Scaling back Cervical Cancer screening

Most women only need to be screened for cervical cancer once every three years, according to a new set of practice guidelines that the American College of Physicians, a national organization of doctors, released today. Women under the age of 21 shouldn't undergo testing at all regardless of their sexual health history, because many will receive abnormal test results without ever developing cervical cancer.
While preventive screening seems like a positive thing, testing too often can lead to an increased incidence of false positive results, saying some women are sick when they aren't. Follow-up tests increase health care costs and can sometimes lead to pain. Right now, about 60 percent of women in the US say that they were  screened cervical cancer by the age of 21."Screening more than once every three years does not lead to better care, it’s unnecessary care," says Tanveer Mir, physician and Chair-elect of the Board of Regents of the American College of Physicians. Despite similar guidelines issued by other agencies, doctors are still screening patients annually, she says and that shouldn't be the case. "Overall the focus of these guidelines is that physicians can practice good care by reducing over-treatment."

New Breast Cancer gene identified

A new breast cancer gene has been identified in a study led by Women's College Hospital (WCH) researcher Dr. Mohammad Akbari, who is also an assistant professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. The study, describes how mutations in a gene called RECQL are strongly linked to the onset of breast cancer in two populations of Polish and French-Canadian women. In this study, about 20,000 different genes were studied, among 195 breast cancer patients with strong family histories of breast cancer who did not have a mutation in BRCA1 or BRCA2. The patients came from two populations, a Polish group and a French-Canadian group.
Recurrent RECQL mutations within both the Polish and French-Canadian populations were identified in this study. Within the Polish group, one type of RECQL mutation showed a five-fold increased risk for developing breast cancer compared to individuals without a mutation. Meanwhile, within the French-Canadian population, another type of RECQL mutation occurred 50 times more frequently among familial breast cancer patients, compared to population controls.

Microinjection tests multiple Cancer drugs in tumors

A newly developed technology for simultaneously comparing response to multiple cancer drugs or combinations while a tumor is still in a patient's body has been shown to accurately predict systemic response to the drugs, according to researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Presage Biosciences. The patented technology, called CIVO, consists of an arrayed micro-injection drug delivery device and quantitative analysis methodology. "Currently, only 7 percent of new oncology drug candidates that demonstrated anti-cancer activity in preclinical studies subsequently demonstrate sufficient efficacy in clinical trials to warrant FDA approvals," said Olson, Member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch, a pediatric oncologist at Seattle Children's Hospital and Founder of Presage. "As a practicing pediatric oncologist, I deal every day with the limitations of current cancer therapies, and I've made it my life's work to help find solutions to this challenge. We developed CIVO because patients desperately need better approaches to identify treatments that will provide benefit and improve patient survival."
CIVO enables the placement of multiple columns of drugs for analysis directly into the tumor along the needle axis, spanning the full depth of the tumor. This makes it possible to assess drug effects with multiple biomarkers and in multiple regions along the injection axis to capture the heterogeneity of response within the tumor. Later, (typically 24-72 hours after injection), the tumor is resected for subsequent analysis, and responses are measured with multiple immuno-histochemistry-based assays and high-resolution scanning.

An attempt to cure Pancreatic Cancer

Berg, a small Boston-based biotech firm, is teaming up with an array of prestigious hospitals and research teams to discover and validate the first-ever clinical bio-marker to diagnose and treat Pancreatic Cancer. Berg, which was co-founded six years ago by Carl Berg, the billionaire real-estate tycoon, along with Mitch Gray and Niven Narain, is looking to upend that business model. Using big data and artificial intelligence algorithms developed by Narain, the biotech firm aims to isolate the root causes of many diseases, including cancer, and develop tailor-made treatment options for patients.The data crunching led to the development of Berg’s first drug, BPM 31510, which is in clinical trials. The drug essentially reprograms the metabolism of the cancer cells, re-teaching them to undergo apoptosis, or cell death. The cancer cells die off naturally, without the need for harmful and expensive chemotherapy.

BPM 31510, which may work on a variety of cancers, will be introduced in the phase II clinical trials for pancreatic cancer at 48 PCRT sites around the world.

Pancreatic Cancer breakthrough

Scientists have found a novel avenue for therapeutic intervention of the "silent cancer." A new research study has shown that pancreatic cancer cells can be coaxed to revert back toward normal cells by introducing a protein called E47. E47 binds to specific DNA sequences and controls genes involved in growth and differentiation. The research provides hope for a new treatment approach for the more than 40,000 people who die from the disease each year in the United States.
"For the first time, we have shown that over-expression of a single gene can reduce the tumor-promoting potential of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells and reprogram them toward their original cell type. Thus, pancreatic cancer cells retain a genetic memory which we hope to exploit," said Pamela Itkin-Ansari, Ph.D., adjunct professor in the Development, Aging, and Regeneration Program at Sanford-Burnham.

First Cervical Cancer drug in 10 years

Women with advanced cervical cancer, the most common cancer afflicting young women, are to get the first officially approved new treatment for a decade.

Trials show Avastin, which is used in several other cancers, gives women around four months’ extra life. The drug plus chemotherapy has now been licensed by European regulators. Patients will have access via the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) until it is considered for routine NHS use. It has been available in England via the CDF since March pending licensing.

Avastin, which is also known as Bevacizumab and widely used in patients with bowel cancer, is the first new treatment since the chemotherapy drug topotecan was approved in 2006. Dr Mary McCormack, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at University College Hospital, said ‘Cervical cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in younger women. ‘For those women with metastatic disease or whose cancer recurs after surgery/chemo-radiation there are very few treatment options. It is very welcome indeed that when Avastin is added to chemotherapy it prolongs survival by approximately four months.

Takeda to pay $2.3 Billion to settle Actos Cancer cases

Top Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed Tuesday to pay around $2.4 billion to settle lawsuits over its Actos diabetes drug, amid cancer claims. The agreement would resolve lawsuits representing some 8,000 people who used the treatment for type 2 diabetes beginning in the late 1990s and claimed the company did not warn them that it increases the risks of cancer.

Takeda said it agreed to pay out $2.37 billion if 95 percent of the litigants agree to the deal, rising to $2.4 billion if the number rises to 97 percent or more. The company said nevertheless that it believes the claims of the litigants "are without merit and does not admit liability."

"Takeda believes the company acted responsibly with regard to Actos and that Actos has a positive benefit/risk profile for the treatment of type 2 diabetes," it said.

Takeda said the settlement does not change its continued commitment to Actos, or pioglitazone hydrochloride. "Actos continues to be available as a treatment option in the US, Japan and other countries," it said. Last year a federal jury in Louisiana ordered Takeda and US-based Eli Lilly & Co. to pay a combined $9.0 billion in punitive damages to a patient who said Actos had caused his bladder cancer. A judge later slashed the payout to $36.8 million.

Eli Lilly was Takeda's US marketing and sales partner until 2006, with the US firm keeping the rights to sell Actos in parts of Asia and Europe, as well as in Canada and Mexico.

Takeda said it was taking a $2.7 billion charge in its fourth quarter earnings to cover the settlement and related costs.

"The settlement will reduce financial uncertainties for the company and provides a significant degree of assurance toward resolving a high percentage of the Actos product liability claims," it said.

