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The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer
Breast Cancer: November 1995
Last modified on:
Tuesday, April 20, 1999 12:03:10
Copyright © 1994-2008, Information Ventures, Inc.
Virus-like DNA in Breast Cancer - A fascinating report in the November 15, 1995, issue of Cancer
Research describes genetic studies that have identified a virus-
like DNA sequence in breast cancer samples. Scientists at the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York looked for a DNA
segment resembling the mouse mammary tumor virus, long known to
produce breast cancer in some mouse strains. Some earlier
studies had claimed to find it in human cancer, but the findings
were suspect because of the problems in distinguishing the mouse
virus from human viruses. The Mount Sinai group chose to look
for a specific segment (660-DNA base pair sequence) of the mouse virus that
does not resemble human viruses. This segment was found in 38.5%
of 314 fresh, and 39.7% of 151 stained fixed sections of breast
cancers. It was found in only 6.9% of benign breast tumors and
1.8% of normal breast tissue samples. There was none in other
normal tissues and tumors. Between 95% and 99% of its base
sequences corresponded to those in the mouse mammary tumor virus
gene, but there was less than 18% resemblance to other virus or
human genes. Its role in breast cancer is still unknown. The
viral segment could have originated from a virus resembling the
mouse virus, or it could be a provirus not yet activated to form
the complete virus. However, the high frequency in which it is
found, higher than for many other breast cancer markers, make it
a promising candidate for applications in detection and prognosis
of breast cancer.
Radiation Therapy vs Breast-Conserving Treatment - Breast-conserving treatment, a combination of conservative
surgery - lumpectomy - with radiation therapy, is now standard
treatment for early breast cancer. Is the radiation therapy
necessary? A report presented at the October, 1995 meeting of the
American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, held in
Miami Beach, answered this with a resounding "Yes." A Harvard
Medical School study followed 87 patients who underwent
lumpectomy but did not receive radiation, because their very
early-stage disease and other favorable features suggested they
would do well without it. In fact, 14 of them had a recurrence
between 9 and 69 months after treatment, for an unacceptably high
recurrence rate of 16%. Since these patients were carefully
selected, it is evident that no group of women with early breast cancer
should be considered for surgery alone on the basis of currently-
available indicators of prognosis.
Taxotere - For the chemotherapy of breast cancer, the latest news is that a
new drug, taxotere (docetaxel), which shows great promise in
advanced disease, has been approved by an FDA committee. Such
committee approval is usually followed by full FDA clearance.
Taxotere is derived from European yew tree needles, and is
closely related to taxol (paclitaxel), isolated from the Pacific
yew tree bark. In clinical trials, it has produced responses in
more than 50% of patients with advanced breast cancer resistant
to such drugs as doxorubicin, mitoxantrone, and even paclitaxel.
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