Breast Cancer

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NEW ORLEANS-Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) remains strongly associated with the development of breast cancer in the minds of many. But the discerning clinician should “go beyond P values and relative risk” and use the known data to make decisions regarding this issue, John C. Arpels, MD, said at the American Society of Breast Disease annual meeting.

ASCO-A multicenter, open-label, phase II study has confirmed results of the pivotal study of capecitabine (Xeloda) for treatment of taxane-refractory metastatic breast cancer. In this study, 25% of patients with measurable disease treated with capecitabine responded, with a median duration of response of 8.3 months, median time to progression of 3.2 months, and median survival of 12.3 months.

Uracil and tegafur (in a molar ratio of 4:1 [UFT]) has proven activity against breast cancer and is delivered in an easy-to-administer oral formulation. Orzel, which combines UFT with the oral biomodulator, calcium folinate, may

The NCI brushed aside the concerns of some cancer advocacy groups and decided to begin the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR),expected to be one of the largest breast cancer prevention trials ever. Raloxifene (Evista) was approved

Results of a study published in a recent issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest that, in the near future, a simple blood test that detects levels of sex hormones could predict which women are at highest risk of developing breast cancer.

Some Medicare managed care organizations (MCOs) are telling beneficiaries that they need to get a referral from one of the plan physicians before they can get a mammogram. But that is not what the law says. A woman can get an annual, routine

ORLANDO-Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can identify women who have unsuspected multicen-tric/multifocal breast cancer and are therefore not candidates for breast conservation therapy, Michael J. Kerin, MD, reported in a plenary presentation at the 52nd Annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO).

ASCO-Updated results of a phase III trial show that the addition of the anti-HER2/neu monoclonal antibody (MoAb) Herceptin (trastuzumab) to chemotherapy improves survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, compared with chemotherapy alone.

Based on a keynote address given by Marie Overgaard, md, at the 1998 American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting. Dr. Overgaard is consulting oncologist, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, as

ORLANDO-Breast cancer patients whose tumors respond to induction chemotherapy and who have no clinical axillary node disease following induction may be safely treated with axillary irradiation rather than axillary lymph node dissection, Jeffrey Lenert, MD, said at the Society of Surgical Oncology’s Annual Cancer Symposium.

ALEXANDRIA, Va-Preliminary findings from four of five randomized studies show no survival advantage for high-dose chemotherapy/autologous bone marrow transplantation (HDC/ABMT) in breast cancer patients with metastatic or high-risk disease (10 or more positive axillary lymph nodes), researchers said at an ASCO teleconference.