The need for a simple and economic treatment for breast cancer may be answered by the results of a five-year research trial in Asia.

Dr. Richard R. Love directed the research and will present findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) May 15 in San Francisco. Dr Love is president of the International Breast Cancer Research Foundation (IBCRF) and a leading clinical breast cancer researcher with the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"The revolution in understanding of the biology of breast cancer is beginning to give real hope for better treatments and longer lives," Dr. Love said.

The Asian study evaluated the use of a combined surgical/medical approach in some 700 young (premenopausal) women with breast cancer.

Dr. Love will be available at ASCO to provide specifics of the five-year trial that took place in Vietnam and China beginning in 1993.

IBCRF is committed to testing new therapies that, if proven effective, can be widely accessible at low cost. That combination is essential in making effective cancer treatment available to the estimated 80 percent of the world's population that presently cannot access expensive state-of-the-art cancer therapies.

Dr. Love stresses that further clinical trials are needed to add to the growing base of knowledge supporting these positive results.

"Our approach is to use the most promising opportunities, ideas, and resources of physicians, researchers and patients worldwide to fight breast cancer," Dr. Love says. "IBCRF hopes to sponsor similar major health initiatives in breast cancer in countries across the globe."