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CancerSmart Web Cast March 8, 2007 -- Larry Norton, Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs presents, "Advances in the Prevention and Care of Breast Cancer."
Run time: 90 minutes. |
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Chemotherapy & Hormone Therapy
The type and course of chemotherapy and/or hormone therapy that a patient may receive depends on many factors including the patient's age (and whether she is premenopausal or postmenopausal); tumor size and histology; whether the tumor is in situ or invasive; lymph node involvement; and the presence of estrogen or progesterone receptors on the tumor. Your doctor can help you decide what course of treatment is right for you.
Like all Memorial Sloan-Kettering staff, the physicians on the Breast Cancer Medicine Service have as their first goal the delivery of optimal care to patients with breast cancer. A significant part of their mission is to develop better treatments. Our scientists conduct studies designed to clarify how and why breast cancer develops. Clinical studies apply what is learned in the laboratory to patient care, leading to improved treatments.
Our breast cancer specialists are exploring a variety of new drugs with potential activity against breast cancer. Drugs currently under study include the taxanes. This class of drugs includes paclitaxel (Taxol) and docetaxel (Taxotere). Our investigators have demonstrated the effectiveness of paclitaxel and docetaxel against advanced breast cancer (they are useful even when other treatments have failed). They have also explored new ways to deliver the most effective dosages of paclitaxel. Other drugs with similar, and different, mechanisms of operation are also under study.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering doctors were among the first to test paclitaxel both as a treatment for women with early-stage breast cancer and as way to prevent recurrence of their disease. Using such factors as tumor growth rate and tumor response to chemotherapy, they determined how best to incorporate paclitaxel into a woman's treatment plan. They then began conducting a series of studies to explore the effectiveness of paclitaxel given in a sequence with other anticancer drugs (sequential chemotherapy), rather than giving several drugs together (combination chemotherapy). The results of these studies have been promising. Several large national and international trials designed to validate the worth of this treatment approach are well under way.
At the same time, our physicians are continuing to identify and study new chemotherapy drugs as well as other medical treatments including immunotherapy (including vaccines and antibodies), novel hormones, and dietary interventions. Memorial Sloan-Kettering's vaccine studies are designed to identify the best way to harness the body's immune system to ward off recurrences. Our doctors have tested several monoclonal antibodies. They have so far demonstrated that this approach can be effective for treating advanced breast cancer. They are continuing to investigate antibodies and testing new drugs and drug combinations that build on the successes seen with the antibodies.
