Around the Web

Here's what I found this week. Have something you'd like me to feature here? Please leave a note in the comments or send me an email.

Reducing the risk of recurrence in hormone-sensitive cancers

"A new treatment option is more effective than tamoxifen at preventing a return of breast cancer in young women, according to the results of two international trials."

Still requires shutting down ovaries, unfortunately.

And another promising option for post-menopausal breast cancer patients

"The inexpensive anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) reverses resistance to tamoxifen, a widely used breast cancer drug, in mice."

Anti-malarial? Really?

(Thanks to my friend Andrea for this one.)

At least one insurance company using incentive program to "reign in costs"

Would you want your doctor receiving financial incentives from an insurance company for how he or she prescribes the medicine you'll receive? Would you care? In an era of more and more individualized medicine, I'd be concerned the quality of care was at risk. But maybe that's just me?

(Thanks to my friend Andrea for this one, too.)

Decoding the role immune cells have on metastases

"Normally, macrophages -- chubby cells with a big mouth-like orifice -- are friends, not foe. They gobble up dead tumor cells and virtually any kind of debris, including infectious organisms. Picture the old Pac-Man video game that consumed dots.

But macrophages, Egeblad said, also send signals in the vast communication network of the body allowing cells to "talk" to each other.

"What we found is that when you give chemotherapy, the macrophages come in and clean up all these dead cells but they are also sending signals to the [tumor] cells that are not killed in the first round of chemo. And those signals are making it easier for the tumor to bounce back after chemo," she said."

I had no idea cells could be chubby.

Immunotherapy is all the rage lately

"A promising new study from Mayo Clinic, in conjunction with Caris Life Sciences, points to immunotherapy as a possible treatment option for patients with the difficult-to-treat triple negative breast cancer mutation."

I sat in on a Twitter chat (tweet chat?) earlier this week that focused on immunotherapy and where it is headed. Big things are happening, if you believe all the scientists. All of us patients are trying to temper our excitement with the reality that many of these amazing/brilliant/promising results are still in the very early trial stages. But I am staying tuned...

A friend's cousin and her beautiful love story

Worth the read AND the incredible photos taken by my friend Kristi's wildly talented sister Joy Marie.

Around the Web

What sparked my interest this week on the Internet.

These portraits aren't new, but they're new to me. And I LOVE them.

$9.5 Million for eradicating breast cancer? I might become a golf fan.

"It’s been 21 years since Skinner lost her dear friend, fellow LPGA player Heather Farr, whose breast cancer was misdiagnosed and ignored at age 24. Skinner has honored her memory by helping raise $9.5 million for breast cancer initiatives."

There IS life after cancer for more and more of us.

'"We used to think of the paradigm as cancer was something that we had, we treated it, we either got better or we didn't," notes Oeffinger. "And now that we have so many different, effective therapies, even patients with advanced cancer -- metastatic cancer -- they can be treated periodically again with different types of chemotherapy or targeted therapies that are coming, radiation, surgery, other effective therapies for keeping them doing well and keeping them active."'

Stopping the spread of breast cancer cells? Yes, please.

"Working with human breast cancer cells and mouse models of breast cancer, scientists identified a new protein that plays a key role in reprogramming cancer cells to migrate and invade other organs. When that protein is removed from cancer cells in mice, the ability of the cells to metastasize to the lung is dramatically decreased."

New treatment regimen could save fertility AND increase survival. Win/win.

'"We found that, in addition to reducing the risk of early menopause, and all of the symptoms that go along with menopause, goserelin was very safe and may even improve survival. I think these findings are going to change our clinical practice."'

This may be my excuse to go to Italy next summer.

"The Octava Pink test is now available in Israel and Italy, and is undergoing clinical trials to receive US Food and Drug Administration approval.

This is the first blood test ever that can reveal cancer, not merely markers that might indicate cancer or something else. Its innovation also lies in its examination of antibodies in the blood to pinpoint this specific cancer."


As always, if you have anything you'd like me to link to here, please email me at jen (dot) campisano (at) gmail or leave a note in the comments.