(April 16, 2008 - Insidermedicine) Giving the chemotherapy drug Taxol to women with breast cancer every week instead of using the current standard of every 3 weeks may help them live longer, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Here are some facts about treating breast cancer:

•    The best treatment or combination of treatments for each individual depends on many factors, including the type of cancer, how advanced it is, and the general health of the individual.

•    Local treatments for breast cancer, which affect only the areas of the body where the cancer is present, include surgery and radiation therapy.

•    Systemic treatments for breast cancer, which affect the whole body and are more likely to be needed if the cancer has spread, include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and HER-2 therapy.

Researchers out of Albert Einstein College of Medicine treated nearly 5,000 women with breast cancer that had already begun to spread or was believed to be at high risk of spreading with surgery and standard chemotherapy. They randomly assigned the patients to received one of four treatments: Taxol given either every week or every 3 weeks or a similar drug – Taxotere – given every week or every 3 weeks.

While Taxotere given every 3 weeks showed some signs of being superior to Taxol given every 3 weeks, the weekly Taxol treatment schedule beat out all of the other three options. Compared with women who received the current standard therapy of Taxol given every 3 weeks, women who received the drug every week were more likely to live longer.

Today's research demonstrates how giving women with breast cancer weekly Taxol, following surgery and standard chemotherapy, may help them live longer than giving the drug in its current 3 week schedule.

For Insidermedicine in Depth, I'm Dr. Susan Sharma.