Jeff Boyd is with Molecular Medicine at Temple University’s Foxchase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He says doctors cannot treat all breast cancers in the same way.
JEFF BOYD: “What we are learning is that, you know, we’ve got to get beyond this ‘treat every breast cancer the same’ -- do a lumpectomy, treat with these three drugs, you know, radiate locally and cross your fingers. We now know that, as we’re beginning to learn for many cancer types, that there are multiple molecular genetic cancers which render them essentially separate diseases.”
For example, a drug called Herceptin has been approved for use to treat all breast cancers. But the drug does not work on all breast tumors. Now, researchers have a better understanding why.
Mathew Ellis is a cancer researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He has worked with the Cancer Genome Atlas. He hopes targeted treatments for different types of breast cancer will soon become available to help his patients.
MATTHEW ELLIS: “Now we have to fast-forward to a day -- hopefully in the next year or two -- where at least in clinical studies the information is flowing forward to the patients and the doctors. And critically that data flow includes access to the drugs.” (:16)
And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. We have placed a link to the breast cancer study on our website, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25