The statistics are grim: Some 230,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and 39,520 women are expected to die from the disease in 2011, according to the American Cancer Society.
Despite those figures, there are growing reasons for hope. These include promising research at Columbia on the preventive qualities of a potent green tea extract called ECGC and the recent discovery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of a molecule involved with the spread of breast cancer, giving researchers hope of one day preventing its spread.
Patients are also experiencing better outcomes overall, “in both the treatments available and the supportive care,” says Dr. Carolyn Wasserheit-Lieblich, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s regional care facility in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.
Maureen Killackey, M.D., a chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society and a medical director for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, says that “what’s most exciting is that we are on the cusp of discovering how to personalize the approach in risk reduction, prevention and treatment.”
There is also an expansion in breast imaging technologies. “The standard imaging is mammography, but there are some patients [who] need breast MRIs, and it’s just being explored now to see if we should use MRIs with isotopes to localize tumors,” Killackey explains.
Wasserheit-Lieblich is optimistic about the treatments utilized in the earlier stages of the disease. “We haven’t been able to cure advanced disease yet,” she says, “but we’ve made advances. We continue to make headway.”
Doctors at Sloan-Kettering are looking at a drug called Eribulin, which has been shown to be effective for patients with advanced and metastatic breast cancer.
Doctors are also testing tumors to see if they are HER2-positive — when a breast cancer contains a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer. About 30 percent of patients are HER2-positive, and are treated with a drug, not chemotherapy, that is shown to prevent recurrent breast cancer.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have identified a molecule that helps cancer spread beyond the primary tumor, called metastatic disease.
Unfortunately, for the last 20 years, “survival of metastatic disease has not improved,” says the study’s senior author, Jeffrey Pollard, Ph.D., professor of developmental and molecular biology and of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s health at Einstein.
Pollard expects clinical trials in humans will soon begin. “I feel optimistic that this is going to improve the treatments we have,” he says.
FIGHT THE ODDS
Keeping a check on breast cancer
* Get screened. If you’re 40+, get an annual mammogram.
* Know your family health history. If breast and ovarian cancers run in your family, let your doctor know. You may need to get screened earlier.
* Adopt healthy habits. Lifestyle changes can go a long way when it comes to cancer prevention — namely, exercise regularly, eat a healthy, low-fat diet that’s rich in vegetables, limit the amount of red meat you eat, don’t smoke and go easy on alcohol.
* Educate yourself. Learn more about your breast cancer risk from reputable places, including the American Cancer Society (cancer.org) and the Susan G. Komen Foundation (ww5.komen.org). — Rachel Grumman Bender