative.

"It was a less invasive procedure than a lot of others that I''ve heard of. For me, it eliminated any concern I had about any kind of cancer in the ducts," Latinette said.

Dietz stressed that ductal lavage does not replace mammograms or self-exams. Because this is a new procedure, she recommended ductal lavage every one to two years if a woman''s results come back negative.