St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital, Macomb Center, Webber Cancer Center
Oncology (cancer)
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Media Contact: Wende Berry, (313) 343-7458
St. John Macomb Hospital (SJMH) recently participated a in the national study conducted for breast cancer patients. The study showed promising results in treating patients in the early stages of breast cancer. The cancer that responded to the treatment, HER-2 positive invasive breast cancer, has tumors that tend to grow much faster and are more likely to recur than tumors that do not overproduce the protein HER-2.
“In this study, it was found that women who were given Herceptin ® (trastuzumab) in combination with chemotherapy had a 52 percent decrease in disease recurrence, compared to patients who received chemotherapy alone,” said Allen N. Stawis, M.D., Medical Director, Webber Cancer Center. “This represents a significant advancement in the treatment for women with high risk breast cancer.”
“These findings confirm that we now have a very potent weapon against the recurrence of cancer cells that overexpress HER-2,” said Edith A. Perez, M.D., who chaired the trial and is a medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. “We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of our investigators and, most importantly, our courageous patients in helping to achieve these unprecedented results.”
St. John Macomb Hospital is a member of the Michigan Cancer Research Consortium Community Clinical Oncology Program (MCRC CCOP), one of only 50 programs in the country designated as a CCOP by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
For more information on this and other cancer treatments, contact the Webber Cancer Center toll free at 1-888-5-WEBBER or the Clinical Trials Office at (586) 573-5127.
St. John Macomb Hospital is a member of St. John Health, the largest provider of inpatient care in Southeast Michigan and one of the largest employers in metro Detroit. St. John Health provides comprehensive prevention, primary care and advanced treatment programs with more than 125 medical centers, and eight hospitals spanning five counties.
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