Top Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical has agreed to pay around $US2.4 billion to settle lawsuits over its Actos diabetes drug, amid cancer claims.
The agreement would resolve lawsuits representing about 8000 people who used the treatment for type 2 diabetes beginning in the late 1990s and claimed the company did not warn them that it increases the risks of cancer.
Takeda said it agreed to pay out $US2.37 billion ($A2.95 billion) if 95 per cent of the litigants agree to the deal, rising to $US2.4 billion if the number rises to 97 per cent or more.
The company said nevertheless that it believes the claims of the litigants 'are without merit and does not admit liability'.
'Takeda believes the company acted responsibly with regard to Actos and that Actos has a positive benefit/risk profile for the treatment of type 2 diabetes,' it said on Tuesday.
Takeda said the settlement does not change its continued commitment to Actos, or pioglitazone hydrochloride.
'Actos continues to be available as a treatment option in the US, Japan and other countries,' it said.
Last year, a federal jury in Louisiana ordered Takeda and US-based Eli Lilly Co to pay a combined $US9.0 billion in punitive damages to a patient who said Actos had caused his bladder cancer.
A judge later slashed the payout to $US36.8 million.
Eli Lilly was Takeda's US marketing and sales partner until 2006, with the US firm keeping the rights to sell Actos in parts of Asia and Europe, as well as in Canada and Mexico.
Takeda said it was taking a $US2.7 billion charge in its fourth-quarter earnings to cover the settlement and related costs.
- See more at: http://www.skynews.com.au/business/business/world/2015/04/29/takeda-to-pay-billions-to-settle-lawsuit.html#sthash.rfYiMeKq.dpuf

British, GSK first to file for Gene Therapy approval

Glaxo Smith Kline is close to seeking European approval for a gene therapy drug to fight the immune deficiency disorder known as "bubble boy" disease, in the latest sign of a renaissance in the technology to fix faulty genes.
GSK will be the first big pharmaceutical company to file for marketing approval for a gene therapy when it submits its drug for ADA Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (ADA-SCID) in Europe imminently, according to people familiar with the situation.
The British company has so far said little about its program, beyond the fact that a filing is possible in 2015.
ADA-SCID affects around 350 children worldwide, leaving sufferers extremely vulnerable to infection. Some live in a plastic, germ-free chamber. The disorder become widely known in the 1970s and 1980s when the media nicknamed a prominent sufferer, David Vetter, as the "bubble boy".

Trial of radioactive implants improves Prostate Cancer survival

A prostate cancer treatment using permanently implanted radioactive 'seeds' doubles rates of five-year tumour-free survival compared with conventional high-dose radiotherapy, a study has found. Low-dose-rate prostate Brachytherapy (LDR-PB) involves the insertion of tiny radioactive implants into the prostate gland which are not removed.
A new trial comparing the treatment with dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy found that it was much more successful at banishing cancer.
Men who underwent LDR-PB were twice as likely to be cancer-free five years later.
Scientists studied 398 men with cancer that had not spread outside the prostate gland who were judged to be at high risk of treatment failure based on standard test results.
Lead researcher Professor James Morris, from Vancouver Cancer Centre in Canada, said, “At five years follow up, we saw a large advantage in progression-free survival in the LDR-PB group.
“Although, to date, overall survival and prostate cancer-specific survival do not appear to differ between the two groups, existing trends favour LDR-PB and an overall survival advantage is likely to emerge with longer follow-up.”
The findings were presented at the third European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology forum in Barcelona, Spain.

Proton Radiotherapy delivers highly targeted Cancer Treatment

Barcelona last week, researchers presented a new breathing movement model that allows for the exact measurement of narrow beams to a tumor model by simulating the physical properties and the motion of the chest anatomy. The new method was presented by Dr Rosalind Perrin, from the Centre for Proton Therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. The led researcher described how she and her team developed this model to test the feasibility of proton therapy targeting lung cancer, using a rescanning technique that mitigates motion effects, and to create practical methods to implement this technique in cancer treatment.
This radiotherapy approach to cancer treatment is an emerging technology, in which a narrow particle beam with accelerated hydrogen nuclei is scanned across the tumor and a highly directed radiation is administered to cancer cells. Because of the large mass of the protons, the beam delivers the majority of the radiation dose towards the end of its path in the tissue. Proton therapy can limit the dose of radiation affecting the surrounding tissues.
The proton beam only pierces the tissue up to a specific depth, which is controlled by energy levels. As such, in comparison to traditional radiotherapy techniques, proton therapy allows a maximal tumor dose while reducing the radiation dosage in surrounding tissues.

FDA grants U.K.'s Tremelimumab orphan drug status for Mesothelioma

The U.K.-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Tremelimumab orphan drug status for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma.
Robert Iannone, Head of Immuno-oncology at AstraZeneca's Global Medicines Development division, said that there is a crucial need to develop additional Mesothelioma treatments, since less than 5% of the deadly Cancer's victims live more than five years. “Our aim is to rapidly advance the development of Tremelimumab,” Iannone stated, adding that the company hoped the drug would become a viable new option for treatment of the disease.
Tremelimumab is an anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody, which means that it blocks production of an inhibitor that destroys Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), a type of white blood cell produced naturally by the body that can recognize and kill cancer. With the inhibitor blocked, the body can produce potentially Cancer-defeating CTLA-4 antibodies more quickly.

New open access journal on Cannabis research launching

Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, a new peer-reviewed, open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/), is the only journal dedicated to the scientific, medical, and psychosocial exploration of clinical cannabis, cannabinoids, and the biochemical mechanisms of endocannabinoids. Launching in fall 2015, the Journal will be the premier open source for authoritative cannabis and cannabinoid research, discussion, and debate.
The medical use of cannabis has become a global phenomenon. There are now 1.1 million users of legal medical cannabis in the U.S. Increasing numbers of jurisdictions in the U.S. and around the world are allowing access to herbal cannabis, and a broad new range of policy initiatives are emerging to regulate cannabis production and use to conduct high-quality research. Several medicines based on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, have been approved as pharmaceutical drugs as medical therapy for a variety of diseases and neurological conditions, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, and pain, including Cancer and neuropathic pain.

Kinex leading development of Cancer drug program in India

Kinex Pharmaceuticals and its Korean partner Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have executed an agreement whereby Kinex is leading the development of its Orascovery program in India.
Hanmi’s Orascovery technology allows intravenous cancer drugs to be taken orally. It led to initiation of trials of the widely-used cancer drug Paclitaxel, called Oraxol, currently in Phase II clinical trials in Gastric Cancer patients in Korea, and Irinotecan (Oratecan), which is used for Colon Cancer treatment. Getting access in China in 2013 and India in 2015 provides Kinex a gateway to virtually all of the global market for Orascovery, with the exception of Japan and the Koreas.
Kinex will assume all development responsibility in the licensed territories. ZenRx has joined the effort to develop Oraxol and Oratecan in the New Zealand and Australia territories, and PharmaEssentia of Taiwan has joined the effort to develop Oraxol and Oratecan in Taiwan and Singapore.

Australian, Cantrixil receives orphan drug designation for Ovarian Cancer

Australian drug discovery company, Novogen, announced that its subsidiary joint venture company with Yale University, CanTx, Inc, has received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its chemotherapy candidate drug, Cantrixil, has been granted Orphan Drug Designation for Ovarian Cancer.

