Breast Cancer

There is no clear consensus among oncologists about the degree to which elderly breast cancer patients should be subjected to aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Physicians consequently have tended to treat elderly women

SAN ANTONIO-Measurement of radiowave absorption could offer a new noninvasive approach to the identification and diagnosis of breast cancer, investigators involved in an ongoing evaluation of the technology reported at the 22nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Breast-conserving treatment of early-stage breast cancer confers a low risk of locoregional recurrence that does not adversely affect survival, but early local recurrence increases the likelihood of metastatic disease, M.D.

VIENNA, Austria-Women with monthly breast pain appear to have a reduced risk of breast cancer, S. A. Khan and colleagues reported at a poster session of the 9th World Congress on Pain. The study also showed that women with a high consumption of dairy products had less severe pain and that regular consumption of soy products appeared to increase the likelihood of regular breast pain. Dr. Khan is in the Departments of Surgery, State University of New York Health Science Center, Syracuse.

BETHESDA, Md-The National Institutes of Health will convene a consensus development conference on adjuvant therapy for breast cancer on November 1–3, 2000.

San Antonio-Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) continues to show promise as a means of diagnosing and evaluating breast cancer, according to study results reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is sponsoring a Consensus Development Conference on Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer, to be held in Bethesda, Maryland, on November 1-3, 2000.

ABERDEEN, Scotland-Primary, or neoadjuvant, chemotherapy with docetaxel (Taxotere) substantially increases the response rate in breast cancer patients who have received initial treatment with a chemotherapy combination, results of a phase III Scottish study demonstrate.

NOTTINGHAM, England-A new long-acting nonagonist antiestrogen, fulvestrant (Faslodex), significantly reduced estrogen and proges-terone receptor (ER/PR) content in breast tumors prior to surgery, compared with tamoxifen (Nolvadex) and placebo, according to a multicenter study presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

BALTIMORE-Axillary lymph node status and hormone receptor status are significant prognostic factors in elderly breast cancer patients, warranting more careful consideration of lymph node dissection and adjuvant therapy, according to a review of 277 cases presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

HAMBURG, germany-Elevated levels of two related tumor-associated proteases correlated with an increased risk of recurrence after definitive surgical treatment for node-negative breast cancer, German investigators reported at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

BOSTON-The combination of weekly trastuzumab (Herceptin) and vinorelbine (Navelbine) gave promising results in a phase II study of metastatic breast cancer. After a median of 21 weekly courses of therapy, the combination has produced a 71% overall response rate (all partial responses) in 34 evaluable patients. The regimen has been well tolerated, and no patient has experienced symptomatic congestive heart failure.

LOS ANGELES-A study of 839 patients presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium has found that women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) run a very small risk of death from invasive recurrence regardless of type of surgery.

HOUSTON-A weekly regimen of paclitaxel (Taxol) and trastuzumab (Herceptin) produced evidence of enhanced antitumor activity in patients with metastatic breast cancer and HER-2 overexpression, according to preliminary results from an ongoing phase II trial.

BOSTON-Even in a highly selected group of patients with stage I breast cancer, there is a substantial and long-term risk of local recurrence following treatment with conservative surgery without radiotherapy or systemic therapy, May Lim, MD, reported at a general session of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

LOS ANGELES-Surgical margin width offers a reasonable prognostic surrogate for the more complicated multiparameter Van Nuys Prognostic Index to predict breast cancer recurrence after treatment for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), but the index still provides superior accuracy, Melvin J. Silverstein, MD, of the University of Southern California, said at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

HANNOVER, Germany-An intensive sequential adjuvant chemotherapy regimen has proven safe and tolerable in breast cancer patients with 10 or more positive lymph nodes. The regimen, consisting of epirubicin

EDMONTON, Canada-In what Jean-Marc Nabholtz, MD, calls “the first trials challenging tamoxifen as the primary drug of choice in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer,” anastrozole (Arimidex, a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor) proved as effective as tamoxifen (Nolvadex). Dr. Nabholtz, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, reported the results at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

GREENVILLE, NC-Patient age and surgeon experience appear to play the biggest role in failure of sentinel lymph node biopsy for detection of breast cancer, according to a large multicenter clinical trial presented at the San Antonio Symposium.

WARSAW, Poland-Results of a multicenter randomized European trial demonstrated the superiority of paclitaxel (Taxol) and doxorubicin (Adriamycin) (AT) over standard FAC chemotherapy as first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer.

BARCELONA-Preliminary results of a trial of a new selective estrogen-receptor modulator (SERM), known as LY353381, show a 32% response rate in patients with previously untreated locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, José Baselga, MD, of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, said at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

SAN ANTONIO-“Younger, premenopausal estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer patients should be aware that there is an alternative to adjuvant chemotherapy,” Michael Baum, MD, professor of surgery, University College, London, said at the San Antonio Symposium.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-A phase II study presented at the San Antonio symposium has shown that weekly gemcitabine (Gemzar) combined with monthly docetaxel (Taxotere) is an effective second-line therapy for metastatic breast cancer.

PROVIDENCE, RI-Weekly, high-dose neoadjuvant chemother-apy with paclitaxel (Taxol) resulted in an 87% clinical response rate in a small pilot study aimed at assessing the feasibility and tolerability of the regimen in patients with stage IIB-IIIB breast cancer.

ROCHESTER, Minn-Preliminary results from an ongoing Mayo Clinic study show that fluoxetine (Prozac) reduced the incidence of hot flashes in breast cancer survivors by more than 50%, Charles L. Loprinzi, MD, said at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.