Irish women in new breast cancer study

Seventy Irish women are taking part in tests of a new cancer treatment which has shown a significantly lower rate of relapse than standard therapy.

An international study of 1,000 women with breast cancer who had been treated with the new chemotherapy therapy showed that four and a half years after receiving the treatment, 75 per cent remained disease-free.

Results from the tests on the Irish women, which are being conducted by the Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG), are expected in 2005. The ICORG says it is confident these patients will also show high long-term survival rates.

There are more than 1,600 new cases of breast cancer on average each year in Ireland, of which 600 prove fatal.

The ICORG was established in 1996 to enable Irish women to receive the most up to date cancer treatments and to bring leading clinical research techniques to Irish hospitals. Since then, it has conducted 38 research studies on over 1,000 patients with breast and prostrate cancer.

The organisation announced today it would be starting studies into bowel, gastric and pancreatic cancers this year.

Women wishing to learn more about the breast cancer treatment should contact the Irish Cancer Society's Action Breast Cancer Helpline on 1800 30 90 40.