Browsing by Subject "breast cancer"
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(2016)Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, about 25 % of all cancers in women. 15 - 20 % of them are HER2 positive. HER2 is a transmembrane protein receptor with tyrosine kinase activity. When the overexpressed receptor is activated it turns on a cascade which results to activation of genes coding for for the growth of the cancer cells. Drugs against HER2 protein have significantly improved the survival of patients with HER2 positive breast cancer. In this systematic review the epidemiology, diagnostics and the principles of treatment is reviewed with focus on the treatment of HER2 positive breast cancer and anti-HER2 medications. Endpoints of clinical trials and handling the data are also reviewed. The aim of this study is to collect data of lapatinib, pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine in randomized clinical trials studying progression free survival, overall survival and adverse effects of patients with metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. As a result of the literature search 22 whole text articles were found. There were 14 of randomized clinical trials, 2 of previous systematic reviews and 6 of meta-analysis. The facts and results of the selected studies were collected in tables. The quality of the studies was evaluated with CONSORT and PRISMA guidance. Lapaninib is used mainly for treatment of patients with resistanse to trastuzumab. Lapatinib improves the progression free survival and overall survival but the effect has not been as goog as expected. Lapatinib is better than chemotherapy but worse than trastuzumab in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. Combinaition therapy is better than none of these alone. Lapatinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine are monoclonal antibodies targeting HER2 receptor. In trastuzumab emtansine there is also a cytotoxic drug which is delivered into the cancer cell. Pertuzumab is effective in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer and it improves the survival also after treatment with trastuzumab. Pertuzumab is now approved also as neoadjuvant. Promising results has been published with trastuzmab emtansine in the treatment of heavily medicated patients with progressive disease. Adverse effects were abundant but usually manageable and reversible. The quality of the studies was mainly good. Some limitations were noticed, especially in reporting methods. Cancer therapy with targeted medication improves the effect of the treatment and decrease systemic adverse effects. It seems that the use of lapatinib is going to be mostly complementary when more promising pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine turned up to be more effective in the treatment of metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer. In the future there should be more clinical experience with the use of lapatinib, pertuzumab and trastuzumab emtansine. That would guarantee a cancer patient the most effective treatment, hopefully at the early stage of cancer.
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(2019)Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women world wide and it´s incidence is constantly growing. The prognosis of local breast cancer is good and patients with metastatic breast cancer are living longer with their disease. The growing survivorship and population of chronically ill breast cancer patients has made quality of life one of the most important aspects in the treatment of breast cancer. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is a widely used treatment for breast cancer. Chemotherapy can cause difficult adverse events, which can affect the patients’ quality of life. Chemotherapy can also relieve the symptoms caused by cancer when used to treat metastatic breast cancer. The aim of this systematic review was to collect the currently available literature about breast cancer patients´ health related quality of life as comprehensively as possible, review the quality of the literature and the effects of chemotherapy on breast cancer patients ‘quality of life. The literature search produced 1666 references. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 107 full text articles were accepted to the final systematic review, 53 of which reported the health related quality of life during adjuvant treatment of breast cancer, and 51 of which reported it during the treatment of advanced or metastatic breast cancer. In addition 3 previous systematic reviews were found. The basic information about the articles was extracted into a table. Articles were heterogeneous regarding their study settings, used quality of life instruments and reporting. Most studies used a disease specific quality of life instrument. The collected literature gave a strong indication of quality of life worsening during adjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer. This observation was further supported by the previous systematic reviews. Most of the studies reporting the quality of life during chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer, reported less than clinically important changes during the treatment. A few studies reported clinically important worsening or improvement in quality of life. 11 studies, which were made during or after 21: st century, which reported numerical data from quality of life, which reported predominantly quality of life and which had sample size of at least 100 patients in baseline, were accepted to further assessment of quality of the studies and closer observation. The quality of the studies was assessed with STROBE and CONSORT checklists. The quality of studies was heterogeneous as the studies fulfilled 44.8 % to 86.1 % of the scoring items. Only one randomized controlled trial reported quality of life as their primary end point. The data from these studies supported the previous observation of quality of life worsening during adjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer. The effect of chemotherapy during metastatic breast cancer on quality of life was not unambiguous. Both clinically meaningful worsening and improvement of quality of life was reported. Breast cancer patients´ health related quality of life has been assessed in multiple publications, but the existing literature is heterogeneous and it´s use in decision making and economic evaluation is not easily feasible. Breast cancer patients´ health related quality of life worsened during adjuvant chemotherapy. Significant improvement in breast cancer patients´ health related quality of life was not observed during chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer.
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(2018)Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and the number of new events is on the increase. Like many other serious diseases, breast cancer reduces patient’s health related quality of life (HRQoL) and breast cancer treatment burdens our society. Examination of breast cancer patient’s HRQoL makes it possible to calculate how effective breast cancer treatments are. Nevertheless, only cost-effectiveness analysis would further help us allocate the resources of our society in the best way possible. The aim of this study was to produce research about breast cancer treatment’s effects on patient’s HRQoL and to compare generic 15D- and EQ-5D-5L-instruments. The results can be used in the future research and the study might be useful, when it’s time to develop international protocol for measuring HRQoL. The study population included 152 breast cancer patients who were treated in HUCH and whose HRQoL were measured by 15D-, EQ-5D-5L- and VAS-instruments. All measurements were done twice, first before the treatments and then six months after the beginning of the treatments. 89 (58.6 %) patients answered both 15D-questionnaires and 81 (53.3 %) patients answered to both EQ-5D-questionnaires. 57 (37.5 %) patients didn’t respond to any questionnaire. Only some background information was available of this population. The average HRQoL for breast cancer patients’ was 0.92 before the treatments and 0.88 six months after the beginning of the treatments when measured by 15D. The same average HRQoL was 0.86 before the treatments and 0.80 six months after the beginning of the treatments when measured by EQ-5D-5L. During six months’ period, patients HRQoL reduced (-0.04) when it was measured by 15D and (-0.06) when it was measured by EQ-5D. The changes of HRQoL were clinically important (The minimum important change, MIC > ± 0,015) when measured by 15D. HRQoL reduced more with patients who received a mastectomy than with patients, who received a breast conserving surgery according to both instruments. According to the results, the chosen instrument has an effect of breast cancer patients’ HRQoL. It means that the chosen instrument also has an effect of treatment’s effectiveness. 15D offers higher HRQoL values, but EQ-5D offers a greater change in patient’s HRQoL. HRQoL was measured by two different generic instruments in two different times, which was assumed to be the strength of this study. The new 5L-version of EQ-5D-instrument was also used. This is possibly the first time, when 5L is used in this type of study.
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