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Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Controlled not Cured-
“A different way of looking at cancer, using a so-called “eco-evolutionary” model, has been given a boost by new results from a preclinical model of triple negative breast cancer…”
“Eco-evolutionary” schmeco-evolutionary. The concept of learning to live with triple negative breast cancer rather than trying to cure it is not new. This is the cure versus control debate. The difference is that the concept of controlling one’s cancer is new to triple negative breast cancer oncology. So is “significantly increasing overall survival.”
Do you know what else is new to conventional oncology? Integrative therapy. Evidence-based, non-toxic therapies that are shown to enhance the efficacy of paclitaxel while reducing its toxicity.
The other dirty little secret of conventional oncology that is outed in the article below? Aggressive chemotherapy can cause cancer cells to become aggressive. That’s right. Aggressive toxic chemotherapy can cause some people’s cancers to become aggressive.
Think about it. And then scroll down the page, post a question and I will reply ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Evidence-based Medicine and the Cancer Patient
- CoQ10 (coenzyme Q 10) ubiquinone for chemo-induced heart damage
- Chemo Brain Therapies in Breast Cancer
An Evolutionary Approach: Learning to Live With Cancer
“A different way of looking at cancer, using a so-called “eco-evolutionary” model, has been given a boost by new results from a preclinical model of breast cancer. Adaptive therapy involving frequent administration of low-dose paclitaxel (multiple brands) was shown to significantly increase overall survival in mice with triple-negative breast cancer compared with control animals receiving standard high-dose paclitaxel…
Rather than trying to aggressively shrink the tumor, drug doses should be lowered, depending on how the tumor responds, so that a small population of drug-sensitive cells is always around to suppress the growth of resistant ones, the authors suggest…
It changes “the existing paradigm of cancer as a foreign tissue needing eradication by high-dose chemotherapy,” she writes, to “a model of cancer as an eco-evolutionary system, in which sustained suppression of tumor growth is a more appropriate therapeutic path — and one with much less toxicity…”
Although the results are from a preclinical study, they have been sufficient to prompt a team of Moffit researchers, led by Jingsong Zhang, MD, PPh.D. to test this approach in a pilot study. They are using adaptive therapy with abiraterone (Zytiga, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc) in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer. “The purpose of this study is to find out if an on-and-off schedule of taking abiraterone would prolong the participants’ cancers’ response to this drug and maintain their functionality to perform their daily activities,” the researchers explained…
More than 40% of men with normal rectal examinations in their 60s have histological evidence of malignant disease, but the prevalence of clinically apparent prostate cancer is only 1%,” Dr Klement writes.
Improvements in medical imaging will overestimate disease and may lead to early intervention, disturbing the Darwinian equilibrium, she cautions.
“[E]nthusiasm for early interventions should be tempered,” she recommends, “because it can disturb the equilibrium, causing inflammation, escape from dormancy, and more aggressive disease.“”