Breaking Research News from sources other than Breastcancer.org

Springdaisy · January 2021

moth, thank you for the info. How could you have stage four if you only had stage one three years ago? My god that’s scary.

moth · January 2021

Hi Springdaisy - I guess I drew the short straw. When I ran the stats in Predict https://breast.predict.nhs.uk/tool 89% of women with my stats were alive at 5 years. I used that as a proxy for metastatic recurrence... so 1/10 like me would recur with terminal disease. Tried to do my best to lessen the risk - the only evidence based interventions seem to be exercise and maybe green tea. I did that. I exercised before I got stage 1 too so didn't work then either. Didn't work to prevent progression so I guess there's some powerful cancer genetics at work & I got to be one out of 10

triple neg has a different mets timeline than hormone positive. We're more likely to recur at all but if we do, it's in the first 5 years so if we make it past 5, the risk starts falling. Hormone positive has this long tail of ongoing risk so a different risk profile. This cancer thing sucks all around & part of what's missing in breast cancer discussions is that it still kills very many of us. So much talk of 'survivors' and pink ribbons that sometimes it's easy to forget it's fatal to many.

Springdaisy · January 2021

thank you for replying, moth. I wish you and everybody in this forum the best of luck. Yes, you are right, cancer sucks no matter what kind. Someone brought up the point the other day that they have rushed through the Covid vaccine so what about rushing through cures for cancer and other things? I never thought of it before but that’s a very good point. Although I don’t want cures that have been rushed through the system but they claim Covid was tested upon thousands of people and went by the rules of the CDC.

YesIamaDragon · January 2021

The trouble is cancer is not a disease any more than "virus" is a disease. Even within breast cancer effective treatments are radically different for all the different subtypes. So there will never be one cure for "cancer" any more than there will be one cure for all viruses, from cold viruses to polio to HIV.

I just finished a year and a half of chemo, which brings my 3 year "risk" of disease-free survival to 89% Improved, but not great.

My oncologist is very honest with me, "the only way to know you are a survivor is to die of something else" Breast cancers suck.

illimae · January 2021

Anyone heard about this? Sounds great, I love to see a bigger trial group though.

https://www.targetedonc.com/view/fda-grants-fast-track-designation-for-her2-positive-metastatic-breast-cancer

“A clinical update on ARX788 was announced in December during a presentation for the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) demonstrated an objective response rate (ORR) of 74% with ARX788 in the phase 1 HER2-positive breast cancer trial in China, which included responses in 14 of 19 patients and a disease control rate (DCR) of 100%. The ORR was 67% in the phase 1 HER2-positive pan tumor trial in the United States and Australia with responses in 2 of 3 patients and a DCR of 100%. Both these findings were found with the 1.5 mg/kg dose.2“

Anonymous · January 2021

Preliminary study of how adiposity influences breast cancer biology, treatment resistance, and disease progression shows High BMI related to effectiveness of doxataxel!

This is a surprise revelation and shocking to me, 😳 Since my BMI was much higher when I was on taxotere. Hope they study this more.

Dee

https://www.medpagetoday.com/reading-room/asco/breast-cancer/90523?xid=NL_ASCORR_2021-01-07&eun=g20811420d39r&pos=

Anonymous · January 2021

seems like the evidence so far is pointing to higher BMI = less taxane effectiveness

Well, I was in the high overweight BMI when I did Taxol and I had a great response, then again I was also on Herceptin and Perjeta so maybe that matters.

This definitely needs further study.

JoynerL · January 2021

This is interesting:

Gut Microbe May Promote Breast Cancer

santabarbarian · January 2021

Lumpie, How're you doing? We who appreciate this thread thank you and wish you a happy new year!

Lumpie · January 2021

Hi santabarbarian! I am ok, thank you for checking....and I am very glad that you and others appreciate the topic/board. I have a couple of things I need to post. The new-ish med I am on is doing a job on my digestive system and I feel like I am always behind/moving in slow motion. Hope you are well and.... at this point, I am almost reluctant to speculate about how the year might ging.... but hope you ... and eveyone else, too!.... have a healthy and happy new year!

TectonicShift · January 2021

I say thank you too. This is the thread I check on nearly every day. Often the only one I check. I appreciate the work it takes to aggregate this information.

MinusTwo · January 2021

Me too - Thanks Lumpie.

NorCalS · January 2021

Lumpie,

I hope you’re feeling better. I wanted to chime in and agree with the rest of the group that I definitely appreciate all the effort you put into this topic. Thank you

buttonsmachine · January 2021

Yes. Thank you, Lumpie!

JoynerL · January 2021

Me, too, Lumpie...thanks so very much! A much-needed forum!

