Breast Cancer

FLORENCE, Italy-Boosting both the dose intensity and dose density of adjuvant chemotherapy significantly prolongs survival in women with high-risk breast cancer, according to a multicenter trial presented at the First European Breast Cancer Conference. “A twofold dose increase in epirubicin is possible with G-CSF [Neupogen] support,” said Dr. G. Konecny of the University of Munich. “It is a feasible outpatient treatment, quality of life is good during treatment, and treatment duration is especially short.”

WASHINGTON-Times change. Twenty years ago, the word cancer was barely mentioned in the media, and the words cancer and prevention were rarely put together, Carolyn Aldige, founder of the Cancer Research Foundation of America (CRFA), said at the Foundation’s Frontline Awards ceremony. The awards went to four women whose communications activities have been instrumental in raising awareness about breast cancer.

NEW YORK-Almost half the women age 65 and over in the United States think they are not at risk for breast cancer or that they are at low risk, according to a national survey from the sponsors of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM).

ROCKVILLE, Md-The FDA has approved two new indications for Zeneca’s tamoxifen (Nolvadex): For reducing the incidence of breast cancer in high-risk women, and for the reduction of contralateral breast cancer. In addition, data from clinical trials that support 5 years of adjuvant Nolvadex for breast cancer patients were added to the Nolvadex label.

The FDA recently licensed a biological approach for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The intravenous monoclonal antibody, trastuzumab (Herceptin), is approved for use alone in certain patients who have tried chemotherapy with little

WILMINGTON, Del-After the publicity surrounding the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT), many doctors were besieged by questions from women about whether to take tamoxifen (Nolvadex) to reduce their breast cancer risk. The queries may accelerate now that Nolvadex has received FDA approval for this use. A new software program from the National Cancer Institute can help by providing an easy way to estimate a woman’s 5-year and lifetime breast cancer risk.

FLORENCE, Italy-A mass voting session at the First European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-1) has generated the first pan-European consensus statement on breast cancer research, treatment, and quality of care.

NEW YORK-The Comprehensive Breast Center of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan joined forces with the Vidal Sassoon Salon to kick off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October with free beauty makeovers for breast cancer patients.

PITTSBURGH--The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) has selected 193 institutions to participate in its second major breast cancer prevention trial--the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR)--which is expected to begin in early 1999.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla--Do the available data support the use of high-dose chemotherapy with peripheral blood stem cell support (HDC/PBSC) in advanced breast cancer? That was the question for debate at a session of the Southern Association for Oncology (SAO) meeting.

NEW YORK--Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Wake Forest University School of Medicine are seeking women recently diagnosed with breast cancer for a study of the determinants of premature menopause and its effects on quality of life. Jeanne Petrek, MD, is the principal investigator.

HOUSTON--A survival update of two mature phase III trials shows that postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer who received anastrozole (Arimidex) after failing therapy with tamoxifen (Nolvadex) survived significantly longer than those given megestrol acetate (Megace). In addition, patients treated with anastrozole had fewer side effects.

WASHINGTON--Genetic research has produced a growing body of information about the mutations related to breast cancer, but, so far, "no clear algorithm" to help clinicians decide how to use the new findings in the interests of patients, reported Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

BETHESDA, Md--The National Cancer Institute should increase funding for studies aimed at understanding the fundamental biology of breast cancer and increase emphasis in a dozen other areas, an outside panel concluded after a sweeping review of the Institute’s basic, clinical, and population-based breast cancer research.

WASHINGTON--Though the number of new breast cancer diagnoses has risen steadily in the United States for several years--now reaching approximately 200,000 a year--epidemiologic analysis reveals a number of hopeful trends, said Robert A Smith, PhD, senior director of detection programs for the American Cancer Society, Atlanta.

SAN FRANCISCO--Establishing clinical care guidelines for hereditary (BRCA1 or BRCA2) breast cancer is increasingly important for managed care organizations as well as private physicians, Susan Kutner, MD, said at the American Cancer Society Second National Conference on Cancer Genetics.

WASHINGTON--A highly publicized journal article about the rate of false positives in mammography distorts both the state of the field and the goals and methods of breast cancer screening, said Edward A. Sickles, MD, chief of the Breast Imaging Section, University of California at San Francisco (UCSF).

The bisphosphonates have now joined an elite group of drugs that have annual sales greater than $1 billion. Although the major therapeutic target of these agents is osteoporosis, their use in cancer, particularly in osteolytic bone disease due to breast cancer and myeloma, is growing very rapidly. Pamidronate (Aredia), the only bisphosphonate currently approved for this indication in the United States, is now prescribed for the majority of patients with myeloma, as well as a substantial number of patients with breast cancer.

BETHESDA, Md--The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has concluded that the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) was a risk-reduction and not a prevention trial. The panel specifically rejected the word prevention in recommending that the Food and Drug Administration approve Nolvadex (tam-oxifen citrate, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals) for "reducing a risk of breast cancer" in otherwise healthy women at high-risk of developing the disease. The drug is currently approved as adjuvant therapy for early and advanced breast cancer.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla--Systemic chemotherapy has emerged as an integral part of the treatment of operable breast cancer. Now, researchers are investigating whether variations in the timing of chemotherapy may further influence patient outcomes.

LONDON--A multicenter clinical study has shown that a new noninvasive diagnostic modality, which measures electropotentials at the skin surface in the region of a suspicious breast lesion, helps physicians discriminate benign lesions from breast cancer.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark--Dako Corporation’s HercepTest was recommended unanimously for FDA approval by a joint committee of the Hematology and Pathology Devices Panel and Immunology Devices Panel, conditional on the company providing clear guidelines on how to conduct the test, so that laboratories can provide consistent results

SAN FRANCISCO--Susan Leigh, RN, a cancer survivor and oncology nurse, is telling a familiar story, but one that arouses her anger. Recently, a young woman with breast cancer went to the local library to research her disease. She was shocked to read in a medical text that her particular type of breast cancer had little hope of cure and was likely to be fatal in a few months.

The addition of the anticancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol) to standard chemotherapy may increase the chances of a cure for women with breast cancer.

It’s a truism that we learn best when we get information from several senses," concludes a favorable review in the respected Journal of the National Cancer Institute of an interactive CD-ROM entitled "Be a Survivor: Your Interactive Guide to