Cancercompass News: breast cancer
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12/15/2008 Study Sees Higher Risks In Small Breast Tumors SAN ANTONIO -- Some women with small breast tumors may have a greater risk of the cancer recurring after treatment than has been believed, and might benefit from taking the drug Herceptin, a new study suggests. Treatments like chemotherapy or Herceptin aren't usually recommended for women whose tumors are smaller than 1 centimeter -- just under half an inch -- and have not spread beyond the breast. However, Texas researchers who looked at records on 1,315 such patients found that the 10 percent who had high levels of a protein called HER-2 had three times the risk of suffering a recurrence than did women with less HER-2. Only 77 percent of those with high HER-2 levels were alive and cancer-free five years after tr... Read more at this website... 12/15/2008 Study Finds DOXIL Combination Therapy Delays Disease Progression For Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer SAN ANTONIO, Dec 14, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Results from a Phase 3 study show that patients with metastatic breast cancer who were treated previously with an anthracycline in the adjuvant setting experienced a significant improvement in time to disease progression (TTP) and overall response rates after receiving a combination of DOXIL(R) (doxorubicin HCl liposome injection) and docetaxel as compared to docetaxel alone. Results from this randomized, parallel-group, open-label, multi-center study were presented today at the 31st Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). The study included only patients previously treated with anthracyclines who had a disease-free interval of at least one year. The stud... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 New Data Demonstrate Significant Improvement In Progression-Free Survival For Triple Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients Treated with IXEMPRA Plus Capecitabine SAN ANTONIO -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced new data from studies of IXEMPRA(TM) (ixabepilone) plus capecitabine compared to capectabine alone, including a pre-specified sub set analysis demonstrating a significant increase in progression free survival (PFS) in patients with triple negative breast cancer. The study results - which are from a pooled analysis of approximately 2,000 patients enrolled in two Phase III clinical trials of IXEMPRA (046 and 048) - were presented today at the 2008 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS). Patients studied were either resistant to or pretreated with anthracyclines and taxanes. In the pooled analysis of the subset of 443 patients with triple negative breast cancer... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Agendia's MammaPrint Predicts Response To Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy In Breast Cancer HUNTINGTON BEACH, California and AMSTERDAM -- Agendia, a world leader in molecular cancer diagnostics, today announced MammaPrint(R)'s ability to predict response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Dr. Laura van 't Veer, from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, presented the data at the 2008 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) during the session Molecular profiling for guiding therapeutic decisions. The study analyzed the association between the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and the results of the MammaPrint test. "Physicians are increasingly supportive of MammaPrint in clinical practice because they believe it provides them with invaluable information for patient treatment planning. MammaP... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Wyeth Announces Positive Data From Phase 2 Study Of Neratinib In Advanced HER-2-Positive Breast Cancer COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. -- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, today announced data from an open-label phase 2 clinical trial of neratinib (HKI-272) in women with advanced HER-2-positive breast cancer. These data suggest that neratinib has antitumor activity in patients with advanced breast cancer positive for the ErbB-2 receptor (also known as HER-2 or Neu). These data were presented today during an oral session at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Neratinib is an investigational orally-administered potent and irreversible dual inhibitor of the HER-2 and EGFR kinases. Wyeth expects to initiate the first study in a global phase 3 program for neratinib in advanced HER-2-positive breast cancer later this... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 DNA Repair Company Announces New Clinical Findings Which May Help To Guide Breast Cancer Treatment BOSTON -- The DNA Repair Company (DNAR), an early-stage company focused on personalized approaches to cancer treatment, announced today that it has identified a promising set of protein biomarkers that may aid in the treatment of a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. These findings were presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The DNAR study was conducted in collaboration with investigators from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston. The lead author of the study, Brian Alexander, MD, physician resident at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and currently a White House Fellow, was selected as a recipient of the prestigious AstraZenec... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Estrogen Therapy, Once Considered Taboo, May Again Be Effective In Breast Cancer Treatment Estrogen is medicine's most two-faced hormone, confusing doctors and patients for decades on its role in the benefits and risks of heart disease and cancer. Now researchers at Washington University have shown that in some women with breast cancer tumors that thrive on the hormone, giving them more estrogen actually can trick the tumors into submission. Estrogen therapy could be used to treat thousands of women with certain kinds of breast cancer, an attractive alternative to chemotherapy for its lesser side effects and its low cost, less than one dollar a day. About 40,000 women die of advanced breast cancer each year. In a study of 66 women with metastatic breast cancer, Dr. Matthew Ellis and colleagues found that tumo... