Breast Cancer
Breast-Sparing Surgery an Option for Women with Breast Cancer Gene Mutation
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Women diagnosed with breast cancer who carry a certain genetic mutation can have breast-sparing surgery but should consider hormonal treatments to reduce their risk of cancer returning.
Those are the findings of a 10-year study led by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study authors found that women with the genetic mutation who had their ovaries removed or took the anti-estrogen drug tamoxifen had lower rates of breast cancer recurrence or new breast cancers in the other breast.
Women who carry a mutation on the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are at an increased risk of breast cancer compared to women without the mutation. And once diagnosed with breast cancer, they face a higher rate of a second tumor occurring. Because of this, questions remain about whether these women should undergo breast-conserving surgery instead of mastectomy, which removes the entire breast.
Results Good for HER-2 Positive Breast Cancer Patients Using Trastuzumab
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Researchers in the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) have shown that patients who receive trastuzumab at the same time as post-chemotherapy radiation treatments for HER-2 positive breast cancer have no more risk for major side effects or complications than those who do not receive the drug. Mayo Clinic’s Michele Halyard, M.D., presented these findings today, June 5, at the 2006 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Atlanta.
This study resulted from NCCTG clinical trial N9831, from which breakthrough treatment findings were presented at ASCO 2005. “The original N9831 study showed that trastuzumab reduced the recurrence of HER-2 positive breast cancer about 50 percent,” says Dr. Halyard, a radiation oncologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona and lead author of today’s study. “We hoped also to show that trastuzumab did not add complications to radiation treatment, and the current study has certainly proven that, providing good news for many women.”
About 25 percent to 30 percent of breast cancers produce an overabundance of a growth-promoting protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER-2). These tumors tend to grow faster and are generally more likely to recur than tumors that do not overproduce HER-2. Trastuzumab is the first identified monoclonal antibody designed specifically to attack this overexpressed protein, and is used as a follow-on treatment to chemotherapy. A monoclonal antibody is a laboratory-engineered protein that helps the body’s immune system fight foreign invaders such as cancer.
Elderly with breast cancer may be undertreated
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Women in their 80s with breast cancer tend to receive less intensive treatment compared with their younger counterparts, Israeli researchers report.
“According to our data, most women diagnosed with breast cancer at or after the age of 80, lived more than 6 years after diagnosis,” senior author Dr. Haim Gutman told Reuters Health. “A majority received less than the standard local treatment.”
Less than standard treatment was associated with somewhat increased risk of recurrence, although this “did not translate into statistically significant survival disadvantage,” he added.
Surgery helps if even breast cancer spread: report
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Surgery greatly increases a patient’s chances of surviving with breast cancer, even if the cancer has spread by the time a woman is diagnosed, Swiss researchers reported on Monday.
Although many women around the world are simply offered what is known as palliative care, to help them live a little longer and make them comfortable while they wait to die, surgery could help them live much longer, the researchers found.
“Based on these findings, we believe that it is time to take a hard look at the current standard of care for breast cancer patients initially diagnosed with metastatic disease,” said Dr. Elisabetta Rapiti of the Geneva Cancer Registry at the University of Geneva, who led the study.
Imaging of breast cancer diagnosed and treated with chemotherapy during pregnancy
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Ultrasound provides a safe and accurate method of detecting breast cancers in pregnant women, as well as assessing response to chemotherapy, according to a study appearing in the April issue of Radiology.
Investigators at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston recently studied the largest group of women to date who were both diagnosed and treated for breast cancer during pregnancy.
“Ultrasound identified 100 percent of cancers in our study, and mammography demonstrated 90 percent,” said Wei T. Yang, M.D., chief investigator of the study and associate professor of diagnostic radiology at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Breast Imaging Section. “We want young women to know that symptomatic breast cancer that occurs during pregnancy can be imaged, diagnosed and treated while pregnant, so they should not wait to seek medical attention if they start to have suspicious symptoms.”
British woman wins Herceptin drug case
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A British woman with early-stage breast cancer won a legal appeal on Wednesday to force her local health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin.
“I feel like I’ve won the lottery,” said Ann Marie Rogers, 54, who had called the initial decision by Swindon Primary Care Trust (PCT) not to give her the costly medication “a death sentence”.
