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By The Coalition of National Cancer Cooperative Groups If you are a woman who has localized breast cancer and gets it diagnosed early, do not cancel your tickets for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. There's a 97 percent chance that you'll be able to attend. Breast cancer death rates have decreased almost 2 percent each year since 1989, on average, and work is being done to further decrease the mortality rate, which currently runs about 40,000 deaths each year, including 400 among men. Two important trends have contributed greatly to the positive news—early detection and new, improved cancer treatments. Women of all ages have increasingly taken responsibility for their own breast health, but further education and outreach are needed, especially among certain ethnic groups and the underserved. Once the cancer has been discovered, more accurate diagnoses can be made using new and improved detection methods, such as digital mammography, MRI, PET scans, and T-Scan 2000, which is used as a follow-up to inconclusive mammograms. Because new classes of therapeutic agents—such as antibodies, taxanes and aromatase inhibitors—have been producing dramatic responses, today's breast cancer patient can often be treated effectively without a mastectomy. And more than 350 preventive, diagnostic and treatment therapies are currently under development, many for breast cancer, offering new hope for decreased mortality rates and continued improved quality of life for survivors. Bringing these new treatments from the research lab to the public requires increased participation in cancer clinical trials, one of the final stages of the research process before a therapy receives FDA approval. Trial participants like Susan Turner are enthusiastic supporters. "The decision to participate in a breast cancer trial was my best opportunity for receiving the most up-to-date treatment—and it worked," says Turner. "If you are diagnosed with cancer, educate yourself about clinical trials and find out about your options. They may be your best treatment choice."
Breast Cancer Clinical Trials A study to evaluate if a novel formulation of a well-known drug (liposomal doxorubicin) to treat patients with advanced (spreading) breast cancer combined with two other effective drugs (docetaxel and trastuzumab) is able to control the cancer as well as the standard formulation of doxorubicin with less serious side effects. (E3198) A breast cancer prevention trial needs postmenopausal women with a strong family history of breast cancer to see if raloxifene is as effective as tamoxifen has proven to be. (NSABP P-2 [STAR]) A trial is underway to evaluate the accuracy of determining the extent and risk of recurrence of a patient's breast cancer and surgical complications by removing only select lymph nodes from the armpit in patients diagnosed with early breast cancer when compared to a standard surgical procedure which requires the removal of multiple lymph nodes. (ACOSOG Z0010) A study to evaluate if administering radiation therapy in combination with a drug, tamoxifen or just tamoxifen alone, to women with a type of cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ or DCIS who have had surgical removal of a small size cancer only from the breast without having the entire breast removed (lumpectomy) will reduce or delay the return of the breast cancer and eliminate the need for a mastectomy (total removal of the breast). (RTOG 9804) A study to compare different methods and dosage schedules of well-known and effective drug combinations with a new type of anti-cancer drug, trastuzumab, will be as effective in reducing or delaying recurrence or spread of breast cancer but cause less serious side effects when given immediately after surgery in women who are at high-risk to have recurrence of the cancer. (NCCTG 9831) A study to determine if giving the drug dexrazozane with chemotherapy reduces the incidence of serious side effects to the heart without compromising the effectiveness of the chemotherapy and to determine if adding the antibody Herceptin to chemotherapy improves the effectiveness of treatment in women with locally advanced breast cancer. (CALGB 49808) |
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