Cancer and Oncology

Tag: research

  • Alcohol And Breast Cancer

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.breast.2026.104719

    Great article published in The Breast journal (April 2026) – “Association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer incidence and prognosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis”

    The highlights are:

    • The study included over 2.5 million women
    • Any alcohol consumption +17% higher breast cancer risk
    • Light alcohol consumption +13% risk
    • Intermediate alcohol consumption +28% risk
    • Heavy alcohol consumption +52% risk
    • History of alcohol consumption is not associated with worse prognosis

    The link seems to be stronger for hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, supporting the role of estrogen-driven mechanisms.

    The possible reasons for increased risk with alcohol:

    • DNA damage (acetaldehyde)
    • Oxidative stress
    • Increased Oestrogen levels
    • Impaired DNA repair

    Alcohol and breast cancer incidence seem to be linked. The risk rises as alcohol intake increases.

    Alcohol is a modifiable risk factor.

    Reducing intake = reducing risk

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cancer Self Therapy

    Desperate times help us to take desperate measures. When the medical teams tell people that there is nothing more which can be done for their cancer therapy… some people take on “the world”.

    A great story:

    # GitLab co-founder Sid Sijbrandij was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. All the standard therapies and clinical trials ran out. He decided to do things in his way. He started using AI platforms to study his tumour type and data. He collected teams for personalized experimental treatments, and open-sourced 25 TB of medical records. He has since then had really good cancer control (since 2025). You can read the story on https://sytse.com/cancer/

    This takes time (and possibly lots of money), but is a start. As AI and software platforms get cheaper and more accessible, this trend will keep rising.

    I can imagine people outsourcing their data to get help from across the world.

    I recently watched a Netflix series called: “Diagnosis”. It is a collaboration between Dr Lisa Sanders and The New York Times. They try to help people with rare and undiagnosed illnesses. Their stories are outsourced online and people from across the world gives suggestions. https://www.netflix.com/title/80201543

    Medicine is changing. Times are changing. People are no longer willing to just take “no more options” as answer. Exciting times (possibly).

  • First-line Maintenance Therapy for HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

    HER2CLIMB-05: A Phase 3 Study of Tucatinib Versus Placebo in Combination with Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab as First-line Maintenance Therapy for HER2+ Metastatic Breast Cancer

    https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO-25-02600

    The HER2CLIMB study shows that the addition of Tucatinib to Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab maintenance after 4-8 cycles of THP induction prolongs PFS in 1st line HER-2 +. The benefit was present in both ER+ and ER- subsets.

    The improvement of maintenance therapy gives people longer time off chemotherapy.

    Tucatinib addition to Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab demonstrated improvement in PFS with no new safety signals identified and may be an option for 1L maintenance therapy in patients with HER2+ MBC.

  • Research and Clinical Trials

    Clinical Trials for medications, drugs and devices are broadly divided in four groups or phases:

    • Phase 1: Very early type of research. In some types, it would be a “first in human” study
    • Phase 2: Studies would have shown the medication to be relatively safe and it is now being tested for efficacy
    • Phase 3: The safety and efficacy have been shown to be favourable, and now it is being tested against the present standard of care
    • Phase 4: This study is primarily to gain more information about the medication, as it has already been approved for routine use in the market

    Enrolling onto clinical trials is a good thing. It gives access to newer molecules or different ways of using older molecules. The full benefits of the study medication may not be seen in patients enrolled on the study, but others would gain.

    All trials are governed via a Human Research and Ethics Committees, which may be local or centrally based. They are the guardians of patients and their families, and would not give permission to conduct a study, unless they are convinced about safety.

    The first principle remains – “First do no harm”