Scroll Up
Scroll Down
Play Play Play Play
Unregistered User
Click here if this is not your Personal Edition
 
Contact Us | Free E-Mail Updates | Journals | Register a colleague
 
 
Breast Cancer
 
   
 
SEARCH   
Doctor's Guide Free CME
Medline
Congress Resource Centre
 

 EXPLORE :
   Most Read News
 All News  All News
 All Webcasts / CME  All Webcasts / CME
 All Cases  All Cases
 Congress Resource Centre  Congress Resource Centre
 All Medical Resources  All Medical Resources
 Medical  My Personal Edition



Warning | Privacy

 

 
 Recent news - Breast Cancer
    Type of Breast Reconstruction Impacts Radiation Therapy Outcomes - (DGNews)
    Study Identifies Causes of Bone Loss in Breast Cancer Survivors - (DGNews)
    TopAbstracts in Breast Cancer 11/18/2008 - (DGNews)
    Psychological Interventions Associated With Breast Cancer Survival - (DGNews)
    Aromatase Inhibitors, Androgen Deprivation Increase Risk of Bone Loss - (DGNews)

    News archive

     Recent webcasts/CME - Breast Cancer

    Webcasts/CME archive

     Recent cases - Breast Cancer
      Presentation and Course of Brain Metastases from Breast Cancer in a Paranoid-Schizophrenic Patient: A Case Report
      Granular Cell Tumour of the Pectoral Muscle Mimicking Breast Cancer
      Primary Osteosarcoma of the Breast: Case Report
      A Case of Matrix-Producing Carcinoma of the Breast
      Metastatic Hurthle Cell Carcinoma of the Thyroid Presenting as a Breast Lump: A Case Report

      Cases archive
        




      my personal edition > breast cancer > news
      divider

        E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

      DGDispatch


      Intensive Therapy Possible Alternative to Surgery for Breast Cancer: Presented at IBCC

      By Alison Palkhivala

      BANFF, AB -- August 6, 2003 -- Breast cancer patients who respond well to intensive chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and possibly hormonal therapy may not require surgery, according to findings of a pilot study presented August 2nd during a poster session here at the Second Annual Future of Breast Cancer: An International Breast Cancer Congress.

      Roger Poisson, MD, St. Luc Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and colleagues performed their study to see whether they could use chemotherapy, radiation, and hormonal therapy to treat patients with T2 and T3 breast tumors, and obtain similar results as those obtained with surgery.

      Between 1991 and 1997, the investigators treated patients with doxorubicin 60 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 600 mg/m2 (AC) for 5 cycles at 3-week intervals. Starting in 1997, the researchers switched to a protocol consisting of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), cyclophosphamide and 100 mg/m2 of epirubicin (FEC) for 6 cycles, 3 weeks apart. All patients had a positive fine-needle aspiration or tru-cut biopsy, with estrogen- and progesterone-receptor determination.

      Patients who achieved a complete clinical response began 50-Gy of radiotherapy 3 weeks later administered to the breast and lymph-node drainage area for 5 weeks, followed by a boost of 15 Gy in the involved quadrant. Patients who were estrogen-receptor positive went on to receive 5 years of tamoxifen therapy. After 1 to 2 months, patients underwent several core needle biopsies under stereotaxis to determine the presence of pathological complete response.

      Only patients who did not attain pathological complete response underwent surgery.

      Overall, the investigators included 114 out of 436 patients with proven pathologic complete response in this pilot study, because the others required some kind of surgery. Among these 114 patients, after a median follow-up of 7 years, locoregional recurrence is 16% and overall survival is 70%. Distant metastases remain a problem, however.

      The authors speculate that newer approaches, such as dose-dense chemotherapy using a combination of doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and taxotere may result in even better outcomes. They emphasize that these patients must be followed carefully with multiple mammographies, ultrasounds, magnetic-resonance imaging scans, and biopsies.


      [Study title: Is it Possible to Treat Some T2-T3 Breast Cancers Without any Surgery? (a Pilot Study). Poster 7]



      E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague   To print, use this version






      All contents Copyright (c) 1995-2008 Doctor's Guide Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.



      The NTK initiative. Physicians helping physicians identify Need-To-Know science
         Feedback
      Please rate this article: Strongly DISAGREE...Strongly AGREE NTK logo
      Question 1 - Physicians need to become aware of this information as soon as possible. Question 2 - This information is likely to have an impact on the way physicians practice medicine.
      1
      2
      3
      4
      5
      6
      7
      Send