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American Morning

Cancer & Chemo

Aired January 21, 2003 - 08:49   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Some disturbing news for woman diagnosed with early breast cancer. A new study says only a fraction of them are actually getting the right chemotherapy treatment. Joining me now to explain this is Dr. Larry Norton, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Good to see you.

DR. LARRY NORTON, BREAST ONCOLOGIST: Good morning. Good morning.

ZAHN: I want you to help explain this to us, because we know the study looked at more than 5,000 women ages 20 and older with breast cancer, and they found that only 29 percent of them got the chemotherapy they should have gotten. Why is that?

NORTON: Well, it's still a relatively small study, considering how many are at risk for breast cancer. But there is an important message here: Chemotherapy does work. We know for sure that it saves lives, and if people are not getting the chemotherapy they need, that's a very serious issue, so we're going to have to look at this much more carefully.

ZAHN: Do we know why they aren't?

NORTON: The study doesn't really give us a strong hint, but we have to look at that as a matter of education, of physicians, of patients. Are there financial issues, for example, geographical issues? These are all questions that we now have to ask.

ZAHN: Walk us through some of things you have with even your own patients. Is it a matter of women sometimes just being fearful of the chemo treatment?

NORTON: Sometimes, although education really takes care of that. Chemotherapy has gotten much easier to take and much more effective. Recently, we've seen advances that have enabled us to give chemotherapy over a shorter period of time and actually make it 31 percent more effective at decreasing the death rate, so there've been some real advances, and people have to know about that.

ZAHN: Is it a case of some doctors simply not being educated to the benefits of chemo?


Aired January 21, 2003 - 08:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Some disturbing news for woman diagnosed with early breast cancer. A new study says only a fraction of them are actually getting the right chemotherapy treatment. Joining me now to explain this is Dr. Larry Norton, an oncologist at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Good to see you.

DR. LARRY NORTON, BREAST ONCOLOGIST: Good morning. Good morning.

ZAHN: I want you to help explain this to us, because we know the study looked at more than 5,000 women ages 20 and older with breast cancer, and they found that only 29 percent of them got the chemotherapy they should have gotten. Why is that?

NORTON: Well, it's still a relatively small study, considering how many are at risk for breast cancer. But there is an important message here: Chemotherapy does work. We know for sure that it saves lives, and if people are not getting the chemotherapy they need, that's a very serious issue, so we're going to have to look at this much more carefully.

ZAHN: Do we know why they aren't?

NORTON: The study doesn't really give us a strong hint, but we have to look at that as a matter of education, of physicians, of patients. Are there financial issues, for example, geographical issues? These are all questions that we now have to ask.

ZAHN: Walk us through some of things you have with even your own patients. Is it a matter of women sometimes just being fearful of the chemo treatment?

NORTON: Sometimes, although education really takes care of that. Chemotherapy has gotten much easier to take and much more effective. Recently, we've seen advances that have enabled us to give chemotherapy over a shorter period of time and actually make it 31 percent more effective at decreasing the death rate, so there've been some real advances, and people have to know about that.

ZAHN: Is it a case of some doctors simply not being educated to the benefits of chemo?