Everolimus: The New Miracle Breast Cancer Drug?

by Gwen on February 10, 2012

  Please see my original post on everolimus here Today, the prestigous New England Journal of Medicine published results of the eagerly anticipated BOLERO 2 clinical trial[1]. It showed that adding everolimus (brand name Afinitor) to exemestane (brand name Aromasin, an aromatase inhibitor) greatly improved outcomes for women with metastatic and advanced hormone-positive (ER+ and/or [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Don’t be a victim of HER2 errors!

by Gwen on January 24, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. A couple of weeks ago, a client of mine was diagnosed with ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. At the time of our consultation, I could not find the report that gave any details – only that she [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Diligently taking hormone therapy increases survival in metastatic breast cancer

by Gwen on January 24, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. #P1-08-12 by T I Barron and others First comes the diagnosis of breast cancer. Then comes the cancer surgery. This is often followed by grueling chemotherapy or radiation protocols. Just when you’re about to declare victory [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Circulating Tumor Cells Can Predict Relapse in Non-metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

by Gwen on January 8, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. Poster #4-07-07 by A. Lucci and others. For a while now, we have seen how a simple blood test that measures circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can predict response to treatments for metastatic breast cancer. Now we [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Blood test predicts risk of heart problems after trastuzumab (Herceptin)

by Gwen on January 8, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. Poster #5-20-02 by I. Blancas and others Significant heart problems develop in about 25% of those taking trastuzumab. Early identification is important to minimize the risk of overt heart failure. In this study, measuring a blood [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Oncotype DX test underestimates HER2

January 8, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. Poster #01-07-20 by D. J. Dabbs and others The Oncotype DX test is amazing. The folks at Genomic Health who developed it are my personal heroes. But recently a problem has cropped up. Genomic Health may [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: Isolated tumor cells (ITCs) and micrometases in lymph nodes do NOT worsen overall survival

January 8, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. Poster #3-07-34 by A. Valachis and others There has been a lot of debate as to whether very tiny deposits of cancer cells found in lymph nodes removed at the time of breast surgery mean increased [...]

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Gwen’s best of SABCS 2011: One dose of pre-operative ketorolac (Toradol) prevents early breast cancer relapse

January 8, 2012

You can find an overview of the most important presentations of the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium here. Poster #2-01-06 by M. Retsky and others This fascinating report comes from an international study headed by the Harvard School of Public Health[1]. First, a little background. One mystery yet unsolved is why some patients recur [...]

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Gwen’s Best of SABCS 2011: Overview

January 8, 2012

In early December, San Antonio is a very colorful town. At night, the lights on the trees, horse-drawn carriages and the Riverwalk provide a calm and picturesque view of the city. Not so during the day. Along with several thousand other oncologists, researchers and patient advocates, I descended upon the convention center at 7 AM [...]

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Prevent Breast Cancer from Becoming Resistant to Anti-estrogen Treatments

October 25, 2011

An updated report was posted on February 9, 2012: you can find it here A wave of excitement must have washed over the big annual European cancer conference, EMCC, last month when a multinational group of researchers showed how they were able to reverse resistance to anti-estrogen drugs. Here’s a little background on why this [...]

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