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CNN Live Today
New Developments Help Fight Breast Cancer
Aired October 10, 2003 - 11:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the goal of course is to encourage mammograms, find better treatments and ultimately save lives.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to tell us more about the latest innovations in breast cancer prevention, which is always good. It's better than talking about a cure because you want to get ahead of the curve.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We're going to talk about what's in the pipeline, what's coming up and what are some new things that women can get even now.
Let's start off with prevention. There are some interesting advances in prevention. First of all genetic testing keeps getting better and better. And many doctors encourage this if you have a family history of breast cancer to find out if you might carry a gene that would lead you to get breast cancer and then you can make better decisions. Tamoxifen and relozafine are two drugs that some women who don't have breast cancer but have a family history of it decide to take as prevention.
Also, some women get mastectomies, they actually have their breasts removed even if they're totally healthy so that they won't get breast cancer in the future, again if they have a family history.
Women also get their ovaries removed for the same reason. That decreases the amount of estrogen in the body so that they won't get breast cancer.
And let's look at detection. Digital mammography. This is something that is new, that is up and coming, that some doctors believe gives a much better view of the breast. And for many breast cancer practices MRIs are becoming standard. There have been many studies that show they are much better than mammograms at detecting cancer.
Now let's take a look at treatment. Just yesterday there was a big study on a drug called FEMARA. And what this drug seems to do is it cuts in half the chance that a woman with breast cancer will get breast cancer again.
Also denser doses of chemotherapy. In other words chemotherapy where the doses are given more closely together has shown some promise. Also radiation sooner after surgery. In other words, starting sooner than usual. And also something called seed radiation, which is where little seeds are put near the actual cancer rather than radiating the entire breast.
Now, it's still important to say that with all of these advances, with all of these great things that are coming out, that the three big ways to prevent cancer from starting in the first place, mammography, examining your own breasts and having a doctor examine your breasts -- there's no substitute for that.
LIN: So what does this say about what's going to happen in the future then?
COHEN: Well there are other things that are even in the pipeline. The things we mentioned before, you can actually get some of those now, at least experimentally. But then there are things that are in the future that aren't being offered but that might be offered in the future.
So let's look at those. First of all let's talk about proteins in cancer cells. They're taking a look at the actual proteins that are in the cancer cells so that they can actually try to destroy them. Also vaccines to boost the immune system. And this would be a vaccine given to somebody before they get sick and/or once they get cancer.
Also studying the genes that determine drug behavior. We all have genes that help determine whether a drug's going to work or not and it's different for everybody.
And speaking of different for everybody, individualized therapy, meaning that doctors in the future will be able to look at your genes and say we have four different choices of what to do. But because of your genetic makeup, we're going to do choice one instead of choice two.
LIN: Which is great because customizing therapy may be able to alleviate some of the really bad side effects that you experience through chemotherapy.
COHEN: Absolutely because some side effects can be worse than the illness itself and so you want to try to avoid that.
LIN: All right, good news on that front. Thanks so very much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks. We have a show this weekend actually all about breast cancer on Sunday. And that's at 8:30 in the morning. That's "WEEKEND HOUSECALL." And we'll be taking your calls. Our guest is going to be Dr. Larry Norton, one of the most prominent breast cancer doctors in the country. He'll be taking your calls. And you can actually send us e-mails now, housecall@cnn.com. That is 8:30 Sunday morning.
LIN: All right. We'll be watching you. Or in your case, the two of you.
COHEN: All of us.
LIN: Everybody's on board. Thanks, Elizabeth. You're looking great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 10, 2003 - 11:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the goal of course is to encourage mammograms, find better treatments and ultimately save lives.
CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to tell us more about the latest innovations in breast cancer prevention, which is always good. It's better than talking about a cure because you want to get ahead of the curve.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We're going to talk about what's in the pipeline, what's coming up and what are some new things that women can get even now.
Let's start off with prevention. There are some interesting advances in prevention. First of all genetic testing keeps getting better and better. And many doctors encourage this if you have a family history of breast cancer to find out if you might carry a gene that would lead you to get breast cancer and then you can make better decisions. Tamoxifen and relozafine are two drugs that some women who don't have breast cancer but have a family history of it decide to take as prevention.
Also, some women get mastectomies, they actually have their breasts removed even if they're totally healthy so that they won't get breast cancer in the future, again if they have a family history.
Women also get their ovaries removed for the same reason. That decreases the amount of estrogen in the body so that they won't get breast cancer.
And let's look at detection. Digital mammography. This is something that is new, that is up and coming, that some doctors believe gives a much better view of the breast. And for many breast cancer practices MRIs are becoming standard. There have been many studies that show they are much better than mammograms at detecting cancer.
Now let's take a look at treatment. Just yesterday there was a big study on a drug called FEMARA. And what this drug seems to do is it cuts in half the chance that a woman with breast cancer will get breast cancer again.
Also denser doses of chemotherapy. In other words chemotherapy where the doses are given more closely together has shown some promise. Also radiation sooner after surgery. In other words, starting sooner than usual. And also something called seed radiation, which is where little seeds are put near the actual cancer rather than radiating the entire breast.
Now, it's still important to say that with all of these advances, with all of these great things that are coming out, that the three big ways to prevent cancer from starting in the first place, mammography, examining your own breasts and having a doctor examine your breasts -- there's no substitute for that.
LIN: So what does this say about what's going to happen in the future then?
COHEN: Well there are other things that are even in the pipeline. The things we mentioned before, you can actually get some of those now, at least experimentally. But then there are things that are in the future that aren't being offered but that might be offered in the future.
So let's look at those. First of all let's talk about proteins in cancer cells. They're taking a look at the actual proteins that are in the cancer cells so that they can actually try to destroy them. Also vaccines to boost the immune system. And this would be a vaccine given to somebody before they get sick and/or once they get cancer.
Also studying the genes that determine drug behavior. We all have genes that help determine whether a drug's going to work or not and it's different for everybody.
And speaking of different for everybody, individualized therapy, meaning that doctors in the future will be able to look at your genes and say we have four different choices of what to do. But because of your genetic makeup, we're going to do choice one instead of choice two.
LIN: Which is great because customizing therapy may be able to alleviate some of the really bad side effects that you experience through chemotherapy.
COHEN: Absolutely because some side effects can be worse than the illness itself and so you want to try to avoid that.
LIN: All right, good news on that front. Thanks so very much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks. We have a show this weekend actually all about breast cancer on Sunday. And that's at 8:30 in the morning. That's "WEEKEND HOUSECALL." And we'll be taking your calls. Our guest is going to be Dr. Larry Norton, one of the most prominent breast cancer doctors in the country. He'll be taking your calls. And you can actually send us e-mails now, housecall@cnn.com. That is 8:30 Sunday morning.
LIN: All right. We'll be watching you. Or in your case, the two of you.
COHEN: All of us.
LIN: Everybody's on board. Thanks, Elizabeth. You're looking great.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
