Hormone chemotherapy

Additionally, MMPIs are not expected to replace currently used, proven-effective modalities of cancer treatment such as radiotherapy, hormonal/chemotherapy, or surgery. It is predicted that they will be clinically developed for use in combination with these agents. As expected, given nonoverlapping toxicities and differing mechanisms of action, MMPIs have been combined preclinically with radiation therapy (4), cytotoxic (5-9), resultant additive or supraadditive efficacy. With these data in mind, the ability to combine an MMPI with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy may become an important feature in the ultimate clinical success of these agents. 

Kimura M, Sasagawa T, Tomita Y, Katagiri A, Morishita H, Saito T, Tanikawa T, Kawasaki T, Saito K, Nishiyama T, Kasahara T, Hara N, Takahashi K. [Intermittent oral hormonal chemotherapy using estramustine phosphate and eto-poside for the treatment of hormone-refractory prostate cancer.] Hinyokika Kiyo 2003 49(12) 709-14. 

At least in terms of the combination hormonal/chemotherapy regimens, the choice is in knowing that they may not all be as effective as once thought. So ask your oncologist about the risks versus the benefits for your particular treatment. 

Modem cancer therapy has been primarily dependent upon surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy (72) (see Chemotherapeutics,anticancer Hormones Radiopharmaceuticals). Chemotherapeutic agents maybe able to retard the rate of growth, but are unable to eradicate the entire population of neoplastic cells without significant destmction of normal host tissue. This serious side effect limits general use. More recentiy, the immunotherapeutic approach to cancer has involved modification and exploitation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms in host defense, regulation of tissue proliferation, tissue differentiation, and tissue survival. The results have been more than encouraging. 

Adjuvant endocrine therapy reduces the rates of relapse and death in patients with hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer tumors. Adjuvant chemotherapy reduces the rates of relapse and death in all patients with early-stage breast cancer. 

An NIH Consensus Development Conference Statement22 advises that adjuvant hormonal therapy should be recommended to women whose tumors contain hormone-receptor protein regardless of age, menopausal status, involvement of axillary lymph nodes, or tumor size. They also support a benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for most women with lymph node metastases or with primary breast cancers larger than 1 cm in diameter (both node-negative and node-positive).22... 

The use of preoperative systemic therapy is gaining favor in both early-stage and locally advanced breast cancers. This approach to therapy, referred to as neoadjuvant or primary systemic therapy, most often consists of chemotherapy but in special circumstances also may include hormonal therapy (e.g., in inoperable patients with significant comorbidities). The advantages of preoperative systemic therapy include... 

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is eventually required in most patients with metastatic breast cancer. Patients with hormone-receptor-negative tumors require chemotherapy as initial therapy of symptomatic metastases. Patients who respond initially to hormonal manipulations eventually cease to respond and go on to require chemotherapy. The median duration of response is 5 to 12 months, but some patients will have an excellent response to an initial course of chemotherapy and may live 5 to 10 years or longer without evidence of disease. In general, median survival of patients after treatment with commonly used drug combinations for metastatic breast cancer is 14 to 33 months. The median time to response has ranged from 2 to 3 months in most studies, but this period depends in large part on the site of measurable disease. The median time to appearance of response is between 3 and 6 weeks in patients whose disease is primarily in the skin and lymph nodes, 6 to 9 weeks in patients with metastatic lung involvement, 15 weeks in patients with hepatic involvement, and nearly 18 weeks in patients with bone involvement. Thus it is often the case that an immediate response to therapy is not... 

There are no well-defined clinical characteristics or established tests to identify patients likely to benefit from chemotherapy. Factors associated with an increased probability of response that have been identified include a good performance status, a limited number (one to two) of disease sites, and patients who respond to chemotherapy or hormonal therapy with a long disease-free interval. Patients who have progressive disease during chemotherapy have a lower probability of response to a different type of chemotherapy. However, this is not necessarily true for patients who are given chemotherapy after some interval during which they have received no chemotherapy. Patients who do not respond to endocrine therapy are as likely to respond to chemotherapy as patients who are treated with chemotherapy as their initial treatment modality. Age, menopausal status, and receptor status have not been associated with favorable or unfavorable response to chemotherapy. 

Early breast cancer is resected completely with curative intent, and adjuvant chemotherapy and hormonal therapy are initiated to prevent recurrence. During adjuvant chemotherapy, laboratory values to monitor chemotherapy toxicity are obtained prior to each cycle of chemotherapy. After completion of adjuvant therapy, patients are monitored every 3 months for the first few years after diagnosis, with intervals between exams extended as time from diagnosis lengthens. 

Chemotherapy, with docetaxel and prednisone or docetaxel and estramustine, improves survival in patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer should be considered for entry into clinical trials investigating new therapies for prostate cancer. 

Prostate cancer treatment depends on the stage, age, Gleason score, and PSA concentration. Treatment options include expectant management, radiation therapy, radical prostatectomy, hormonal therapy, and chemotherapy. 

TABLE 89-7. First-Line Chemotherapy Regimens for Metastatic Hormone-Independent Prostate Cancer... 

CA 15-3 serum tumor marker is intended to detect disease recurrence in stage II and stage III breast cancer patients. It has been reported that CA 15-3, together with other suitable markers, is preferred in measuring the effect of applied hormonal therapy or chemotherapy in metastatic disease. Studies have indicated that CA 15-3 assay values are frequently elevated in patients with breast cancer. These... 

Chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or both result in improved disease-free survival and/or overall survival (OS) for all treated patients. 

Endocrine therapy is the treatment of choice for patients who have hormone receptor-positive metastases in soft tissue, bone, pleura, or, if asymptomatic, viscera. Compared with chemotherapy, endocrine therapy has an equal probability of response and a better safety profile. 

Chemotherapy is preferred to endocrine therapy for women with hormone receptor-negative tumors rapidly progressive lung, liver, or bone marrow involvement or failure of endocrine therapy. 

The major initial treatment modality for advanced prostate cancer is androgen ablation (e.g., orchiectomy or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone [LHRH] agonists with or without antiandrogens). After disease progression, secondary hormonal manipulations, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and supportive care are used. 

After hormonal options are exhausted, palliation can be achieved with strontium-89 or samarium-153 lexidronam for bone-related pain, analgesics, glucocorticoids, local radiotherapy, or chemotherapy. 

Finally, therapeutic sequencing of different hormonal agents is fast becoming a common clinical practice, and fulvestrant is a good treatment choice to extend the opportunity for using endocrine therapies before reliance upon cytotoxic chemotherapy is necessary. Further research is required in order to evaluate the optimal sequence, both in clinical practice as well as in the laboratory, to choose the correct treatment of breast cancer in each person after the appearance of tamoxifen-induced drug resistance (Robertson 2004 Osipo et al. 2004 Johnston 2004 Robertson et al. 2005). 

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