Newer Drugs Helping Breast Cancer Patients Live Longer

By Lindsay Braun, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Newer drug therapies that were made available in the 1990s seem to be improving the survival outcome of women with metastatic breast cancer.

A new study is the first to confirm that drugs made available in the 1990's, particularly aromatase inhibitors, have had a significant effect on population-based metastatic breast cancer survival rates.

Stephen Chia, M.D., the study's lead researcher, explained to Ivanhoe what is involved in metastatic breast caner. "It's when the breast cancer has spread beyond the breast into the local or regional lymph nodes such as lung, liver, or bone … in this case, unfortunately, we can no longer cure them."

Dr. Chia and his colleagues looked at the outcomes of 2,150 women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in the Canadian providence of British Columbia between 1991 and 2001. Their main goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of newer hormonal and chemotherapeutic drugs that were designed for general use.

Their research showed the survival of women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer increased significantly in the later half of the 1990s -- just about the time the newer drugs became available to the public.

Women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer today live an average of 24 months, which is a large increase from the 18-month survival average recorded in the early 1980s. "I think one of the points of the study is there is hope in that we made improvements in the 90s because of research in the 80s, and hopefully, in the decades of the 2000's, we can do better with continued research", said Dr. Chia.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe Interview with Stephen Chia, M.D., Medical Oncologist, BC Cancer Agency. CANCER, published online July 23, 2007.
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