Should I pursue chemotherapy treatment? What is the success rate?

Chemotherapy or “Chemo”refers to the use of medicine or drugs used to treat cancer. While surgical resection and radiation target specific areas of the body to remove or irradiate cancerous cells, chemo can be used to all over the body to kill cancer cells that may have metastasized from the primary tumor; this is called adjuvant treatment. Sometimes chemo can also be used to shrink a tumor before resection; this is called neoadjuvant treatment. Sometimes multiple chemo drugs are used to help prevent or to anticipate resistance.

Hence, chemo is used primarily in 3 different ways:

to cure
to control
as a palliative treatment

There are multiple factors that figure into Chemo treatment: age, nutrition, weight, other medications, severity and type of disease. Chemo is often given in cycles with breaks between to give the normal cells time to recuperate.

Does it work? How can we know? Where can we get reliable information?

A 2004 research report by Morgan, Ward, and Barton: “The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies. … survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA.” See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15630849. (Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2004 Dec;16(8):549-60.)

It has been more than a decade since this research has come out and cancer research as
“come a long way.” And to be fair, some works better for some cancers than others. But I challenge you to do a google search and find statistics on the efficacy of chemo. You may have a hard time finding reliable, reproducible, and valid statistics on the efficacy of chemotherapy. I can find the efficacy of particular drugs such as Gleevec, but the overall statistics are problematic and confounded. Contact me if you find them and I will post them.

So where are we? Below, I will document some research and you can judge for yourself.

2016 Selected Chemo Research

Most of the Research that you will find in this list has to do with the following: 1) the side effects of chemo; 2) the efficacy of chemo; and finally, the potential of chemo (either alone or in combination with other treatments.

Longitudinal Association of Poor Sleep Quality With Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Breast Cancer.

D Jung, KM Lee, WH Kim, JY Lee, TY Kim, SA Im… – Psychosomatic Medicine, 2016

Objective: Risk factors for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) include older
age, female sex, alcohol consumption, and a history of motion sickness. Although
gastrointestinal symptoms are found to be related with sleep and mood in other conditions …

… and Intracranial Activity With Ceritinib in Patients With ALK-Rearranged Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer Previously Treated With Chemotherapy and Crizotinib: Results …

L Crinò, MJ Ahn, F De Marinis, HJM Groen, H Wakelee… – Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016

Purpose Phase I data (ASCEND-1) showed ceritinib efficacy in patients with ALK-
rearranged non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), regardless of brain metastases status and
with or without prior therapy with an inhibitor of the ALK protein. Data are presented from a …

Painful chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: lack of treatment efficacy or the wrong clinical trial methodology?.

JS Gewandter, RH Dworkin, NB Finnerup, N Mohile – PAIN, 2016

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… RESECTED C19MC NEGATIVE EMBRYONAL TUMOR WITH MULTILAYERED ROSETTES (ETMR) USING HIGH DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AND STEM CELL …

M Dougherty, M Guzman, T Geller, L Brefeld, V Shetty… – Neuro-Oncology, 2016

BACKGROUND: Embryonal tumor with multilayered rosettes (ETMR) is characterized by the
presence of a focal 19q13. 42 amplification associated with upregulation of the oncogenic
miRNA cluster C19MC. First described in 2000, there are approximately 80 reported …

Gain of 1q As a Prognostic Biomarker in Wilms Tumors (WTs) Treated With PreoperativeChemotherapy in the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) WT …

T Chagtai, C Zill, L Dainese, J Wegert, S Savola… – Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016

Purpose Wilms tumor (WT) is the most common pediatric renal tumor. Treatment planning
under International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) protocols is based on staging and
histologic assessment of response to preoperative chemotherapy. Despite high overall …

[HTML] ESOPEC: prospective randomized controlled multicenter phase III trial comparing perioperative chemotherapy (FLOT protocol) to neoadjuvant chemoradiation ( …

J Hoeppner, F Lordick, T Brunner, T Glatz, P Bronsert… – BMC Cancer, 2016

Background Recent randomized controlled trials comparing neoadjuvant chemoradiation
plus surgery or perioperative chemotherapy plus surgery with surgery alone showed
significant survival benefits for combined modality treatment of patients with localized …

PNR-17HIGH-DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY WITH STEM CELL TRANSPLANT TO DELAY RADIATION IN PEDIATRIC EMBRYONAL BRAIN TUMOR PATIENTS

D Raleigh, B Tomlin, B Del Buono, E Roddy, K Sear… – Neuro-Oncology, 2016

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: Pediatric embryonal brain tumor patients treated with craniospinal
irradiation (CSI) are at risk for neurocognitive, endocrine and growth defects with greater
severity in younger patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of …

[HTML] Response rates and durability of chemotherapy among 62 patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma

JG Iyer, A Blom, R Doumani, C Lewis, ES Tarabadkar… – Cancer Medicine, 2016

Abstract Cytotoxic chemotherapy is commonly used to treat advanced Merkel cell carcinoma
(MCC). However, its efficacy in distant metastatic MCC patients is unclear, in part because
most prior reports aggregated these patients with those receiving adjuvant chemotherapy …

Combined CT-guided radiofrequency ablation with systemic chemotherapy improves the survival for nasopharyngeal carcinoma with oligometastasis in liver: …

W Li, Y Bai, M Wu, L Shen, F Shi, X Sun, C Lin… – Oncotarget, 2016

The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare the treatment efficacy of systemic
chemotherapy combined with sequential CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (Chemo-RFA)
to chemotherapy alone (Chemo-only) in the management of nasopharyngeal carcinoma ( …

Pharmacists: Integral to the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting

