To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: ASCO MEETING: Bone Marrow Or Stem Cell Transplant Helps Reduce Breast Cancer Relapses URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/FE442.htm Doctor's Guide May 17, 1999
ATLANTA, GA -- May 17, 1999 -- Doctors at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Atlanta today released results of five studies evaluating high dose therapy and bone marrow or stem cell transplants as a treatment for breast cancer. Doctors say the results are promising and more studies need to be done. William Peters, M.D., Ph.D., director and chief executive officer of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, is principal investigator of the largest of the five studies, CALGB 9082. The randomised, controlled Phase III study compared high dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation or stem cell transplantation with intermediate dose therapy and no transplant. It enrolled 884 women with primary breast cancer and evidence of the disease in at least 10 lymph nodes - considered high risk for recurrence -- in the United States and Canada. The study was a combined effort of the cancer co-operative group Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) and the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC). Dr. Peters said the survival rates of patients who participated in the co-operative study are doing better than any prior experience in the CALGB. "Overall, the patients are doing about 20 percent better than predicted compared to our experience with standard chemotherapy treatments and there are already 34 percent fewer relapses among patients receiving transplants," he said. "This suggests that breast cancer is better controlled and treated with intensive therapy. "Nonetheless, we need to have further follow-up, and full results aren't expected until we follow these patients for at least two to three more years." Dr. Peters said this study also reveals that the centres that performed the largest number of transplants on the study tended to have about half the treatment-related mortality rate as the centres that performed fewer transplants. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.