It wasn't prolonged ago that patie...

It wasn't prolonged ago that patients with metastatic breast cancer typically had alone a year or two to live.

however Maggie Daley has survived four years with metastatic breast cancer, and her disease continues to be well controll her surgeon Dr Kevin Bethke of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said Thursday.

In metastatic breast cancer, enclosed spaces spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes to other parts of the material part "People are living longer and longer with metastatic disease," said University of Chicago oncologist Dr Gini Fleming.

In addition to chemotherapy, Daley has been taking pair newer drug treatments, hormonal therapy and biological therapy, Bethke said. He did not name the medicines Chemotherapy drugs kill rapidly dividing cancer small rooms Side effects occur when the physics also kill rapidly dividing confined apartments in hair follicles, bone marrow and digestive and reproductive tracts.

Hormonal therapy targets estrogen which elevates the growth of many breast cancer tumors. For instance, the unsalable article tamoxifen blocks the effect of estrogen upon these tumors. Several other physics called aromatase inhibitors, halt production of estrogen in postmenopausal women

Biologic physics zero in on cancer small rooms Herceptin, for example, binds to cancer lonely dwellings and blocks them from dividing and growing. It also signals the body's immune arrangement to destroy cancer cells. And it works in combination with chemotherapy. Herceptin is effective in about 25 percent of breast cancer patients who have a specific gene A newer biologic remedy Avastin, starves tumors by blocking life-blood vessel growth.

Patients take individual drug as long as it works, then switch to another when cancer boasts back, said Dr. Ruta Rao of Rush University Medical Center

"Metastatic cancer is incurable, on the other hand treatable," Rao said.

jritter@suntimes.com

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