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 New Data Shows Zometa Enhances Impact Of Chemotherapy On Reducing Breast Tumour Size FRIMLEY, England -- Adding Zometa to Chemotherapy Prior to Surgery Led to an Additional 33% Reduction in Tumour Size, Resulting in Fewer Mastectomies New Data is First to Demonstrate Direct Effect of Zometa to Help Shrink Primary Tumours; Further Evidence of Zometa as a Potential Anticancer Therapy New data released today demonstrates that the addition of Zometa(R) (zoledronic acid) infusion to standard chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery reduces the size of breast tumours more effectively than chemotherapy alone in women with early-stage disease. These neo-adjuvant subset results from the retrospective exploratory analysis of the international AZURE (Adjuvant Zoledronic acid to redUce REcurrence) trial are th... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 New Program Offers Breast Cancer Clinicians And Patients Support For Pre-operative Clinical Assessment And Ongoing Surveillance Of Lymphedema The Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF), with support from ImpediMed Ltd. , is pleased to announce the launch of the Lymphedema CareLine (LCL). PAF, through its MedCare Division, is offering the national, toll-free patient/provider hotline designed to provide information and assistance to breast cancer patients who are or may be at risk for post-treatment side effects such as lymphedema (swelling due to blockage in the lymphatic system). Staffed by a dedicated team of multilingual clinical case managers with nursing and social work experience, the LCL offers personal case management services, including the dissemination of information about lymphedema, navigation through the reimbursement system, interpretation of a patients' health insura... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Latinas More Likely To Regret Breast Cancer Treatment Decisions Latina women who prefer speaking Spanish are more likely than other ethnic groups to express regret or dissatisfaction with their breast cancer treatment, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Despite receiving similar treatment, Latina women were 5.6 times more likely than white women to report high levels of dissatisfaction and regret about their breast cancer treatment decision. The researchers found that Latinas and other ethnic groups had similar levels of involvement with their doctor in deciding the treatment plan. But Latinas were more likely to say they would have preferred to be more involved in the decision making. Researchers surveyed 925 women with non-advanc... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Molecular Breast Imaging Identifies Occult Cancer Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) is shown to be an effective method of identifying mammographically and clinically occult (hidden) breast cancer. BSGI is a molecular breast imaging technique that can see lesions independent of tissue density and discover very early stage cancers. According to findings presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in this study of women where breast cancer was already suspected via mammogram or physical exam, BSGI identified additional suspicious lesions in 29 percent of the patients and found a previously unsuspected cancer in 9 percent of women. "BSGI is an emerging technology that goes beyond mammography as an effective imaging procedure for early breast... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 Eating Eggs When Pregnant Affects Breast Cancer In Offspring A stunning discovery based on epigenetics (the inheritance of propensities acquired in the womb) reveals that consuming choline a nutrient found in eggs and other foods during pregnancy may significantly affect breast cancer outcomes for a mother's offspring. This finding by a team of biologists at Boston University is the first to link choline consumption during pregnancy to breast cancer. It also is the first to identify possible choline-related genetic changes that affect breast cancer survival rates. "We've known for a long time that some agents taken by pregnant women, such as diethylstibesterol, have adverse consequences for their daughters," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "But there's an upside.... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 New Mammography Technology Effective In Detecting Breast Cancer A study has found that positron emission mammography (PEM), a new technique for imaging the breast, is not affected by either breast density or a woman's hormonal status, two factors that limit the effectiveness of standard mammography and MRI at detecting cancer. Results will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). "The ability of PEM to detect cancer does not appear to be adversely affected by breast density, hormone replacement therapy or menopausal status," said lead researcher Kathy Schilling, M.D., director of breast imaging and intervention at the Center for Breast Care at Boca Raton Community Hospital in Florida. "The sensitivity of PEM is equal to or better than breast MRI, a... Read more at this website... 12/11/2008 HER2 Levels May Aid In Treatment Selection For Metastatic Breast Cancer Findings published in the December 1, 2008, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, show lapatinib benefits women with HER2-positive breast cancer, while women with HER2-negative breast cancer or those who express EGRF alone derive no incremental benefit. In addition, a misclassification of metastatic breast cancer patients by as much as 10 percent prevents some people from receiving optimal therapy. Lapatinib, an oral chemotherapy agent, inhibits both HER2 and EGRF receptors, leaving unanswered questions about which patients are more likely to benefit. Researchers at the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center found that HER2 amplification ("HER2-positive"), but not EGRF expression, is co... Read more at this website... 12/08/2008 New Targeted Fluorescent-Imaging Compound Allows Researchers To Detect Viable Cancer Cells In Mice Researchers have developed a new type of imaging compound that allows them to visualize viable breast cancer cells that have spread to the lungs in mice. The compound binds to a protein called HER2, which is found on the surface of some breast cancer cells, and it glows, or fluoresces, only when taken inside living cells. This method of targeting and activation allowed researchers to detect specific types of live cancer cells in a mouse model of breast cancer. The study, by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and in Japan, appeared online Dec. 7, 2008, in Nature Medicine. Previously developed fluorescent compounds that are activated inside the body's cells have... Read more at this website... |
