Your AI-Trained Oncology Knowledge Connection!
TAMPA, Florida-Giving suboptimal care, in terms of chemotherapy regimens and dose intensities, is "compromising survival" of elderly patients, according to a report by Julie Meyer, MPH, of a study involving close to 24,000 patients with early stage breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Ms. Meyer is a nurse practitioner in the Senior Adult Oncology Program at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida.
ASCO-Although aromatase inhibitors show promise for preventing recurrence following surgery in women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, tamoxifen (Nolvadex) remains the standard of care, according to an evidence-based technology assessment of the aromatase inhibitors, sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The ASCO expert panel found that the available data on aromatase inhibitors for this indication do not support routine use outside of clinical trials.
OMAHA-New research shows that some postchemotherapy fatigue in breast cancer patients is the result of disordered sleep and can be relieved by sleep intervention programs. At the 27th Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society, Ann M. Berger, PhD, RN, AOCN, reported promising data from one such program that found that daily activity levels, fatigue, and quality of sleep all improved in cancer patients who went through a sleep intervention program. Dr. Berger is associate professor and advanced practice nurse at the University of Nebraska College of Nursing in Omaha.
BALTIMORE-New research indicates that exercise can play a significant role in combating fatigue related to cancer treatment and the accompanying loss of function fatigue brings, according to Victoria Mock, DNSc, RN. Dr. Mock is the American Cancer Society Professor of Oncology Nursing at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Director of Nursing Research Center at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to AstraZeneca’s new breast cancer drug fulvestrant (Faslodex) for treatment of hormone-receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following antiestrogen therapy, with, for example, tamoxifen. Fulvestrant is an estrogen-receptor antagonist without known agonist effects. It is the only estrogen-receptor antagonist to be proven effective after tamoxifen failure.
WILMINGTON, Delaware-The US Food and Drug Administration has granted approval to AstraZeneca’s breast cancer drug Faslodex (fulvestrant) Injection for treatment of hormone-receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following antiestrogen therapy, such as tamoxifen (Nolvadex). Faslodex is a selective estrogen-receptor antagonist without known agonist effects.
Adjuvant chemotherapy is an integral component of the multidisciplinary curative treatment of primary breast cancers. The experience of the last 3 decades indicates that anthracycline-containing regimens provide the most effective cytotoxic treatment for this purpose.
Several clinical trials have explored the efficacy of docetaxel (Taxotere) as primary chemotherapy for breast cancer. Docetaxel has been evaluated as single-agent therapy, sequentially as a single agent following anthracycline-containing regimens, and in combination with anthracyclines, cisplatin, and trastuzumab (Herceptin) in patients with high-risk early breast cancer.
Docetaxel (Taxotere) has been intensively investigated for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, where it has proved to be one of the most active agents. Initial phase II studies in anthracycline-resistant metastatic breast cancer demonstrated impressive response rates that have been confirmed in phase III randomized trials.
WASHINGTON-Medicare will soon cover image guidance techniques, such as stereotactic systems and ultrasound, used to biopsy palpable breast lesions that are difficult to biopsy with palpitation alone. However, contractors who administer Medicare benefits "have the discretion to decide what types of palpable lesions are difficult to biopsy using palpitation," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said. The new coverage will begin later this year and will not be retroactive. Medicare has covered image guidance to assist the biopsy of nonpalpable lesions since 1999.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a 6-month priority review status to the supplemental new drug application filed by the AstraZeneca corporation for the use of anastrozole (Arimidex) in the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
SAN ANTONIO-In the treatment of breast cancer, cardiomyopathy has represented a possible barrier to the use of trastuzumab (Herceptin) in the adjuvant setting. But a study by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) now suggests the risk is small when trastuzumab is combined with paclitaxel (Taxol), and, for the most part, cardiac changes are reversible.
A substantial minority of the women who see themselves as being at high risk for breast cancer because of family history suffer noticeable depressive symptoms and anxiety, and the anxiety can interfere with compliance with recommendations on breast self-examination (BSE), according to studies at the UCLA Revlon Breast Center.
HOLLYWOOD, Florida-The 2002 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) breast cancer treatment guidelines include a number of important updates regarding the use of aromatase inhibitors, leuteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists, and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Robert W. Carlson, MD, chair of the NCCN Breast Cancer Panel, presented the guidelines at the Seventh Annual NCCN Conference.
Investigators recently reported the results of a study suggesting the benefits of identifying subgroups of breast cancer patients at high risk for hospitalization due to febrile neutropenia. Once identified, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF, Neupogen) might be administered prophylactically to these patients to help decrease the incidence of the side effect. The data were presented at the 24th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
The journal Lancet recently published an important analysis from six physicians at Weill Cornell Medical College (359:404-406, 2002), rebutting an article published in an earlier issue of Lancet (358:1340-1342, 2001) that cast doubt on the value of mammography in preventing death from breast cancer.
MIAMI BEACH, Florida-The Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Working Group is completing work on its consensus guidelines for stratifying patients into risk categories for breast cancer and managing their care accordingly. The model was outlined at the 19th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference.
New research presented at the 93rd annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) suggests that monitoring with the serum HER2/neu oncoprotein test may help oncologists assess the effect of trastuzumab (Herceptin)-based therapy in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
The authors are to be complimented on a thoughtful and complete review of the application of the sentinel node paradigm to colorectal cancer. This paradigm is inherently quite different for colorectal cancer because, except for the occasional demonstration of variant anatomy, the technique will not alter the extent of surgery as it has done in melanoma and breast cancer.
The multistep process of carcinogenesis, which can take many years, provides many opportunities for intervention to inhibit disease progression. Effective chemoprevention agents may reduce the risk of cancer by inhibiting the initiation stage of carcinoma through induction of apoptosis or DNA repair in cells harboring mutations, or they may act to prevent promotion of tumor growth. Similarly, chemoprevention may entail blocking cancer progression to an invasive phenotype.
When the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes for breast and ovarian cancers were first identified and a screening blood test became available, a debate ensued as to whether there was an advantage to learning one’s risk. Recently, the value of such testing was demonstrated in a study in women who were followed after being identified as carriers of a BRCA genetic mutation. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have provided strong evidence that breast and ovarian cancers can be detected at an early stage in women at highest hereditary risk. Results of the study were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (20:1260-1268, 2002).
SAN ANTONIO-The aromatase inhibitor letrozole (Femara) should be considered for first-line hormonal therapy in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer, according to the final analysis of a pivotal phase III trial comparing the agent with tamoxifen (Nolvadex).
WASHINGTON-In recent years online chat rooms and list servers devoted to a vast array of special interests have become a staple of American life. Now a pilot project has shown that an internet support group significantly benefits women coping with breast cancer, said Mitch Golant, PhD, vice president of research and development for The Wellness Community (TWC) National, Santa Monica, California.
ChromaVision Medical Systems, Inc, announced recently that investigators using their automated cellular imaging system (ACIS) concluded that the number of metastatic tumor cells found in the sentinel lymph node correlates with the size of the primary breast tumor.
SAN ANTONIO-Updated results from a major phase III study of docetaxel (Taxotere) plus capecitabine (Xeloda) in metastatic breast cancer confirmed the value of this new combination.
