Excess Chemo No Value to Breast Cancer

Med Headlines - Sometimes less is more. And sometimes timing is everything. That certainly seems to be the case with a once-popular chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, according to a team of researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The results of a study of high-dose chemotherapy, led by Donald Berry, chair of biostatistics, for MD Anderson, was presented on Thursday at the Breast Cancer Symposium held in San Antonio.

The object of the study was a controversial multi-stage treatment plan that gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s.

The treatment program consisted of extracting stem cells from the bone marrow of breast cancer patients before surgery for tumor removal. Extremely high doses of chemotherapy came next, followed by the re-infusion of the patient’s stems cells in the hope of restoring immune function, which would have been crippled by the high-dose chemotherapy.

This regimen is described as painful, brutal, and highly toxic. In fact, a number of deaths were reported in patients following this treatment. The study brings the hope that this form of therapy will be discontinued.

The new research has shown that higher doses aren’t as effective as had been previously thought. There are different forms of breast cancer and some respond more readily to one form of treatment than another.

The different chemo options are thought to be the key to success, according to the study. If a small dose of one form of chemotherapy doesn’t produce the desired results, higher doses of it won’t either. The higher doses will, however, make the patient much sicker.

This research suggests it is more effective to determine the most appropriate drug for the individual patient and schedule treatments when the cancerous cells are weakest.

Filed under: Breast Cancer, Cancer, Women's Health