Researchers say common chemotherapy drugs too risky for many patients
- From: "BigArtie" <badegg69@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:39:13 -0400
Breast cancer treatment may fail most women
Researchers say common chemotherapy drugs too risky for many patients
ANALYSIS
By Robert Bazell
Chief science and health correspondent
Updated: 4:52 p.m. CT June 5, 2007
What if an estimated 100,000 breast cancer patients got drugs that did
nothing to combat their cancer, but put them at risk for heart failure and
leukemia?
That is the implication of new research that was presented in private
session at this week?s meeting of the American Society of Clinical
Oncology(ASCO) in Chicago.
The research, from Dr. Dennis Slamon, chief of oncology at the University of
California, Los Angeles, suggests that the most widely used chemotherapy
drugs may not benefit most women. Although the research hasn't been
published or peer-reviewed yet, it is expected to be soon.
The drugs are a common class of treatments called anthracyclines, including
doxorubicin, epirubicin, and mitoxantrone. Since their introduction in the
1980s anthracyclines have replaced older chemotherapy drugs in the
combination therapies given to women. Administered in the months after
surgery and radiation, the chemotherapy is intended to reduce the chances of
a life-threatening recurrence of cancer, especially in women at high risk
for relapse.
Early on, researchers understood that anthracyclines could cause heart
failure in some patients. Recently, evidence has accumulated about the
additional risk of leukemia, which can strike years or decades after the
treatment.
Evidence for the effectiveness of anthracyclines versus the older drugs
remained murky. Then, a 1998 meta-analysis (a study of all the previous
studies) found the anthracyclines did a 4 percent better job at preventing
recurrence. Despite their side effects, that study elevated the drugs to the
standard of care.
Treating many to help few
The UCLA research questions that treatment.
Slamon played a key role in the discovery and development of the hugely
successful breast cancer drug Herceptin. Herceptin, which changed the way
the disease is treated, specifically targets a gene called Her-2 that is
overexpressed in 20 percent to 25 percent of breast cancers (a gene is
overexpressed when its effect becomes excessive in the body). Herceptin?s
success proved that breast cancer is not one disease, but many, with each
benefiting from a tailored treatment.
In this latest study, Slamon looked at a more recently discovered gene
called Topoll-2, which is sometimes, but not always, overexpressed along
with Her-2. Anthracyclines stop breast cancer because they target Topoll-2.
Slamon examined tissue samples from more than 2,000 women who took part in
seven clinical trials. His analysis showed that anthracyclines work only in
women who overexpress the Topoll-2 gene. Such women account for 8 percent of
breast cancer cases.
The anthracyclines ? with all their side effects ? have almost no effect in
92 percent of breast cancer cases.
?It seems apparent that we are treating patients who don't need the drug to
get at that group who have a huge benefit,? Slamon told me. ?And now we need
to direct our therapy and target it more specifically.?
'Exciting result'
Even when other cancer doctors were willing to use anthracyclines only as
targeted therapy, they couldn?t. There is no commercial test yet for the
Topoll-2 gene, although there likely will be in a few months.
Nevertheless, Johns Hopkins breast cancer specialist Dr. Nancy Davidson
calls the findings ?an exciting result.?
?It's early; it's provocative. We are waiting to see it go through peer
review in the usual fashion,? says Davidson, who is incoming president of
ASCO. ?But there's a lot of buzz.?
Fran Visco, a cancer survivor and president of the National Breast Cancer
Coalition, agrees the work needs to be published and peer-reviewed ? very
soon.
?This is going to be a sea change in how we treat breast cancer,? she told
me. ?There is no reason we shouldn't be moving very quickly to publish it
and quickly to figure out how we're going to implement it in practice. Women
deserve no less.?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19048185/
--
"BigArtie" <badegg69@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BGgKi.285$Ac7.273@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This ladies mother has breast cancer, and has been taking LDN for almost
three years without any progression.
You can follow her story here:
http://tinyurl.com/26q442
"Dangerous" <dangerous@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MhXJi.76698$Pd4.70271@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sorry Tick I have not made that phone call yet.
Close friend diagnosed with breast cancer..this is number 3 friend in two
years...
I will make that call.....
Going to put some pink streaks in my hair to support her....
I could mail you a picture...LOL
--
Dora
Dangerous with Attitude
I do it cause I can
.
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