Orphan Drug Designation is an important development for any experimental drug and has been instigated in a number of territories including the U.S, Europe and Australia to encourage the development of drugs for clinical indications that do not have a high incidence.

Cantrixil was granted Orphan Drug Designation under the U.S. Orphan drug Act following a review by the FDA of a package of pre-clinical data submitted by the Company.

Novogen and CanTx CEO, Graham Kelly, said, "Receiving this designation is one more step in our objective of bringing Cantrixil to market as a drug that we hope will provide meaningful clinical benefit to patients with Ovarian Cancer and deliver that long-sought breakthrough for patients with a cancer that has shown only slight improvement in 5-year survival rates over the last 30 years.

"CanTx came out of a belief by Yale University and some long-term Ovarian Cancer researchers in the Yale Medical School that Cantrixil represented a potential breakthrough in the treatment of ovarian cancer," Kelly added.

Cyramza (ramucirumab) receives Fourth FDA approval

Eli Lilly and Company has received its fourth U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Cyramza (ramucirumab). Cyramza is now also indicated in combination with FOLFIRI  chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC) with disease progression on or after prior therapy with bevacizumab, oxaliplatin, and a fluoropyrimidine.
"Cyramza now has approvals in advanced or metastatic forms of three of the world's most common and deadly cancers, gastric, Non-small cell lung, and colorectal, with four FDA approvals received in just over a year," said Sue Mahony, Ph.D., senior vice president and president, Lilly Oncology. "This progress is encouraging and supports our ongoing development program for Cyramza. Achieving today's milestone is another example of Lilly's commitment to people living with gastrointestinal cancers."

EU recommends immune system Cancer drug

European regulators have recommended approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo, paving the way for it to become the first of a closely watched group of immune system-boosting cancer medicines to go on sale in Europe.
The drug, also known as Nivolumab, was given a green light on Friday by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of melanoma. It is already approved in the United States for melanoma and Lung Cancer.
The EMA said Opdivo was recommended for use on its own for the treatment of advanced melanoma, the most aggressive type of skin cancer, in both first-line and previously treated patients.
The agency also recommended approval of Daiichi Sankyo's Lixiana, or Edoxaban, for stroke prevention and Vanda Pharma's Hetlioz, or tasimelteon, to treat a sleep-wake disorder in blind people.
Bristol's Opdivo belongs to a highly promising new class of medicines called PD-1 inhibitors that block a mechanism tumours use to hide from the immune system. It is expected to be one of the most commercially successful new drugs to reach major markets this year.

Cuba has had a Lung Cancer vaccine for years

Cuba’s been sitting on a breakthrough cancer treatment. Now it’s going to test it out in America.

This week, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New York signed an agreement to import a Cuban lung cancer vaccine. The drug CimaVax helps treat symptoms and recurrence, said institute director Candace Johnson, when she returned Tuesday from a two-day trade trip to the island. 

“Lung cancer patients have a very high risk for recurrence. You have one nodule, you know you are maybe going to be get another nodule. You could take perhaps this vaccine that could help prevent a recurrence.” The institute will conduct clinical trials of CimaVax in the United States and seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration, Johnson said. Cuban scientists will also visit Buffalo to help with testing and research.

There’s also potential for importing Cuban medicines treating other conditions.

One drug Heberprot-P helps treat diabetic foot ulcers. It’s used in 18 countries, and is undergoing trial in the European Union, but the embargo has kept it out of the US.

ARIAD gains issuance of patent on Brigatinib

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  today announced the issuance of its first U.S. patent on Brigatinib, ARIAD’s investigational ALK inhibitor.“This has been an important week for brigatinib, beginning with ARIAD’s presentation of preclinical and clinical data on brigatinib and the unveiling of its novel design features at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. The issuance of the initial brigatinib patent highlights the innovative design of the brigatinib molecule,” stated Harvey J. Berger, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer of ARIAD. “We continue to enroll patients in our Phase 2 ALTA trial and look forward to sharing the first data from that clinical trial later this year. Brigatinib (AP26113) is an investigational, targeted cancer medicine discovered internally at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. It is in development for the treatment of patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive (ALK+) metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that is resistant to crizotinib. Brigatinib received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA in October 2014 for the treatment of patients with ALK+ NSCLC that is resistant to crizotinib on the basis of an ongoing Phase 1/2 trial. Brigatinib is currently being evaluated in the global Phase 2 ALTA trial that is anticipated to form the basis for its initial regulatory review. ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Lausanne, Switzerland, is an integrated global oncology company focused on transforming the lives of cancer patients with breakthrough medicines.

Novartis focuses on immuno-oncology in Cancer fight

Novartis AG, one of the world’s leading cancer drug companies, is making a big bet on emerging science that uses the body’s immune system to fight off tumors.
Novartis already has 22 oncology drugs on the market to treat everything from breast cancer to leukemia, and 25 more under development, a virtual war chest of targeted treatments. Now the Swiss company, which runs its global drug-discovery efforts from the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research here, has launched a research group specializing in the field of immuno-oncology.
Last month, Novartis hired a nationally known cancer vaccine authority, Dr. Glenn Dranoff, to lead the group, focusing on three distinct therapeutic areas but also exploring how to combine them with existing cancer drugs.“This is a huge field that’s just beginning,” said Mark C. Fishman, president of the Novartis Institutes and the company’s global research chief, noting that each approach to fighting cancer is currently proving effective for only a limited number of patients.
“We’re trying to educate the immune system to recognize cancer cells as foreign. Our goal is to cure cancer.” Excitement about immuno therapies has been building over the past 2½ years, since scientists at the University of Pennsylvania reprogrammed the immune system to attack cancer cells in about a dozen leukemia patients, causing complete remissions in some.
A drug developed jointly by Novartis and UPenn showed promising results in an early safety study on patients with solid tumors, according to results presented last weekend at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

U.S. Cancer institute reaches deal in Cuba

A U.S. cancer research center and a software company reached agreements with Cuban partners during a two-day trade mission to Cuba led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the first trip of its kind since the rapprochement between Washington and Havana.
The Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday signed an agreement with Cuba's Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a lung cancer vaccine with a clinical trial in the United States, Roswell Chief Executive Officer Candace Johnson said.
In addition, New York City-based Infor, previously known as Infor Global Solutions Inc, has found Cuban partners to resell its software in Cuba, CEO Charles Phillips said.
Both announcements were made at the airport just before Cuomo and a delegation of 18 business leaders and academics boarded their return flight to New York.

Lung Cancer drug delays disease by more than a Year

An experimental lung cancer pill from AstraZeneca delays disease progression by more than a year, according to new data presented at a medical meeting.
AZD9291, which the company expects to file for U.S. approval in the second quarter of 2015, is one of a number of cancer medicines AstraZeneca is hoping will rebuild its sales following patent losses on older drugs.
An analysis presented at the European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva demonstrated a median progression-free survival for patients on the drug of 13.5 months.
AZD9291, like a rival product in development at Clovis Oncology, targets a genetic mutation that helps tumors evade current lung cancer pills, including AstraZeneca's own established product Iressa.

