Thousands More Patients who have breast cancer can skip chemotheraphy

In an article published in the New York Times, June 4, 2018, a new study has revealed that many women with early-stage breast cancer who would receive chemotherapy under current standards do not actually need it.

Doctor Ingrid A. Mayer from Vanderbilt University stated in the article that thousands of women can be spared from getting toxic treatment that really would not benefit them. This study, according to Doctor Mayer, will change the standard of care for those women with breast cancer.

The study found that gene tests on tumor samples were able to identify women who could safely skip chemotherapy and take only a drug which blocks the hormone, estrogen, or stops the body from making it. The hormone-blocking drug, tamoxifen, and related medicines, called endocrine therapy, have become an essential part of treatment for most women because they lower the risks of recurrence, new breast tumors and death from the disease.

The findings apply to about 60,00 women a year in the United States, according to Doctor Joseph A. Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York, leader of the study.

" The results indicated that we can spare chemotherapy in about 70 percent of patients who would be potential candidates for it based on clinical features. "

But Doctors Sparano and Mayer added a note of caution: the data indicated that some women 50 and younger might benefit from chemo even if gene-testing results suggested otherwise. It is not clear why, but these women require especially careful attention. The median age at diagnosis in the United States is 61.

The study, called TAILORx, is being published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

For more read the New York Times article dated Monday, June 4, 2018.

Cases of Cancer tied to Breast Implants

The New York Times last month in an article titled, "Cases of Cancer Tied to Breast Implants," reported more cases of an unusual cancer linked to breast implants. These were reported to the Food and Drug Administration.

The disease is not breast cancer, but a malignancy of the immune system called breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.

When detected early, it can usually be cured by surgery along, by removing the implant and the capsule of scar tissue forms around it. But some women have needed more extensive treatment, with chemotherapy and radiation, and the disease can be fatal.

According to the Times, a major is swelling around the implant, which has occurred from two to 28 years after surgery, with a median of eight years.

In women with no symptoms, there is no reason to remove implants or even to screen for the disease, the FDA has stated.

For more information, check with your doctor, or research the New York Times title above.

Victor Cino

Great article in Reader's Digest, February,2018 issue on subject of Immunotherapy.

The article explains how this process works. Basically, T cells, the immune cells that attack bacteria, viruses and cancer cells are generally not strong enough to wipe out cancer in the body. A team led by Doctor Rosenberg was the first to remove T cells from patients with cancer, multiply them in the lab and then re-inject them into the patient.

Basically, the T cells are now , hopefully, strong enough to attack the cancer cells and destroy them.
The process does not always work, but it is a way of our own immune system to become strong enough to attack the cancer cells and destroy them.

Another doctor in Israel, an Immunologist, at the Weizmann Institute of Science, thought he could use a recently developed gene therapy technique to make T cells strong enough to better and more effective cancer fighters. By engineering T cells to carry a chain of amino acids called chimeric antigen receptors, (CARS), which seek out cells which may be cancerous.

When receptors on CAR Ts find cancer cells, they latch onto them, that connection tells them to multipy and multiply and ultimately and hopefully, kill the cancer cells.

There is more in this fascinating article. Go to Readers Digest and read the February 2018, beginning on page 54

Performing biopsies or use of ovarian cancer fluid to determine correct chemo usage

Performing biopsies or use of ovarian cancer fluid to determine correct chemo usage.

I am repeating this post because of its importance in determining the correct chemo usage. Cancers are especially complex, and many cancers are individual and not often match other type cancers.

Consequently, it is difficult for doctors to determine what chemo treatment will work on any particular cancer. Past experience with various chemo treatment usually allows doctors to make the best choice as to which chemo will work on any particular cancer.

If biopsies prove too invasive to determine what chemo to use on any ovarian cancer, then a safe alternative would be the use of cancer fluid which builds up in the abdominal cavity and contains sufficient cancer cells to experiment with different chemicals in the lab.

In fact, usually labs can better utilize cancer fluid over biopsy tissue  because there is a larger quantity of it for them to apply various chemicals, of course to determine which chemical will kill off the particular cancer of a patient.

The Weisenthal Lab was able to test thirty chemicals on Anita Cino's cancer  by having available to them over two liters of cancer fluid drained from her abdominal cavity by radiology department at New York University Medical Center.

Be sure to check with your doctor if you are an ovarian cancer patient to see which option is better for you.

Victor Cino

Does it make sense to remove ovaries and fallopian tubes, sources of ovarian cancers?


If ovarian cancer develops in the ovaries, the female reproductive organs which store eggs and produce hormones, does it make sense to remove the ovaries, together with the layer of cells which cover the ovaries and the abdominal cavity?

Women , as a precaution, have removed breasts to avoid breast cancer.

Does it make sense then to remove ovaries and fallopian tubes which are the sources of ovarian cancers, after child- bearing ages have passed, to avoid the development of ovarian cancer in these sources?

To my knowledge, nowhere have I read the suggestion of removal of ovaries and fallopian tubes to avoid the development of ovarian cancer.

Victor Cino

From the Cancer Center:

What is Ovarian Cancer?

Ovarian cancer develops in the ovaries, the female reproductive organs which store eggs and produce hormones. The most common type of ovarian cancer is epithelial cancer, which originates in the layer of cells that cover the ovaries and the abdominal cavity. This disease accounts for about 85 percent to 90 percent of all ovarian cancer cases.

What is the difference between fallopian tube cancer, peritoneal cancer and ovarian cancer?

The fallopian tubes are thought to be the source of some ovarian cancers. It is rare for cancers to spread from other parts of the body to the fallopian tubes; they typically spread to the ovaries. Peritoneal cancer develops in the peritoneaum, the lining that covers the surface of the ovaries and other organs in the abdominal cavity.

Although thee cancer types difffer in origin and other factors, ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers are often treated with the same approach and techniques.

What Causes Ovarian Cancer?

It is not clear why some women develop ovarian cancer while others do not, but the risk of developing the disease increases with age. Other factors which may increase the risk of ovarian cancer include the following:

1. Pregnancy over the age of 35;
2. A history of not carrying a pregnancy to term;
3. Use of fertility drugs;
4. Use of androgens;
5. A family history of ovarian, breast or colorectal canceers;
6. A personal history of breast cancer;
7. A known genetic mutation (e.g. BRCA1 or BRCA2.

An article which appeared in the New York Times on Feb 19, 2018, described how rare types of ovarian cancer were treated with immunotherapy  , and despite doctors' opinions that this treatment would not work , the cancer in four women rapidly shrunk to the point where the cancer basically disappeared and posed no longer an immediate threat.

Patients with ovarian cancer should consult their doctors to discuss this treatment.

Victor Cino