J Jupp, M Pasetka, S Soefje, RN Schwartz – Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2016

We are surprised that the recently updated ASCO antiemetic guideline excludes
pharmacists as a targeted audience. 1 Pharmacists are important members of the
multidisciplinary team that optimizes management for supportive care issues, such as …

Leukemic Stem Cells Evade Chemotherapy by Metabolic Adaptation to an Adipose Tissue Niche

H Ye, B Adane, N Khan, T Sullivan, M Minhajuddin… – Cell Stem Cell, 2016

Summary Adipose tissue (AT) has previously been identified as an extra-medullary reservoir
for normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and may promote tumor development. Here, we
show that a subpopulation of leukemic stem cells (LSCs) can utilize gonadal adipose …

… Reproducibility in a Simple and Prognostically Relevant System for Reporting the Histologic Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Tuboovarian High-grade …

I Said, S Böhm, J Beasley, P Ellery, AZ Faruqi… – International Journal of …, 2016

Abstract A 3-tier histopathologic scoring system, the chemotherapy response score (CRS),
was previously devised for reporting the histologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy
in interval debulking surgery specimens of stage IIIc/IV tuboovarian high-grade serous …

2016 Tyrokinase Inhibitors Research

Plasminogen and stroke: more is better

RL Medcalf – Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2016

… signalling [10]. Blockage of PDGF-CC signalling by tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib (Gleevec),
attenuated the capacity of t-PA to increase BBB permeability in mouse models of ischaemic stroke
[10] and in models of traumatic brain injury (TBI) [14]. On the other hand, …

[HTML] Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Nigerian Patients: Anemia is an Independent Predictor of Overall Survival

AA Oyekunle, MA Durosinmi, RA Bolarinwa… – Clinical Medicine Insights: …, 2016

… basis of the first report from our center.6 Similarly, a pilot study on the clinical utility of interferon
alpha among newly diagnosed Nigerian patients with CML was conducted.7 However, with the
approval of the first TKI, imatinib mesylate (Glivec/Gleevec; Novartis Pharmaceuticals …

Antagonist activity of the antipsychotic drug lithium chloride and the antileukemic drug imatinib mesylate during glioblastoma treatment in vitro

Y Aras, M Erguven, E Aktas, N Yazihan, A Bilir – Neurological Research, 2016

… of specific cancer types, for the treatments of other types of tumours, as exemplified in the recent
investigation regarding the effects of GBM treatment with the well-known receptor tyrosine inhibitor
and antileukemic agent imatinib mesylate (IM; also referred to as Gleevec ® ). …

γH2AX and p53 responses in TK6 cells discriminate promutagens and nongenotoxicants in the presence of rat liver S9

DT Bernacki, SM Bryce, JC Bemis, D Kirkland… – … and Molecular Mutagenesis, 2016

… Pepcid® (Famotidine), 76824-35-6, Nongenotoxicant; histamine H 2 receptor
antagonist, FDA approved label. Gleevec® (imatinib mesylate), 152459-95-5,
Nongenotoxicant; protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, FDA approved label. …

Novel imatinib-loaded silver nanoparticles for enhanced apoptosis of human breast cancer MCF-7 cells

SA Sadat Shandiz, M Shafiee Ardestani… – … Cells, Nanomedicine, and …, 2016

… Imatinib mesylate (STI571; Gleevec ® ; Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) is the first successful member
of a new class of kinase inhibitors that acts by inhibiting specific tyrosine kineses like Bcr-Abl
fusion oncoprotein in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), as well as inhibits the …

[PDF] Patent-a brief scenario in India.

A Parashar – International Journal of Bioassays, 2016

… In 2001 most of the patent claim on basmati was withdrawn by the company8. Basmati
now comes under geographical indicator. In recent years India has also prevent the
patenting of anticancer drug (Gleevec) by Novartis Company in India. …

Efficacy and Safety of Midostaurin in Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis

J Gotlib, HC Kluin-Nelemans, TI George, C Akin… – New England Journal of …, 2016

… Blood 2015;126:1009-1016 CrossRef | Web of Science | Medline. 20. Imatinib (Gleevec).
East Hanover, NJ: Novartis Pharmaceuticals, January 2015 (package insert)
(https://www.pharma.us.novartis.com/product/pi/pdf/gleevec_tabs.pdf). 21. …

Drug repurposing for chronic myeloid leukemia: in silico and in vitro investigation of DrugBank database for allosteric Bcr-Abl inhibitors

VK Singh, HH Chang, CC Kuo, HY Shiao, HP Hsieh… – Journal of Biomolecular …, 2016

… Levitzki, A., & Ben-Yehudah, D. (2003). From tyrphostins to Iressa and Gleevec: Signal
transduction therapy from concept to the patient bed. In MP Schneider (Ed.), Chemical probes
in biology, (pp. 391–402), Heidelberg: Springer. View all references; Wisniewski et al., 200249. …

TETRAHYDRO-PYRIDO [3, 4-b] INDOLE ESTROGEN RECEPTOR MODULATORS AND USES THEREOF

S Labadie, J Liang, DF Ortwine, X Wang, J Zbieg… – US Patent 20,160,175,289, 2016

… More examples of chemotherapeutic agents include: oxaliplatin (ELOXATIN®, Sanofi), bortezomib
(VELCADE®, Millennium Pharm.), sutent (SUNITINIB®, SU11248, Pfizer), letrozole (FEMARA®,
Novartis), imatinib mesylate (GLEEVEC®, Novartis), XL-518 (Mek inhibitor …

[HTML] Deep molecular responses for treatment‐free remission in chronic myeloid leukemia

S Dulucq, FX Mahon – Cancer Medicine, 2016

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