Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

Update on the latest with Breast Cancer Research

posted by ChickSpeak
Friday, April 9, 2010 at 3:07pm CDT

According to the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer is the leading cancer death in women between the ages of 15 and 54 years old.

Fortunately, medical advances and progressive treatments have made it possible for ninety six percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer in early stages to be cancer free in five years.

Furthermore, new breast cancer drug trials promise to speed up Federal Drug Administration approval times, which means effective drugs will be more quickly accessible.

As a result of the new study conducted by research collaborators from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, drug approval times are expected to decrease by approximately ten years. The ISPY-2 study weeds out the less effective medications by analyzing the effects of the experimental drugs in cancer patients most likely to benefit from treatment based on the genetic and molecular composition of their tumors.

Removing less effective experimental drugs saves millions of dollars and years of time. Once a drug is dropped from the clinical trial, a new drug from the ISPY-2 list is added for testing. Such a method allows for quick replacement, which reduces time wasted on ineffective drugs and allows more drugs to go through the system and be tested.

Unlike current studies, which last several years to closely monitor survival rates, the new ISPY-2 study ensures immediate and efficient results. If proven successful, similar study methods may be implemented to test experimental drugs for other illnesses.

The study tests experimental drugs using biomarkers. This process entails genetically matching the right drug to one of the 800 nationwide volunteers. Participants will be given a blood and tumor tissue test, which will be divided into three categories of biomarkers and consistently MRI-scanned throughout the treatment.

The biomarker analyses will be completed in conjunction with a previously instituted collaborative information infrastructure. In the twelve weeks prior to their scheduled tumor-removal surgery the volunteers will be administered one of the experimental drugs.

The experimental drugs will be given in addition to the traditional chemotherapy treatment, which includes paclitaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide. Upon removal the tumor will be examined to see if and how much is shrunk. If an experimental drugs shows an 85 percent chance of being successful in a biomarker-defined group of patients it will be sent to phase III to be tested in women who have the same biomarker-defined conditions.

The funding for the I-SPY2 trial will cost an estimated $26 million over five years and is being managed through the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, Safeway Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, and Lilly, as well as individual donations, nonprofit organizations, and corporate sponsors.

Medical researchers predict that the biomarker process and new clinical study method will foster the development of more specified phase III clinical trials, resulting from the impacts of the drugs on certain women. Thus, this new method of drug approval may also improve particularity and in turn, efficiency of breast cancer treatments.

Such decreases in approval time and increases in efficiency indicate a potential for higher breast cancer treatment success rates and hope for the future. To find out more about breast cancer treatment, prevention, and detective sings consult your physician for medical advice.