New candidate drug 'dials down' protein synthesis for therapy

In preclinical trials in animals, a new candidate drug called Sephin1 can markedly improve CMT and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), two diseases of proteostasis (protein homeostasis, the process keeping protein production in balance in cells). Sephin1 regulates a key factor in protein synthesis, and does so by maintaining phosphorylation, or the addition of a phosphate group.
“The finding is important because proteostasis diseases are multiple and affect many people,” said Wrabetz, noting that they include neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis and certain types of cancers and some subtypes of diabetes.
“It’s important to emphasize that further studies are necessary to confirm that the effects in these two animal models will translate to patients with CMT and familial ALS and then, that this candidate drug or similar drugs could be useful in other diseases where proteostasis is a factor,” Wrabetz explained. “Nonetheless, this study is an important first step toward developing a therapeutic strategy for these diseases with a candidate drug that could potentially be used in clinical trials.”

Radiotherapy use, after Prostate Cancer surgery declining

The vast majority of men who undergo prostate cancer surgery don’t follow it up with radiation therapy, despite strong evidence and guidelines supporting its use to reduce the risk of recurrence, new research shows. Fewer than one in 10 men at risk of recurrence receive post-operative radiotherapy within six months of surgery in the U.S.

Although radical prostatectomy is a common treatment for localized prostate cancer, about 30 percent of patients will suffer a recurrence, meaning their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level will again rise. For some patients with more aggressive cancers, as many as 60-70 percent will have a recurrence. Three major clinical trials in Europe and the United States have shown postoperative radiotherapy reduces the risk of PSA recurrence, which may in turn reduce the likelihood the cancer will spread to other parts of the body when it can become life-threatening.

In the U.S., the American Society for Radiation Oncology and American Urological Association recommend post-surgical radiation to patients at risk of recurrence.

Cancer drug out-performs against Skin, Lung Cancer

Keytruda, bested the standard of care in advanced Melanoma, the deadly skin cancer, and showed promising results in Non-small cell Lung Cancer. Based on these data, Merck says it has filed an application with the FDA for Keytruda to be used in non-small cell lung cancer, and will soon file for it to be used as a first option in melanoma.“I think we are watching a revolutionary change in cancer therapy,” says Roger Perlmutter, Merck’s head of research and development. “Certainly the most important advance in my lifetime and maybe the most important advance since the introduction of radiotherapy.”

New blood test shows promise in fight against Cancer

An experimental blood test could be the next key in the fight against cancer.
Researchers are testing what they call a ‘liquid biopsy,’ which looks for fragments of cancer in a patient’s blood.
The test was able to predict recurrences of lymphoma more than three months before they showed up on CT scans.
Experts say it was also able to identify patients who were unlikely to respond to chemotherapy.
“This could change forever the way we follow up not only response to treatments but also the emergence of resistance, and down the line could even be used for really early diagnosis,” said Dr. José Baselga, physician in chief and chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. More studies are needed, but experts say the test could be used for very early diagnosis of cancer.
Doctors say the blood test is much less invasive than a surgical biopsy or CT scan.

Dietary supplement may prevent and treat Prostate Cancer

Researchers at the University of Miami have found that an over-the-counter supplement is effective in both preventing and treating prostate cancer.
The supplement, 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU), is a non-toxic oral agent used as a dietary supplement in Europe and Asia for improving liver health. Treating mice with the supplement appeared to inhibit prostate cancer from further developing starting as soon as eight weeks after  the rodents were diagnosed.
“The results were simply amazing,” principal investigator Vinata B. Lokeshwar, a professor of urology and director of the pilot and translational studies component of the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute, said in a news release.
The team also found that 4-MU halted the metastatic spread of prostate cancer.

Ibrance, Breast Cancer drug impresses in latest study

Pfizer said the Phase 3 study, called Paloma 3, was halted after an independent data monitoring board determined that Ibrance, also known as palbociclib, had proven its effectiveness among patients with advanced disease who had previously been treated with anti-estrogen drugs. Data from the study will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting, the largest U.S. drugmaker said.
Patients taking Ibrance in combination with Faslodex (fulvestrant), a widely used treatment to block estrogen, were deemed to have fared better in terms of disease progression than those taking Faslodex alone.
The trial enrolled patients whose breast cancer was classified as estrogen-receptor positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (ER+/HER2-).
Ibrance was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February for such patients, but only ones who had not previously been treated for advanced disease.
The accelerated approval was based on results of a study that showed Ibrance delayed progression of disease significantly longer than Femara(letrozole), a member of another class of breast cancer treatments called aromatase inhibitors.
Pfizer is conducting a large trial called Paloma-2, which it hopes will confirm the benefits of Ibrance as a first-line treatment, in combination with Femara.

New found protein could help immune system's Cancer fighting ability

A protein which ‘turbo-charges’ the immune system so that it can fight off any cancer or virus has been discovered by scientists. In a breakthrough described as a ‘game-changer’ for cancer treatment, researchers at Imperial College found a previously unknown molecule which boosts the body’s ability to fight off chronic illnesses. Scientists at Imperial College London, who led the study, are now developing a gene therapy based on the protein and hope to begin human trials in three years.

“This is exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt, from the Section of Immunobiology in the Department of Medicine at Imperial, who led the study.
“This is a completely unknown protein. Nobody had ever seen it before or was even aware that it existed. It looks and acts like no other protein.”The protein, named lymphocyte expansion molecule, or LEM, promotes the spread of cancer killing ‘T cells’ by generating large amounts of energy.
Normally when the immune system detects cancer it goes into overdrive trying to fight the disease, flooding the body with T cells. But it quickly runs out of steam. However the new protein causes a massive energy boost which makes T cells in such great numbers that the cancer cannot fight them off. It also causes a boost of immune memory cells which are able to recognize tumors and viruses they have encountered previously so there is less chance that they will return.
The team is hoping to produce a gene therapy whereby T cells of cancer patients could be enhanced with the protein and then injected back into the body. It could end the need for harsh chemo-therapies as the body itself would be fighting the disease, rather than toxic drugs. 

Gene variant linked to smoking longer, Lung Cancer sooner

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led an analysis of 24 studies involving more than 29,000 smokers of European ancestry and found that smokers with a particular variation in a nicotine receptor gene were more likely to continue smoking for four years after those without the variant had quit. Those with the genetic variant also were more likely to be diagnosed with Lung Cancer four years earlier than those without the variation in the CHRNA5 gene.
"People with the risk variant average a four-year delay in the age at which they quit smoking," said first author Li-Shiun Chen, MD. "Instead of quitting at age 52, which was the average age when study participants with a normal gene stopped smoking, people with the genetic variant quit at age 56."
Chen said those with the gene variant also tend to inhale more deeply when they smoke. That combination of genes and behavior contributes to the development of lung cancer earlier in life.
"They are likely to be diagnosed four years earlier," she said. "In those with lung cancer, the average smoker without the gene variant is diagnosed at age 65. Those with the greater genetic risk tend to be diagnosed at 61."

