Waiting for Cancer Research

After 12 years (how the heck did that happen?) of breast cancer coping, I have actually seen some cancer research go from new or in clinical trials to become standard of care. This includes length of hormonal treatment for breast cancer patients. But it does not include many, many others.Some cancer ' breakthroughs ' are still in trials, or have vanished because they didn ' t work. They provide us cancer people with instant elation at the possibilities it hints at, followed by deflation as we realize it is years or decades in the future.An example of this is this news that at UVA they are working to find a wayto stop triple negative breast cancer, which is aggressive and harder to treat than other types of breast cancer. Here ' s the elation:" So-called “triple-negative” breast cancer is a particularly aggressive and difficult-to-treat form. It accounts for only about 10 percent of breast cancer cases, but is responsible for about 25 percent of breast cancer fatalities.Triple-negative breast cancer earns its name because, unlike other breast cancer subtypes, its cells test negative for estrogen and progesterone receptors, as well as for a gene called HER2. Therefore, it cannot respond to therapies that inhibit cancer-growing signals that come from estrogen, progesterone and HER2. The only treatment options for triple-negative breast cancer are surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, each of which cause difficult side effects and rarely lead to remission.Triple-negati...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment cancer research clinical trials waiting Source Type: blogs