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A clinical trial of a drug treating advanced stages of breast and ovarian cancer, is showing great promise. It's targeted therapy for women who are genetically predisposed to the disease -- women who carry the BRCA gene mutations (also known as "bracca" gene mutations). The drug aims at only the cancerous cells, without the toxic effects of chemotherapy.

One woman who's experiencing a startling turnaround, Tina Roark, recently spoke to CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.

Roark now describes herself as a cancer survivor.

"This time last year, I wouldn't have ever thought I'd be sitting here today," Roark said.

Roark has been battling breast cancer since 1999. She was just 37 when she was diagnosed.

"My son was in the first grade and he graduated this year," Roark said. "And I did not think I was going to get to see it."

Surgery and grueling chemotherapy led to remission, but five years later, the cancer came back -- with a vengeance.

"I had a lot on my spine, in my bones and my back," Roark said.

Roark is one of the five-to-10 percent of women with breast or ovarian cancers who carry mutations of the BRCA gene. The BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes are actually tumor suppressors. So a damaged gene puts women at high risk for the disease. Not only did Roark test positive for the mutation, so did nearly every woman in her family. Cancer struck nine relatives over four generations.

Roark says she was prepared to die. "My life was not worth living, because it was just constant pain and agony and doctors," she said.

When chemotherapy was no longer working, Roark's doctor learned about a drug trial at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for end-stage cancer patients genetically predisposed to the disease.

She joined the study in March, under the direction of Dr. William Audeh.

Roark takes 16 pills of Olaparib a day. Here's how the drug works: Throughout the body, cells are constantly replicating and repairing themselves. Cancer cells replicate so fast that mistakes occur, causing DNA damage. Olaparib targets only the cancer cells and blocks the enzyme they need to repair their DNA. The result: the cancer cells die.

In this international trial of around 300 patients, 30 to 40 percent are responding.

"It's very difficult to say 'cure' with anybody who has advanced cancer," Audeh said.

But remarkably, in the past nine months, Roark's tumors have shrunk 64 percent.

"It's always amazing to see a drug that really doesn't have a lot of side effects produce responses in people who have very advanced cancers," Audeh said.

Roark travels from Arkansas every month, and nervously awaits test results.

When examining her, Audeh told Roark "everything's stable." He added, "It's very hard to find any cancer on your scans or any sign of it in your blood."

"Wow," Roark said.

"So we will just keep going," Audeh said.

"All right, that sounds good," Roark said. "... It's amazing, every day is wonderful, it's a Godsend; it's a blessing."

And now, Roark is looking forward to her son's next milestone.

When asked what it was like to see her son graduate, Roark said, "It was a beautiful day. Now I'm going wait and see him graduate college. I'm going to see him walk across that stage."

And some time next year, about 100 more patients will be accepted into the trial.

In the battle against cancer, "Early Show" co-anchor Erica Hill noted, the future lies in targeted therapy -- identifying and understanding which genetic mutation has occurred and finding a drug that disables the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. While these results are encouraging, the study is still trying to ascertain just how long this drug will continue to be effective against the disease.

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 12, 2011 --

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- New research points to soy as a potential solution for men with prostate cancer that is unresponsive to the conventional treatment of surgery and radiation.  For many men in this situation, no standard therapeutic option exists, and the most common choice has sexual and other side effects that worsen quality of life. In this pilot study, conducted at Pennsylvania State University by Monika Joshi and colleagues and published in the Southern Medical Journal in November 2011, fifty percent of participants benefitted from soy (three servings a day, for two years) either permanently or short-term. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among U.S. men and the second most common cause of cancer death, according to American Cancer Society statistics.

When Conventional Prostate Cancer Treatment FailsIn prostate cancer prevention and treatment, health professionals monitor men's prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. PSA is a protein produced by the prostate that is measurable in the blood and not only reflects risk of developing prostate cancer but also measures treatment success. The ten men in this study decided to participate as a result of their PSA levels continuing to rise after surgery and radiation. The cancer had not spread to other parts of the body, but was still present in the prostate.

