Breast Cancer Breakthrough At Moses Cone

Published: January 3, 2006 | 3168th good news item since 2003

Most of the time we look to teaching hospitals like Duke and UNC for major treatment advances, but trials are happening at smaller hospitals as well, and getting impressive results.

June LaClair won’t miss another mammogram.

“Unfortunately I was not doing what most women should do and that’s have annual mammograms, so I noticed a lump in my left breast and I was concerned.”

She saw oncologist Dr. Peter Rubin.

“She presented with a breast mass as well as an enlarged lymph node under the arm which was about an egg-shape and size.”

She would need aggressive therapy right away.

“He said there was a standard procedure, that I definitely would have to go through chemotherapy, that I would have to have surgery and that I would have to have radiation. He did mention that there was a trial that was being done here and elsewhere in the US and that I might be a prime candidate for this trial.”

“What we found is that by using two very new chemotherapy drugs together in higher doses given more frequently, given every two weeks instead of every three weeks or every four weeks, we actually can induce a better response in the breast cancer,” says Dr. Rubin.

June joined the trial.

“Within a few weeks of treatment she started to have a pretty dramatic response, you could actually feel that this mass was shrinking.”

Scans showed the same thing.

“This is a scan done about three months later, and essentially you don’t see anything in the breast,” explained Dr. Rubin.

Today June is cancer free. She’ll still have visits with Dr. Rubin, but she’ll be spending a lot more time with a new VIP in her life.

“I just got a new grandson and I knew that I could enjoy him for the rest of my life.”

The trial was so successful dr. Rubin presented the findings at a recent national breast cancer conference.

Oncologists at Moses Cone continue to use the therapy with many breast cancer patients.

Published in Cancer and Science & Technology
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