Research News on Chemotherapy
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Eribulin May Be Treatment Option for Metastatic Breast Cancer
Research suggests that eribulin, an experimental chemotherapy medicine, may be a good treatment option for metastatic breast cancer that has stopped responding to other treatments.
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Giving Chemo Medicines Sequentially May Have Advantages
Treating early-stage breast cancer with two chemotherapy medicines followed by a third seems to have some advantages compared to giving two or three medicines at the same time, but may cause more severe side effects.
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Zometa with Chemo Before Surgery Helps Kill Breast Cancer Cells in Bone Marrow
Research suggests that adding Zometa to chemotherapy given before early-stage breast cancer surgery may destroy breast cancer cells that have traveled to the bone marrow in some women.
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Breast Cancer Cells with High Levels of PARP Enzyme More Likely to Respond to Chemo
Research suggests that cancers with high levels of the PARP enzyme are more likely to respond to chemotherapy.
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New Treatment Standard Offered for Metastatic HER2-Positive Disease
A new study suggests that the combination of Navelbine and Herceptin may be better than Taxotere and Herceptin as the first treatment for HER2-positive, metastatic breast cancer.
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Herceptin Plus Chemotherapy Without Anthracycline Effective
The latest results from the BCIRG-006 trial found that Herceptin plus chemotherapy that didn't include an anthracycline was as effective as Herceptin plus chemotherapy that did include an anthracycline for women diagnosed with HER2-positive, early-stage breast cancer.
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Research Continues to Show Benefit of Chemotherapy After Breast Cancer Surgery
Research suggests that post-menopausal women diagnosed with early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes who got adjuvant chemotherapy AND adjuvant hormonal therapy had a lower risk of recurrence and were more likely to be alive than women who got only hormonal therapy. The study also showed that starting hormonal therapy after chemotherapy was done was better than giving hormonal therapy and chemotherapy at the same time and that a genetic test can help figure out if women diagnosed with early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.
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Xeloda Reduces Recurrence Risk After Surgery but Causes More Serious Side Effects
The chemotherapy medicine Xeloda (chemical name: capecitabine) shows some promise in reducing the risk of early-stage breast cancer coming back, but the risk of side effects may outweigh the benefits.
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Taxanes Only Reduce Recurrence Risk for Certain Types of Breast Cancer
Research shows that taxanes (a type of chemotherapy medicine) reduce the risk of recurrence of only certain types of breast cancer, so using taxanes to treat the other types of disease doesn't offer any real benefits.
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One Chemo Medicine at a Time Seems Best for Metastatic Breast Cancer
Treating metastatic breast cancer with one chemotherapy medicine at a time (monotherapy) is as effective as using two or more chemotherapy medicines at the same time (combination chemotherapy) and likely causes fewer and less severe side effects.
