Results of two studies, sponsored by the Adjuvant Breast Cancer (ABC) Trials Collaborative Group, conclude that adding chemotherapy to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen improves survival for those with early-stage breast cancer. The same studies reveal preventing the secretion of estrogen from the ovaries does not offer much benefit for most women.

Researchers studied 1991 patients, ages 28 to 81. All had received five years worth of treatment with tamoxifen therapy with or without standard chemotherapy. Some premenopausal women were also treated with ovarian removal (ablation) or suppression, a technique used to stop the glands from secreting hormones.

While early results, appearing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, fell short of statistical significance, chemotherapy still reduced the overall risk of death by 17 percent, mostly for women younger than 50 and especially for premenopausal women not treated with ovarian ablation or suppression.

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) only makes up about one to four percent of all breast cancers diagnosed. It has been known to be the most aggressive and deadly breast cancer diagnosis to receive. A clinical trial, reported in the journal Cancer, tells of researchers from France who focused their study on women with IBC who were treated with a high dose chemotherapy regimen.

There are very few studies focusing on IBC that have a ten year follow up. Large clinical trials and long term results for this disease are unusual. The trial evaluated 120 women with IBC who were treated with induction therapy followed by surgery. The chemotherapy treatment regimen consisted of fluorouracil (5-FU), Ellence (epirubicin) and cytoxan (cyclophosphamide), with or without Granocyte (lenograstim).

At ten years follow up, cancer free survival was nearly 36 percent and overall survival was almost 42 percent. These numbers may still seem too low for my liking but they are encouraging because they show that improvements in treating this disease are working and more women are surviving. The prognosis is not as grim as it once was for inflammatory breast cancer. This is good news!

Eli Lilly and Company has launched a major clinical trial evaluating ALIMTA (pemetrexed for injection) in extensive stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a devastating and rapidly spreading form of lung cancer. SCLC is sometimes called oat cell cancer because small cell lung cancer cells resemble oat grains. Patients with SCLC are staged according to a two-stage system, being diagnosed as having either limited stage disease or extensive stage disease. About 65 to 70 percent of patients with SCLC are diagnosed with extensive stage disease and the current two year survival rate is less than 10 percent.

The GALES trial, Global Analysis of Pemetexed in SCLC Extensive Stage, is a Phase III trial that will enroll 1,820 patients with extensive stage disease. The study's primary objective is to compare the overall survival after treatment with pemetrexed plus carboplatin verses the current standard treatment of etoposide plus carboplatin.

More details on the study design and information on global recruitment sites may be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov and www.lillytrials.com or by calling 1-877-CTLILLY.

An announcement last Wednesday revealed an overall decline in cancer death rates -- probably due to reduced exposure to tobacco, early detection, and better treatment. But the announcement also revealed a surprising jump in cases of thyroid cancer for women.

Between the years 1981 and 1993, incidence rates among women climbed 2.2 percent each year. Between the years 1993 and 2000, they rose 4.6 percent per year. And between 2000 and 2003, there was a 9.1 percent increase each year. This could be a result of better diagnosis but scientists are wondering if there is an unknown risk factor contributing to this startling finding. And it will take at least two more years to determine whether this is a random fluctuation or a true trend. The rate of thyroid cancer in men has also increased but not as much as for women.

The silver lining in this cancer cloud is that trends -- such as those showing increases in cancer incidences and death rates -- often fuel the fight against cancer because researchers are alerted to look for causes which ultimately results in better detection and better prevention.