When this happens, no standard therapy exists. One possible option is called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which suppresses testosterone levels. However, ADT is controversial. There's no clear proof it works, and quality of life issues range from common sexual side effects (loss of libido, erectile dysfunction and hot flashes) to less common gynecomastia (enlarged breasts in men), changes in body composition (weight gain, reduced muscle mass, increase in body fat) and changes in lipids. These problems may exacerbate more serious conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

Studying a Soy Solution For these reasons, researchers seek new options for prostate cancer patients, including changes to the diet. In Joshi's study, men consumed three servings of soy per day for two years.  A serving is equivalent to one cup soymilk, three ounces of tofu or one ounce of soynuts. Nine study participants chose to drink three glasses of soymilk each day, while one ate soy snacks.

Overall, five men benefited from soy consumption as demonstrated by PSA levels either permanently or temporarily declining or remaining stable. Among the three men in this study who opted for ADT, only one favorably responded to soy; in contrast, among the seven patients who did not use ADT, four responded favorably to soy. Thus, the researchers concluded that "soy supplementation using commercially available soy products can have durable beneficial effects on PSA levels...in some men with prostate cancer." 

Noted oncologist Omer Kucuk, MD – Georgia Cancer Coalition's distinguished cancer scholar and chief of genitourinary medical oncology at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute – added, "The results from Pennsylvania State University appear consistent with a considerable amount of published research showing that soy may help to prevent prostate cancer and may be useful in its treatment." Dr. Kucuk continued, "For men unresponsive to surgery and radiation for prostate cancer, it is critically important to find ADT alternatives, such as soy as a dietary intervention. While this study is small, it's important because it takes place in real-life conditions in a clinical setting."

Additionally, Lisa Kelly, a registered dietitian for the United Soybean Board, noted, "With the wide availability and variety of soyfoods on the market, it is relatively easy to eat three servings of soy each day." Since this study only evaluated one level of soy consumption, she also suggested that future research examine whether somewhat lesser amounts are still effective. For information on soy and nutrition, or recipes to enjoy soy daily, visit www.soyconnection.com.

About USBUSB is made up of 69 farmer-directors who oversee the investments of the soybean checkoff on behalf of all U.S. soybean farmers. Checkoff funds are invested in the areas of animal utilization, human utilization, industrial utilization, industry relations, market access and supply. As stipulated in the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soybean checkoff.

For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit us at www.UnitedSoybean.org or www.soyconnection.com.

Visit us on Facebook:www.facebook.com/UnitedSoybeanBoardFollow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/unitedsoyView our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/UnitedSoybeanBoard

SOURCE United Soybean Board

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A new report - two years in the making - was finally released this week on the possible causes of breast cancer. For those looking for a link between the disease and environmental toxins, the report may come as a disappointment, as researchers were not able to find many clear links between chemical exposure from things like air pollution, cleaning products and drinking water to the development of breast cancer.

The major findings of the report, released by the Institute of Medicine - an independent arm of the National Academy of the Sciences - are actually pretty boring, and nothing that we didn't already know. The best ways to avoid breast cancer? Avoid unnecessary medical radiation, steer clear of hormone treatments for menopause that combine estrogen and progestin, minimize alcohol intake and limit weight gain. The sponsor of the 364 page report was the breast cancer advocacy group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which requested the report and spent $1 million on it.

The fact that the report did not find any major links between breast cancer and environmental toxins was a disappointment to some health advocates. But according to the panel, it can be difficult to precisely define exposures that occurred in the past or over and long and indefinite periods of time. And the complex chemical cocktail that many of us are exposed to on a daily basis makes it almost impossible to determine the effects of each chemical individually on each study subject.

The panel found "possible associations" between breast cancer and secondhand smoke, nighttime shift work and exposures to the chemicals benzene, ethylene oxide and 1,3-butadiene, which are found in some workplaces, car exhaust, gasoline fumes and tobacco smoke. But again, the links were vague and unclear.

Researchers hope more studies can be conducted on environmental exposures at different stages of life, because different toxins may affect breast tissue differently at various stages of a woman's development. For instance, exposure to radiation as a child may increase breast cancer risk more than the same radiation exposure as an adult.

