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American Morning
House Call: Cancer Studies
Aired November 03, 2003 - 09:18 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two new cancer studies are out today. One deals with a new prostate test. The other focuses on hormone replacement therapy.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details on both of these.
And, Sanjay, let's begin with the hormone replacement therapy study.
Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Soledad, good morning.
Lots of information about hormone replacement therapy. I think most people in the country now know of some of the dangers of hormone replacement therapy and its potential link to breast cancer. A population of women that had not previously been well studied, though, are women that already have breast cancer. Should they also stop hormone replacement therapy. That was the subject of this most recent study. The answer is probably yes. Take a look at some of the evidence now. These are women who have breast cancer, women who have what are known as hormone sensitive breast cancer. About 140 women were actually studied. Of those women, 125 stopped the hormone replacement therapy at the diagnosis of their breast cancer; 15 of them continued using hormone replacement therapy when they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Take a look at what happened now to some of them. In the women who actually stopped the hormone replacement therapy, the cancer stopped growing in those particular women. Again, these are tumors that are known to be hormone sensitive. So this is a specific type of breast cancer, but nevertheless, in those types of tumors hormone replacement therapy not a good idea. Soledad, probably another nail in the coffin in terms of hormone replacement therapy being used at all -- Soledad.
HEMMER: Certainly looks that way.
All right,let's talk about the second study now, a study about a prostate cancer test. Can you give us some information on that and also show us the results?
GUPTA: Really interesting here, as well, Soledad. People, again, know about prostate cancer in terms of PSA, the prostate specific antigen. This has been a very controversial test. While one of the best tests out there, still not very good. About 35 percent of the time, it actually misses cancers. Oftentimes it provides a misdiagnosis, as well, saying that it's cancer when in fact it's something much more benign. There has been a search for the Holy Grail of prostate cancer diagnosis. Not there yet.
But they may be one step closer in the hormone known as PCA-24. Now the name is not that important. Basically, this is a much more sensitive indicator of prostate cancer. About 94 percent of the time, it's picking up prostate cancer, much better than PSA. It's also much more likely to determine whether or not something is malignant or benign just from the test itself, possibly not needing to go ahead and perform a biopsy or another invasive procedure like that.
This is early stuff. We're telling you this because it's exciting, it's early, it's probably a couple years away before you can get this test in the doctor's office, but this may quickly replace PSA as sort of the prostate cancer test of choice over the next couple of years.
HEMMER: Well, that's great news. Sanjay, thanks for updating us.
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 November 3, 2003 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Two new cancer studies are out today. One deals with a new prostate test. The other focuses on hormone replacement therapy.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details on both of these.
And, Sanjay, let's begin with the hormone replacement therapy study.
Good morning.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Soledad, good morning.
Lots of information about hormone replacement therapy. I think most people in the country now know of some of the dangers of hormone replacement therapy and its potential link to breast cancer. A population of women that had not previously been well studied, though, are women that already have breast cancer. Should they also stop hormone replacement therapy. That was the subject of this most recent study. The answer is probably yes. Take a look at some of the evidence now. These are women who have breast cancer, women who have what are known as hormone sensitive breast cancer. About 140 women were actually studied. Of those women, 125 stopped the hormone replacement therapy at the diagnosis of their breast cancer; 15 of them continued using hormone replacement therapy when they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
Take a look at what happened now to some of them. In the women who actually stopped the hormone replacement therapy, the cancer stopped growing in those particular women. Again, these are tumors that are known to be hormone sensitive. So this is a specific type of breast cancer, but nevertheless, in those types of tumors hormone replacement therapy not a good idea. Soledad, probably another nail in the coffin in terms of hormone replacement therapy being used at all -- Soledad.
HEMMER: Certainly looks that way.
All right,let's talk about the second study now, a study about a prostate cancer test. Can you give us some information on that and also show us the results?
GUPTA: Really interesting here, as well, Soledad. People, again, know about prostate cancer in terms of PSA, the prostate specific antigen. This has been a very controversial test. While one of the best tests out there, still not very good. About 35 percent of the time, it actually misses cancers. Oftentimes it provides a misdiagnosis, as well, saying that it's cancer when in fact it's something much more benign. There has been a search for the Holy Grail of prostate cancer diagnosis. Not there yet.
But they may be one step closer in the hormone known as PCA-24. Now the name is not that important. Basically, this is a much more sensitive indicator of prostate cancer. About 94 percent of the time, it's picking up prostate cancer, much better than PSA. It's also much more likely to determine whether or not something is malignant or benign just from the test itself, possibly not needing to go ahead and perform a biopsy or another invasive procedure like that.
This is early stuff. We're telling you this because it's exciting, it's early, it's probably a couple years away before you can get this test in the doctor's office, but this may quickly replace PSA as sort of the prostate cancer test of choice over the next couple of years.
HEMMER: Well, that's great news. Sanjay, thanks for updating us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
