Dear MIRIAM: FIGHTING TO WIN.Byline: Dr MIRIAM STOPPARD Dear Miriam I HAVE breast cancer. I've had a mastectomy mastectomy (măstĕk`təmē), surgical removal of breast tissue, usually done as treatment for breast cancer. There are many types of mastectomy. In general, the farther the cancer has spread, the more tissue is taken. , radiotherapy and chemo che·mo n. Chemotherapy or a chemotherapeutic treatment. . My doctor told me my cancer is starting to resist the chemo. Is there anything that will make the cancer sensitive again? YOU'RE being very brave. I hugely admire you. There's some good news. A vaccine has been developed that could be used to treat advanced breast cancer. Patients are usually given hormonal drugs or chemotherapy and experts from Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. say tumours quickly resist, as has happened in your case. The new treatment is a vaccine used in conjunction with two drugs to help overcome this tumour resistance. Vaccine therapy - or immunotherapy - relies on the potential of activating the immune system to destroy cancer cells. To make the breast cancer vaccine, breast cancer cells, treated with radiation to prevent them from growing or dividing, are genetically modified so they manufacture a compound called GM-CSF. It's made by the body and triggers the immune system to seek out and destroy a tumour. Patients in the trial will receive 12 injections and hopefully the two drugs will have an increased effect. See your breast specialist for the latest treatments. |
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