Genetics and Health

Carboplatin Chemotherapy for BRCA-Related Breast Cancer

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on May 1st, 2006

Personalized medicine tailored to a person’s genetic make-up is already in use. For women with breast cancer associated with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, carboplatin may be 20 times more effective than standard chemotherapies.

On Monday, British scientists began a clinical trial involving 150 BRCA breast cancer patients, 75 of whom have the BRCA1 mutation and 75 with BRCA2. Half of the 150 will receive carboplatin and half docetaxel, the standard chemotherapy agent for breast cancer.

If the results of this clinical trial mirror those from animal studies, carboplatin may become the chemotherapy of choice within five years.

NB: For more information about cancer, visit our sister blog, Cancer Commentary.

The Times (UK), May 1, 2006

Technorati Tags: personalized medicine, chemotherapy, carboplatin, cancer, breast cancer, brca, brca1, brca2, genetics, genetics, mutations, disease, health, dna

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POSTED IN: Genetics of Disease