Study results from the world’s largest cancer conference this weekend highlight both the progress and the frustrations in the fight against cancer.Researchers at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando say they’re getting closer to their goal of offering patients gentler, more tailored treatments that let them live longer and feel better.

Yet doctors also offered no cures. And even the most highly touted drugs bought patients only a few more months of life.

CHICAGO — May 28, 2009 — Nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane for Injectable Suspension) significantly lengthens the median progression-free survival (PFS) compared with docetaxel (Taxotere) in women with previously untreated metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and is also better tolerated, according to the findings of a phase 2 trial published online on May 26th in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

ORLANDO (June 1, 2009)—Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers report that a combination of trastuzumab and neratinib (HKI-272) a novel small molecule inhibitor of the HER2 receptor (ErbB2) appears active in women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer who have progressed on previous trastuzumab based therapies. More than one-quarter of the women in a phase I/II trial had their tumors shrink on the combination therapy.

ORLANDO, Fla., May 31 (Reuters) - Drugs targeting an enzyme known as PARP show promise as treatments for some of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer, according to new research.

Mid-stage results from a PARP inhibitor developed by BiPar Sciences Inc show that it improved survival by 60 percent compared with chemotherapy alone for women with “triple negative breast cancer.”

And a small trial of AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN.L) olaparib in women with advanced breast cancer linked to genetic mutations showed that it shrank tumors in a third of patients.

Ginger helped prevent or reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea when taken with traditional anti-nausea drugs by patients with cancer, researchers have found. The results are from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, the largest study to examine the potential effects of ginger on chemotherapy-related nausea. The study will be presented May 30 at the ASCO annual meeting in Orlando, FL.

Scientists have identified 3 genes that help breast cancer cells gain access and take root in the brain. The finding points to potential new strategies for blocking the often-deadly spread of cancer to the brain and other parts of the body.

About 90% of all cancer deaths are caused by metastatic cancer, when tumor cells break away from their original location and invade healthy tissues elsewhere. When breast cancer metastasizes, it often settles in the bones, lungs, liver or brain

Richard Junghans, MD, associate professor of surgery at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Chief of Surgical Research was named principal investigator of a grant to research how breast cancer patients’ own cells can be modified to fight their disease. Junghans along with colleagues at Roger Williams Medical Center received the $5.9 million Impact Award, from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program.

Junghans is at the forefront of research that aims to redirect the immune systems of cancer patients to fight their cancers. This is done by using gene therapy techniques to modify the patients’ own T cells to create “designer T cells”. As part of the research, a coordinated series of clinical trials and laboratory research activities is planned with the focus of curing metastatic breast cancers via this emerging technology.