When experience fewer side effects from breast cancer patients with anti-cancer drugs receive acupuncture treatment

University of Maryland greenebaum cancer new analysis by researchers from the Center for real and fake acupuncture treatment was found to reduce the side effects of the medications commonly used to treat breast cancer. In published early online cancer peer review journal of the American Cancer Society may help to improve clinical cancer patient care. The results also have beneficial effects such as real acupuncture, do raise the question of Sham acupuncture is truly inert.

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Treating chest lymph nodes in early breast cancer improves survival without increasing side effects

Sep. 27, 2013 — Giving radiation therapy to the lymph nodes located behind the breast bone and above the collar bone to patients with early breast cancer improves overall survival without increasing side effects. This new finding ends the uncertainty about whether the beneficial effect of radiation therapy in such patients was simply the result of irradiation of the breast area, or whether it treated cancer cells in the local lymph nodes as well, the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013) [1] heard.

Dr Philip Poortmans, a radiation oncologist from the Institute Verbeeten, Tilburg, The Netherlands, and a member of the EORTC Radiation Oncology and Breast Cancer Groups, said that results from the international randomised trial, which involved 4004 patients from 43 centres, were convincing. "Our results make it clear that irradiating these lymph nodes give a better patient outcome than giving radiation therapy to the breast/thoracic wall alone. Not only have we shown that such treatment has a beneficial effect on locoregional disease control, but it also improves distant metastasis-free survival and overall survival," he said.

Lymphatic drainage from breast cancer means that the cancer is more likely to spread to other parts of the body. It normally follows two pathways. The best known is to the axilla (armpit), and these lymph nodes are usually treated by surgery and/or radiation therapy. The second pathway drains to the internal mammary (IM) lymph nodes behind the breast bone, and also to those just above the collar bone, the medial supraclavicular (MS) nodes. Because of uncertainty about the effects of treatment in this area, and particularly concerns about the increased toxicity that might be due to the irradiation of a larger area, many centres do not currently treat the IM-MS lymph nodes.

After an average follow-up of 10.9 years, the researchers found that patients in the IM-MS treatment group had better overall survival independent of the number of lymph nodes involved. A total of 382 patients in the IM-MS group died during that period, compared with 429 in the non IM-MS group, and there was no increase in non-breast cancer related mortality in the first group. To date, there have been no serious complications related to the treatment.

The researchers believe that the beneficial effect of IM-MS radiation can be explained by the ability of the treatment to eradicate microscopic tumour deposits in the lymph nodes. "With this treatment, we can stop the development of metastases at their source," said Dr Poortmans. "Interestingly, this effect is irrespective of the stage of the tumour. We believe that this is likely to be related to the positive interaction of the IM-MS treatment with systemic treatment -- chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and targeted treatment."

Patients at low risk of their cancer spreading outside the breast will often be given less intensive systemic therapy in order to spare them side effects. In these cases, using IM-MS radiation therapy can improve their outcome by eradicating residual tumour cells in the breast/thoracic wall. For patients at high risk of metastases, who receive systemic therapy, the prospect of cure is also related to the chance of leaving residual tumour cells behind throughout the body. In these cases too, the ultimate outcome can be improved by using effective locoregional treatment to eradicate disease at the site where it is most likely to be present, the researchers say.

"The results of our trial, in which the patients received appropriate systemic treatments, contradict the existence of a 'competition' between locoregional and systemic treatments," said Dr Poortmans. "Because there is an interaction between these treatments, in many patients their combination will result in an enhancement of the combined benefits; in other words, one plus one can equal more than two."

The researchers intend to follow up these patients in the long term and are planning an average follow-up of 20 years, with the next analysis at 15 years.

"It is of the utmost importance that we record all possible events, including recurrence and toxicity, and such follow-up will also give us the opportunity to continue evaluating our patients in other areas, for example quality of life and wellbeing," said Dr Poortmans. "But we believe that our trial has already given solid evidence of the benefits of radiation treatment of the IM-MS lymph nodes, and we hope that such treatment will become standard clinical practice for patients with early breast cancer."

