A Different Remedy

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 18 July 2002 it was reported that "up to a third of older women with breast cancer could manage without chemotherapy, with all its unpleasant side effects". An international trial had shown that post-menopausal women whose cancer was oestrogen-dependent and had not spread into the lymph nodes fared just as well on tamoxifen alone as those on chemotherapy plus tamoxifen. The study also found that women whose cancer was not receptive to oestrogen survived as well with a shorter three months course of chemotherapy as those on a standard longer course.

CISS Convenor Don Benjamin's response to this article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 July - see below:

 

A Different Remedy It is good to see that studies are at last identifying those women with breast cancer who benefit from chemotherapy ("Chemotherapy 'overused' in breast cancer treatment", Herald July 18), and that a shorter, 3 month course is often just as effective. It would be even better to see a wider acceptance of other more beneficial therapies. For example, behaviour therapy has been shown in two randomised trials to benefit women with breast cancer. In one trial psychotherapy, added to normal treatment, increased survival by 94%. In a second randomised trial, chemotherapy increased survival by 25% and psychotherapy increased survival by 32%. But when behaviour therapy was added to chemotherapy, survival increased by 98%. In both trials behaviour therapy also improved the quality of life. Don Benjamin Convenor/research officer Cancer Information & Support Society St Leonards, July 18. (Published in Sydney Morning Herald 22 July 2002)