Breast Cancer Treatment Breakthrough

Good news! The most common form of breast cancer – oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancer – has seen some recent developments in treatment. Recent studies have shown that a simple blood test could indicate the best time in the life cycle of  cancer cells to kill it in order to prevent patient relapses.

To date, the best form of treatment for this type of cancer has been anti-oestrogen therapy. This involves a three-fold therapeutic approach to treatment. However, many tumors can become resistant to treatment measures over time. When one type of treatment starts to fail, a second type of treatment is put in place and so on. Within the last 15 years, doctors have seen patients develop drug resistance resulting in relapse and death in about half of those patients.

An Australian study recently published online in the Molecular Cancer Therapeutics journal showed that a blood test could actually prevent patient relapses by indicating when the cancer cells are most vulnerable to treatment. This test provides a window to the most optimal time to kill the cancer cells thereby preventing relapse and the resulting deaths. The best part about this discovery is that it could make treatment more affordable and it can save the lives of nearly a quarter of all women with breast cancer!

How can you help breast cancer patients yourself? Please join Mountainside Medical in funding breakthrough research like this new discovery and to ultimately reach the end goal of curing breast cancer once and for all. Go to http://main.acsevents.org/goto/MountainsideMedicalEquipment to donate to our Making Strides walk team to help us reach our fundraising goal! No donation is too small – every little bit helps bring us one step closer to curing breast cancer!

Source:

http://wap.news.bigpond.com/articles/Health/2013/07/23/Discovery_could_halt_cancer_relapse_890109.html