Excerpt from Mind, Body and Soul by Nancy H. Dahm, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

New Drug Therapies for Breast Cancer

Tamoxifen has been used for twenty years in the treatment of advanced breast cancer. It acts by slowing or inhibiting the growth of breast cancer cells. Now the drug is believed to prevent the disease in those who are cancer-free, but who are at risk, and it has been approved by the FDA to be used as a preventative drug. Tamoxifen is highly toxic and has a life-threatening side effect, namely thrombosis (blood clots), so it is important to remain under close medical supervision during Tamoxifen therapy.

Herceptin - FDA approved September 25, 1998. This drug is for the treatment of women whose breast cancer has spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes. Herceptin targets cancer cells that overproduce the protein HER-2. This overproduction occurs in about 30 percent of breast cancer patients. Herceptin blocks the growth-promoting attribute of HER-2 and may help the immune system recognize and attack the breast cancer cells. Herceptin was tested on 691 women with metastatic breast cancer that carried the extra copies of the HER-2/neu gene. When results of treatment with standard chemotherapy alone versus chemotherapy plus Herceptin were compared, it was found that tumors shrank at least 50 percent in half the women getting chemotherapy with Herceptin, compared with one-third of women receiving chemotherapy alone.

Raloxifene is a drug used for the prevention of breast cancer. In clinical trials, Raloxifene (also used for osteoporosis) has been shown to cut the risk of breast cancer by 70 percent without causing endometrial cancer. For more information, call 1-800-4 CANCER for the latest or current studies that you might be able to participate in.

Xeloda - FDA approved April, 1998. Approval for this drug was based on a trial of 43 patients whose cancer no longer responded to conventional treatment. In that group, Xeloda appeared to help shrink tumors in 25 percent of the patients. In a larger study involving 162 patients, tumors shrank in 20 percent of the patients. (Centerwatch.com, September 13, 1998). The FDA warns that Xeloda is neither a cure nor does it help everyone, but it showed such promise that they approved it early in the testing process.

Lung Cancer Breakthrough
A study published in the September, 1998 issue of Nature Medicine concerned a preliminary trial using gene therapy to treat lung cancer. The trial involved nine men with advanced lung cancer. They all had a mutated copy of the tumor suppresser gene, P53. Researchers injected healthy copies of the gene into the patient's cancerous lung tissue once a day for five days. The lung tumors treated with P53 solution stopped growing in three patients and regressed in another three. The significance of this trial indicates that gene therapy may be effective in halting cancer progression. The researchers were led by Dr. Jack A. Roth of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. (Nature Medicine 1996; 2: 985-991)

Drug Therapy for Lung Cancer
Gemzar - FDA approved August, 1998. This drug is indicated in combination with Cisplatin (a chemotherapeutic drug) for the first-line treatment of patients with inoperable, locally advanced, or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. It is also indicated as first-line treatment for patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Gemzar is indicated for patients previously treated with 5-FU, a chemotherapeutic agent.

Prostate Cancer Breakthrough
The breakthrough is a new test that is a spin-off of the widely used Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. The new test is called free PSA, or PSA II. The prostate gland produces a glycoprotein by the cells of the ductal epithelium of the prostate, and is present in the blood serum of all males. This specific protein is called prostate-specific antigen (PSA). The PSA is increased in prostate cancer and is also increased when there is an enlargement of the prostate gland, called benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH). Enlargement of the prostate is a normal occurrence with increased age of men over 50 years. A normal PSA level is 0 - 4 ng/ml. However, a PSA reading above 2.0 ng/ml in men with a normal sized prostate, should raise concern for prostate cancer. Typically, a PSA reading of 10.0 ng/ml would indicate the need for a biopsy of the prostate gland to confirm the presence of cancer. In March, 1998, a new blood test was approved by the FDA. This test is the PSA II or free PSA. The free PSA is a measure of how much prostate-specific antigen is circulating alone in the blood and how much is bound together with other proteins. The free PSA test is performed when there are PSA levels between 4 and 10. If the free PSA is 25 percent or less, there is a 95 percent cancer detection rate through biopsy. This means that cancer can be detected earlier by using the free PSA test, when the PSA test alone gives a result of 4 - 10 ng/ml. For more information on Prostate cancer, detection, and treatment, go to cancerorg.com. (American Cancer Society), or Prostrcision.com. (Radiotherapy clinics of Georgia). According to the American Cancer Society, men should begin screening for prostate cancer at age 50. However, men in high risk groups - especially those who have a family history of prostate cancer - should begin at age 45. There is curative treatment for prostate cancer if it is detected early. The 1998 estimate is 89 percent for five years or longer survival rate. This year, the American Cancer Society has earmarked approximately $7.5 million dollars for prostate cancer research. There are several new areas of research for prostate cancer.

• Development of a new technique to examine lymph nodes of men with prostate cancer. This could have an impact on staging (identifying the level of cancer involvement).
• Development of a vaccine-like treatment that would trig- ger an attack on cancer cells.
• The University of Pennsylvania reported in their internet cancer information service, Oncolink, that a certain herpes gene may help fight prostate cancer. A phase I study examined 18 patients who had local recurrence of prostate cancer following radiation. The herpes gene activates a normally inactive antiviral drug, Ganciclovir. When the herpes gene was successfully transferred into the prostate cancer cells, the Ganciclovir was activated, killing the cancer cells. The PSA levels decreased signifi- cantly in 3 of the 18 patients. One person showed no sign of cancer after a biopsy was performed.

Other New Tests and Drugs

Copyright Nancy Hassett Dahm October 2000. All rights reserved.