Aeterna Zentaris files additional patent application of Zoptarelin Doxorubicin

Québec City, Canada, April 16, 2015, Aeterna Zentaris Inc. today announced that it has filed an application for a patent (European Patent Office priority application: EP15000132) on a novel method of manufacturing zoptarelin doxorubicin, its hybrid cytotoxic molecule that is the subject of a pivotal ZoptEC (Zoptarelin doxorubicin in Endometrial Cancer) Phase 3 clinical study in women with advanced, recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer who have progressed and who have received one chemotherapeutic regimen with platinum and taxane (either as adjuvant or first-line treatment). The claimed manufacturing process is expected to result in a significant reduction in the cost of goods sold, providing a stronger competitive position for the Company. Zoptarelin doxorubicin is a complex molecule that combines a synthetic peptide carrier with doxorubicin, a well-known chemotherapy agent. The synthetic peptide carrier is a Luteinizing Hormone Releasing Hormone ("LHRH") agonist, a modified natural hormone with affinity for the LHRH receptor. The design of the compound allows for the specific binding and selective uptake of the cytotoxic conjugate by LHRH receptor-positive tumors. Potential benefits of this targeted approach include a better efficacy and a more favorable safety profile with lower incidence and severity of side effects as compared to doxorubicin alone.

Two Cancer facilities to receive state award are in Jacksonville

Two of the four facilities designated Florida Cancer Centers of Excellence by the State Surgeon General are in Jacksonville. Mayo Clinic Florida and the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute were both presented with the first-ever award earlier today in a visit by Florida Surgeon General and Secretary of Health Dr. John Armstrong.
The designation by the Florida Department of Health recognizes hospitals and treatment centers that demonstrate excellence in patient-centered coordinated care for people undergoing cancer treatment. The Florida Legislature established the award in 2013 but this was the first time it has been awarded.
The other two recipients are the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa and the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Israel discovery of Breath test that predicts Stomach Cancer

Scientists have discovered a new type of technology that senses compounds in exhaled breath that can be used as a screening tool to detect stomach cancer. Researchers at Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute in Israel collected breath samples from nearly 500 people, including 99 who had been diagnosed with stomach cancer, but had not yet received any treatment. Samples subjected to nanoarray analysis combined with pattern recognition identified varying levels of different compounds in the ‘breath prints.’ These levels accurately distinguished between the different pre-cancerous stages, determining patients at low and high risk of developing gastric cancer. Results were consistent regardless of other influential factors like age, alcohol intake and use of stomach acid suppressant drugs.
Another type of technology called GCMS that was previously considered for stomach cancer screening is very costly and requires lengthy processing and significant expertise to conduct, researchers noted. Nanoarray analysis is highly accurate and offers a much cheaper and simpler process, they added. Study researcher Hossam Haick, a professor in the department of chemical engineering at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute in Israel, said the test would avoid unnecessary endoscopies, and would enable any progression to cancer or signs of disease recurrence to be monitored. “The attractiveness of this test lies in its non-invasiveness, ease of use, rapid predictiveness, insensitivity to confounding factors and potentially low cost,” Haick said.

New Liver Cancer treatment approved in Europe

A new treatment for Liver Cancer developed by the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht has received the European CE mark for quality and safety. This implies that hospitals throughout Europe can now start using this innovative treatment that uses radioactive holmium microspheres to attack liver tumors. The treatment is being marketed by Quirem Medical, a spin-off company of the UMC Utrecht.
It involves injecting radioactive beads into the hepatic artery, which then join the blood flow and become trapped in the tiniest blood vessels, located in and around the liver tumors. They therefore emit their radiation close to the tumor. This type of radiation treatment is also called radio-embolization.
The research group at UMC Utrecht in charge of the project will work closely with Quirem Medical to adapt the new treatment for treating tumors in other organs as well. This year, research will start on the use of holmium microspheres to treat head and neck tumors. For that application, too, the unique image guidance with MRI introduces possibilities for closely monitoring the localized treatment of tumors and optimizing it as needed.

Cancer therapy developer Aduro becomes 2015's biggest IPO

Aduro Biotech Inc.'s main experimental drug, CRS-207, is a genetically modified version of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium. The company engineers the bacterium so it will stimulate the immune system to attack tumors instead of causing listeriosis, a potentially serious food-borne illness. The company is testing CRS-207 and another experimental "cancer vaccine" called GVAX as a treatment for pancreatic cancer.
It's also testing CRS-207 as a potential treatment for mesothelioma and is studying other cancer drugs.
The Berkeley, California-based company said its IPO raised $107.7 million after expenses. Aduro plans to use the proceeds from the offering to fund clinical trials and for general corporate purposes.

Anti-fungal drug shows promise as new Cancer Treatment

A common anti-fungal treatment has joined the ranks of drugs that may be suitable for use in treating cancer, according to research from the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project.
The ReDO project is an international collaboration of anticancer researchers dedicated to promoting the cause of common medicines which may represent an untapped source of novel therapies for cancer. Itraconazole is a drug used to treat a broad range of fungal infections, including skin and nail infections. It also has a lot of potential as a new cancer treatment, according to the ReDo project.
"Itraconazole shows potential in a number of areas with high unmet patient needs, particularly in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer and possibly in some rarer malignancies," says Pan Pantziarka, PhD, member of the ReDO project and the Anticancer Fund. "That there are a number of clinical trials on-going in a range of different cancers is an encouraging start."
Itraconazole, a generic agent that costs relatively little, shows some evidence of efficacy in metastatic Prostate Cancer, which would make it an attractive proposition given the high costs associated with cancer treatments such as arbiraterone, Pantziarka notes.
This could make itraconazole an attractive cancer treatment, not only in low and middle income countries, but also in over-stretched health systems such as the NHS.

Cancer gene tests should include healthy tissue

A study by Johns Hopkins scientists strongly suggests that sequencing tumor genomes for clues to genetic changes might misdirect treatment in nearly half of all patients unless it is compared first to a genetic readout of their noncancerous tissue. The investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say their analysis of more than 800 cancer patients' sequencing data, which was generated by Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc., a company co-founded by the researchers, shows that without such comparisons, attempts to individualize cancer therapy may be inappropriate in certain cases, and patients may get the wrong targeted therapies.
"Increasingly, hospitals and companies are beginning to sequence patients' tumors in an attempt to personalize therapy. However, many are not sequencing each person's normal tissue to filter out noncancer-related changes and to really understand what is occurring in the tumor," says Victor Velculescu, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of oncology and pathology and co-director of the Cancer Biology Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Velculescu explains that personalized therapies increasingly designed to target the unique genetic changes that drive a person's tumor depend on accurate assessment of a tumor genome, but not all genetic changes in a cancer are directly related to the cancer. Some, he explains, are so-called germline changes, which are inherited changes in genes that are in normal tissues and differ from person to person.

New drug trials for drug-resistant Blood Cancer

Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the research, said the findings have the potential to be a “game-changer” for people with blood cancers, such as certain types of leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But the charity stressed that human studies need to be completed first.
In recent years, drugs made from engineered immune proteins, called monoclonal antibodies have vastly improved treatment for several types of cancer.
They work by sticking to specific proteins found on the surface of cancer cells. This can affect cancer growth in several ways, but importantly they can attract the attention of the body’s immune system to attack the cancer. Unfortunately, patients can go on to develop resistance to these drugs, so researchers have been trying to understand the molecules and mechanisms involved.
The new study carried out by researchers based in Southampton, Sweden and the Netherlands, showed that one way resistance develops is when cancer cells become able to draw monoclonal antibodies inside themselves, making them invisible to immune cells.
This led them to develop a new antibody, called BI-1206, to prevent this drug destruction process and enhance cancer killing by binding itself to another molecule, which prevents it from being internalized. Professor Mark Cragg, who led the study, said: “Not only does BI-1206 appear to be able to reverse resistance to a range of monoclonal antibodies, it is also effective at directly killing cancer cells itself.” Dr Emma Smith, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “This exciting research has the potential to be a game-changer for people with white blood cell cancers that don’t respond, or have stopped responding, to treatments like rituximab. 

