Germ cell tumors are cancers that arise from reproductive organs but most commonly affect the ovary and testicles. Researchers report in the December 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology that cisplatin along with epirubicin appears to be effective in certain patients with advanced disease.

This combination to treat metastatic germ cell tumors was shown to help nine patients, out of 30 studied, achieve complete remission. Dr. Pablo M. Bedano, of India University School of Medicine, said that the findings "have established cisplatin-epirubicin as one more alternative in the treatment of refractory germ cell tumors".

The researchers concluded that this regimen has an acceptable level of toxicity and offers potential long term disease survival.

Among all sorts of news circulating as a result of the recent breast cancer conference in San Antonio, Texas is a report about an international study that has many touting Canadian chemotherapy treatments as the best therapies around -- even better than the commonly-used AC/T cocktail (doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) .

The winning Canadian drug combinations -- EC/T (epirubicin and cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) and CEF (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and fluorouracil) -- are reportedly more effective at preventing breast cancer recurrence than AC/T.

About 2,104 women in Canada and the United States participated in this international study. All had undergone surgery to remove a tumor and were receiving chemotherapy. The women, aged 60 and under, all had cancer that had spread to their lymph nodes, indicating the disease was likely to spread.

The women received one of three treatments -- AC/T, EC/T, or CEF -- and results revealed that for every 100 women who received EC/T or CEF, 10 women would suffer a recurrence. For every 100 women who received AC/T, 15 women would relapse.

The lead researcher of the study says it's too soon to say whether EC/T and CEF are more effective in the long-term. So participants will be followed for some time while researchers will try to make sense of their initial findings. In the meantime, they suspect AC/T will continue to be widely used because of its lesser side effects.

Anthracyclines are a type of chemotherapy that treat several different types of cancer including (but not limited to) leukemia, lymphomas, breast, uterine, ovarian, and lung cancers. Anthracyclines are technically antibiotics, although their high toxicity precludes their use as such. A major side effect from this type of chemotherapy is that it can lead to heart problems in some patients. The risk for heart problems can remain elevated long after cancer treatment is finished.

Researchers are looking to find ways to lower the risk of patients developing heart problems after treatment without sacrificing the effectiveness of the drugs. They reviewed information from six previously published clinical trials and found that if the infusion of anthracyclines are given slower, over a period of six hour or longer, it appears to reduce the risk of heart problems.

Available anthracyclines include:

• Daunorubicin
• Doxorubicin
• Epirubicin
• Idarubicin
• Mitoxantrone