Standard Chemo and Older Women
Posted 5/14/2009
Posted in
A study in the new issue of the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that standard chemotherapy is more helpful than an oral chemotherapy regimen for older women. Dr Hyman Muss and his colleagues enrolled 600 women 65 and older in a clinical trial to compare standard chemotherapy and Xeloda. Their hope was that Xeloda, which is a regimen of pills only, would be equally benficial and would have fewer side effects. Unfortunately, after three years, 85% of women who had standard chemotherapy were doing well vs. 68% of women who had been treated with Xeloda.
This is a good example of efforts in progress to individualize treatments and to spare women, when it is just as effective, side effects from drugs. Clearly, the most important thing is our health and staying well, but all of us would prefer to take "easier" treatment when it is an equally smart option.
This wasn't.
TO MAKE A COMMENT, CLICK ON THE NUMBERS NEXT TO "COMMENTS"
Tags: