For the millions of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, there is new hope. Recent studies have found that combining several drug treatments are more effective than just one drug at a time. With the vast number of different therapies available, it is often hard to determine which drug will work on each individual. Precious time is wasted on a drug that has little to no effect.
The combination of several drugs gives a woman a better survival rate. New drugs are being manufactured to help shrink tumors. The latest drug to be introduced is T-DM1. The drug is effective in those with metastatic HER2-positive cancer that have quit responding to other drug treatments. This new drug combined with some of the traditional cancer treatments like Herceptin, has shown some promising results. More than 50 percent of women in a recent study had their tumors reduced or stop growing for at least six months.
The treatment method is not currently licensed in this country. It may take three to five years before it can be used on women who have exhausted all other treatment methods. There is an urgent need for more studies to prove the effectiveness of these drug combinations.
Why is it that every time anything related to breast cancer is discussed, it is accompanied by a ‘tastefully sensual’ picture of a woman holding her breasts? How would men react if every discussion of prostate cancer was followed by a Brad Pitt double caressing his butt cheeks?
(Yet)another double standard in journalism.