European Journal of Cancer: Highlights of Issue 41:02

Aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant therapy-are we sold on the idea?

Adjuvant endocrine therapy for early breast cancer-the debate continues

Professor Michael Baum puts the case for aromatase inhibitors. He also discusses the potential merits of switching therapies i.e. for patients who have already started on tamoxifen. He proposes that aromatase inhibitors will have a role in three scenarios; the newly diagnosed patient, patients halfway through their course of tamoxifen and patients close to finishing 5 years of tamoxifen. "Despite the current guidelines promoting the continued use of tamoxifen, trials are now being initiated with anastrozole as the control arm, clearly demonstrating that anastrozole is increasingly being seen as standard treatment in the adjuvant setting for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer". Reporting in a related paper in this issue, Professor Henning Mouridsen and Dr. Nicholas Robert agree that recent data "emphasises the important role of aromatase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting", but say "The optimal approach still needs to be defined". They continue "We are eagerly awaiting data of long-term efficacy and safety in the ongoing trials and many questions concerning the most effective future usage of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors in the adjuvant setting are still being addressed. These questions relate primarily to the optimal single agent or sequence, duration of treatment and selection of individual patients". New data are therefore eagerly awaited and the opinions highlighted in this issue suggest this debate will continue for some time to come.

Number of nodes examined affects prognosis of stage II colorectal cancer patients

The prognosis for stage II colorectal cancer patients is dependent on the number of nodes examined, according to researchers reporting in this issue. "Patients with stage II tumours with only a few nodes examined should be offered post-operative chemotherapy on a routine basis", said lead investigator Dr. Leopoldo Sarli (Dept. of Surgical Sciences, Parma University, Italy). The group examined 625 stage II cases and found that 5-year survival rates were similar for those with 9 or less nodes examined and stage III patients with only 1-3 positive nodes. Further studies are required in order to verify this hypothesis, they concluded.

Gene therapy and radiation to treat head and neck cancer?

An oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) enhanced the effectiveness of radiation therapy in head and neck cancer tumour models, Kim and colleagues report in this issue. "These findings suggest a potential clinical application for this combined therapy as treatment for radiation-resistance head and neck cancers". The authors treated cell lines and head and neck tumour models with PBS, radiation alone, HSV virus alone and HSV and radiation combined. They found more than additive effects for the combination treatment. Combined therapy suppressed human and murine squamous cell carcinoma growth significantly compared with either controls or single modality treatments, they said.

Back . . .