The fight against breast cancer
The fight against breast cancer, the second most common in the world after lung and first in women, continues to progress but with some setbacks, according to research presented last weekend at the most important congress on the evil that takes place in Chicago.
The most interesting progress was reported in advanced forms of breast cancer, against which the patients are not treated with another option when standard therapy is exhausted.
A derivative of a sea sponge can prolong the life of these patients.
This synthetic component, called Eribulin masylate, mimics what is found naturally in the sponge and prevents cell division.
This international clinical trial, called Embras, first compare the effects of Eribulin with classical treatments to combat a localized breast cancer, but who has suffered recurrent or metastatic carcinoma.
Clinical Trial
The 762 participants in the trial had undergone four chemotherapies.
“These results are promising because until now there was no treatment for the sick type of advanced breast cancer or those in which they had already failed the known therapies,” said Dr. Christopher Twelves, lead author and professor of clinical pharmacology cancer at the University of Leeds in Britain.
Twelves presented this work on Sunday, during the 46th annual conference Estadunidensede Clinical Cancer Society, meeting in Chicago.
Furthermore, a clinical study presented Saturday revealed a preoperative radiotherapy technique in the breast.
This international clinical trial, which lasted 10 years and was baptized TARGIT showed the effectiveness of partial breast irradiation. The current radiology sessions lasting between three and six weeks could be replaced by a single treatment of 30 minutes.
While news of the conference were encouraging, some research casts a long shadow on Sunday.
One showed that removal of the lymph nodes under the arm-common method does not increase the survival of breast cancer patients limited propagation.
Another study, conducted in 5000 over 500 women, revealed the futility of testing to identify micro metastasis in lymph nodes and bone marrow in order to predict the evolution of early breast cancer.
Finally, a comparative search revealed that more than 12 percent of women whose breast cancer metastasized to the liver experienced a change in the biological characteristics of the initial tumor, so they needed to modify the treatment.
The meeting also reported that prolonged use of the drug Avastin, the Swiss manufacturer Roche Holding AG, together with chemotherapy, helps women with advanced ovarian cancer live longer without the bad worse.
The test conducted by the National Cancer Institute USA, found that women receiving Avastin and chemotherapy, followed by a use “supported” the drug, have 39 percent improvement in the quality of life without the cancer getting worse compared to chemotherapy alone.
Women who continued treatment with Avastin lived in averaged 14.1 months without cancer to grow, compared with 10.3 months for women who received only chemotherapy.
Strengthen the immune system
Also, researchers commented that the ipilimumab, the Bristol-Myers Squibb laboratory, and tremelimumab, Pfizer, seeking experimental drugs to combat cancer by improving the immune system, had the peculiar effect of completely white hair to their patients.
All those who were again the gray hair had a complete response to treatment, meaning that their tumors were not visible in the scans. This suggests that white hair could be an early sign that the drugs work against the deadly skin cancer.
“We began to see the discoloration from six months to a year after starting therapy,” said Dr. Anna Pavlick, director of the melanoma program Langone Medical Center, University of New York, who has dealt with ipilimumab or tremelimumab to 48 patients.
Both are engineered versions of human antibodies and are designed to block CTLA-4 molecule of the immune system works to keep it under control.
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