Changes Ahead
Posted 3/7/2011
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This is a nice summary from the ASCO Post about likely changes in treatments and directions of research in the years ahead. Being old and cynical, I always read such optimistic articles with a bit of skepticism, but it is absolutely true that progress is being made. I would just warn you to recognize that change comes in baby steps and always takes longer than predicted.
Here is the introduction and then a link to read more:
Breast Cancer Experts Foresee Changes in 2011
By Caroline HelwickMarch 1, 2011, Volume 2, Issue 4
Page last updated at Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 5:35 PMThe year ahead could be a provocative year in breast cancer treatment and research, according to several breast cancer specialists polled by The ASCO Post during the 2010 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. We asked them to comment on emerging issues that should be on the oncologist's radar in 2011.
New Pathways Delineated
In 2011, scientists expect to better understand oncogenic pathways that are revealing themselves to be important in breast cancer, much of this knowledge coming as a result of the tissue banking that is essentially routine in the current clinical trial setting.
"We have seen a saturation of a certain set of analyses for endocrine therapy and chemotherapy, and we are now looking for the next wave of targeted treatments to come along," saidHarold Burstein, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. "Whether that will be inhibitors of PI3-kinase, mTOR, insulin growth factor receptor-1, or others… we can expect new pathways to open up this field again." Drugs targeting these pathways are in early-phase development, and the hope is that associated biomarker development "will be provocative and get oncologists excited for the next generation of breast cancer agents."
http://tinyurl.com/4cw6rcn
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