Abdominal Chemo Increases Ovarian Cancer Survival Rate
A large clinical test shows that giving chemotherapy directly
into the stomach, as well as into a vein, can improve survival
of women with advanced ovarian cancer by about sixteen months.
The results of the study, which pop up in this week's issue of
the New England Journal of Medicine, prompted the National
Cancer Institute to issue a statement supporting doctors to
employ this plan of attack for appropriate patients.
Why is this new treatment reigmine so important? Ovarian cancer
is the fourth greatest reason of cancer demises in women,
affecting more than 22,000 women and killing more than 16,000 in
2005. Although this disease is super treatable when saw ahead of
time, virtually all cases are not noticed until they have
dispersed beyond the ovaries. Because so many ovarian cancer
patients are diagnosed at a later stage, it is crucial to find
ways to better treatments for further progressed disease.
What is already known about ovarian cancer? virtually all women
with advanced ovarian cancer get chemotherapy after surgery to
get rid of the tumor. That chemotherapy is usually given into a
vein and moves through the bloodstream to reach tumor cells in
the stomach. Doctors have also experimented with rendering the
chemotherapy straight into the abdomen through a catheter, a
system called intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy. Eight clinical
trials of this approach have been done, and most showed a gain
to IP chemotherapy. But this technique is not widely wore,
according to the study's author, Deborah Armstrong, MD.
"There has been a
prejudice against IP therapy in ovarian cancer
because it's an old idea, it requires skill and experience for
the surgery and for the chemotherapy, and it's additional
complicated than IV chemotherapy," said Armstrong, who is a
medical oncologist and associate professor at the John Hopkins
Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore.
How this study was done: Women with stage III ovarian cancer
were randomly assigned to get either standard chemotherapy in a
vein (210 women), or a combination of chemotherapy in a vein and
IP chemotherapy (205 women). The women had already had surgery
that successfully removed all or most of the tumor; none had
tumors remaining that were larger than 1 cm in diameter. All the
women were treated with the same drugs, cisplatin and
paclitaxel. Six cycles of chemotherapy were planned for both
groups.
What was found? Women who had IP chemo operated long without
their cancer coming back and lived longest overall. Women who
had traditional chemotherapy in a vein survived about 4 years
after treatment, while those who got chemotherapy in the stomach
as well as a vein stomach an median of nearly 5 ½ years after
treatment.
That improvement is "one of the largest benefits ever observed
for a new therapy in gynecologic oncology," based on data from
Stephen A. Cannistra, MD, who composed an editorial published
with the study. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School and
managing director of the division of gynecologic medical
oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Nonetheless, the IP treatment was very much more difficult on
the patients. Women who hadthis treatment had many additional
terrible or life-threatening side effects, including low white
blood cell counts, infection, tiredness, and anguish. Many side
effects were associated to the catheters that must be introduced
into the stomach to deliver the chemotherapy. These problems
were so serious that fewer than half of the women designated to
undergo IP chemotherapy finished all six designed treatment
cycles. That makes the survival advance that good deal
supplementary noteworthy, Cannistra composed.
Women who got IP therapy also reported significantly worse
caliber of life during and just after treatment. By one year
out, nonetheless, both groups described similar quality of life.
Discover the best
alternative cancer
treatments!
SEO Solutions and
one way
link publicity services provided by LinkAcquire.
David C Skul - CEO
LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. can provide
global market
exposure and solutions.
Discover the bestalternative cancer treatments at
http://www.cancercuretruth.com
SEO Solutions and publicity services provided by
http://www.linkacquire.com
About the author:
David C Skul - CEO
LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. can provide
global market
exposure and solutions.
Written by: David C Skul
