"Cancer is a moving target, and the oncologist has to know which bullet to put in his gun," said Dr. Jonathan Uhr of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Extra copies of the gene HER-2 occur in 20 percent to 25 percent of breast cancer cases. In these cases the cancer tends to resist chemotherapy and radiation, but the drug Herceptin, which blocks the gene, can help patients.

The primary tumor in breast cancer patients is tested for the HER-2 gene over-activity and those with negative tests don't get Herceptin.

In some cases, however, cancer cells circulating in the blood can develop this gene overactivity as the disease progresses, according to the study by a research team Uhr led.

The study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found HER-2 overactivity in nine of 24 patients - http://news.sky.com/search?term=patients whose primary cancer initially tested negative for the gene.

While the study is small and further research is needed, the findings call into question the assumption that test results on the primary tumor should be used to make treatment decisions at a later date, the researchers say.

"Cancer cells are genetically unstable and they do change," Uhr, a professor of microbiology and 창원출장샵 - http://www.mustafasultan.com/mse_paytv_pd.asp?srid=590&compid=30&st=1 internal medicine, said in a telephone interview.

"Of course this is against current dogma. I'm sure there will be some reluctance in accepting this until more work is done, and more work should be done," he added.

Dr. Joseph Geradts of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., said the finding - http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/search?q=finding "adds to the evidence that what the oncologist treats is different from what the surgeon cuts out."

The dogma has been that what is in the primary tumor is the same as what is in the cancer that spreads to other areas, Geradts said, but the new study indicates that may not be the case.

Dr. Stephen B. Edge, medical director of the breast center at Roswell Park, called the study "a small step ... but intriguing."

Angela H. Brodie, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said that while the paper is preliminary, "what is interesting is they're showing that patients can actually get (gene) amplification as the tumor progresses. It would serve as a marker for further treatment, different treatment."

Uhr's team developed a sensitive blood test for overactivity of the HER-2 gene, allowing for tests of the circulating cancer cells. Even when the primary cancer is negative for HER-2 activity, some cancer cells may have the extra gene. Over time those could become dominant in the blood as chemotherapy and radiation destroy other cancer cells.

Of the nine patients in Uhr's study who showed HER-2 activity in circulating cells, one had complete remission and two had partial remission when treated with Herceptin and chemotherapy.

For the blood test to be considered worthwhile, researchers said, they also must show that therapy with Herceptin alone or with chemotherapy can cause remissions in a significant number of patients.

The research was funded by the Nasher Cancer Research Program, the Cancer Immunobiology Center and the Komen Breast Cancer Center.

By Randolph E. Schmid

Whether the treatment can help cure brain cancer remains to be seen, but the approach at least seems to slow the often rapid progression of the disease for some.

The treatment, tested in a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme, involves the drug Temodar. Until now, the medicine has typically been used only after radiation to shrink the tumor.

A major 안양출장안마 - https://www.softanma.com/11-anyang international study released Monday shows that giving low doses of the capsule at the very start - for six or seven weeks during and after radiation - doubles the chance of being alive two years later.

"This is the first trial that has been clearly positive in brain cancer in 30 years," said Dr. M.J. van den Bent of the Daniel den Hoed Oncology Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. "This is a great day."

Radiation and surgery are the first-line treatments for glioblastomas, but even with them the disease usually kills within a year or less. Intravenous chemotherapy available since the 1970s improves these odds only marginally and can have serious side effects.

Several doctors predicted that upfront Temodar will quickly become the new standard of care, routinely offered to all victims of this disease.

"To be able to tell people they may have two or three years of survival rather than nine months is pretty major," said Dr. Adam Mamelak of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., who was not involved in the study.

The study was conducted and financed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and released in New Orleans at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. It was done at more than 80 hospitals in Europe, Canada and Australia.

The study's director, Dr. Roger Stupp of University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, said patients - https://openclipart.org/search/?query=patients found the drug easy to take, and fatigue was the most common ill effect.

"We have started with the most malignant and devastating form" of brain cancer, he said. The next step will be to try the drug against less aggressive tumors and combine it with the newer, so-called targeted drugs designed to block cancer's internal growth signals.

Unlike most cancer, which kills by spreading through the body, glioblastomas grow quickly inside the head, destroying everything in their path. They are the most aggressive of the 100 or so forms of cancer that originate in the brain, and they account for half or more of all cases. Around the world, 175,000 cases are diagnosed annually, killing 125,000.

In the new study, 573 patients were randomly given standard treatment with or without early Temodar. After two years, 26 percent receiving Temodar were still alive, compared with just 10 percent getting the usual care.

Even with the treatment, most patients died quickly. Nevertheless, doctors said doubling short-term survival is an important milestone in such a grim disease.

"Twenty-six percent survival is not that great in the large scheme of things. But it is still progress," said Dr. Frank Haluska of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Until now, chemotherapy has also not had an important role in treating prostate cancer, which is much more common. At the meeting Monday, other researchers released details of studies that led the Food and Drug Administration last month to approve use of Taxotere, a standard chemotherapy drug, for men with advanced cases of this malignancy.

Before these studies, no treatment had been found to improve survival in prostate cancer. Spreading cancer can be suppressed with hormone treatment, but eventually this approach fails, and patients typically die within a year.

Two large studies released at the meeting - http://news.sky.com/search?term=meeting show that Taxotere can improve survival in these men by a median of about two months, although some lived several years while on the drug.

"This is reason for celebration, because there is a survival advantage, and there is also reason for optimism, but we have a long way to go in these patients," said Dr. Mario Eisenberger of Johns Hopkins University, who headed one of the studies.

By Daniel Q. Haney