These new treatments are more targeted to a woman’s specific type of cancer, and can greatly prevent the rate of relapse, he said.

Dr Cooper referred to a new treatment called Herceptin, which gives more hope to women with a certain type of breast cancer. About 20 percent of women with breast cancer have a tumor receptor called HER-2, which stimulates cell division, causing the cancer to spread. Herceptin helps fight the problem, according to Dr Cooper.

 “This is a very big deal,” he said. “It’s huge!

“Combined with chemotherapy, a significant number of patients remain healthy on Herceptin,” he added.

Dr Cooper spoke at a Medical Town Meeting sponsored by Danbury Hospital. Also speaking was Vijay Patil, MD, Department of Surgery, Section of General Surgery, and co-director of the Danbury Hospital Breast Care Program; and Laurie Le Masurier, an occupational therapist at the hospital’s Main Street Rehabilitation Center in Danbury.

 The panel spoke about the treatment of breast cancer for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, including surgical options and lymphedema, in a meeting entitled, “Breast Cancer: From Diagnosis to Treatment.”

Herceptin is only one of the new treatments helping breast cancer patients, according to the panel. In the past few years, a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors has also made treatment more successful for women with postmenopausal breast cancer that is estrogen-related.

Aromatase inhibitors are drugs (Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara) that block the synthesis of estrogen, which can fuel certain types of cancer in 50 to 70 percent of the cases.

Even after menopause, a woman’s body can make estrogen, said Dr Cooper, enough to stimulate cancer cells. Aromatase inhibitors help this problem.

Like the more widely-known drug Tamoxifen, which has been used since 1978 to prevent the recurrence of cancer, aromatase inhibitors work just as well. In addition, this category of drugs can be used after Tamoxifen is stopped, or as an adjuvant therapy.

In addition to chemotherapy advancements, breakthroughs have also been made in breast cancer surgery, according to Dr Patil.

While a lumpectomy — where only the cancerous tumor is removed and the breast is preserved — revolutionized breast cancer surgery years ago, today a skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM) is also helping a lot of women. In SSM, a maximum amount of skin is preserved.

Not all women can have a lumpectomy, according to Dr Patil. While the goal is always to preserve the breast, some women with large tumors, extensive cancer, small breasts, and other considerations must sometimes consider a mastectomy.

The SSM is a variation of the radical mastectomy, according to Dr Patil, but offers no statistical difference in the cancer recurrence rate.

For more information on breast cancer and support services, visit the hospital website at danburyhospital.org, or talk to a doctor.