New Cancer Drugs Could Possibly Increase Patient Lifespan

Finally, there is some encouraging news for patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. A study done exclusively on patients having this stage of cancer has shown that newer medications could possibly help prolong patient lifespan by a few months, at least.

Dr. Stephen Chia, the lead author of the study and also medical oncologist with the British Columbia Cancer Agency, said the step was a good one to take forward. He said while this may not be the much-sought-after cure, it definitely was a step in the right direction. This is especially true as it provides renewed hope to metastatic breast cancer patients.

Researchers and doctors are still wary about how good this drug may be. According to them, the situation is still extremely dark. The hope that is being held out comes attached with medical strings. This is because the drug can elicit a proper response in only those patients with a specific form of cancer, specifically, metastatic breast cancer.

The new drugs being experimented with include aromatase inhibitors. Researchers have not yet been able to find out if these drugs are actually as effective when it comes to treating more serious forms of breast cancer.

The new study has been conducted on a group of 1,250 women patients suffering from metastatic cancer in British Columbia, Canada, between 1991 and 2001. The results pertaining to drug effectiveness are based on the survival rates for different drugs.

During the course of their study, investigators found that the survival rates in the time period 1999-2001 were the highest, at 667 days. The rates a few years earlier were also relatively high, 564 days between 1997 and 1998. This is, however, not as high as between 1999 and 2001. Further down, the survival rates were even lower, at 450 days between 1994 and 1995. The period between 1991 and 1992 had the lowest survival rate – 438 days.

The above numbers indicate the increasing life span has been because of the newer medications being used nowadays. These medications include aromatase inhibitors as well as other chemotherapy medicine. While there is no clinching evidence regarding the success of the medication, the authors behind the study have said there is a strong possibility the medicine might just work.

Not only this, the new drugs are also supposedly not as hard as the other ones were on the patients. Patients have been able to take these drugs comfortably, and have led relatively comfortable lives as their lives wound down.

The word, Metastatic (advanced) describes a cancer that has spread to distant organs from the original tumor site.It is the most advanced stage, stage IV of breast cancer. In this disease the cancer cells have spread past the breast and axillary (underarm) lymph nodes to other areas of the body where they continue to grow and multiply. Breast cancer has the potential to spread to almost any region of the body. The most common region breast cancer spreads to is bone, followed by lung and liver.