Breast cancer awareness

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Not only is acupuncture as effective as drug therapy at reducing hot flashes in breast cancer patients, it has the added benefit of potentially increasing a woman’s sex drive and improving her sense of well-being, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study.
Study results show that acupuncture, when compared to drug therapy, has a longer-lasting effect on the reduction of hot flashes and night sweats for women receiving hormone therapy for breast cancer treatment. Women also report that acupuncture improves their energy and clarity of thought.

The study, published online this week in the Journal of Oncology, is the first randomly controlled trial to compare acupuncture and drug therapy in this way.

“Acupuncture offers patients a safe, effective and durable treatment option for hot flashes, something that affects the majority of breast cancer survivors. Compared to drug therapy, acupuncture actually has benefits, as opposed to more side effects,” says study lead author Eleanor Walker, M.D., division director of breast services in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital.

According to the National Cancer Institute, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. For these women, conventional medical treatment involves chemotherapy and five years of hormone therapy. With such a long course of treatment, side effects of hormone therapy such as vasomotor symptoms — hot flashes and night sweats — can become a major cause of decreased quality of life, and even discontinuation of treatment.

Venlafaxine (Effexor) has been the drug therapy of choice to manage these common and debilitating side effects associated with breast cancer treatment. Venlafixine, however, comes with its own set of side-effects: dry mouth, decreased appetite, nausea and constipation.

Since acupuncture has been shown to effectively reduce hot flashes in menopausal women, Dr. Walker and her research team decided to test the use of acupuncture to combat vasomotor symptoms in breast cancer patients as an alternative to drug therapy.

To compare the two options, 50 patients were recruited from oncology clinics at Henry Ford. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or venlafaxine treatment for 12 weeks. The drug therapy group took venlafaxine orally each night, 37.5mg the first week and then 75mg for the remaining 11 weeks. The other group received acupuncture treatments twice per week for the first four weeks, and then once a week for the remaining eight weeks.

At the end of 12 weeks, all patients stopped their therapy and were followed for one year. Patients kept a diary to record the number and severity of hot flashes, and took surveys to measure their overall health and mental health.

The study found that both groups initially experienced a 50 percent decline in hot flashes and depressive symptoms, indicating that acupuncture is as effective as drug therapy.

Differences, however, between the two groups began to emerge two weeks post-treatment: The acupuncture group continued to experience minimal hot flashes, while the drug therapy group had a significant increase in hot flashes. The acupuncture group did not experience an increase in the frequency of their hot flashes until three months post-treatment.

Funding was provided by the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Certain genes switch their nuclear position in tumor cells, offering a potential new method of diagnosing cancer, say researchers from the National Cancer Institute.
The study by Meaburn et al. will be published online December 7, 2009 and in the December 14, 2009 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB).

Individual genes preferentially localize to specific points within the nucleus. The reasons for this aren’t known, but the positions can be reshuffled during differentiation. Meaburn et al. wondered whether genes might also rearrange during carcinogenesis, when large-scale changes in nuclear morphology occur. The researchers previously identified four genes that shift their location in a 3D culture model of early breast cancer, and now turned their attention to human tissue.

The team analyzed 20 genes and found that most were positioned uniformly in healthy breast tissue from numerous individuals. Eight of these genes consistently relocated in the nuclei of invasive breast cancer cells, including HES5, which had an altered localization in all tumors examined. The researchers were able to distinguish between normal and diseased tissue on the sole basis of these genes’ nuclear localization with success rates similar to current clinical tests.

The next step, says lead author Karen Meaburn, will be to repeat the study on a larger number of samples. HES5 is unlikely to be repositioned in all of these, so the authors hope to identify a set of genes that, in combination, can accurately diagnose breast cancer. The approach may be useful for prognosis, too — in vitro studies suggest that gene movements are an early event in cancer development, so gene positions might provide an indication of the cancer’s future progress.

An international task force of cancer specialists and charities is meeting this week to develop strategies for curbing rising breast cancer rates in developing countries, the AP/Washington Post reports. The task force is led by Felicia Knaul — a public health specialist and director of Harvard University’s Global Equity Initiative — and Lawrence Shulman of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Almost two-thirds of women in developing countries are not diagnosed with the disease until it has spread, the AP/Post reports. Compounding the problem are new data from Harvard that show women in developing countries appear to develop breast cancer, on average, about 10 years earlier than women in the U.S.

The team plans to launch cancer care programs in parts of Africa. In a two-part approach, the task force aims to first educate midwives and other rural health care providers on how to conduct routine manual breast exams, particularly where mammography machines are unattainable. The specialists acknowledged that the method might not detect the smallest tumors, but it could significantly improve diagnosis in some areas. For the second part of the plan, the task force will attempt to reach agreements with drugmakers to provide lower-cost generic chemotherapy in developing countries — the same model used to advance HIV/AIDS care in parts of Africa.

The true number of breast cancer cases in developing countries is unknown because of poor diagnosis and insufficient record-keeping. However, the Harvard report estimated that 55% of the 450,000 expected breast cancer deaths worldwide this year will be in developing countries. The breast cancer rate in the poorest countries will rise by 36% by 2020, the report estimates (Neergaard, AP/Washington Post, 11/3).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

Now in its 32nd year, the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium remains the top venue for research and discovery in breast cancer. This year’s conference will bring together delegates from all over the world. Among the expected highlights:

* Five-year results of the groundbreaking Herceptin trial.

* Definitive data on the role of bisphosphonates in breast cancer prevention.

* The role hormone therapies may play in lung cancer treatment.

* New data on the role of obesity and alcohol in breast cancer risk.

* Emerging therapies that could change the treatment landscape.

The program schedule is available online at http://www.sabcs.org.

More than 2,000 abstracts will be presented for the first time at the conference, complementing an outstanding program of scientific and educational events. The CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium attracts world leaders in cancer research and treatment, including clinical oncologists, industry leaders, basic scientists and translational researchers who are working to improve patient care with the ultimate goal of eradicating breast cancer.

When: Dec. 9-13, 2009

Where:
Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas

FOLLOW ON TWITTER: #SABCS09

Source: Emma O’Brien
American Association for Cancer Research

View drug information on Herceptin.