Test Speeds Feedback on Cancer Treatment(Breast, colon, prostate, lung)

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Cancer-Study.html

Test Speeds Feedback on Cancer Treatment(Breast, colon, prostate, lung)
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 19, 2004 HOUSTON (AP) -- Doctors using new technology can get fast feedback on whether treatments are working for breast cancer victims, a new study shows.

The test that counts cancer cells in bloodstreams of patients with advanced breast cancer speeds the determination of effectiveness of a therapy to weeks instead of months, according to the study led by the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and published in Thursday's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.


Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli, an associate professor in M.D. Anderson's department of breast medical oncology and the study's lead author, said it confirmed that tumors circulating in the blood are a sign of a more dangerous form of the disease. That's expected to lead to more tailored treatments, he said.

``Utilizing this test, we may one day definitively tell (some) women they have a worse prognosis and that chemotherapy is the right approach,'' Cristofanilli told the Houston Chronicle in Thursday's editions. ``Or for those with few or no circulating cells, it is safe to go ahead with a less aggressive treatment.''

The Journal report involved only patients with stage 4, the most advanced stage of cancer. However, Cristofanilli said, future research will focus on less advanced stages of breast cancer.

Known as the CellSearch System, the technique detects cancer cells that detach from solid tumors and enter the blood. They become harder to treat once they travel in the blood and start to grow in other locations.

Circulating tumor cells, which have been known since 1869, have only recently been reliably isolated by researchers using technology to detect them.

Researchers said the test is also expected to be useful in other cancers. They are conducting studies on colon and lung cancer and are about to start another on prostate cancer.<snip>