Latest Breast Cancer Treatment

Breast cancer is a dangerous and life-threatening disease that affects thousands of women every year. Thankfully, there are a number of new and promising treatments available today to combat this deadly disease. Read on to learn more about some of the latest breast cancer treatment techniques.

Angiogenesis drugs:

One development that is still on the horizon is angiogenesis drugs, which prevent the formation of fresh blood vessels on which cancerous tumors feed to grow. These drugs have already showed a great deal of promise in the treatment of colon cancer and are now being studied in women with advanced stages of breast cancer. Treating early-stage breast cancer on the other hand, is a great leap and it might be a while before a breakthrough is reached.

Abraxane and protein-bound nanoparticle drugs

A few months ago, newspapers around the world announced the arrival of the latest breast cancer treatment, Abraxane. If truth be told, Abraxane is a wonderful new way of delivering an existing drug – Paclitaxel. Paclitaxel an effective chemotherapy drug, but it has the drawback of being insoluble in water. This means that the drug has to be dissolved in solvents before administering to the patients. Many patients have allergic reactions to the solvents and have to be administered other drugs in preparation for Paclitaxel and chemotherapy. With the advent of Abraxane, it is now possible to dissolve Paclitaxel in water, using a process called protein-bound nanoparticle technology.

Aromatase Inhibitors

Aromatase inhibitors were first approved by the FDA in the year 2000. Recent research has confirmed that this hormone therapy outperform the traditionally used tamoxifen and prevents recurrence in patients with hormone-positive breast cancers. However, aromatase inhibitors act only on the estrogen produced outside the ovaries which makes them effective only in post-menopausal women. Current research in this area is concentrated on studying the side effects of this form of therapy, which includes muscle/joint aches and osteoporosis.

Herceptin

This is a latest breast cancer treatment that aims to combat HER2-positive breast cancers. Close to 25 percent of breast cancers have more than the necessary quantity of the gene HER2neu, which controls cell growth, repair and division. Extra copies of this gene lead to excess production of the HER2neu protein, which makes the cells grow out of control.

For many years, the drug Herceptin has been used in the treatment of patients with recurred or metastasized breast cancer. The drug targets the HER2neu protein and reduces tumor size. According the results of a recently published study, herceptin is more than twice as effective as chemotherapy alone in completely curing early-stage breast cancer. However, the drug has not yet been approved for use in early-stage breast cancer treatment. In a very small percentage of patients, the drug can cause heart damage or failure. Researchers are confident that it will not be long before herceptin becomes a viable and effective treatment of early-stage breast cancer.

 

 

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Breast Cancer News:

 

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