FRIDAY, Dec. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Breast cancer patients who are carriers of mutations in a breast cancer susceptibility gene are more likely to have a complete response after treatment with cisplatin, according to a study published online Dec. 14 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In a related study published in the same journal at the same time, researchers report that geriatric assessment domains can predict treatment response and mortality in elderly breast cancer survivors.
Tomasz Byrski, M.D., from Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland, and colleagues assessed the rate of pathologic complete response and association with treatment regimen in 102 women with breast cancer who were carriers of mutations in the BRCA1 gene. They found that 24 percent of women had a complete response. The rates ranged from 7 percent in women treated with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil to 83 percent in women treated with cisplatin.
Kerri M. Clough-Gorr, from the Boston University Medical Center, and colleagues used geriatric assessment domains to evaluate outcomes in 660 breast cancer survivors 65 years and older. After more than seven years of follow-up, they found that various domains were associated with poor treatment tolerance and mortality, independent of age and disease stage.
"Cancer-specific geriatric assessment offers clinicians and patients the promise of an effective strategy for integrating multiple factors into clinical decision making to optimize cancer care for older adults -- a worthy goal for future geriatric assessment research agendas and vital to the treatment and survivorship experience of the growing numbers of older patients with cancer," Clough-Gorr and colleagues conclude.
Abstract - Byrski
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Abstract - Clough-Gorr
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