New Breast Cancer Drugs

New Drugs For Breast Cancer

It won't have escaped your notice that the press and TV news are full of articles today about new breast cancer drugs.
The reason, I think, is that there has just been a major medical conference and many new breast cancer research findings were made public for the first time.

The media (bless-em !) do their best to report things in a straightforward way. But the big picture often becomes blurred as headline writers try to outdo one another in superlatives.

Breast Cancer Wonder Drug?
There's no doubt of course that new drugs such as Tykerb (Lapatinib) , Aromasin (Exemestane) and Herceptin are changing the face of breast cancer for many women. But the hugely important question to ask when you read these reports is:

"Does this research apply to me?"

It's human nature to ride the emotional rollercoaster isn't it - to follow "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" as Shakespeare once said. But, if you're going to stay mentally focused and balanced as you deal with your breast cancer, you need to have a clear view of the path ahead.

A good example of this is the fuss that the media have made about Herceptin. Yes, of course, it provides a great breakthrough and will transform the lives and probably the outcomes for some women with breast cancer. But not for all women! The media sometimes blur the edges when presenting this kind of information. It's not deliberate I'm sure but it happens nevertheless.

Herceptin - Wonder Drug?
As many of you reading this will know, Herceptin is only helpful in about a quarter of women who have breast cancer - those whose tumour is sensitive and has positive HER2 receptors. There is really no evidence that herceptin will help the other seventy five percent of women with breast cancer because they simply don't have a tumour that will respond to it. But that's not how the media sometimes tend to portray it!

The estrogen receptor story is broadly similar. Yes - drugs like Letrozole or Tamoxifen can make a big difference for some women - but again, not for all women who have breast cancer. Many women have a tumour that is not in any way sensitive to estrogen hormones. Hormone controlling drugs will not help them in any meaningful way.

These details often cause confusion and distress in breast cancer sufferers. Treatment decisions are often painted as if there is a financial or political motive behind them but your oncologist may choose not to give you herceptin because he or she knows that you simply won't gain any benefit from it.

Understanding New Breast Cancer Drugs
Here are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself when you read about a new drug or treatment:

First - and most important - you need to make sure that the women described in the report or article are similar to you. For example, a report about a drug that helps elderly women with a single lump and no spread to lymph nodes might not be relevant to you if you are aged 34 and have lymph node spread in your armpit.

So know your self before you start reading.

• Are you premenopausal or postmenopausal?
• Do you have positive lymph nodes?
• Is your tumour hormone sensitive?
• Is your tumour sensitive to herceptin (HER2 positive)?
• Has your cancer spread to other parts of your body?
• Is your current treatment aimed at cure or at slowing down the spread of a cancer that can't be cured?

Your doctor or oncologist can tell you these things if you don't already know the answers.

Beyond those basics you should keep the following in mind when you read a press report:

1. What type of breast cancer patients does this report describe? Is the drug or treatment in the article intended for early stage breast cancer? Advanced stage but still local cancer? Cancer that has spread through the body?
2. Is the reported benefit of the new breast cancer drug related to controlling cancer symptoms or to the outcome for those women who took it? Both are important but both are very different in many aspects.
3. Is this press report based on a large new research study? Or is it just a preliminary report of results in a small number of women? The first is much better than the second.
4. How long has the drug been around? Have lots of studies shown the same kind of benefits or is this the first report about a new kind of drug? There have been a lot of false dawns in all areas of medicine and breast cancer is no exception.

There are lots more questions you might ask yourself but the above are among the most important.

Hope For The Future
We are living in an exciting time for breast cancer research and its only right to take hope and inspiration from the benefits that new treatments are bringing.

But remember that breast cancer is as varied a disease as there are women who have it. Someone else's wonder drug may be of no benefit to you and - for the sake of keeping mentally on top of things - it's better to take all new announcements with a pinch of salt until the new drug described is well established and has found its own niche amongst the many other treatment options available.

This is a long post - sorry - but I hope many of you who read it will find it helpful.

Give me feedback if you disagree

Gordon