This review evaluated the association between breast cancer subtypes and the risk of recurrence (return of the cancer) in breast cancer patients. 

This study evaluated the effect of breast implants on the diagnosis and rate of survival in women with breast cancer.

This study evaluated the efficacy of hormone therapy in patients with two types of breast cancer, invasive ductal breast carcinomas (IDC) and invasive lobular breast carcinomas (ILC) based on hormonal status. 

This trial compared treatment with trastuzumab (herceptin) in combination with docetaxel, to a new combination drug called trastuzumab emtansine.

This article summarizes recent findings regarding cognitive problems and decline in patients previously treated with chemotherapy.  It gives a comprehensive overview of results from neuropsychological, imaging and animal studies. It also proposes investigating post-chemotherapy mental decline in the context of the normal aging process.

In long term cancer survivors, mental function decline seems to occur at a faster rate than what is expected as part of the normal aging process. The factors involved in this accelerated decline have not yet been identified.

It is hypothesized that:

1. The cancer’s biology (e.g. the body’s inflammatory response) influences cognitive performance and may promote accelerated aging.
2. Common factors may exist between cognitive decline and the development of cancer (e.g. a person’s genetic makeup)

Supporting evidence exists for both hypotheses in the literature, as well as for using the process of normal aging (and its milestones) as model and tools for explaining the cognitive changes.

Several studies found that 20% to 30% of patients with breast cancer have lower than expected cognitive performance based on age and education in the pretreatment assessment. This doesn’t seem to be related to psychological factors (e.g. depression or anxiety), fatigue or surgical factors.

The article reports positive results for various treatments aimed at slowing down mental decline. Modafinil (Provigil) has been shown to improve memory and attention and to reduce fatigue. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and cognitive training, physical exercise and even dietary interventions have been shown to yield positive results for the prevention of cognitive decline in cancer survivors. The authors also recommend developing “models of aging” that will help identify factors responsible for mental decline in cancer patients.

The development of new strategies to deal with cognitive impairment in chemotherapy-treated patients requires further studies in order to discover the exact mechanisms of decline.

The aim of this paper was to identify if a longer course of chemotherapy was better than a short course. The authors look at how long patients survived with metastatic breast cancer or with no further cancer progression.

Breast cancer is called metastatic when it has spread from the breast to other parts of the body such as the lymph nodes, lungs, bones and brain. Chemotherapy is one of the most common treatments for metastatic breast cancer. The type of chemotherapy treatment used depends on various things including the patient’s age, health and the type of breast cancer.

The article examined data from 2269 patients with metastatic breast cancer, pooled from 11 clinical trials. All of the studies in this review compared different chemotherapy durations (number of cycles of chemotherapy). These comparisons included:

1. A fixed duration of therapy (number of cycles) compared to continuous cycles until there was no further disease progression.
2. A fixed duration of therapy compared to a larger number of chemotherapy cycles.
3. A fixed duration of therapy compared to the same treatment followed immediately by more cycles with a different drug.

Results showed that patients survived longer without further progression of their cancer when they had more cycles of chemotherapy.  This suggests that it is beneficial to have continuous chemotherapy as long as the side effects are tolerated.  This finding is not specific to one type of chemotherapy.

The main limitations of this article are the small number of trials included in the analysis and the fact that some of the drugs used are no longer available (some trials were performed a long time ago).