Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Breast Cancer Rise Puzzles Scientists

Cancer scientists are puzzled by the increase in breast cancer and can explain only part of the rise by more women seeking mammograms, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Bernadine P. Healy told a congressional panel. One out of nine women will be found to have the disease in her lifetime compared with one out of 20 in 1940, she said. “Some of the increase is apparently due to better diagnostic measures. . . . Some of the increase mystifies us,” Healy said at a hearing of the House Government Operations subcommittee on human services.