Breast Cancer Treatment Side Effects May Last for Years (4/11/2012)

Breast Cancer Treatment Side Effects May Last for Years

Study finds lingering pain, swelling, fatigue, mobility problems in many women.

WEDNESDAY, April 11 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment-related complications are common in breast cancer patients long after their therapy has been completed, a new study says.

Researchers looked at 287 Australian breast cancer patients and found that more than 60 percent of them had at least one treatment-related complication up to six years after their diagnosis, and 30 percent had at least two complications.

Complications included skin reactions to radiation therapy, weight gain, fatigue, surgery-related issues, upper body symptoms and physical limitations, and lymphedema -- a painful limb-swelling condition.

"Our work provides the first accounting of the true magnitude of the post-treatment problems suffered by breast cancer patients, and serves as a call to action for proper monitoring and rehabilitation services to care for them," study leader Kathryn Schmitz, associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a university news release.

"We can no longer pretend that the side effects of breast cancer treatment end after patients finish active treatment. The scope of these complications is shocking and upsetting, but a ready solution for many of them already exists in rehabilitative exercise," said Schmitz, who is a member of the university's Abramson Cancer Center and serves as a senior scientist on a committee overseeing creation of a surveillance model for breast cancer survivors.

The study was published online April 6 in a special issue of the journal Cancer that focuses on the physical late effects of breast cancer treatment and ways to prevent, monitor and treat these conditions.

There are 2.6 million breast cancer survivors in the United States, the authors noted in the news release.

Many factors can prevent proper monitoring of breast cancer survivors for the types of complications identified in the study, Schmitz and her colleagues said.

Patients may have fragmented care and receive different types of treatment at different hospitals; both patients and doctors may believe that certain complications are "expected" and "normal" and don't warrant treatment; and many breast cancer patients aren't aware of or referred to physical therapy professionals.

Source: http://www.womenshealt.gov/new/news/headlines/663624.cfm/

'Freezing' Secondary Breast Cancer Tumors Shows Promise (3/26/2012)

'Freezing' Secondary Breast Cancer Tumors Shows Promise

Preliminary study suggests procedure may buy time for those with advanced disease.
MONDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- In a small and preliminary study, researchers report that they successfully froze secondary tumors in patients with incurable breast cancer.

The findings raise the prospect of a potential new treatment for metastatic tumors in individual patients, although the research is in the very early stages.

"This therapy provides a minimal rate of cancer recurrence and no major complications," study co-author Dr. Peter Littrup, director of imaging core and radiology research at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, said in a news release from the Society of Interventional Radiology.

The study is scheduled to be presented Wednesday at the society's annual meeting in San Francisco. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

"This is a preliminary study, and at this point we're hoping that the evidence could be a stepping stone for a bigger study to look at more patients," Littrup said. "If we can get more data that supports percutaneous cryoablation for metastatic breast cancer, it could be a huge finding."

In percutaneous cryoablation, tiny probes insert pressurized argon gas into tumors and kill them by turning them into balls of ice.

The eight patients in the study had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, meaning their tumors had spread widely from the breast. The tumors frequently appear in organs such as the liver, lungs, bones and kidneys.

In stage 4, the disease is considered incurable.

"At this point, treatments are considered palliative -- with the intent to keep metastases at bay while hopefully providing individuals more time and improved quality of life, rather than a complete cure," Littrup said.

"Cryoablation as a targeted therapy is beneficial because it can significantly reduce discomfort and incidence of disease," Littrup said. "It's a much better option, we think, than surgery -- especially since many metastatic patients are not candidates for surgery -- and it may potentially lead to longer survival."

The eight patients in the study lived for an average of 46 months, and two survived for at least five years.

Dr. Hannah Linden, an oncology specialist and assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, said it's too early to know whether the treatment works since it hasn't been compared to other therapies.

"Many patients with metastatic breast cancer live a long time with gentle treatments, yet other patients who have relatively resistant tumors do poorly," she said. "While the idea of freezing a tumor to prevent it from growing is feasible and exciting, it is not proven that such an approach actually 'cures' patients or provides long-term benefit."

Although similar treatments target secondary tumors, she added, they "do not address the systemic problem of metastatic cancer. So, while it seems good to 'kill' the metastasis, the cancer is still lurking."

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, killing nearly 370,000 people worldwide each year. Approximately 10,000 to 15,000 new cases of stage 4 breast cancer occur in the United States each year, Littrup noted.

Source: http://www.womenshealt.gov/new/news/headlines/663077.cfm/