Aug 29, 2012
In the months following the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting, Cancer.Net has provided a series of “Research Round Up” podcasts to help patients understand the newest research on cancer. In each recording, one of ASCO’s experts provides the latest information on treatment and care for specific disease types to help patients understand how new research affects them. Recent topics include:
Podcast Excerpt: Latest News in Breast Cancer
In the “Research Round Up” podcast on breast cancer research presented at the Annual Meeting, Hope S. Rugo, MD, a member of the 2012 Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee, outlines the results of the EMILIA trial for patients:
“...It turns out if you get an IV therapy [of T-DM1] targeted to the cancer cell every three weeks, that it might be more tolerable and have better effectiveness [than capecitabine and lapatinib]. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use the combination of [capecitabine and lapatinib] anymore—it just means that we might reserve it for a later treatment after we’ve already used T-DM1....
“Like the combination of [capecitabine and lapatinib], you don’t lose your hair [with T-DM1]. The major side effects are the reduction in platelet count (one of the blood counts), and a slight increase in liver enzymes—but these appear to be pretty well tolerated and recover fairly quickly....
“We are very hopeful and fairly confident that the remarkable results of the EMILIA trial will result in FDA approval of this agent, T-DM1, potentially by the end of this year....”
- Colorectal cancer, liver cancer, and cancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract
- New drugs for breast cancer, as well as new research on existing drugs and treatments
- Lymphoma
- Brain tumors
- Ovarian cancer
- Leukemia
 |
| Hope S. Rugo, MD |
In the “Research Round Up” podcast on breast cancer research presented at the Annual Meeting, Hope S. Rugo, MD, a member of the 2012 Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee, outlines the results of the EMILIA trial for patients:
“...It turns out if you get an IV therapy [of T-DM1] targeted to the cancer cell every three weeks, that it might be more tolerable and have better effectiveness [than capecitabine and lapatinib]. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use the combination of [capecitabine and lapatinib] anymore—it just means that we might reserve it for a later treatment after we’ve already used T-DM1....
“Like the combination of [capecitabine and lapatinib], you don’t lose your hair [with T-DM1]. The major side effects are the reduction in platelet count (one of the blood counts), and a slight increase in liver enzymes—but these appear to be pretty well tolerated and recover fairly quickly....
“We are very hopeful and fairly confident that the remarkable results of the EMILIA trial will result in FDA approval of this agent, T-DM1, potentially by the end of this year....”