Author: Editor

Prof David Cameron from The Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre is committed to identifying potential new approaches to treating and preventing breast cancer. We caught up with him at EBCC9 in Glasgow to find out what’s new for breast cancer patients. He tells us about ongoing research as well as some of the findings that were being presented at the congress.

Read More

A retrospective study of the effect of extending mammography to age 75 was performed in the Netherlands to use data emerging from the change of policy shifting age-based mammography to 75 in 1999. More early stage tumours were detected but just as many cases of late-stage disease were discovered as before, implying that screening had not eliminated them and was not yielding a benefit. Further analysis confirmed that the harmful effects of over-treatment in this age group were outweighing any potential benefits of cancer detection. Dr. Liefers concluded that age-based screening is failing these patients who should receive mammography on…

Read More

A detailed analysis of risk factors including genomic markers of women with breast cancer has revealed that three-year mammographic screening is insufficient for around half of all women who could be candidates for annual screening. This is good news for regions where annual screening is the norm as it suggests a potential saving by screening less frequently in one subgroup, but perhaps less welcome news in countries such as the UK where three-year screening is recommended.

Read More

A massive Oxford meta-analysis they have completed has shown that adjuvant radiotherapy gives absolute benefits in terms of progression-free and overall- survival in women with breast cancer who have one, two, or three involved axillary lymph nodes clarifying a long-held uncertainty. Up to now four or more nodes has been a status known to benefit from R/T, while node-zero did not confer any benefit from R/T. The effect is surprisingly large and is just as strong among women who received either chemotherapy or endocrine therapy extending considerably the application of adjuvant radiotherapy.

Read More

Dr Poortmans presented a late breaking abstract at a workshop on the regional control of breast cancer, along with speakers from Denmark, Canada and the UK. His abstract was on the updated results of his groups EORTC ROG and BCG phase III trial22922/10925 confirming the benefits of chest irradiation for patients with early breast cancer irrespective of their axillary nodal status. One of the key new points the data were presently able to confirm was that such regional radiotherapy extends life not only in chemotherapy-naïve patients, but also in those who have received extensive systemic therapy.

Read More