Medical news is confusing. Now it gets more confusing.
There is more news out of the European Cancer Society in Barcelona, Spain.
The new study was lead by Dr. Yan Li who evaluated 70,000 female members of Kaiser Permanente HMO in Oakland, CA.
Breast cancer increased by 30% in women who drank 3 or more drinks per day.
Roche Holding Ag released new treatment data which was presented at the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona.
HER2-positive breast cancer, is rare but highly aggressive, often leading to a total mastectomy.
Results from the NeoAdjuvant study showed that the complete disappearance of the tumor in the breast was achieved for 55% of patients given a combination of Herceptin and chemotherapy. Only 19% of patients that received chemotherapy without Herceptin achieved complete disappearance of the tumor.
The drug is marketed in the United States by Genentech.
Personalized medicine is the antithesis of the one shoe fits all approach. For years, patients with similar diseases have received similar treatment. But why is the same treatment that’s successful for one patient unsuccessful for another? The simple answer is that those patients don’t have the same physical and biochemical makeup and probably have different gene sets. At its most basic definition, personalized medicine refers to using information about a person’s genetic makeup to tailor strategies for the detection, treatment, or prevention of disease based on what we know has worked for similar gene sequences in past patients. That may sound like a straightforward task, but it actually poses major scientific challenges when one considers that there are 3 billion letters in the human DNA code.
However, scientists are making great strides including the discovery of two genes that can identify which breast cancer cells will respond to a common chemotherapy drug and which will not have been revealed by Aberdeen University staff.
The breast cancer cells that were used in the study were grown in the laboratory. Now, scientists will investigate whether the genes identified behave the same way in the human body.
The American Cancer Society released new data on breast cancer. From 2001-2004, breast cancer diagnoses fell by an average of 3.7 percent per year while death rates fell by 2% during the period. ACS credited the positive trends to a drop in hormone replacement therapy and less mammograms. Unfortunately, blacks and young women did not see the same positive trends.
The concern about acrylamide surfaced in 1992. Acrylamide is classified a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Acrylamide is formed naturally when foods such as potatoes are cooked at high temperatures in the presence of sugars.
However, a new study has confirmed the results of studies from 2005 in which researchers concluded that there was no link between the chemical and breast cancer. In the latest study presented by Harvard School of Public Health epidemiologist Lorelei A. Mucci, involved 100,000 women, the participants were administered three separate food intake questionnaires over a 16 year period.
Dr. Michael Thunn, Director of Epidemiological Research for the American Cancer Society said, “This is good news.” He also added, “But I’m sure these studies won’t end the concern about acrylamide and cancer because I have never seen concern about an environmental contaminant go away because of two or three studies.”