BlueGirlRedState · January 2021

Thank you for the post on gut health. We are complex animals and many things seemed to get overlooked, dismissed, or are poorly understood. The bacdterium mentioined, Bacteroides fragilis, normally in the colon wrecks havoc elsewhere, unsurprisingly. But does it escape unnoticed? Lifestyle is so important. Is kimchi, sour kraut, yogurt etc enough for a healthy gut?

mysticalcity · January 2021

https://www.sciencealert.com/cancer-cells-can-go-into-a-bear-like-hibernation-to-evade-chemotherapy

2019whatayear · January 2021

Thank you Lumpie for your tending of this post! I too sometimes come to the site just to read the latest updates on this post

LaughingGull · January 2021

Adding my voice to the choir thanking Lumpie. I also follow this thread closely.

2019whatayear · January 2021

NCI aims to track BC recurrenceSharing this - long overdue -

Karenfizedbo15 · January 2021

As always Lumpie, you know we appreciate you! And also the growing group of folk who regularly post here...you’ve inspired them!

YesIamaDragon · January 2021

I will add my thanks Lumpie. I check this thread at least once a day!

7of9 · January 2021

Thank you Lumpie!

Anonymous · January 2021

t Lumpie- glad to “see” you - we missed you while you were out recuperating .

Recommended treatment graph for metastatic

https://www.esmo.org/content/download/395915/7703117/1/Clinical%20Practice%20Guidelines%20Slideset%20Advanced%20Breast%20Cancer.pdf

Dee

helenlouise · January 2021

thanks Lumpie and all who contribute. That flow chart for metastatic BC was very interesting thanks Dee.

Lumpie · January 2021

Thank you so much, everyone, for your kind and encouraging comments! You have made my week and I truly appreciate it.

-Lumpie

Lumpie · January 2021

Shorter radiotherapy promising in breast cancer

Women with early invasive breast cancer who underwent one-week high- or low-dose hypofractionated adjuvant whole-breast radiotherapy regimen had similar five-year ipsilateral breast tumor relapse rates and safety outcomes, compared with those who received the standard three-week regimen, according to a study presented at the European Society for Radiology and Oncology 2020 Online Congress and published in The Lancet. The findings suggest the safety and efficacy of hypofractionated radiotherapy regimen as the new standard for early invasive breast cancer, said researcher Joanne Haviland.

https://www.mdedge.com/hematology-oncology/article...

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/...(20)30932-6/fulltext

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30932-6

{Report courtesy of AANP Smart Brief; Lancet article appears to be available w/o charge.}

Lumpie · January 2021

COVID-19 Vaccine & Patients with Cancer

ASCO commentary on the covid-19 vaccine for cancer patients.

In short...

Are there people who should not be vaccinated?

At this time, only those with contraindications to a specific vaccine component should not be offered vaccination with that specific product. These contraindications are described in detail on the CDC's vaccination clinical considerations page.

... patients undergoing treatment may be offered vaccination against COVID-19 as long as any components of the vaccine are not contraindicated.

https://www.asco.org/asco-coronavirus-resources/co...

{I believe that this page is publicly available. If not, let me know and I can post details.}

Lumpie · January 2021

Older women with early breast cancer may be able to avoid radiation after surgery

The omission of radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery did not affect survival among certain older women with early breast cancer, according to results presented at the virtual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Radiation therapy reduced the rate of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence among women aged 65 years or older with hormone receptor-positive disease who underwent wide local excision and were receiving adjuvant hormonal therapy.

However, radiation therapy receipt did not affect rates of distant metastases, contralateral breast cancer or OS, 10-year data from the randomized phase 3 PRIME II trial showed.

https://www.healio.com/news/hematology-oncology/20...

Source: Kunkler IH, et al. Abstract GS2-03. Presented at: San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (virtual meeting); Dec. 8-11, 2020.

{Access to coverage should be free of charge. Registration may be required.}

Lumpie · January 2021

Symptoms often underrecognized among patients receiving radiotherapy for breast cancer

Symptoms such as pain, fatigue and pruritus often went underrecognized among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, according to study results presented at the virtual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Black patients and younger patients appeared at significantly higher risk for symptom underrecognition, results showed.

"We were disappointed to find that physicians frequently didn't recognize the severity of the symptoms patients themselves reported they were experiencing," Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, Newman family professor and deputy chair of the department of radiation oncology and director of Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at University of Michigan, told Healio.

"Because physicians cannot help patients if they don't know who is suffering, improving symptom detection appears to be a way to improve the quality of care and to reduce disparities in cancer treatment experiences and outcomes," Jagsi added. "The findings also suggest that clinical trials should not rely on physician reports alone to evaluate the side effects of treatments; patient-reported outcomes provide an important complement to physician evaluations."