January 14, 2003
Study aims to solve puzzle of ER-negative breast tumors
Funds for four-year study
This unprecedented scientific assault has been funded by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), which has been supporting innovative breast cancer research since 1992, when Congress redirected money from DOD's "Star Wars" missile defense budget to biomedical research. The current grant is for $7 million to DF/HCC to launch the Center for Research on the Prevention and Treatment of ER-Negative Breast Cancer. The four-year study includes six major projects and a communications component that will integrate the research findings from the various labs. The data will be discussed among the investigators at monthly meetings and posted on the Internet for other researchers to share.
Though Amy Osgood wasn't able to use tamoxifen because of her ER-negative breast cancer, she says she is "doing great."
Judi Hirshfield-Bartek, RN, MS, OCN, a breast care nurse specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a consumer advocate on the new DF/HCC grant, says the work could lead to treatments that are better tailored to women with ER-negative cancer. "This is a large group of women who currently can only be offered chemotherapy as a treatment, which is really tough to go through," she says.
A case in point: Amy Osgood, a 38-year-old financial controller who lives in Acton, Mass., was diagnosed with cancer after finding a lump in her breast in April 2002. To test for the presence or absence of estrogen receptors, a pathologist stained a small slice of the biopsy specimen with two stains of different colors. Under the microscope, the cells of Osgood's cancer were light blue — the stain that identified ER-negative cells.
"When they told me it was ER-negative, the biggest disappointment was that I wouldn't be able to take tamoxifen" to prevent the recurrence of cancer after her lump was removed, says Osgood. "If I could take tamoxifen, I could continue to live a fairly normal life, just taking a pill every day, and still feel like I was actively fighting breast cancer," she says.
As it was, she needed eight rounds of chemotherapy in addition to the seven weeks of radiation that is standard in treatment of both ER-negative and ER-positive tumors. The chemotherapy was unpleasant and forced her to miss some work, but Osgood said in between rounds of chemotherapy, "I'm doing great."
In contrast, only some women with ER-positive tumors need to take chemotherapy along with tamoxifen, while others need only tamoxifen. The exact treatment is dictated by the stage and characteristics of the tumor.
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