NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Five percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have metastatic disease, but the good news is survival rates are climbing. According to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the number of women living with metastatic breast cancer rose to 168,000 last year, from 155,000 the year before. Now, new breakthroughs are keeping women alive longer while researchers race to find the next therapy that will work.
Sandy Cassanelli was 37-years-old, with two daughters in elementary school, when she got her first breast cancer diagnosis. She had surgery, chemo, 28 days of radiation, and the cancer was gone for two years.
“My breast cancer had metastasized to my liver, and I was now stage four, no cure, metastatic breast cancer,” Sandy tells Ivanhoe.
That began an eight-year cancer journey that continues today. Some of the new treatments she’s tried kept her disease controlled for as long as three years and others, just months.
Sandy says, “I am currently on my 11th line of treatment.”
“We’ve run into many people that have said, ‘Oh, thank goodness you have breast cancer because we heard that’s easy to get over, or easy to cure, or easy to treat.’ It’s like, that’s so far from reality,” Sandy’s husband, Craig adds.
Director at Yale Cancer Center, Eric Winer, MD is an internationally recognized breast cancer expert. He says women need to know they can now live for years in spite of metastatic breast cancer.
“We understand the genes that drive the behavior of the cancer in many situations. What that lets us do is, that allows us to pair the clinical trial, the specific clinical trial with this specific patient,” Dr. Winer explains.
Craig expresses, “Right now, we have treatments. That’s great, but we want a cure. We want the home run.”
Sandy is currently on an experimental treatment that is, for now, shrinking her tumors.
“We are just happy that finally something is working,” she says with relief.
The Cassenellis say if, or when, this treatment stops working, they’re optimistic scientists will have found the next therapy they can try.
“Being both somewhat realistic and very hopeful is a really nice mix,” Dr. Winer chimes in.
Dr. Winer says it’s important to note that metastatic breast cancer patients are also having much better responses to early phase clinical trials than in the past. For example, phase one trials traditionally test drug safety, but now, research has allowed oncologists to find treatments in phase one trials that are tailored to the individual. The Casannellis have formed a non-profit organization called Breast Friends Fund that has raised over $890,000 to date for breast cancer research.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Producer; Kirk Manson, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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Sources:
https://www.bcrf.org/2021-breast-cancer-statistics-and-progress-bcrf/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7492767/
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: METASTATIC BREAST CANCER: KEEPING PACE WITH SCIENCE
REPORT: MB #5152
BACKGROUND: About 30 percent of new female cancers every year are breast cancers. One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and of those, one in three will become metastatic. The disease is still classified as fatal for 97-99 percent of people diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Metastatic breast cancer means that while it started in the breasts, cancer has spread to other parts of your body. Metastatic breast cancer has treatments, but currently no existing cure. The idea and endgoal of treatments are to help deviate the cancer growth. PHESGO treatments can be used for early and metastaic cancers while each hold a different plan of treatment.
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DIAGNOSING: When metatstaic breast cancer develops, it sometimes shows symptoms and sometimes does not. When diagnosing, a doctor will look at your medical history, existing symptoms, the location of the breast cancer in your body, and your exam results. A doctor will typically reccomend an x-ray, a bone scan, computed tomography, positron emission tomography, MRIs, CBCs, serum chemistry blood tests, and blood tumor marker tests when diagnosing.
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https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer-metastatic/diagnosis
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Nationally recognized breast cancer expert Dr. Eric Winer of Yale University says it’s important for women to know they can live for years even with metastatic breast cancer. Researchers now understand the molecular underpinnings of the cancers and have pinpointed genes that cause the cancer to act in the ways that it does. This lets them match the clinical trials with the information that they have to help patients. Metastatic breast cancer patients are having better responses to earlier clinical trials than in the past because of new research.
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Colleen Moriarty
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