Breast Cancer

NEW ORLEANS-In a phase II study, combined treatment with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and vinorelbine (Navelbine) improved response rates and survival in women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

NEW YORK-“Survival rates could be improved if all women understood the benefits of early detection and could utilize high-quality breast cancer screening services in their communities, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Wanda K. Jones, DrPh, leadoff speaker at the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations’ (NABCO) Celebration 2000 fund-raising luncheon.

This book is the 17th volume in the Basic and Clinical Oncology series edited by Bruce D. Cheson, MD. Like other volumes in this series, Expert Consultations in Breast Cancer follows a unique format and seeks to integrate advances in the basic understanding of breast cancer with promising new therapies and changing health- care economics. The integration of these different perspectives provides both a conceptual and pragmatic framework for clinical decision-making.

The results of a multicenter, phase III metastatic breast cancer study indicates that, in women with previously untreated metastatic breast cancer, sequential chemotherapy induction using doxorubicin and docetaxel (Taxotere) is as effective and

NEW ORLEANS-Epirubicin (Ellence) may be an effective single agent for primary treatment of operable breast cancer, according to results of a cooperative group study from the National Tumor Institute, Milan, Italy, presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

NEW ORLEANS-A pilot study of ultrasound-guided percutaneous radio-frequency ablation (RFA) in patients with early-stage breast cancer suggests that the technique might someday be an alternative to surgical resection in carefully selected patients.

STUTTGART, Germany-Mitoxantrone (Novantrone) alone gives high-risk metastatic breast cancer patients a better quality of life than a combination of fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FEC), according to results presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Yet the single agent appears to work as well as combination therapy when compared for several endpoints.

NEW YORK-Dramatic advances in the treatment, detection, and prevention of breast cancer are occurring because of research efforts of the past 30 years, experts emphasized at the International Roundtable on Breast Cancer: Today’s Choices, Tomorrow’s Chances for a Cure, sponsored by the American-Italian Cancer Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

MUNICH-The presence of bone marrow micrometastases in breast cancer patients, as determined by detection of cytokeratin-positive cells, predicts a poor prognosis regardless of lymph node status, according to a German study.

Data presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology further validated ChromaVision Medical Systems’ automated cellular imaging system (ACIS). The data from a collaborative study conducted by the United States National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Pathology in Basel, Switzerland, and two diagnostic companies, DAKO A/S and Vysis, Inc, documented that results of the ACIS HER2 immunohistochemical test correlate strongly with overall patient survival. Tests that provide information to help predict both the time and likelihood of survival are vital to clinicians in guiding critical treatment decisions.

NEW ORLEANS-Preliminary results of National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) protocol B-21 have ended the “lingering, perhaps illusory hope of identifying a subset of women in whom radiation could be eliminated or replaced with another intervention” for treating early-stage invasive breast cancer, said Norman Wolmark, MD, chairman of the NSABP.

ASCO-Breast cancer patients receiving care in hospitals that treat fewer than 25 patients a year have substantially lower survival rates than women treated in larger-volume hospitals, according to a study presented at a poster session of the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), New Orleans.

HOUSTON-A study comparing eight cycles of adjuvant fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FAC) to four cycles of paclitaxel (Taxol) followed by four cycles of FAC in women with operable breast cancer showed a nonsignificant trend toward benefit from the paclitaxel/FAC regimen.

NEW YORK-A new regimen of weekly paclitaxel (Taxol) plus the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) produced an overall response rate of 60% among metastatic breast cancer patients, regardless of HER2 status, according to a study presented at the ASCO meeting.

TOULOUSE, France-Accrual problems continue to plague clinical trials, most recently a French study attempting to compare complete hormonal blockade with luteinizing hormone–releasing hormone (LHRH) to chemotherapy in premenopausal early-stage breast cancer. Patients in the study were hormone-receptor positive and had one to three positive lymph nodes.

BETHESDA, Md-Despite bad press and negative scientific findings to date, the National Cancer Institute has not written off high-dose chemotherapy with bone marrow or stem cell transplant as a treatment for breast cancer. Indeed, NCI director Richard D. Klausner, MD, has publicly appealed to oncologists to support a major ongoing but faltering NCI-sponsored breast cancer transplant trial.

PLANTATION, Florida-The humanized anti-HER2 antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) produced an overall response rate of 26% when used as first-line therapy in women with metastatic breast cancer whose tumors overexpress HER2.

Ductal lavage, an advanced technique for collecting epithelial cells from the breast milk ducts for cytologic examination, enables the detection of premalignant and malignant cells in women who have had normal mammograms and physical exams.

ROCHESTER, Minn-Low doses of the antidepressant venlafaxine (Effexor) can reduce hot flashes in breast cancer survivors by 61%, compared to a 27% reduction with placebo, Charles L. Loprinzi, MD, told a plenary session of the ASCO meeting. “This is a sizable reduction in hot flashes for women who can’t take estrogen replacement,” he added.

MEMPHIS-A dose-intense sequential schedule of doxorubicin/docetaxel (Taxotere) plus growth factor was no more effective than standard simultaneous administration in treating metastatic breast cancer.

New data from a pair of studies presented at the 36th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) suggest that capecitabine (Xeloda) doses can be adjusted without compromising efficacy in patients with advanced breast

HANNOVER, Germany-Epirubicin (Ellence)/paclitaxel (Taxol) as first-line treatment significantly slows progression of metastatic breast cancer, compared with epirubicin/cyclophosphamide. Interim results of a multicenter phase III trial comparing the two regimens were reported by Hans-Joachim Luck, MD, of the Medical University, Hannover, Germany, at the ASCO annual meeting.

WASHINGTON-When women with breast cancer sue their doctors for malpractice, it is most often because of missed or delayed diagnosis, and the most common reasons are mistakes in the evaluation and workup of breast cancer screening procedures, Vara Samudrala, MD, said at the 100th annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society.

A common blood protein test can predict which breast cancer patients are at risk for recurrence after mastectomy. The test may eventually help direct treatment decisions, speculate researchers from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at

NEW ORLEANS-A prospective study in colorectal cancer patients has found that sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping correctly predicts the presence or absence of nodal metastases, with a very low incidence of skip metastases (disease in a non-SLN), as it does in melanoma and breast cancer.