Health News
Hope for New Breast Cancer Treatment
May 1, 2006
Today marks the beginning of the first breast cancer treatment study of its kind. 150 women who are known to have the BRAC1 or BRAC2 genes will take part in the new study and will undergo treatment with the drug carboplatin. Currently there is not treatment for women who carry the HBAC gene.
Women who carry the HBAC gene have an 85 percent chance of developing breast cancer by the time they are 70. Many women with the "breast cancer gene" are known to remove their breasts and get hysterectomies to prevent cancer from developing.
According to an article on the Telegraph, one in 44 Ashkenazi Jewish women carry the mutation against fewer than one in 100 in the non-Jewish population.
Laboratory work suggests that carboplatin is 20 times more effective on BRCA cancer cells than standard chemotherapy.