Chemotherapy: Updates and New Perspectives

Abstract

Treatment options for patients with breast cancer have progressively improved over the past 40 years, from an era of no chemotherapy to the introduction of taxanes, hormonal therapy, and biologic therapy. These advances have resulted in substantial, 15%-20% improvements in clinical outcomes. However, progress has yet to be made to improve the prognosis in many breast cancer patients, and research is currently under way to test new tools, or new applications of older tools, to advance breast cancer management. Chemotherapy clearly remains a cornerstone of adjuvant breast cancer treatment, because breast cancer can be very sensitive to the currently available agents. Meanwhile, the era of a one-size-fits-all approach to breast cancer management is over, and the maximum potential of chemotherapy should now be reached by targeting specific populations. Effective biomarkers are therefore needed to optimize chemotherapy, define more selective populations, and clearly tailor treatment. This paper discusses recent data, including new trials that are more fully incorporating current knowledge with respect to molecular markers and the underlying biology of breast cancer. The Oncologist 2011;16(suppl 1):30 -39

Effects of Fucoidan and Chemotherapeutic Agent Combinations on Malignant and Non-malignant Breast Cell Lines

“…The development of resistance to chemotherapy is considered a major hindrance to treatment of various cancers. Globally, decreased disease-free or overall survival (DFS/OS) is due mainly to recurrence and metastases of breast cancers in patients who do not http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ respond to targeted therapies from the start (de novo drug resistance) and even those who do respond to targeted therapies such as tamoxifen and trastuzumab and show signs of remission initially, only to turn refractory (relapse) to these treatments with time (acquired drug resistance [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Moreover, most chemotherapeutic drugs presently being used exhibit adverse side effects on the human body, namely, bleeding, hair loss, diarrhoea, and immunosuppression [33][34][35] which have negative impacts on the lives of affected patients [36][37][38][39][40][41][42].…”

Adjuvant Dose-Dense Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Available Evidence and Recent Updates

“…Adjuvant chemotherapy has greatly improved the prognosis of early breast cancer [1]. While its benefit seems to be too small or even non-existent in very early-stage or very low-risk tumors, patients with more aggressive or advanced disease are much more likely to have a reduction in the risk of recurrence and mortality, thus making the indication for chemotherapy stronger in these cases [2].…”

“…Latest advances in adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer involved the sequential addition of taxanes to anthracycline-based chemotherapy which has led to an additional 5% absolute reduction in clinical outcomes [1]. There is a clear lack of new and more effective treatments for high-risk patients, making the concept of trying different doses and different administration schemes an attractive possibility.…”

Improved Synthesis Strategy for Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNA) appropriate for Cell-specific Fluorescence Imaging

“…“Old fashioned” diagnostic molecules and drugs are highly effective but not sensitive enough, hamper the therapeutic success and result in discontinuation of treatment. It is beyond controversy that these drugs, which represent the old paradigm “one size fits all”, is not really up-to-date anymore 71, 72.…”