Dana-Farber researchers focus on breakthrough cancer research and care at 2015 ASCO conference

Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will be presenting more than 70 studies at this year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, May 29 – June 2, 2015.

The latest cancer research findings from Dana-Farber faculty will show new treatments for diseases including melanoma, gastric cancer, brain cancer, and ovarian cancer as well as new developments around adult psychosocial and pediatric issues. Some of the research highlights being presented at the conference include:

Ovarian suppression affects quality of life in young women with breast cancer

According to a study from Dana-Farber, adding ovarian suppression therapy to tamoxifen can improve breast cancer-free survival in young women with estrogen-positive tumors. However, this reduction in recurrences comes at a significant cost in side effects including hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, distractibility, and weight gain, researchers added.

Researchers led by Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber administered a symptom checklist to 444 breast cancer patients age 40 and younger. Responses were compared between those who took ovarian suppressing drugs along with tamoxifen, and those who took only tamoxifen.

The majority of the women also received chemotherapy as well as tamoxifen. These patients, when ovarian suppression was added to their treatment, reported poorer quality of life and more troublesome cognitive problems, hot flashes and other symptoms than women who whose treatment did not include ovarian suppression.

In light of these results, the researchers concluded that the additional side effects and symptoms associated with ovarian suppression should be considered in making treatment decisions and in survivorship care. These data suggest that, as noted by Shoshana Rosenberg, ScD, an investigator in the Smith Center and first author of the study, “early intervention to reduce symptom burden should be offered to young women to potentially improve quality of life, enhance adherence to treatment, and to optimize survival.

Web-based electronic tool improved psychosocial outcomes in patients undergoing cancer treatment

Cancer patients who used a Web-based tool to communicate with caregivers during treatment reported significantly less depression and social functioning than did patients in a control group, according to Dana-Farber researchers.

Donna Berry, PhD, RN, led a trial of the Electronic Self-Report Assessment for Cancer (ESRA-C). Using ESRA-C, patients can monitor their symptoms and quality of life in between clinic visits as well as receive education about self-care. Clinical team members receive color coded patient-reports on which troublesome symptoms are easily identified. In previous studies, patients who used the tool had reduced cancer symptom distress.

The new study used web-based questionnaires to assess the impact of ESRA-C on psychosocial measures of quality of life and depression in 581 patients who had been randomized in the ESRA-C II trial. Results showed that patients using the ESRA-C intervention had significantly less depression and higher functional scores. Patients who were working during treatment had the greatest benefit from ESRA-C.

Chemotherapy regimen impacts breast conservation rates in triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer

In women with advanced triple-negative or HER2-positive breast cancer, front-line chemotherapy shrank tumors to the point where many who otherwise would have needed a mastectomy became eligible for breast-conserving surgery. The study involved nearly 700 patients participating in a clinical trial of different chemotherapy regimens as initial treatment for advanced triple-negative or HER2-positive breast cancer. Researchers led by Mehra Golshan, MD, of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber, found that in both groups of patients, the neoadjuvant chemotherapy allowed 42 percent of those who were initially ineligible for breast-conserving surgery to become eligible for it. Despite this, a substantial fraction of such patients still opted for mastectomy.

Clinical factors and insurance type impact survival rates

Lack of health insurance is one of several characteristics shared by women who die within six months of being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, researchers have found. Investigators led by Ines Vaz Luis, MD, MSc, and Rachel A. Freedman, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber and the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers studied the outcomes of more than 4,000 patients with metastatic breast cancer, 20 percent of whom died within six months of diagnosis. They found that patients who were older, lacked health insurance, and had the triple-negative form of breast cancer were more likely than others to be in the group that died earlier. The findings suggest it will be valuable to study how differences in insurance reform and other disease factors may modify the risk for early death from this disease.

No genetic damage found in children of cancer survivors treated with chemotherapy

Results of a new study should reassure cancer survivors that the chemotherapy they received won’t lead to genetic damage in children they conceive later. While chemotherapy exposures in pre-clinical trials have been linked to subsequent DNA damage in their offspring, no harm of this type has been observed in humans.

Eliezer Van Allen, MD, and Mary-Ellen Taplin, MD, of Dana-Farber led a study using whole-genome sequencing to look for signs of genetic damage in two male cancer survivors and their offspring. The men had been cured of testicular cancer with combination chemotherapy, and both had children that were conceived before and after their treatment.

Obtaining DNA from saliva samples of the survivors and their offspring, the researchers scanned their genomes for signs of mutations and other DNA abnormalities. Van Allen reported that there was no increase in such abnormalities in the DNA of children whose fathers had undergone chemotherapy.

These findings provide an initial look at the impact of environment exposures on the inherited genome, said Van Allen, and, if validated in more families, may give comfort to patients who aren’t able to have sperm frozen and preserved prior to cancer treatment.