Combination of three treatments increases survival rate of HER2-positive breast cancer patients
Many women who have breast cancer are advised to buy Tamoxifen to slow the progression of the disease.
Many women who have breast cancer are advised to buy Tamoxifen to slow the progression of the disease. According to a study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, treating patients who have HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer with a combination of trastuzumab, chemotherapy and surgery was associated with better survival rates following the diagnosis of central nervous syste metastases.
Lead author Adam Brufsky explained that women who have this disease have a good chance of living for quite a while with their disease. He added that these individuals should receive aggressive therapy when it is deemed appropriate by the physician.
Up to 16 percent of individuals who have this type of advanced breast cancer go on to develop central nervous system metastases. In their paper, which appeared in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the scientists drew conclusions from data they had taken from the registHER study to determine the outcomes and risk factors associated with the disease.
"It is surprising that chemotherapy and trastuzumab adds to these women's survival," Brufsky said. "We thought that the brain metastases would be dominant in this regard no matter what therapy."
|