Could there be a cure for Metastatic Breast Cancer? Pro vs Con

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To improve the cure rate, Sledge suggested undertaking a research program with three elements: find and treat smaller metastases; give the right drugs to the right patients; and then use new biology to develop new drugs.

http://mobile.journals.lww.com/oncology-times/_lay...

Quoted Proes: Circulating tumor cell technology certainly is capable of detecting small-volume disease, he said. And the increasingly exciting technology of circulating tumor DNA probably will make it possible to detect very small recurrences. "In a mouse model we are capable of finding a cancer lesion that is smaller than 300 microns," he said, citing Branca et al. PNAS 2010;107:3693-3697.

"In the words of those who have reported this data: 'With further optimization, even single cancer cells may become detectable.' So we're going to reach a point in the relatively near future where we should be able to detect micrometastatic disease. And when we do so," he said, "we'll need to shift the definition of what it means to have metastatic disease to be something much smaller and detectable earlier. Hopefully this will be more curable, as the CALOR trial suggests."

As he further explained in a column in OT column last fall (10/25/14 issue), the microenvironment does not permit it. The animals create a form of high molecular weight hyaluronic acid that walls off cancer cells immediately, and simply won't die of cancer.

"I ask you, are we really not smarter than naked mole rat moles?," Sledge concluded. "Join the crusade to cure metastatic cancer, never give up, learn from the naked mole rats and the exceptional responders, or perhaps even the melanoma doctors among us. Don't be a cynical, hard-bitten New Yorker. Embrace your inner Pollyanna."

Cons: But a hopeful Con

Hudis concluded by saying that as a medical oncologist, though, he knows things could change: "I do believe that it's theoretically possible to cure metastatic breast cancer, just as it is theoretically possible to cure any number of other disseminating diseases. We're just not there yet."

jenrio

Related: Prenatal DNA tests finding cancer DNA in young mother-to-be:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/virginiahughes/pregnant-wo...