Cancer Treatment Today

Because irinotecan penetrates the brain-blood barrier and has an effect in primary brain cancer, there is some interest in using it for brain metastasis, especially for lung cancer and breast cancer. Most studies of irinotecan had been for brain mets of small(SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer(NSMCLC) and not breast cancer and have had mixed results. One study enrolled several different cancer types and reported complete responses with irinotecan-based

Occasionally one encounters the situation of a breast cancer patient who received four cycles on Adriamycin and Cytoxan as adjuvant therapy after her surgery, but when the second part of the treatment begins, and she received Taxol or Taxotere, she has a reaction and cannot tolerate it. Some physicians than give four cycles of gemcitabine instead of a taxane. Unfortunately, this practice has not been formally studied.  Unlike for pancreatic cancer,