Breast Cancer

A very light hearted look at a serious problem.

Breast cancer and melanoma survivor shares coping strategies for the holidays.

Julia Nangia, M.D., assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses the impact that chemotherapy-related hair loss can have on patients with breast cancer.

How often do you pause for reflection?

The FDA has approved Perjeta (pertuzumab) in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and chemotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer at high risk for recurrence, based on findings from the APHINITY trial.

Our cultural tendency to try to draw bright lines when it comes to the cost of health care relies on hindsight to criticize doctors for their lack of foresight. But it is only hindsight, as we all know, that is 20/20.

My last point of training was going to the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), which takes place the first week of December. It’s the biggest breast cancer symposium in the country and a chance for doctors, researchers and advocates to get together to hear the latest updates in research and clinical trials.

Why December is a good month to bug myself – and anyone in the Cancer Club – about changing it up.

Setting resolutions for the New Year is a common practice but one breast cancer survivor has a different perspective on how hers should look for 2018.

I will remember my students' act of kindness forever.

Hoping that other women did not have to go through what she went through, in 1993 she co-founded the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation (ABCF), a grassroots organization that helps patient advocates become educated on the disease – ultimately leading to more informed treatment decisions.

Breast cancer survivor shares what happened when she found a new lump and got a genetic test result for PALB2.

Halle Moore, M.D., physician at Department of Solid Tumor Oncology at Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, discusses fertility preservation in women with breast cancer.

“It was frustrating always being the youngest one in the waiting room, combined with the fact that there is just not a lot of data on this population. So, we are forced to make decisions in the absence of hard data. It’s frustrating to know that we’re the neglected cohort of the disease,” Petrides said.

Losing even a moderate amount of extra weight significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer for postmenopausal women, a researcher reports.

Researchers find that women with postmenopausal hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer may undergo shorter treatments of Arimidex, which may in turn cause less bone fractures.

A phase 3 clinical trial pitted a nine-week treatment of adjuvant Herceptin against the regimen of a full year of treatment for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Results show that the standard treatment of one year is still optimal.

To address compliance issues associated with treatment using aromatase inhibitors, researchers show that acupuncture effectively eases joint pain, a side effect from hormone therapy.

A reveiw of five clinical trial findings suggests that gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog has the potential to preserve ovarian function and fertility in premenopausal breast cancer patients.

New research demonstrates that a CDK4/6 inhibitor, used in combination with standard endocrine therapy with temporary ovarian suppression significantly improves progression-free survival in younger patients who currently have few treatment options.

The combination of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and Herceptin (trastuzumab) showed promise for the treatment of women with Herceptin-resistant, PD-L1–positive, HER2-positive breast cancer.

A stud presented at SABCS shows that IMMU-132, an antibody-drug conjugate, improves outcomes in women with heavily pretreated metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

The combination use of Herceptin plus standard adjuvant chemotherapy does not improve outcomes in women with HER2-low breast cancer.

For women with early-stage breast cancer who are receiving chemotherapy, shortening the time between treatment cycles or administering the agents sequentially may reduce disease recurrence and mortality compared with standard chemotherapy regimens.

Learning to accept the physical changes breast cancer creates is often difficult, but doable. It takes time to learn to embrace change but doing so is beneficial to well being.