Breast Cancer

The widespread impression that breast implants increase the risk of developing breast cancer has little supportive evidence, according to a recent report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Authors Louise A. Brinton and S. Lori Brown

PHILADELPHIA-The American Cancer Society was on the right track in their March 1997 recommendation that women in their 40s have screening mammograms for detection of breast cancer, Thomas Jefferson University’s Stephen Feig, MD, said at a breast cancer symposium at Fox Chase Cancer Center. At the same time, he took to task the NIH consensus panel, which looked at the same data and did not recommend mam-mography screening for this age group.

SAN ANTONIO-A phase II trial conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) of doxorubicin plus paclitaxel (Taxol) with G-CSF (filgrastim, Neupogen) in metastatic breast cancer produced an overall response rate of approximately 50%, with a median response duration of about 4 months, said Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of Albert Einstein Cancer Center, New York City, at the 20th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. However, complete responses were uncommon.

SAN ANTONIO-A taxane-containing combination therapy has led to major objective responses in 75% to 80% of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Overall, 35 of 48 evaluable patients responded to the combination of docetaxel (Taxotere), doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide, said Jean-Marc Nabholtz, MD, senior medical oncologist at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

CHICAGO-Of the three primary methods of preventing breast cancer that are being debated today, only one-lifestyle education-is suitable at present for the general population of women.

Speakers at this international workshop, which was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 28, 1997, addressed the integration of new treatment strategies, including paclitaxel (Taxol), into the management of women with breast cancer.

NEW YORK-The National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) has introduced the NABCO Resource Card, a quick reference guide to services and programs offered by the top breast cancer organizations in the United States.

HOUSTON-Various combinations of a taxane and doxorubicin (Adriamycin) have been studied in patients with advanced breast cancer, with good response rates.

PHILADELPHIA-Simply giving ever higher doses of chemotherapy does not generally lead to improved survival in metastatic breast cancer. “For 20 years we’ve been exploring this approach, and the response has been uniform and uniformly disappointing,” Larry Norton, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said at a symposium held at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

In a lecture at Fox Chase Cancer Center, noted breast cancer researcher Bernard Fisher proclaimed his triumph against agencies that had accused him of scientific misconduct in his directorship of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel

This study evaluated the safety and feasibility of the combination of paclitaxel (Taxol) and epirubicin, the 4¢-epimer of doxorubicin, in women with metastatic breast cancer. A total of 85 patients with histologically proven

Although combination chemotherapy regimens may prolong survival for selected patients with metastatic breast cancer, few, if any, are cured. The standard regimens used in treatment, eg, CMF (cyclophosphamide,

The use of dose-dense therapy is one approach to overcoming the “resistance” of malignant cells to adjuvant therapy caused by inadequate drug exposure. In this approach, active drugs are delivered sequentially at their “ideal” dose level separated by short intertreatment intervals. Thus, dose intensification is achieved by means of rapidly recycled treatments rather than by dramatic dose escalation. To overcome absolute cellular resistance, the addition of new, active, non-cross-resistant drugs holds great promise and has specifically motivated the testing of the taxanes. This article describes the results of clinical trials of dose-dense therapy, with particular emphasis on attempts to incorporate one taxane, paclitaxel (Taxol), into the dose-dense regimen of sequential doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide-the so-called A ® T ® C regimen, and into more conventional regimens.[ONCOLOGY 12(Suppl 1)16-18, 1998]

Thirty-three metastatic breast cancer patients with prior chemotherapy (adjuvant alone, 9 patients; chemotherapy for metastatic disease alone, 13 patients; chemotherapy for both, 11 patients) received paclitaxel (Taxol) 135

In a phase II study, 66 patients with advanced breast cancer (median age 56 years; range, 28 to 75 years) were treated with paclitaxel (Taxol), 175 mg/m² infused over 3 hours, and carboplatin (Paraplatin), dosed to attain an

Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a diterpene originally obtained from the bark of the Pacific Yew Tree, Taxus Brevifolia. Its mechanism of action is unique. it stabilizes microtubule polymerization, thus blocking cells in the G2/M phase of

This phase I-II study aimed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of paclitaxel (Taxol), infused over 3 hours, when combined with a fixed dose (90 mg/m²) of epirubicin. Other aims were to investigate the combination’s

A preliminary report of a phase II trial of paclitaxel (Taxol) administered in a dose-dense manner as first- and second-line therapy for metastatic breast cancer is presented. Patients who had received one or two prior

Screening for breast cancer has been shown in several European randomized trials and case-control studies to reduce breast cancer mortality. These studies highlight the importance of quality assurance in the whole screening process. The Europe

DALLAS-The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, known for raising awareness and community support for breast cancer research and programs through its Race for the Cure, has unveiled three new websites that form a comprehensive online source of breast health and breast cancer information.

NEW YORK-Two breast cancer survivors-one an oncologist from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the other, the head of the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO)-were among those offering special perspectives at a public meeting on clinical and public policy issues related to breast cancer, sponsored by NABCO and held at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Award-winning work by Dr. Marie Overgaard, of the Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, gives new hope of longer survival for women with breast cancer. Dr. Overgaard’s work shows that treating the primary

CHICAGO-The clinical rationale for breast-conserving surgery has been unequivocally established by prospective, randomized clinical trials that show no difference in survival between this form of surgery and mastectomy. In many parts of the country, however, less than 50% of women with early-stage breast cancer are having breast-conserving surgery.

PHILADELPHIA-The anti-HER-2/neu monoclonal antibody is now in the final stages of phase III testing, in combination with an anthracycline, in patients with advanced breast cancer tumors that overexpress the gene product, Dennis Slamon, MD, of the UCLA School of Medicine, said at a breast cancer symposium at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

In 1970, Ansfield and colleagues published the results of a randomized trial in head and neck cancer, which showed that giving fluorouracil (5-FU) concomitantly with radiation decreased regional recurrences and improved overall survival over radiation alone.[1] Publication of these results came 6 years before those of an Italian trial showing similar findings with adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-FU (CMF) in breast cancer.[2] Yet, while adjuvant chemotherapy has rapidly become the norm in the management of early breast cancer, concomitant chemotherapy is still considered undefined in the treatment of head and neck cancer. This situation is elegantly described by Dr. Karen Fu, one of the most respected investigators in this area.

HAMBURG-Tumor cell detection (TCD) in bone marrow should supplant axillary lymph node status as a prognostic indicator for women with early breast cancer, Ingo J. Diel, MD, of the University of Heidelberg, said at the Ninth European Cancer Conference (ECCO 9).

CHICAGO-October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) had a special focus on women in America’s agricultural communities. Zeneca, a founding co-sponsor of NBCAM, said that its breast cancer education program will target rural women to raise awareness of the need for mam-mography and other early detection methods in this population.

Results of a phase II trial presented at this year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) suggest that

HAMBURG-In women with operable breast cancer of small size, sentinel node biopsy can be used to predict the status of the axillary lymph nodes and thereby avoid unnecessary axillary dissection, according to a report from the European Institute of Oncology in Milan presented at the Ninth European Cancer Conference (ECCO 9).

ATLANTA-With dose-escalation studies of adjuvant chemotherapy in node-positive breast cancer producing mixed results, many researchers are moving to the dose-density approach, Clifford A. Hudis, MD, said at the Third Annual Perspectives in Breast Cancer meeting.