Olivia Newton-John's breast cancer return sparks questions about recurrence quoting : CBS News

Singer Olivia Newton-John announced Tuesday that her breast cancer is back after being in remission for 25 years. While in Newton-John's case cancer spread to her bone, breast cancer can also crop up in the lymph glands, lungs, brain or other parts of the body. But he said patients should be wary about relying on natural options as an alternative to standard breast cancer treatments. "I would say breast cancer – a lot of these cancers – have become more of a chronic illness than a terminal illness. What's the outlook for a woman who experiences a breast cancer recurrence?




A drug called Xeloda can extend the lives of some women whose breast cancer is not wiped out by standard treatment, a new clinical trial finds. And, she added, it "drives home" the fact that researchers are continuing to make progress against hard-to-treat breast cancer. In 1998, Xeloda was approved in the United States for advanced breast cancer that had spread to distant sites in the body. Five years later, 89 percent of Xeloda patients were still alive, compared with just under 84 percent of placebo patients. In addition, they all had cancer that lacked a protein called HER2 -- which meant they could not benefit from breast cancer drugs that target HER2, such as Herceptin.

Will Olivia Newton-John's cancer diagnosis help 'Grease' research into metastatic breast cancer?

We were saddened to hear about the much-admired and loved Olivia Newton-John's revelation this week that she has been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer a quarter century after her first diagnosis. Over the subsequent decades, Komen grew into the world's largest breast cancer charity, funding breast cancer research, community health outreach and screening, patient advocacy, and related programs in more than 30 countries. It is estimated to occur in about 25 to 30 percent of breast cancer survivors. But she later learned its actual cause was from breast cancer that had metastasized to her sacrum, a triangular bone at the base of the spine. Metastatic disease, also known as advanced or stage IV breast cancer, means that the cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body, including the lungs, liver, brain, and bones.


collected by :Lucy William

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