Brazilian study suggests adjustments on the treatment of Cancer patients with pneumonia

Cancer patients are more likely to get infections. Pneumonia is the most frequent type of infection in this group and a frequent cause of ICU admission and mortality. A study conducted by researchers from the D'Or Institute for Research and Education in partnership with Brazilian hospitals and universities analyzed the factors associated with severe pneumonia in hospitalized cancer patients and suggests that more personalized treatment protocols can reduce mortality in these patients.
Until now, there was a consensus among the medical community that the majority of pneumonia cases in cancer patients were due to the immune system debility caused by the disease and to the exposure to multiresistant bacteria which can cause the pulmonary infection. The idea was that these patients are more vulnerable to superbacteria because they spend a lot of time in hospitals.
The Brazilian researches decide to investigate this and their results point to a different scenario. By analyzing the medical data from 325 cancer patients hospitalized with pneumonia in three big hospitals, they found a low rate of multiresistant pathogens, less than 14% of the patients showed an infection of this kind. The data suggests that the presence of multiresistant bacteria is not so important to explain the pneumonia development in this group of patients. Today's treatment for this population is an standardized antibiotic therapy. "We give to the patients two or three broad-spectrum antibiotic which acts against a wide range of multiresistant bacteria", says Salluh. "However, the reality is that the incidence of bacteria varies according the region of the globe and not all cancer patients with pneumonia are affected by superbacteria."
The broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy is the first choice of physicians because the result from the tests that are routinely utilized for pathogen detection can take 72h. Without having this much time to wait before taking an action, doctors have to choose the broad-spectrum treatment.
However this approach can lead to side effects and induce bacterial resistance to antibiotics. When bacteria are frequently exposed to antibiotics, they adapt to them and don't die anymore. The Brazilian researches now study new protocols of treatment which can solve this situation. One of the options under consideration is to test faster methods of pathogen detection which can offer a result in 6 hours.

Vitamin C to kill Cancer

Research at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is reintroducing a once controversial idea: using high doses of Vitamin C to treat cancer.
Doctors and scientists at UIHC want to find out if they can fight cancer by injecting patients with large amounts of Vitamin C while also using traditional cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy, said Joseph Cullen, a professor of surgery at the UI College of Medicine. Cullen said high-dose Vitamin C, which is inexpensive to administer, seems to work by creating hydrogen peroxide that kills cancer cells without harming other cells. Trials so far have shown the treatment is safe and tolerable for patients with pancreatic cancer. Researchers also are testing its safety in patients with cancers of the brain and lungs, Cullen said.
Researchers hope to test the treatment's efficacy in humans during a second phase of research in late 2015 or early 2016. They are seeking a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fund research costs primarily from phase two.

HPV Vaccine in men would save costs of treating Throat Cancer

About 9,300 men in the U.S. each year are affected by HPV-caused cancers, among them Oropharyngeal Cancer that occurs in the middle part of the throat behind the mouth and can develop around the tonsils and the back of the tongue. That number is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years. The study, released online Monday in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicates that vaccinating 12-year-old boys against HPV is a cost-effective strategy for preventing throat cancer.
Researchers applied a statistical model to 192,940 Canadian boys who were 12 years old in 2012, and found that vaccination could save $6 million to $22 million, depending on the cost of the vaccine, its effectiveness, the cost of cancer treatment and the survival rate of patients who get cancer.
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show vaccination rates for males climbed from 20.8 percent in 2012 to 34.6 percent in 2013. Sui says that if more boys were vaccinated, then the vaccine would prevent throat cancer as effectively as it prevents cervical cancer.
For women, the vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix protect against 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts cases. They work in the body for at least a decade without becoming less effective and have not been associated with any long-term health problems. Gardasil is the vaccine typically given to men.

A CEO's view on Cancer, Virus-Based 'Cures,'

Thompson understands all too well the challenges of bringing these viruses to market, having guided his company through a sometimes brutal and public quest to develop a treatment that’s similar to the Duke approach. Oncolytics Biotech was founded in 1998 on discoveries made at the University of Calgary about the cancer-killing prowess of reovirus, a bug that most people have been exposed to but that typically doesn’t cause infectious symptoms. The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange and Nasdaq a couple of years after its founding, while it was conducting early Phase I trials of its reovirus-based therapy, Reolysin, in head and neck cancer.
Thompson remains optimistic, not just about reovirus, but also about polio and the many other virus-based immunotherapy treatments being tried in oncology. In addition to the ongoing research at Duke and other universities, several companies are working in this field, including Amgen , which will face an FDA advisory committee on April 29 to discuss the possible approval of its viral drug, talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), to treat melanoma. There have been many disappointments along the way, Thompson says, but what scientists are learning from those failures is only strengthening the research efforts.
“Every three or four months we hear about the next cure for cancer coming out of someplace with early data, and 99 times out of 100 you never hear about them again,” says Thompson, himself a scientist who received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Western Ontario. The main problem with the 60 Minutes report, he says, was that it focused on early data from one small trial. “One or two patients survived, and yes, that’s exciting, but the daunting task of getting [the drug approved] is lost in translation.”

Reolysin filed for Gastric Cancer orphan status

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. announced the submission of an application to the FDA seeking orphan drug designation for its lead pipeline candidate, Reolysin, for the treatment of gastric cancer. Reolysin already enjoys orphan drug status for primary peritoneal, fallopian tube, ovarian and pancreatic cancer in the U.S. and for primary peritoneal, fallopian tube and ovarian cancer in the EU.

The FDA usually grants orphan drug status to drugs or biologics that are being developed for the treatment of rare diseases/conditions affecting less than 200,000 people in the U.S. at any given time. This designation allows the product to enjoy a period of marketing exclusivity in the U.S., upon approval. Incentives that come with orphan drug status include tax credits as well as waiver of certain administrative fees.

According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 24,590 people in the U.S. are estimated to be diagnosed with gastric cancer this year with 10,720 people expected to die from the disease.

Certain fish oils may induce Chemo-resistance

A new study published in JAMA Oncology finds that consuming herring, mackerel and certain fish oils may increase the risk of cancer patients becoming resistant to chemotherapy. The study co-author Dr. Emilie E. Voest, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, and colleagues point to one study that identified a threefold increase in food supplement use among patients who had received a cancer diagnosis. "However," the authors add, "there is a growing concern that simultaneous use of supplements and anticancer drugs may negatively influence treatment outcome." The researchers note that omega-3 fatty acids are commonly used supplements among cancer patients, with around 20% of cancer patients using them in the US, most commonly in the form of fish oil.
The researchers also found that consuming 100 g of herring or mackerel was associated with an increase in 16:4(n-3) blood levels. Salmon consumption led to small increase in 16:4(n-3) blood levels, while tuna intake did not appear to affect blood levels. The researchers also analyzed the results of a survey completed by 118 patients receiving cancer treatment at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, which gathered information about their use of fish oil supplements. They found that 30% of these patients reported regular use of fish oil supplements, while 11% reported using supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids.
Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy avoid taking fish oil supplements from the day before their treatment until the day after.
"Although further evidence on the relation between fish consumption and chemotherapy activity is desired, we would currently also recommend to avoid herring and mackerel in the 48 hours surrounding chemotherapy exposure," they add.

