Continuous chemotherapy treatment would be more effective in patients with advanced breast cancer, compared to chemotherapy in cycles. Explanations.
There are several types of treatment for breast cancer, which depend on the progress of the disease and its nature. Because yes, there are also several types of breast cancer, the most classic being ductal and lobular carcinomas, which can be “in situ”, i.e. in their original location, or be “infiltrating”, s they spread to nearby tissues.
The cancer is said to be at an advanced stage based on certain criteria: if the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters, or if it has invaded more than 4 lymph nodes, or if there are metastases in the lymph nodes of the breast. If the cancer becomes metastasized, then it means that the metastases have spread to other organs. At this stage, it is only a question of prolonging the lifespan and the quality of life of the patient.
“These results run counter to our hypothesis”
Researchers from Zuyderland Medical Center in the Netherlands wanted to know to what extent continuous chemotherapy could be used in advanced stages of breast cancer to increase the patient’s quality of life. Their conclusions, made public at the Congress from ESMO, show that the survival rate, but also the quality of life, increases with continued treatment. They themselves did not expect this conclusion: “These results go against our hypothesis, explains Doctor and co-researcher Monique Bos. When explaining the treatment programs to patients, we tended to suggest that ‘a break in the middle of the treatment could be beneficial, but it was not’.
A long-term study
To reach this conclusion, the study treated 420 patients with advanced breast cancer with either conventional chemotherapy or continuous chemotherapy. They followed the intermittent regimen in the first group, that is to say four cycles of treatment followed by a break, then again four more cycles. For the second, a continuous regimen comprising the same eight cycles administered consecutively was followed. To measure quality of life, patients completed a questionnaire every 12 weeks during treatment and follow-up. Changes in physical and mental quality of life scores for each group were monitored for an average of 1 year.
“The finding that continued chemotherapy is not at all associated with a deterioration in quality of life is clinically significant,” the researchers report. Nevertheless, being able to carry out continuous treatment for many months remains complicated: “the challenge for clinical practice is to use agents that are well tolerated and can be continued for a prolonged period without interruption”.
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