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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Breast Cancer Detection

Aired December 08, 2003 - 08:43   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: A first of its kind genetic test for women with breast cancer could soon help predict whether their tumors are likely to reappear.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details on this, this morning.

Sanjay, good morning, nice to see you.

This is huge news, isn't it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is very exciting. And everything I'm about to tell you, Soledad, is something that's also going to be available within the next few months, as well. This is from the research phase, now moving into the availability stage, talking about a genetic test to help women make a very important decision. Women who have just been diagnosed with breast cancer, have undergone an operation, oftentimes are told that they should or should not undergo chemotherapy, a difficult decision at best for many women.

Now genetic tests using 21 different genes will help categorize women into low, intermediate or high-risk category in terms of future recurrence and to help them decide whether or not they should undergo chemotherapy at that time.

This was based on a very large study, as well, Soledad, which is part of the reason this is moving along so quickly. Nearly 700 women, all women who were looked at that had lymph nodes that were negative in terms of cancer, they had positive estrogen receptors and they were treated with Tamoxifen, a common chemotherapy type drug.

Over 14 years they were followed and they were able to accurately categorize these women into low, intermediate or high categories.

Now some of the existing standards in terms of helping women decide are more arbitrary, have to do with a woman's age for example, the tumor size and the tumor grade. This genetic test again based on 21 genes is really going to hone this down, is really going to amplify it, and again, should be available in the next few months, early next year -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, you say available in the next few months and that it will hone it down. Is this for every woman who has breast cancer? Or will there be some breast cancer patients who really this will not be appropriate for?

GUPTA: That's a really good question, and basically where it becomes difficult is women who have high-grade tumors. The answer is much simpler. Pretty much they're going to need chemotherapy. This test is really for those women who sort of fall into that arbitrary category. They could go either way. Maybe not, maybe so, hard to make those decisions. This is really going to be targeted at those women. They represent about 50 percent of the population so far. Some of the researchers that have been writing about this, we've been talking to say this test, by the way, is just going to keep getting better and better to the point where you should almost precisely be able to determine whether or not a woman would develop breast cancer in the future. One of the researchers saying this is like version 1.0; expect several different versions of this over the next few year -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, you talked just a moment ago about Tamoxifen, but there are some new breast cancer drugs out there, all in that same class, is that right to say?

GUPTA: Yes, that's right. One of the most common chemotherapeutic drugs out there is something called Taxol. Women who have had breast cancer or know someone who's had breast cancer know about this drug. It's very commonly used.

The problem is that while it's a very effective drug in terms of preventing recurrence, it does have some pretty significant side effects, side effects that women do worry about. You can take a look at the list of them here. But basically these side effects have made it difficult for women to take this drug long term, hypersensitivity. Sometimes the red and white blood cells can fall. Women become anemic, they feel tired. They can also develop tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, which can be very problematic as well.

Researchers have been working on a new variety of the drug. It's actually pretty much the same drug, except it's now made into a much more soluble form in the body, so as to cut down on a lot of the side effects. This new drug called Abroxene (ph) basically will help cut down on two of the three things basically. It's going to give you more tumor shrinkage. It's going to slow down disease progression significantly, but probably still have some of the same nerve damage problems as the Taxol. It's basically a newer version of the same drug, that hopefully will be able to lead to better outcomes for women long-term -- Soledad.

HEMMER: Let's hope so, Sanjay.

Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Thanks.

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 December 8, 2003 - 08:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A first of its kind genetic test for women with breast cancer could soon help predict whether their tumors are likely to reappear.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details on this, this morning.

Sanjay, good morning, nice to see you.

This is huge news, isn't it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is very exciting. And everything I'm about to tell you, Soledad, is something that's also going to be available within the next few months, as well. This is from the research phase, now moving into the availability stage, talking about a genetic test to help women make a very important decision. Women who have just been diagnosed with breast cancer, have undergone an operation, oftentimes are told that they should or should not undergo chemotherapy, a difficult decision at best for many women.

Now genetic tests using 21 different genes will help categorize women into low, intermediate or high-risk category in terms of future recurrence and to help them decide whether or not they should undergo chemotherapy at that time.

This was based on a very large study, as well, Soledad, which is part of the reason this is moving along so quickly. Nearly 700 women, all women who were looked at that had lymph nodes that were negative in terms of cancer, they had positive estrogen receptors and they were treated with Tamoxifen, a common chemotherapy type drug.

Over 14 years they were followed and they were able to accurately categorize these women into low, intermediate or high categories.

Now some of the existing standards in terms of helping women decide are more arbitrary, have to do with a woman's age for example, the tumor size and the tumor grade. This genetic test again based on 21 genes is really going to hone this down, is really going to amplify it, and again, should be available in the next few months, early next year -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, you say available in the next few months and that it will hone it down. Is this for every woman who has breast cancer? Or will there be some breast cancer patients who really this will not be appropriate for?

GUPTA: That's a really good question, and basically where it becomes difficult is women who have high-grade tumors. The answer is much simpler. Pretty much they're going to need chemotherapy. This test is really for those women who sort of fall into that arbitrary category. They could go either way. Maybe not, maybe so, hard to make those decisions. This is really going to be targeted at those women. They represent about 50 percent of the population so far. Some of the researchers that have been writing about this, we've been talking to say this test, by the way, is just going to keep getting better and better to the point where you should almost precisely be able to determine whether or not a woman would develop breast cancer in the future. One of the researchers saying this is like version 1.0; expect several different versions of this over the next few year -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, you talked just a moment ago about Tamoxifen, but there are some new breast cancer drugs out there, all in that same class, is that right to say?

GUPTA: Yes, that's right. One of the most common chemotherapeutic drugs out there is something called Taxol. Women who have had breast cancer or know someone who's had breast cancer know about this drug. It's very commonly used.

The problem is that while it's a very effective drug in terms of preventing recurrence, it does have some pretty significant side effects, side effects that women do worry about. You can take a look at the list of them here. But basically these side effects have made it difficult for women to take this drug long term, hypersensitivity. Sometimes the red and white blood cells can fall. Women become anemic, they feel tired. They can also develop tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, which can be very problematic as well.

Researchers have been working on a new variety of the drug. It's actually pretty much the same drug, except it's now made into a much more soluble form in the body, so as to cut down on a lot of the side effects. This new drug called Abroxene (ph) basically will help cut down on two of the three things basically. It's going to give you more tumor shrinkage. It's going to slow down disease progression significantly, but probably still have some of the same nerve damage problems as the Taxol. It's basically a newer version of the same drug, that hopefully will be able to lead to better outcomes for women long-term -- Soledad.

HEMMER: Let's hope so, Sanjay.

Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com