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International Senologic and Oncologic  Scientific Community (ISOSC) 

"Connecting specialists worldwide"

 Editor-in-Chief: Gian Paolo Andreoletti, MD

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Literature Selection

Comment

  • "Importance of circulating tumour cells in patients with non-metastatic breast cancer", Anthony Lucci, Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA 
     
    "The results of our study showed that presence of one or more circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with stage I-III breast cancer carried a four times greater chance of a recurrence or death. Increasing numbers of CTCs carried even higher hazard ratios, as patients with three or more CTCs had an 11.5 times higher risk of dying from their breast cancer. CTCs also did not correlate with axillary lymph node status or primary tumor characteristics, suggesting that CTC measurement might provide complementary information to standard primary tumor analysis and lymph node staging. The caveat to this study is we now have a prognostic marker that we don’t really know how to best use in clinical decision–making. Larger studies will be needed to identify subgroups wherein information on CTCs can help guide treatment decisions. An example would be the group of estrogen receptor-positive, lymph node-negative patients, where oftentimes the benefit for chemotherapy is not completely clear. Future studies will no doubt shed light on when the information from CTCs can be used in the clinic to optimize therapy, but for now we believe the test is still best utilized in clinical studies where we can gather such information"
    (Commentary on:  Lucci A et al.: "Circulating tumour cells in non-metastatic breast cancer: a prospective study", Lancet Oncol. 2012 Jun 1. [Epub ahead of print])

Calendar of Events

Literature Selection

Fragments of History

  • Pierre Curie (Paris, 1859–1906) and Marie Sklodowska Curie (Warsaw, 1867–1934) discovered the radioactive element radium in 1898

Discussion

  •   ""Preoperative diagnosis with gene-expression test can distinguish benign from malignant thyroid nodules, reducing need for surgery " - Share your opinion on  LinkedIn®

Literature Selection

 

Senology.org collaborates with TalkAboutHealth.com - "Cancer questions, answers, and support". Follow the Expert Q&A Workshops and join the conversation.

TalkAboutHealth Q&A of the month 

"Mutations in the BRAF gene have recently become the subject of significant attention. At this point, it is clear that having a BRAF mutation means that a colon cancer has a worse prognosis. However, there is no current suggestion that these patients should be treated differently and the anti-EGFR antibodies (cetuximab and panitumumab) can still be considered. Even though these drugs do not seem to work in patients with a KRAS mutation, most studies suggest that they can still work in patients with BRAF mutations but perhaps not as well. Unfortunately, the specific drug that blocks BRAF that is successful in melanoma (a cancer that has 50% BRAF mutations) did not demonstrate much activity in BRAF mutant colon cancer" 
(Answer by Zev Wainberg, UCLA/Santa Monica Cancer Center, CA, USA)  

 

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