Monday, January 24, 2011

Triple Negative Breast Cancer makes the front page in the Austin-American Statesman

Great news from our local network of doctors.


Austin American Statesman article

"This is the most compelling development in breast cancer in the last five years," she said. "I had a patient come here from Puerto Rico to get access to this trial."


"Breast cancer experts not connected to the study greeted the results with excitement mixed with caution. For a cancer that is difficult to treat, iniparib shows great potential — provided the results are confirmed by the final, phase 3 trial, they said. Patients are still in that trial, and results will be out later this year, Patt said.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Breast Cancer News


Trio of Drugs May Combat 'Triple Negative' Breast Cancer

In the new study, Johns Hopkins scientists began with a drug called Entinostat, which blocks an enzyme that unfolds DNA, providing regulatory molecules access to genes within and also reactivates a gene called retinoic acid receptor-beta (RARβ). Then, they added a drug called All Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA), related to Vitamin A, which binds a protein made by the reactivated RARβ gene. Together, the ATRA drug and RARβ gene act as a brake on cancer cell growth.

Sporadic Breast Cancers Start With Ineffective DNA Repair Systems

Ultraviolet light, for example, can cause mutations, but a sophisticated system of nucleotide excision repair (NER) proteins trolls the DNA strands to identify problems and initiate repair processes. The same system repairs damage caused by many environmental carcinogens, including tobacco smoke.


"Even in healthy breast tissue, this system is only about one-fifth as effective as it is in skin,"

Potential New Target for Treating Triple Negative Breast Cancer Identified

Now researchers in Dublin (Ireland) have found that TNBC cells respond to compounds that disrupt the signalling processes of another receptor, EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), high levels of which are expressed in TNBC

Saturday, January 1, 2011

All The Small Things

We once again enter the new year with a clean bill of health *knocks on wood*.

Although it wasn't what we expected, we got some good news at the tail end of 2010.  After a trip to Johns Hopkins in Maryland, the cancerous ovary turned out to be clear cell, not the non-invasive borderline we had hoped for.  The good news is that the tumor was microscopically small.  So small in fact that they could count the individual cells.  So small in fact that a dissection of the biopsy 1mm to the left or right would have missed the tumor.  So small in fact that no one has ever seen a clear cell tumor at such an early stage.  So small in fact that there is very little chance that the tumor had spread anywhere.  So small in fact that the removal of the tumor alone is all the therapy Linda will require.

A complete PET and CT scan from head-to-toe confirmed what we had prayed for.

On December 13th, we also passed the 3 year mark which is a huge milestone, especially for TNBC survivors.

With that, as folks have dreams and aspirations for bigger and better in the new year, we welcome 2011 and will continue to appreciate the small things.