HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - after reading post by Rolepaul on brain mets--repostr 4 those running out of options

schoonder · 10-19-2012, 01:21 PM

Excerpt from prior post:

"Metastatic breast cancer in the brain is relatively common today. “More patients present with metastasis to the brain as their only site of cancer, in part because chemotherapy has gotten better at eliminating metastasis elsewhere,” Wapnir explained. While she is encouraged by therapeutic advances in the field—surgery, radiation and biological therapies now prove successful in 30 percent of such patients—there is much room for improvement."

that discusses how common brain metastasis really is and scarcity of effective treatment options, makes one wonder why so little effort is currently expanded in improving upon this situation. Case in point, T-DM1 completed or about to complete 3 phase III trials in mBC, about to start a phase III in gastric her2+ cancer, but nothing as yet directed at this common occurring progression with this disease. Would think targeted approach, with little damage to non-cancerous tissue, provide a
great opportunity to evaluate this agent' s performance beyond the blood-brain barrier.
There probably are good reasons why NIH in conjunction with other governmental health agencies haven't pressured big pharma in more aggressively seeking better solutions for treatment.

10-19-2012, 01:21 PM	#18
schoonder Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 186	Re: after reading post by Rolepaul on brain mets--repostr 4 those running out of opti Excerpt from prior post: "Metastatic breast cancer in the brain is relatively common today. “More patients present with metastasis to the brain as their only site of cancer, in part because chemotherapy has gotten better at eliminating metastasis elsewhere,” Wapnir explained. While she is encouraged by therapeutic advances in the field—surgery, radiation and biological therapies now prove successful in 30 percent of such patients—there is much room for improvement." that discusses how common brain metastasis really is and scarcity of effective treatment options, makes one wonder why so little effort is currently expanded in improving upon this situation. Case in point, T-DM1 completed or about to complete 3 phase III trials in mBC, about to start a phase III in gastric her2+ cancer, but nothing as yet directed at this common occurring progression with this disease. Would think targeted approach, with little damage to non-cancerous tissue, provide a great opportunity to evaluate this agent' s performance beyond the blood-brain barrier. There probably are good reasons why NIH in conjunction with other governmental health agencies haven't pressured big pharma in more aggressively seeking better solutions for treatment.