The decision at London’s Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that said the PCT in Wiltshire did not have to pay for the drug, made by Switzerland’s Roche and which costs about 20,000 pounds ($35,000) a year.
First-born’s sex has no impact on breast ca survival
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Contrary to earlier reports, there does not appear to be an association between the sex of a woman’s first child and her chances of subsequently surviving breast cancer, according to researchers.
“Given that previous reports advocated the use of the sex of the first child in making decisions related to breast cancer therapy and counseling, our findings are reassuring and clinically important,” write the researchers in the International Journal of Cancer.
Regular use of COX-2 inhibitors may reduce the risk of breast cancer
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Results from a new, five-year study show that regular use of popular prescription pain relievers may reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 71 percent and may offer similar benefit in the prevention of prostate, colon and lung cancers.
The study findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
“We believe this is the first study to show that selective COX-2 inhibitors have significant chemopreventive effects against breast cancer,” says Dr. Randall Harris, professor and director of the Center for Molecular Epidemiology and Environmental Health in The Ohio State University College of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Younger breast cancer patients at increase risk
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Women under 45 years old diagnosed with early breast cancer have a higher risk of dying from the disease than older patients, scientists said on Thursday.
“The younger the woman, the poorer the chance of survival,” said Dr. Vincent Vinh-Hung, of University Hospital in Brussels.
Breast is the most common cancer in women, with more than one million new cases detected worldwide each year. Most are in women over 50—the disease is much less common in young women.
X-ray doesn’t raise cancer risk in BRCA carriers
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Exposure to the among of radiation produced by mammography does not substantially increase the risk of breast cancer in women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, even when screening begins at an early age, investigators report in The Lancet Oncology, published online on March 22.
Because BRCA mutations disrupt the repair of DNA damage, it was feared that DNA-damaging radiation from mammography would increase these patients’ risk.
Dr. Steven A. Narod, from the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues in North America, Europe and Israel conducted a study with 1,600 patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 1952 and 2005, and another 1,600 women with the same age, BRCA mutation status and country of residence. There was no difference in the family histories of women in either group.
Breast cancer deaths higher among black women
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African American women are more likely to die from breast cancer, and minorities in general do not receive the best treatment for the disease compared with white women, according to two studies published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Researchers found that African American women, even after adjusting for socioeconomic differences, are 19 percent more likely than white women to die of breast cancer, said lead author Dr. Lisa Newman, Director of the Breast Care Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
A second study found that women in minority groups, including Hispanics, are half as likely to receive complete follow-up treatment for the disease.
Family docs fine for breast cancer follow-up
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Women who have been treated for early-stage breast cancer can safely rely on their family physicians for their follow-up care, according to a new report.
“I think the most important message is that patients should be told frankly about what the limitations and potential benefits of follow-up are,” Dr. Eva Grunfeld from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, told Reuters Health.
“They should be informed that follow-up can be provided by their family physician so that they can make an informed choice about their follow-up arrangements,” she explained.
Breast cancer risk tied to HRT evident across race
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Postmenopausal hormone therapy with estrogen or estrogen-progestin is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk across ethnic groups, new research indicates.
Previous studies have indicated that menopausal estrogen-progestin therapy increases the risk of breast cancer, but it is unclear whether this association varies by specific prognostic factors and ethnicity.
“Findings from our study are consistent with previous literature of an association between hormone therapy use in breast cancer, in particular, an increase in risk associated with current estrogen-progestin therapy use,” Dr. Malcolm Pike from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and colleagues write in the International Journal of Cancer.
UK cancer sufferer to appeal in Herceptin case
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A British woman with early-stage breast cancer lost a test case legal bid on Wednesday to force her health authority to pay for the potentially life-saving drug Herceptin, but vowed on Wednesday to continue her battle.
High Court judge Justice Bean ruled that Swindon Primary Care Trust in Wiltshire, which had refused Ann Marie Rogers, 54, the costly drug treatment, need not pay for Herceptin, made by Switzerland’s Roche.
Non-BRCA1/2 hereditary breast cancer linked to new cancers
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The risk for a new cancer in the unaffected breast substantially increases in women diagnosed with unilateral, hereditary (non-BRCA1/2) breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers working at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
The study is the first in its kind and is published in the March 15, 2006 issue of CANCER.