Professor Cornelis van de Velde, President of ECCO, said: "In past studies, radiotherapy as an adjunct to surgery has shown important improvements in loco-regional control as well as survival, and these further survival benefits without an increase in short and long term toxicities are a valuable development. The results of this study will help us on the road to the development of yet more personalised treatments, in which we have to find the delicate balance between under-treatment resulting in an increased risk of disease recurrence, and over-treatment accompanied by unnecessary toxicity, in order to provide optimal care for breast cancer patients."

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Fewer weeks of hormone therapy before radiation reduces side effects in intermediate risk prostate cancer

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
A shorter course of androgen suppression therapy prior to radiation therapy, when compared to a longer course of androgen suppression therapy, yields favorable outcomes and fewer adverse effects for intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients, according to research presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) 55th Annual Meeting by researchers from the Mayo Clinic. The study confirmed a disease-specific-survival (DSS) rate of 95 percent when patients received fewer weeks of neoadjuvant (NEO) total androgen suppression (TAS).

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By the genetic effects of sharing new approaches subtypes cancers

Develop a fact that tumors are almost never confounded the shared scientific efforts with exactly the same genetic mutation, cancer types targeted more predicaments, effective treatment. Paper published in the online edition of nature methods and advanced 9/15 California College San Diego (Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center home ） of researcher presents a new approach called network-based stratified (NBS) to identify subtypes of cancer due to shared genetic networks and systems of these mutations, not peculiar mutation in each patient.

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Tamoxifen's Mental Side Effects Are Real, Study Shows

TUESDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Some women who take tamoxifen to treat or prevent breast cancer report experiencing a mental fogginess while on the drug, and researchers have now confirmed that there's a biological basis for those symptoms.

The researchers were able to isolate the cells in the human brain and nervous system that are harmed by tamoxifen therapy. And, in a second phase of the study conducted with mice, they were also able to find a different drug that could protect healthy cells from tamoxifen toxicity while offering no protection to cancer cells.

"Patients aren't always taken seriously when they report these mental side effects, but now we can say this is an organic syndrome to which we have to pay attention," said Mark Noble, senior study author.

"And, now we know there are paths to protection. This is not a hopeless situation," added Noble, a professor of biomedical genetics, and director of the University of Rochester Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Institute, in Rochester, N.Y.

Tamoxifen works by blocking the action of estrogen in breast tissue, which keeps estrogen-sensitive breast cancers from growing, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Compared to other forms of cancer treatments, it has relatively few serious side effects. However, in some women who take it, tamoxifen causes problems with thinking.

One expert was pleased to see new scientific support for what she's observed in her clinical practice.

"There is a subset of women who report this mental fog while on tamoxifen. Often, this improves over time. They initially experience this very noticeable side effect, but then it improves. We often tell women to try to stick it out because it may get better," said Dr. Jane Carleton, a breast cancer specialist at the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute in Lake Success, N.Y., who was not involved with the new study.

Carleton said she was happy to see that the current study was able to validate that there was a reason that some women experience the mental fog while taking tamoxifen. And, she said she was even happier to see that there might be a potential treatment for this side effect.

"Every time we can improve quality of life and still treat cancer, it's a win," she said, but noted that it would still be years before this drug might be available.

For the study, Noble and his research team first sought to identify whether brain and central nervous system cells were sensitive to tamoxifen. They found one type of cell that was particularly vulnerable to the drug. After just two days of exposure to tamoxifen at levels similar to those someone in treatment would receive, 75 percent of these cells died.

"Tamoxifen causes cell death and suppression of cell division in these cells," Noble said.

The next step was to try to find a medication that could protect these cells from tamoxifen while still allowing the drug to keep its cancer-fighting ability. The researchers reviewed data on drugs that were already approved for use in humans or that were in clinical trials.

Noble said by looking at these types of drugs, they could save time because they already know that such drugs work in the body and that they're not toxic. They found one drug, currently called AZD6244, that protected the brain cells of mice against tamoxifen in their own study.

Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.

"AZD6244 is being studied for cancer therapy. It protects normal cells, but it doesn't protect cancer cells. It may even make cancer cells more sensitive to some types of therapies," Noble said.

Noble said this work needs to be replicated by other researchers, and added that "it's essential that we find ways of treating cancer without causing this type of damage."

Results of the study were published online Sept. 17 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

More information

Learn more about tamoxifen and other hormone therapies for cancer from the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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