Cancer care: Are new treatments the end of chemotherapy?

cp418

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-33816_162-57591642/cancer-care-are-new-treatments-the-end-of-chemotherapy/

Cancer care: Are new treatments the end of chemotherapy?

jenrio

I hope chemo truly get replaced by more effective targetted drugs.   Because like a lot of early bc patient with aggressive disease, I have already about used up my best chemo bullets.   So if I recur (20-30%ish over 10 years), I'll be in a real tough spot.   

My own selfish concern aside, I'm cautiously hopeful as always.   Only I'll be the grinch and point out that for breast cancer, Herceptin 20 years ago started the targetted medicine revolution, yet we had to wait almost 20 years for a drug (palbociclib) that somewhat compares in performance with gleevac (developed for CML 10+ years ago) for only a subset of BC patients.

Meanwhile for 20 years,  the metastatic triple negative gals have been surviving at a few months average.   Still no effective targetted therapies in sight.   metastatic HER2+ and HR+ gals are somewhat in a better situation, but not that much better.   The gals with brain mets remain in dire straits.   

A couple of recurred patients I tracked on internet:

Ellie, dxed at 28 with strongly early stage HR+ breast cancer.   A few months after chemo treatment, while on tamoxifen, triple negative mets were found on her organs.    Docs gave her a few months to live.   She lived a little short of 2 years.

http://writtenoff.net/about/

Ellie was apparently lucky, only compared to Kate Greene, age 36: 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/4163841/Mums-List-Cancer-victims-moving-list-of-rules-for-her-sons-is-a-book-sensation.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/235251/mums-list-becomes-bestseller-tells-of-dying-moms-wish-list-for-family/

She was given 18 months after recurrence, got 18 days instead.

This is the reality of MBC.   Is there a miracle maker drug somewhere or somehow for women like Ellie and Kate?   Well let's find it and not stop till we find it.