The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: May, 1996
Breast Cancer

• Prognostic markers - A report from the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy, adds to the growing body of evidence for the value of p53 and other markers for the prognosis of breast cancer. In their study of 240 women with operable disease, strong expression as well as weak or lack of expression of p53 were significantly related to poor relapse- or metastasis-free 5-year survival. Patients with overexpression of p53 and lack of progesterone receptors were at maximum risk of relapse. In contrast overexpression of the bcl-2 marker and low thymidine labeling index (a measure of DNA synthesis) or the presence of progesterone receptors improved the prognosis. (Silvestrini, J Clin Oncol 14:1604, 1996)

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• Psychological status and breast cancer - A relationship between breast cancer and depression, stress, or other aspects of psychological status is a concept that dates back nearly two thousand years to the melancholic black bile theory of Galen. Controversial and unproven, testing of the hypothesis has led to both conflicting findings in studies of the association between acute stress, or psychological status and the onset of cancer, cancer relapse, and cancer survival. The Cancer and Leukemia Group B carried out a prospective study of the contribution of psychological factors to length of overall and disease-free survival in 899 Stage II breast cancer patients over a 15-year period. After controlling for factors such as socioeconomic, demographic and medical factors, no association was found between survival and the level of distress using standardized scoring (SCL-90-R check list). The authors recommended that future studies examine specific predictors rather than general psychological symptoms, as in this study. (Tross, J Natl Cancer Inst 88:661, 1996)