Latest Breast cancer chemotherapy Stories

LONDON (Reuters) - Combining the drug Avastin with standard chemotherapy can keep breast cancer under control for longer in patients with advanced disease, scientists said on Wednesday. Avastin, which is made by Roche Holding AG and its majority-owned U.S. biotech arm Genentech Inc, blocks the growth of new blood vessels that are needed for the cancer to grow and spread, or metastasize, beyond the breast. When doctors combined the drug with the chemotherapy treatment Taxol in a study...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The combination of the anti-cancer drugs Herceptin and Taxotere appears to work better than Taxotere alone in women with advanced breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast, research shows. Moreover, there is little added toxicity when Herceptin is given. Herceptin (trastuzumab) is a monoclonal antibody, meaning that it binds to one specific protein, HER2, which helps regulate cell growth. Overexpression of HER2, a sign of more aggressive cancer, occurs in...

Serious side effects can occur, but experts say benefits outweigh risksA combination of chemotherapy drugs can increase the five-year survival rate of women with node-positive breast cancer by about 7 percent, a new study finds.However, that gain doesn't come without a significant risk of serious side effects, researchers report in the June 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.The drugs are docetaxel and doxorubicin, and this combination plus a third drug, cyclophosphamide, is...