Cura donates to support research on breast cancer

The Instituto Projeto Cura donated R$ 20,000 to the LACOG (Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group) to support the onset of Phase-3 of the NeoSamba Study, which aims to analyze the sequence of drugs currently used for treatment of HER-2 negative breast cancer, in order to prevent recurrence in the patient.

Such donation was only possible thanks to the efforts of some oncologists and health professionals, who, through their social networks, encouraged donations for that research. The winner of the action, developed within the campaign “The Cure of Cancer is in our hands”, was Dr. Lilian Arruda, oncologist and clinical director of IBCC Oncologia (Instituto Brasileiro de Controle do Câncer – The Brazilian Institute for Cancer Control).

According to Dr. Arruda, only 2% of researches carried out in the world address patients in Brazil. Dr. Arruda stresses the importance of conducting additional researches in the country: “We are the ninth economy in the world, however we stand at the 24 th position regarding the conduction of clinical researches”, she regrets.

The NeoSamba Clinical Research

The Phase-3 of the NeoSamba research will be carried out at 12 cancer centers installed in 8 Brazilian states, addressing patients served by the national unified public health network – SUS. The principal investigator of the study is Dr. José Bines, oncologist. According to Dr. Bines, “there is a lot of work to be done in regards to diagnosis, treatment and research to improve the combat against breast cancer in the country”.

The Phase-2 of such clinical trial, conducted by INCA (The Brazilian National Cancer Institute), investigated a total of 118 patients. During that phase the study assessed if changing the order of drugs of the anthracycline and taxane class would make any difference regarding the survival of patients. The study indicated that treating them initially with taxane and subsequently with anthracyclines, instead of the way around, as the previous pattern, could bring more significant gains in progression-free survival and, above all,
in the overall survival rate.

The Phase-3 of the research, a confirmatory study, will address a larger number of patients. “The results of such analysis might redefine the best treatment for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (delivered before the surgery) to women bearing locally advanced breast cancer. The conclusion might cause an immediate global impact over the care of breast cancer patients”, concludes the oncologist.

According to data published by INCA for the 2020-2023, Brazil will record 600 new cancer cases per year during that time span. Breast cancer is the most common among women, with 66 thousand cases per year. Such type of cancer represents almost 1/3 of all malignant tumors affecting women and such number is higher than the sum of the 3 subsequent tumors: intestine, cervix and lung.

Godfathers and Godmothers

The physicians and health professionals who joined the Cure campaign were as follows: Heloísa Rezende, Susana Ramalho, Tomás Reinert, Alessandra Morelle, Eduardo Romero, Flávia dos Santos, Gilberto Amorim, Gustavo Werutsky, José Bines, Monique Bionotto and Vivian
Antunes.