PARP Drugs Help Some Breast Cancer Patients, But They’re No Magic Bullet
For patients with metastatic breast cancer, doctors don’t yet know how to predict long-term responses to this PARP drug.
writer, health care advocate, physician
For patients with metastatic breast cancer, doctors don’t yet know how to predict long-term responses to this PARP drug.
The paradigm for using chemo first to treat advanced breast cancer may change, as we gain experience with these new drugs.
Before choosing any treatment after genetic testing, hit the pause button. Ask questions. Get a second opinion.
A new type of cancer medication, called PARP inhibitors, is gaining traction in clinical practice.
Lynparza—a PARP inhibitor taken as an oral tablet, daily— keeps qualified cases of advanced ovarian cancer in check for two years, as compared to placebo.
My worry for Grail is that a lot of people will get worked up upon finding genetic changes of unknown significance. Meanwhile, it might fail to detect cancer in people who really have it.
A common misconception is that precision medicine is about one drug for one disease. But for most cancer types, it will involve combining medications in effective cocktails.
Over time, the costs should drop, like for smartphone tech, what my Dad – a chemistry major and retired physician – called “magic.”
So far, the studies demonstrate that Lynparza has activity in cancer patients with and without inherited BRCA mutations.
Anne Parker’s perspective on cancer care – as a family member, patient and advocate – spans over 50 years.
By telling her story, she helps break the mystery and stigma that deter honest and needed discussion about cancer-causing, inherited genetic mutations.
Getting checked, one way or another, has even been deemed cost-effective. The question for colorectal cancer, if you choose to be screened, is how: what’s the best method?
What this movie gets right is the loneliness of having cancer – the feeling that kicks in when you’re awake and alive in some sort of hyper-sterile place receiving therapy, where there’s no one else.
Genome sequencing is not routine in oncology practice. But maybe it should be, advocates suggest.
The Lung-MAP trial will identify molecular abnormalities in tumors specimens from thousands of patients with squamous cell lung cancer.
What’s great about this piece, and what’s wrong about it, is that it comes from an individual woman.
With an ordinary blood sample, a device can monitor cancerous cells for spread or resistance to treatment.