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Old 02-01-2010, 10:22 AM   #1
Joe
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Good News

Cancer study backs Roche's Herceptin with chemo
Herceptin suited to many advanced, inflammatory cancers
* Study finds drug works well combined with chemotherapy
By Kate Kelland
LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Roche's cancer drug Herceptin combined with chemotherapy works better than chemotherapy alone in patients with a certain type of advanced or inflammatory breast cancer, doctors said on Friday.
They said the drug, a billion-dollar seller for the Swiss company, was particularly effective for many women with advanced or inflammatory breast cancer because many of them have tumours which overproduce a protein called the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2, or HER2.
Luca Gianni of the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy, compared patients with HER2-positive breast cancer treated with chemotherapy and Herceptin combined for one year with patients treated with chemotherapy alone.
Herceptin, also known as trastuzumab, significantly improved event-free survival, he wrote in a study in The Lancet medical journal, with 71 percent of patients treated with the combination surviving for three years without their disease worsening, versus 56 percent who were not given Herceptin.
Locally advanced breast cancers are cases where the tumour has grown to larger than about 5 centimetres across. It accounts for between 6 and 10 percent of new cases of breast cancer and patients have a worse prognosis than those whose tumours are found soon enough to be operated on.
Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare subtype of breast cancer that is particularly aggressive.
While HER2-posaitive tumours account for around 20 percent of all breast cancers, the proportions of locally-advanced and inflammatory breast cancer cases that are HER2-positive are higher -- at 35 percent and 40 percent respectively.
"Patients with HER2-positive locally advanced or inflammatory breast cancer are therefore in particular need of effective treatment," Gianni wrote.
A study published last September found many women are never tested to see if HER2-targeted drugs would work for them, suggesting many breast cancer patients who might benefit from Herceptin were not getting it, while some women taking the drug had never been properly tested. [ID:nLE619364]
British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline also has a medicine for HER2-positive breast cancer called Tykerb.
Breast cancer kills 400,000 women around the world every year and 40,000 in the United States alone.
Many studies have shown a low-fat diet, regular exercise, keeping a lean weight and breastfeeding babies can prevent breast cancer, but a significant percentage of cases are caused by faulty genes and not linked to lifestyle.

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Old 02-02-2010, 05:02 PM   #2
Midwest Alice
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Re: Good News

Thanks for the Good news Joe,


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04/08 age 50 III IBC Her2+++ ER/PR-8cm 14/14 Double M, Body and Brain CT/PET clear, ? on spine,Muga 53
06/08, 4 A/C, Neulasta
08/08, Herceptin/tax 12 every week
10/08, CT/PET clear, ? on pelvis, hips, MUGA 43, started Enalaprial for heart, Herceptin every 3 weeks
11/08 33Rads; 12/08 MUGA 48
2/09 MRI spine and bone scan, old mets to spine, Chest x-ray, blood work, IV NED,regular CPAP use,Zometa x6, first -flue like symptoms 2 days;Herceptin x3; stage 2 lymphoedema..sleeve and glove
4/09 Brain MRI - CLEAR; MUGA 54
7/09 chest ultrasound,
10/09 PET, brain and spin MRI NED Herceptin only. MUGA 59!!!
1/11 Hip replacement 7/11 Hip 2 replacement
4/12 4 years!! Herceptin
6/12 start reconstruction finish in 12/12
2/14 Herception - 6 years!!!

1 Corinthians 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it."

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