Jenn Savedge has written three books on eco-friendly living. Read more on her green parenting blog: www.mnn.com/featured-blogs/greenparenting.

2011, Mother Nature Network.

Visit the Mother Nature Network on the World Wide Web at http://www.mnn.com.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

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• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.

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If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on December 12, 2011

A new poll of postmenopausal women with breast cancer has found that of those who quit taking drugs that prevent recurrence, more than one-third did so because of serious side effects including joint pain, hot flashes and nausea. 

The investigation was the first to ask women to identify the reasons for noncompliance. Researchers learned that 36 percent of women quit early because of the medications’ side effects, which are more severe and widespread than previously thought.

A notable finding is the absence of appropriate communication between women and their doctors –that is, a disconnect between what women tell their doctors about side effects and what they actually experience, and/or selective hearing by medical professionals on how treatment is influencing a woman’s quality of life.

“Clinicians consistently underestimate the side effects associated with treatment,” said lead investigator and clinical psychologist Dr. Lynne Wagner.

“They give patients a drug they hope will help them, so they have a motivation to underrate the negative effects. Patients don’t want to be complainers and don’t want their doctor to discontinue treatment. So no one knew how bad it really was for patients.”

The symptom most likely to cause women to stop using the drugs was joint pain. Other side effects women reported as compromising their quality of life were hot flashes, decreased libido, weight gain, feeling bloated, breast sensitivity, mood swings, irritability and nausea.

The medications — aromatase inhibitors — stop the production of estrogen in postmenopausal women, whose breast cancer cells are stimulated by estrogen.

The research is timely as two-thirds of breast cancers are estrogen sensitive, and aromatase inhibitors reduce the recurrence of cancer in postmenopausal women.

Investigators discovered women at the highest risk of stopping the medications before the recommended five years were those who were still experiencing residual side effects from chemotherapy or radiation therapy when they start the aromatase therapy.

Women who had surgery for breast cancer but not chemotherapy or radiation therapy, or who weren’t taking many other medications, were more likely to keep taking the aromatase medication.

“The more miserable they were before they started, the more likely they were to quit,” Wagner said. “By the time they get through chemotherapy or radiation, they have to face five more years of another medication that will make them feel lousy. They feel like they already lost enough time to cancer and have reached their threshold for feeling bad.”

Wagner called it “a wake-up call to physicians that says if your patient is feeling really beaten up by treatment, the risk of her quitting early is high. We need to be better at managing the symptoms of our patients to improve their quality of life.”

A significant finding of this study is the discrepancy between medical professionals’ opinion of the medication side effects and a woman’s actual experience.

This disconnect is clearly depicted when comparing previous research – where clinicians reported 5 percent of patients experiencing moderate to severe symptoms – as compared with the current study’s discovery of 36 percent reporting significant side effects.

Researchers found after three months of treatment 33 to 35 percent of women had severe joint pain, 28 to 29 percent had hot flashes, 24 percent had decreased libido, 15 to 24 percent had fatigue, 16 to 17 percent had night sweats and 14 to 17 percent had anxiety. These numbers increased as women were on treatment longer.

Earlier studies also asked women to recall their symptoms after treatment ended, which is less accurate than reporting them at regular intervals while taking the drugs.

As a result of the side effects, 36 percent of women ended treatment before an average of 4.1 years. After two years, 10 percent had quit; the remainder quit between 25 months and the 4.1 years.

“These findings can help us identify women at risk for quitting the therapy, counsel them about the importance of staying on it and provide treatment for troubling side effects,” Wagner noted.

Weight gain can be addressed with nutritional counseling, while mood swings and irritability can be treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy or mind-body techniques, Wagner said.

Joint pain can be reduced with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or women may be switched to a different hormonal medication. Nausea can be reduced with medication.

Source: Northwestern University

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2011). Breast Cancer Drugs’ Side Effects May Be Worse Than Reported. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 12, 2011, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/12/12/breast-cancer-drugs-side-effects-may-be-worse-than-reported/32464.html