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SAN ANTONIO-A phase II trial conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) of doxorubicin plus paclitaxel (Taxol) with G-CSF (filgrastim, Neupogen) in metastatic breast cancer produced an overall response rate of approximately 50%, with a median response duration of about 4 months, said Joseph A. Sparano, MD, of Albert Einstein Cancer Center, New York City, at the 20th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. However, complete responses were uncommon.

SAN ANTONIO-A taxane-containing combination therapy has led to major objective responses in 75% to 80% of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Overall, 35 of 48 evaluable patients responded to the combination of docetaxel (Taxotere), doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide, said Jean-Marc Nabholtz, MD, senior medical oncologist at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

NEW YORK-The National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO) has introduced the NABCO Resource Card, a quick reference guide to services and programs offered by the top breast cancer organizations in the United States.

PHILADELPHIA-Simply giving ever higher doses of chemotherapy does not generally lead to improved survival in metastatic breast cancer. “For 20 years we’ve been exploring this approach, and the response has been uniform and uniformly disappointing,” Larry Norton, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, said at a symposium held at the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

In a lecture at Fox Chase Cancer Center, noted breast cancer researcher Bernard Fisher proclaimed his triumph against agencies that had accused him of scientific misconduct in his directorship of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel

The use of dose-dense therapy is one approach to overcoming the “resistance” of malignant cells to adjuvant therapy caused by inadequate drug exposure. In this approach, active drugs are delivered sequentially at their “ideal” dose level separated by short intertreatment intervals. Thus, dose intensification is achieved by means of rapidly recycled treatments rather than by dramatic dose escalation. To overcome absolute cellular resistance, the addition of new, active, non-cross-resistant drugs holds great promise and has specifically motivated the testing of the taxanes. This article describes the results of clinical trials of dose-dense therapy, with particular emphasis on attempts to incorporate one taxane, paclitaxel (Taxol), into the dose-dense regimen of sequential doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide-the so-called A ® T ® C regimen, and into more conventional regimens.[ONCOLOGY 12(Suppl 1)16-18, 1998]

In a phase II study, 66 patients with advanced breast cancer (median age 56 years; range, 28 to 75 years) were treated with paclitaxel (Taxol), 175 mg/m² infused over 3 hours, and carboplatin (Paraplatin), dosed to attain an

Screening for breast cancer has been shown in several European randomized trials and case-control studies to reduce breast cancer mortality. These studies highlight the importance of quality assurance in the whole screening process. The Europe

DALLAS-The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, known for raising awareness and community support for breast cancer research and programs through its Race for the Cure, has unveiled three new websites that form a comprehensive online source of breast health and breast cancer information.

NEW YORK-Two breast cancer survivors-one an oncologist from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the other, the head of the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations (NABCO)-were among those offering special perspectives at a public meeting on clinical and public policy issues related to breast cancer, sponsored by NABCO and held at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Award-winning work by Dr. Marie Overgaard, of the Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, gives new hope of longer survival for women with breast cancer. Dr. Overgaard’s work shows that treating the primary

CHICAGO-The clinical rationale for breast-conserving surgery has been unequivocally established by prospective, randomized clinical trials that show no difference in survival between this form of surgery and mastectomy. In many parts of the country, however, less than 50% of women with early-stage breast cancer are having breast-conserving surgery.

PHILADELPHIA-The anti-HER-2/neu monoclonal antibody is now in the final stages of phase III testing, in combination with an anthracycline, in patients with advanced breast cancer tumors that overexpress the gene product, Dennis Slamon, MD, of the UCLA School of Medicine, said at a breast cancer symposium at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

In 1970, Ansfield and colleagues published the results of a randomized trial in head and neck cancer, which showed that giving fluorouracil (5-FU) concomitantly with radiation decreased regional recurrences and improved overall survival over radiation alone.[1] Publication of these results came 6 years before those of an Italian trial showing similar findings with adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-FU (CMF) in breast cancer.[2] Yet, while adjuvant chemotherapy has rapidly become the norm in the management of early breast cancer, concomitant chemotherapy is still considered undefined in the treatment of head and neck cancer. This situation is elegantly described by Dr. Karen Fu, one of the most respected investigators in this area.

HAMBURG-Tumor cell detection (TCD) in bone marrow should supplant axillary lymph node status as a prognostic indicator for women with early breast cancer, Ingo J. Diel, MD, of the University of Heidelberg, said at the Ninth European Cancer Conference (ECCO 9).

CHICAGO-October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) had a special focus on women in America’s agricultural communities. Zeneca, a founding co-sponsor of NBCAM, said that its breast cancer education program will target rural women to raise awareness of the need for mam-mography and other early detection methods in this population.