Breast cancer therapy: exercising all our options

Article Abstract:

Each year in the US about 70,000 women develop axillary node-negative breast cancer. Chemotherapy is used as an adjuvant to mastectomy and has been tested as a means of reducing the likelihood of cancer recurrence. Other important features of adjuvant therapy are the minimal toxicity of some of the chemotherapeutic programs, and the complementary use of tamoxifen with radiotherapy. More intensive chemotherapy may result in increased toxicity to the patient, but this should be offset by the convenience of a shorter duration of treatment, especially if results are enhanced. Seventy percent of node-negative breast cancer patients would not have a recurrence if they received no additional treatment after mastectomy, but currently these patients can not be identified. Patients can now be offered mastectomy with improved cosmetic results and short term chemotherapy with markedly reduced toxicity as a means of preventing recurrence and prolonging life. The findings indicate that women with newly diagnosed localized invasive breast cancer can and should be offered some form of systemic treatment either in or outside the confines of a clinical trial.

Breast cancer, Cancer, Adjuvant chemotherapy, editorial

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Hodgkin's disease

Article Abstract:

Combination chemotherapy may be an effective treatment for patients in the more advanced stages of Hodgkin's disease. Hodgkin's disease is a type of cancer that affects the lymphoid tissue. The treatment of Hodgkin's disease is determined mainly by the stage of disease. Most patients with localized Hodgkin's disease are treated with radiation therapy. Two different approaches can be taken to combination chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease patients. One approach is the standard four-drug program, and the other involves seven to eight drugs. The seven- or eight-drug program may be more effective than the four-drug program in achieving remission in patients suffering from Hodgkin's disease. Patients who go into remission do not receive maintenance treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs. Some patients may undergo salvage chemotherapy because they have failed to respond to initial treatment.

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Hodgkin's disease -- clinical trials and travails

Article Abstract:

It is probably not necessary to treat patients with Hodgkin's disease with radiotherapy at any stage of the disease. There are several chemotherapy regimens that are very effective, and adding radiotherapy will only increase the number of serious side effects of the treatment. Hodgkin's disease has changed from a mostly incurable disease to a mostly curable one in less than 50 years.

Care and treatment, Evaluation, Complications and side effects

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