| SABCS: Amenorrhea During Treatment Helps Breast Cancer Prognosis
SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 18 -- Premature ovarian failure during breast cancer treatment may mean a better relapse free survival, according to Austrian researchers.
Treatment-induced amenorrhea reduced relapse risk by about 44% for women under age 40, reported Michael Gnant, M.D., of the Medical University of Vienna at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. .
Breast Cancer reappearance can be reduced by eating less Fat in Diet
Dietary fat intake is not understood how it is associated with causing or creating a higher chance of breast cancer. Rowan T. Chlebowski, M.D., Ph.D., of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at the Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., and his colleagues wanted to study the effect of a low-fat diet to see if it would prolong or prevent a relapse in women that previously survived early-stage breast cancer treatments. The study consisted of 2,437 women who had previously been treated for early-stage breast cancer from February 1994 and January 2001. The Women's Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS) divided the women randomly into either a dietary intervention group (40%) or a control group (60%). The data collection ended in October 31, 2003 when the funding stopped.
Breast Cancer Stem Cells Appear Resistant to Radiation Therapy
Breast cancer stem cells, seem to be obstinate, as scientists have discovered, as they portray a resistance to radiation therapy. As a result, they are extremely difficult to annihilate. In fact radiation could even increase the growth of these stem cells, warn researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, who are the first to have suggested this tendency of stem cells that get radiation resistant and render breast cancer treatments futile.
When the research team subjected breast cancer stem cells and other normal breast cancer cells to single or several doses of radiation, they observed that the cancer causing stem cells survived the radiation as compared to normal breast cancer cells. Later, the team subjected the cells to a bigger dose of 3 Gray, for five days consecutively, and then discontinued the treatment much before completing the stipulated number of sessions.
Hormone-Breast Cancer Link May Cause More Women to Drop Menopause Meds
This week's news that a big drop in breast cancer cases might be due to millions of women going off menopause hormones may lead even more of them to abandon the pills. But doctors worry that women with severe menopausal symptoms will overreact to the risks and deny themselves the benefits of hormones. "There are some women who really require treatment. ... I worry that they will be talked out of it," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, a women's health expert at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Hormone use plummeted after a 2002 study found that it raised the risk of breast cancer, heart disease and other problems. Before that, the pills were thought to prevent many of those conditions, and doctors prescribed them as little fountains of youth.
Breast cancer treatments evaluated
TORONTO -- Common breast cancer chemotherapy regimes are inferior at preventing the disease from coming back, Canadian researchers have discovered. Widely-used breast cancer chemotherapy treatment known as AC/T is not as effective at preventing a recurrence of the disease as another commonly-used treatment regime called CEF. Researchers also found that AC/T was less effective at preventing breast cancer from recurring than a new experimental treatment regime called EC/T. DEVELOPED IN CANADA The CEF regime was developed in Canada. .
Older Women With Breast Cancer Respond to Treatment With ...
SAN ANTONIO, TX -- December 18, 2006 -- More than three quarters of 26 evaluable women over age 60 who are diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer respond to treatment with capecitabine and vinorelbine, researchers reported here at the 29th San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).
"The promising response rate of 77% justifies further evaluation of this combination regimen," said Uwe Kohler, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, clinic for obstetrics and gynecology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
"Half of all women with breast cancer are 58 years old or older," Dr. Kohler said in a poster presentation on December 17th. "In older patients, comorbidity and impaired organ function limit the use of taxane- or anthracycline-containing regimens. However, undertreatment in elderly patients results in poorer survival."
In the pilot study, Dr.
Breast Cancer Patients Not Taking Meds?
Hormone therapy drugs can reduce the risk of disease recurrence among postmenopausal women with early-stage, hormone-sensitive breast cancer, yet one out five women prescribed the drugs may not take them regularly. The fact that even women with cancer can be non-adherent to prescribed therapy clearly demonstrates the need for improved communication on drug side-effects, costs, and the health benefits associated with taking the medication. “These data are very concerning because hormonal therapy for breast cancer is one of the most effective treatments in all of oncology," said Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, the study's lead author and a breast cancer specialist at Dana-Farber. “Women may be compromising their care, and ultimately their survival, if they do not take these medications as recommended." Partridge and her colleagues analyzed claims data from three large commercial health plan systems to gauge treatment compliance of more than 7,000 women with early stage-breast cancer who, in addition to their regular treatment, began taking anastrozole.
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