SCIENTISTS INCH CLOSER TO TREATING TRIPLE - NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER
A new study has revealed that researchers may
be able to make improvements in outcomes for women with triple-negative breast
cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that disproportionately affects
younger women.
Researchers studied the addition
of other drugs - carboplatin and/or bevacizumab - to the standard treatment
regimen to see if they could increase response rates. More than 440 women from
cancer centers across the country enrolled in this randomized clinical trial.
William M. Sikov, a medical
oncologist in the Breast Health Center and associate director for clinical
research in the Program in Women's Oncology at Women and Infants Hospital of
Rhode Island, said that adding either of these medications significantly
increased the percentage of women who achieved a pCR with the preoperative
treatment. They hope that this means fewer women will relapse and die of their
cancer, though the study is not large enough to prove this conclusively. Of the
two agents they studied, we are more encouraged by the results from the
addition of carboplatin, since it was associated with fewer and less concerning
additional side effects than bevacizumab.
Triple-negative breast cancer
accounts for 15 to 20 percent of invasive breast cancers diagnosed in the
United States each year, and is more common in younger women, African-Americans,
Hispanics, and BRCA1-mutation carriers. With no identified characteristic
molecular abnormalities that can be targeted with medication, the current
standard of treatment is chemotherapy.
The scientists said that the
overall prognosis for women with this type of breast cancer remains inferior to
that of other breast cancer subtypes, with higher risk of early relapse.
The study was published online in
the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
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