Big Update: Big-dose Chemo, No help in Breast Cancer
December 16, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Speaking of breast cancer…
Previously popular treatments – i.e. big-dose chemotherapy – apparently are of no help against breast cancer.
Such were the findings recently reported by a group of Houston researchers.
A grueling and controversial breast cancer treatment that was popular in the late 1980s and the 1990s does not extend the lives of patients in advanced stages of the disease
In releasing their report on a review of existing studies, the researchers said women who received high-dose chemotherapy, followed by transplants from their own bone marrow, fared no better than patients on other therapies.
Donald Berry, head of quantitative studies at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the review’s lead investigator, said:
“This shows more is not necessarily better. We’re still in the dark ages at recognizing who benefits from which treatment, but we’ve seemed to reach a plateau delivering chemotherapy.”
Oh my God! I wonder how many women have been treated with big-dose chemo in the past for breast cancer?
Find more details from the full report.