New approach to treat drug-resistant HER2-positive Breast Cancer

Resistance to therapy is a major problem in the cancer field. Even when a treatment initially works, the tumors often find ways around the therapy. Using human cell lines of the HER2-positive Breast Cancer subtype, researchers from the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have detailed the surprising ways in which resistance manifests and how to defeat it before it happens. The discovery, published today in the journal Cell Reports, provides the experimental evidence for the potential development of a novel combination therapy for HER2-positive breast cancer. The combination includes the FDA approved drug lapatinib and a new experimental drug called a BET bromodomain inhibitor, which works by disrupting the expression of specific genes."This research was done in cell lines of human HER2-positive breast cancer, not in patients; but the results are very striking," said Gary Johnson, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of pharmacology, member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and senior author of the paper. "The combination treatments are currently being tested in different mouse models of breast cancer. Our goal is to create a new kind of therapy that could help oncologists make the response to treatment more durable and lasting for breast cancer patients."

Australian Trial, new Cancer medication promises better results

A powerful new chemotherapy drug with fewer side effects is being given to Australian cancer patients as part of a trial. Pharmaceutical company Starpharma is trialling a new formula of the drug Docetaxel, which is 40 times stronger than previous versions.
The drug is injected into the blood stream of patients undergoing breast, lung and prostate cancer treatment and is reportedly better at targeting cancer cells without having an impact on healthy tissue.

Starpharma CEO Dr Jackie Fairley said none of the patients undergoing the trial had experienced hair loss. "This is an Australian innovation and Australian company, but even better still Australian patients are getting access to this new therapy first," she said.

Dr Fairley said Starpharma is looking for patients with solid tissue tumors who have not responded to other therapies.
For more information on the chemotherapy trial call 1800 266 076.

UK scientists have new treatment for Prostate Cancer

Scientists at the University of York have discovered a potential new treatment for prostate cancer using low temperature plasmas (LTPs). Published in the British Journal of Cancer, the study is the first time LTPs have been applied on cells grown directly from patient tissue samples. Taking both healthy prostate cells and prostate cancer tissue cells from a single patient, the study allowed for direct comparison of the effectiveness of the treatment. Scientists discovered that LTPs may be a potential option for treatment of patients with organ confined prostate cancer, and a viable, more cost-effective alternative to current radiotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments.
Low temperature plasmas are formed by applying a high electric field across a gas using an electrode, which breaks down the gas to form plasma. This creates a complex, unique reactive environment containing high concentrations of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Operated at atmospheric pressure and around room temperature, the delivery of RONS, when transferred through plasma to a target source, is a key mediator of oxidative damage and cell death in biological systems.
Through this research they have found that LTPs induce high levels of DNA damage, which leads in turn to a substantial reduction in colony forming ability, and ultimately necrotic cell death. Using clinically relevant, close-to-patient samples, they have presented the first experimental evidence promoting the potential of LTP as a future focal cancer therapy treatment for patients with early stage prostate cancer.

MRI screening for those at high risk of Pancreatic Cancer

A magnetic resonance imaging MRI-based screening program for individuals at high risk of pancreatic cancer identified pancreatic lesions in 16 of 40 of patients, of whom 5 five underwent surgery, according to a report published online by JAMA Surgery.
Marco Del Chiaro, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and coauthors analyzed short-term results from an MRI-based screening program for patients with a genetic risk of developing pancreatic cancer. The study included 40 patients (24 women and 16 men with an average age of nearly 50). In 38 of the patients, increased risk of the disease was based on family history of pancreatic cancer. BRCA2, BRCA1 and p16 gene mutations were identified in some patients. The average study follow-up was 12. 9 months, with MRI screening repeated after one year if the initial screen was negative or at six months if there were unspecific findings or findings that did not indicate surgery. According to the results, MRIs found a pancreatic lesion in 16 patients (40 percent): intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia, which can become invasive cancer, in 14 patients (35 percent) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in two patients (5 percent). Five patients (12.5 percent) required surgery (3 for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and 2 for intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia), the remaining 35 continue under surveillance.
"An MRI-based protocol for the surveillance of individuals at risk for developing pancreatic cancer seems to detect cancer or premalignant lesions with good accuracy. The exclusive use of MRI can reduce costs, increase availability and guarantee the safety of the individuals under surveillance compared with protocols that are based on more aggressive methods. However, because of the small number of patients and the divergent results, this study did not allow evaluation of the efficacy of MRI as a single screening modality," the study concludes.

New therapeutic option for treatment resistant Lung Cancer

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc. is pleased to announce that Health Canada has issued a marketing authorization with conditions for Zykadia™ (ceritinib), a lung cancer treatment that addresses an unmet medical need for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have progressed on or who were intolerant to crizotinib.
"The majority of ALK+ patients are younger and have never smoked, which represents a demographic that many are surprised to hear associated with this devastating illness. Until recently, treatment options have been limited." states Dr. Jeffrey Rothenstein, MD, FRCPC. "Zykadia represents an important new option for patients who relapse after starting initial therapy."
NSCLC can be characterized based on a patient's genetic abnormalities that are causing the cancer growth and researchers have identified over 12 of these genetic abnormalities. Of those, 2 to 7 per cent are driven by a rearrangement of the ALK gene, which increases the growth of cancer cells and can be identified by a molecular test of the cancer tumor.
"Developments in targeted gene therapy such as treatments targeting ALK rearrangements are helping us move towards personalized medicine," states Shem Singh, Executive Director, Lung Cancer Canada. "Molecular testing should be done on a patient's tumour as soon as there is a NSCLC lung cancer diagnosis. This will help patients and physicians identify the best treatment as quickly as possible." The marketing authorization with conditions for Zykadia™ was based on a pivotal Phase 1 trial that included 163 patients with metastatic ALK+ NSCLC who had received prior treatment with crizotinib.  Among these patients, Zykadia achieved an overall response rate of 54.6% and the median duration of response was 7.4 months.

Scientists reveal genetic root of Prostate Cancer

Tumor samples from 10 men with prostate cancer were analyzed, allowing the researchers to map a "family tree" of changes occurring at a genetic level as the cancer develops.
The researchers also learned more about how the disease spreads through the body and forms new tumors. They discovered that the first group of cells that spread from the prostate continues to travel throughout the body, developing new tumors as it goes.
"We gained a much broader view of prostate cancer by studying both the original cancer and the cells that had spread to other parts of the body in these men," says study author Prof. Ros Eeles from the Institute of Cancer Reseach in London, UK. "And we found that all of the cells that had broken free shared a common ancestor cell in the prostate."
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men behind skin cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death behind lung cancer. Around 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.

