[dlaxague]

Did anyone else see the article about surgery that took nodes from somewhere else (I think the groin), and put them in the axilla with microsurgery techniques, curing lymphedema in 5 of 6 people? I think that was it, anyway. But I can't find it. It was either an SABCS poster or it appeared on BCN news recently, but a search of those sources doesn't find it. Am I dreaming?

I did find another one that I was looking for. A small study/discussion of anecdotal reports of women with existing lymphedema who noticed an improvement in same when they were on Avastin (bevacizumab). That led to a pilot study that is ongoing. Previously there had been discussion that this class of drug (but the enhancers rather than the inhibitors - vascular endothelial growth factors) might help re-establish lymph vessels and decrease lymphedema. The concern was that something that promoted vascularization might also promote cancer growth. So how weird to see that this theoretical treatment might actually be theorizing in the wrong direction and that inhibition of vegf might help lymphedema. Go figure. It's poster #6142 in the index but when I try to pull it up, I get another poster altogether. Here's the abstract but it doesn't have the results that are promised for 12/08: http://www.posters2view.com/sabcs08/...u=SABCS08L_105
or tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/89tvmt

Debbie Laxague