Health News / October 2006
Better Drugs for Longer Life
Researchers in Texas may have come up with a way to make the powerhouse drug Herceptin work for more breast cancer patients, which could prevent more recurrences and help patients live longer.
Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a biologic therapy that selectively attacks breast cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. The drug, which has been used by more than 220,000 patients with breast cancer, targets tumor cells that make too much HER-2, a protein associated with aggressive disease. About 25 percent to 30 percent of breast cancers are characterized as HER-2 positive, and could potentially benefit from Herceptin.
However, an estimated 50 percent of women with HER-2 disease don’t respond to Herceptin alone. Their disease is said to be Herceptin resistant.
Reporting at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in April, Dihua Yu, M.D. a breast cancer researcher at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, announced that she and her colleagues had identified a way to help patients with resistant disease by combining Herceptin with drugs that interfere with the function of a protein identified as PI3 kinase (PI3K) that stimulates the growth of cancer cells.
Although the findings came from test-tube and mouse studies, they were so promising that in May one of the doctor’s colleagues launched a phase I and II clinical trial for women whose disease hasn’t responded to Herceptin.
Yu suspects that other PI3K inhibitors still in development might prove to be even more effective in making Herceptin work for more women. “I’m encouraged,” she said. “I want to see an even better effect.”
Cervical Cancer Vaccine Approved
In June the FDA approved a vaccine expected to prevent up to 70 percent of cervical cancers. The drug, called Gardasil, protects against the most common strains of the human papillomavirus, the virus that causes most cervical cancers. Gardasil is approved for use in females ages 9 to 26 years and should be given as three injections over a six-month period.
DES and Daughters
From the 1940s through the 1960s, between five and ten million women in the U.S. took the anti-miscarriage drug DES, diethylstilbestrol, while they were pregnant. The drug was taken off the market in 1971, when researchers determined that the daughters of women who had taken the drug had a high risk of developing rare gynecological cancers. A new study published in the August 2006 issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention shows that these DES daughters also have an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
Researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health compared more than 4,800 DES daughters with about 2,000 unexposed women. They found that women over the age of 40 who were exposed to DES are almost twice as likely to develop breast cancer than women who were not exposed. The risk appears to be even greater for DES daughters over the age of 50, but the number of older women in the study group is too small to make a firm comparison.
According to the researchers, up to two million American women were exposed to DES in utero. These women should make sure to get routine mammograms and talk to their doctors about the risks of any kind of hormone replacement therapy, says Julie Palmer, Sc.D., lead author of the study. “If you’re already at a higher risk because of being a DES daughter, you can minimize your risk in other ways, like maintaining a healthy weight and engaging in physical activity,” Palmer says. Earlier studies have shown that the mothers themselves who took DES, a synthetic estrogen, are also at an increased risk for breast cancer and should take the same precautions.
Natural Reconstruction
It wouldn’t be available for another 5 to 10 years, but a novel procedure may make it possible to use a woman’s own body fat to reconstruct her breast after a lumpectomy.
A group of Japanese scientists have designed a clinical trial to see if stem cells taken from body fat can successfully regenerate breast tissue. The clinical study has enrolled 20 patients who have had breast conserving surgery.
After using liposuction to remove fat from each patient, the researchers will use a procedure developed by Cytori Therapeutics, Inc. to isolate stem cells from the fat. The stem cells, which can reproduce indefinitely, are then combined with more fat from the patient and implanted into the breast at the site of the lumpectomy. The theory is that the stem cells will grow blood vessels that deliver nutrients to the implanted fat, keeping it healthy and preventing it from being absorbed by the body.
Yoga Helps Survivors Fight Fatigue
Radiation treatments can cause fatigue and make daily chores difficult. New research indicates that yoga may be able to help women handle the activities of daily life more easily.
Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center followed 61 women with breast cancer during their radiation therapy. Some of the women participated in a yoga class twice a week, and began feeling significantly better after only one week. Routine physical activity like climbing stairs and carrying groceries became easier for the women who did yoga, while those who did not participate saw a decline in their ability to carry out such tasks. Members of the yoga group also slept better at night and experienced less daytime fatigue than those in the control group.
The authors say that yoga can bring relief to women of all ages and with all stages of cancer.
Mammogram “Fudge” Factor
American women between age 65 and 69 claim to have mammograms more regularly than they really do, according to findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August 2006. Researchers found that while 70 to 80 percent of women reported having annual screenings, only about 60 percent actually did.
The lead author of the study believes that women forget the last date of their exam. But, because women know they should have screenings each year, they tend to estimate that they were tested more recently than they really were.
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