Breast Cancer

Symphony suite of tests for Breast Cancer – pro

Symphony suite of tests includes Mammaprint, BluePrint and TargetPrint. According to the online article titled “Comparison of MammaPrint, BluePrint, and TargetPrint with Clinical Parameters in Patients with Breast Cancer: Findings from a Prospective United States Cohort”, it states that the multigene signature MammaPrint, as well as BluePrint and TargetPrint, provides additional information for treatment guidance. By combining MammaPrint with

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Tamoxifen and endometrial cancer – pro

Tamoxifen is a venerable drug that revolutionized breast cancer care when it was first introduced. More recently, it has been largely supplanted by aromatase inhibitors(AI), but tamoxifen is still useful in pre-menopausal women, in whom AIs do not work. Tamoxifen has a variety of bothersome side effects, related mostly to forced early menopause. In addition, a rare complication of tamoxifen is uterine lining overgrowth, which can proceed to endometrial

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Prophylactic mastectomy and oophorectomy for BRCA mutation carriers – pro

Prophylactic bilateral mastectomy is the surgical removal of both breasts to help prevent breast cancer. Prophylactic mastectomy is a controversial procedure among members of the medical community. Based on recent scientific findings that show prophylactic mastectomy to be effective at preventing breast cancer, some physicians think that it is  sometimes recommended even without evidence of genetic causation.  According to the American Cancer Society

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DCIS and multifocal breast cancer – pro

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-invasive breast cancer. In DCIS, abnormal cells are contained in the milk ducts. It is called “in situ” (which means "in place") because the cells have not left the milk ducts to invade nearby breast tissue. DCIS is also be intraductal (within the milk ducts) carcinoma, when it is larger but still not invasice. Without treatment, the abnormal cells could turn into invasive cancer over time. Some physicians

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Tamoxifen side effects and treatment – pro

  Tamoxifen is a venerable drug that revolutionized breast cancer care when it was first introduced. More recently, it has been largely supplanted by aromatase inhibitors(AI), but tamoxifen is still useful in pre-menopausal women, in whom AIs do not work. Tamoxifen has a variety of bothersome side effects, related mostly to forced early menopause. In the trials reviewed by Kennecke al, hot flushes were commonly reported (40% to 60%).In the MA

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Weekly Taxol for breast cancer – pro

Weekly paclitaxel is FDA approved; or, at least, the FDA indication does not exclude the weekly schedule. TAXOL is indicated for the treatment of breast cancer after failure of combination chemotherapy for metastatic disease or relapse within 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline unless clinically contraindicated. There are now several studies that confirm that it is of similar effectiveness to every

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Faslodex for breast cancer – pro

(Faslodex)Fulvestrant is a selective estrogen receptor down-regulator (SERD). It acts not by competing with estrogen at the estrogen receptors, but by selectively down modulating it and causing it to be degraded and disappear.  Fulvestrant is indicated for the treatment of hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women with disease progression following anti-estrogen therapy. It used to be thought that this unique mechanism

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Votrient for GIST – pro

Pazopanib(Votrient) is an oral angiogenesis inhibitor targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), and KIT. These are important pathways for GIST tumors and several trials looked into using pazopanib for GIST. Although initial studies suggested that the drug is not effective for GIST, more recently a phase II study of 25 patients and a randomized study of 86 patients suggest that

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PET to stage axillae in breast cancer – pro

It is generally accepted that stage I and II breast cancer does not require staging. Stage II is divided into stage IIA and stage IIB based on tumor size and whether it has spread to the axillary lymph nodes (the lymph nodes under the arm). In stage IIA, the cancer is either not larger than 2 centimeters and has spread to the axillary lymph nodes, or between 2 and 5 centimeters but has not spread to the axillary lymph nodes. In stage IIB, the cancer

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Taxotere and Cytoxan for metastatic breast cancer – pro

Preclinical data demonstrate in vitro synergy for combinations of docetaxel (Taxotere) and cyclophosphamide. As single agents, both drugs have proven highly active against breast cancer, and the activity of the combination has been confirmed by several phase II studies. More recently, it has proven adjuvant efficacy on par with anthracycline containing regimen in a trial to directly compare AC to Taxotere/Cytoxan (TC) as adjuvant treatment in breast

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