One of the most puzzling questions in cancer treatment is why patients with tumors of apparently similar type and stage don't all respond to the same treatment.
In two separate studies investigators have now discovered (1) clues in biopsy specimens that may predict which women with stage I breast cancer are most likely to have recurrences after surgery and (2) which patients with invasive bladder cancer are most likely to benefit from preoperative radiation therapy. If the findings hold up, they could prove valuable in helping physicians decide which patients need the most aggressive treatment and in the design of therapeutic trials to discover more effective therapies.
Analysis of patients with breast cancer was done by Thomas Nealon, MD, director of surgery at Saint Vincent's Hospital in New York City and professor of surgery at the New York University School of Medicine, and John Gilloolley, MD, director of pathology at