The Oncologist Cancer Journal Reports on "Innovative Therapies in Breast Cancer"

MIAMISBURG, Ohio - The Oncologist, the international peer-reviewed medical journal, just released a Supplement (Vol. 6, Suppl. 3, 2001) reporting on innovative therapies in breast cancer. The Supplement's guest editor, Dr. John Crown (St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland) summarized, "Docetaxel [Taxotere; Aventis Pharma, Bridgewater, NJ] is now generally recognized as one of the most active agents, and possibly the most active drug, currently available for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer."

Dr. Larry Norton, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, summarized a great body of evidence that documents that malignant cells are more sensitive when treated with multiple anti-cancer drugs. In this regard, Dr. Jean-Marc Nabholtz of UCLA suggested that docetaxel plus doxorubicin may set a "new standard in breast cancer," since patients derived clinical benefit with low and manageable side-effects.

Dr. Mark Pegram of UCLA also reported encouraging data which support the combined use of docetaxel and Herceptin (Genentech) for breast cancer patients in whom the cardiotoxic side effects of other contemporary chemotherapy would put them at grave risk of irreversible heart damage.

Reporting discussions that took place at an international cancer conference recently held on the island of Malta, The Oncologist's Supplement also describes the use of novel compounds that are being explored as future therapies for breast cancer. Many of these new experimental agents were found to further expand the efficacy of docetaxel. Dr. Anthony Tolcher of the Cancer Therapy Research Center in San Antonio, Texas, summarized, "With these novel agents, it may be possible to achieve antitumor activity at doses far lower than would cause significant toxicity," a prospect which may bring new hope to patients with advanced breast cancer who otherwise often suffer serious side-effects of high doses of chemotherapy.

Although the best approach for the standard therapy of advanced breast cancer is still debated, Dr. Crown concluded that, "Clinical trial data suggest that docetaxel is likely to be the most active single agent available in metastatic breast cancer. The drug is therefore a clear candidate for use with doxorubicin."

The Oncologist is a medical journal devoted to physicians who care for cancer patients. More than 21,000 physicians around the world read it. TheOncologist.com is read by more than 50,000 every month.

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