Cost of Cancer drugs depends on who’s paying

Uninsured Cancer patients are paying anywhere from two to 43 times what Medicare would pay for chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers led by Stacie Dusetzina, an assistant professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Gillings School of Global Public Health, reviewed newly available Medicare data on what physicians charged for chemotherapy drugs delivered intravenously in 2012.
Uninsured patients who did not negotiate the billed amounts could expect to pay $6,711 for an infusion of the colorectal cancer drug Oxaliplatin. However, Medicare and private health plans only pay $3,090 and $3,616 for the same drug, respectively. Although uninsured cancer patients paid on average two times more than Medicare paid for expensive chemotherapy drugs, very high payment differences were seen for drugs that were quite inexpensive on Medicare. An example, Carboplatin was estimated at $26 for one infusion with Medicare, but the estimate for uninsured patients was $1,124. “Patients with Medicare and private insurance don’t pay the sticker price of health care,” said Dusetzina. “They pay a discounted rate. However, uninsured patients don’t have the bargaining power, or they may not try to negotiate for a better price.”
 In addition to estimating costs for infused chemotherapy drugs, the researchers also looked at what cancer patients were asked to pay for a doctor visit. Uninsured patients were billed between $129 and $391, depending on the complexity of the visit. Medicare paid between $65 and $188 and private insurance paid $78 to $246 for the same visits.
These drug pricing discrepancies could become even more important depending on the outcome of the pending Supreme Court case King vs. Burwell, which challenges the legitimacy of federal health-care subsidies and could leave as many as 8 million Americans without subsidies and uninsured in 2016.

Six-Year survival for patient with Metastatic Lung Cancer

 A 54-year-old male with metastatic lung cancer that had spread to his brain, liver, and bone and a very rare genetic mutation, continues to thrive because of targeted, combination drug therapy that works through epigenetic means and was introduced in his treatment plan three years ago. His case, treated at Gaynor Integrative Oncology in New York, is reported to be the first reported clinical case study about the extended survival rate of a patient with this profile.
This case is particularly compelling since mortality from metastatic lung cancer is greater than the combined mortality of the next three most common forms of cancer (breast, colon, and pancreatic). Given the high mortality rate and the reported resistance to BRAF inhibition therapy, this case represents a breakthrough analysis of a new drug treatment plan that offers huge potential for extending life for patients with a similar molecular profile.
The patient was originally diagnosed in 2008 and was treated with several chemotherapy regimens but developed progressive disease in the brain, bone, liver and lung. Molecular profiling subsequently confirmed a mutation in BRAF V600E, and he was treated with BRAF inhibitor, Dabrafenib. After initial positive response to Dabrafenib, significant disease progression was indicated by PET/CT and MRI and the patient was determined to have developed resistance to this drug. The patient was subsequently treated with a regimen co-targeting BRAF and MEK with Vemurafenib and Trametinib, drugs also usually used only for melanoma patients.
"Targeting specific genetic mutations with enhanced drug therapy that works on the genetic level is the hope offered by ecogenetic medicine," Dr. Gaynor stated. "Because of medicine's evolution into treatment that targets the functioning of tumor promoting and suppressing genes, there is hope of longer, more vibrant lives for all cancer patients. This case is a stunning example of the efficacy of targeted gene therapy treatment."

Health tax ruling will have big effect on Women

The stakes are  high for women who make up a majority of marketplace plan enrollees.
Plaintiffs in the King vs. Burwell case argue that a section of the Affordable Care Act says the tax credits can only go toward coverage purchased “through an exchange established by the State.”
If the plaintiffs prevail and tax credits are disallowed in the 34 states, millions of Americans could immediately find their insurance unaffordable and subsequently drop coverage.
The majority of those coverage losses would likely fall on women. Females probably account for 54 percent of the 8.6 million marketplace plan members in the 34 states that rely on the federal exchange at HealthCare.gov.
And national trends suggest that roughly 87 percent of these women, nearly 4.2 million, receive tax credits that could be lost if the Supreme Court decides that the subsidy is illegal.
Losing their coverage means they no longer would benefit from consumer protections in the health law that outlawed discrimination against women in the individual insurance market.
The high court is expected to decide in June whether to continue the tax credits for those who live in the 34 states where the federal government operates the health insurance marketplace.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/06/5732163/health-tax-ruling-will-have-big.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2015/04/06/5732163/health-tax-ruling-will-have-big.html#storylink=cpy

UK to get first three proton beam therapy centers in Cancer care

The UK is to get its first three proton beam therapy centres in what is being hailed as a cancer treatment milestone.
The centres will open in Cardiff, London and Northumberland by 2017, with the first, in Cardiff, becoming operational next year.
The announcement comes after the parents of brain cancer survivor Ashya King told how the five-year-old made a “miracle” recovery after receiving proton beam therapy in Prague in the Czech Republic. Brett and Naghmeh King prompted an international police hunt in August when they took Ashya from a Southampton hospital against doctors’ wishes.
London granted permission for them to seek proton beam therapy at a center in Prague. The therapy was not initially offered on the NHS, although the health service later agreed to fund it.
Proton beam therapy limits the collateral damage of radiation to other vital organs, such as the heart and liver in Ashya King’s case. It also said to have a lower risk of side effects.
The new UK centers will be available for NHS patients from England, Scotland and Wales, patients with private health insurance and self-paying patients.

St. Luke's enrolls first patient in new Cancer therapy trial

St. Luke's Cancer Center has enrolled its first patient in a new clinical trial aimed at treating advanced melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. It's the first Cancer center in the world to offer Phase II oncolytic viral therapy to patients.
Takara Bio, Inc., a Japanese biotechnology company, developed the therapy, which uses viruses to destroy Cancer cells, the news release says.
"This promising therapy uses the injectable strain of the Herpes simplex virus, HF10, to destroy Cancer cells and produce an anti-tumor immune response," the health network says in the release. "Since the study is Phase II, patients still receive the standard-of-care therapy for advanced melanoma."
Dr. Sanjiv Agarwala, chief of medical oncology and hematology for St. Luke's, said in a statement that there was no effective treatment for advanced melanoma until about five years ago.
"Then, we cracked the code," he said. "We began to look at the immune system and target cells that attack melanoma cells. Some of the treatments turn on cells that fight Cancer and others prevent cells that fight the disease from being turned off."

First human trial of a new approach to Cancer treatment

Two of the most promising recent approaches to cancer treatment are immunotherapy, which harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, and personalised medicine, which involves therapeutics that are targeted to the genome of a particular patient and that patient’s cancer.
Now scientists have combined those two strategies to create a novel treatment: a vaccine developed for a single patient that triggers an immune system attack that is laser-focused on that patient’s tumors.
In the very first human trial testing this approach, the personalized vaccines successfully activated an immune response in three patients with Melanoma.The broken genes that make a tumor grow out of control “can also be targeted by the immune system to control malignancies,” researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Washington University School of Medicine explained. 
To create the personalized treatments, scientists determined the unique genetic make-up of each patient’s melanoma tumors, which had been surgically removed. They then identified special targets, called neo-antigens, on the surface of each patient’s cancer cells. Using those targets, they developed a personalized vaccine for each patient that would hopefully encourage their immune system to attack these specific neo-antigens on that patient’s cancer cells. Each vaccine took the research team about three months, too long to wait for many cancer patients. They’re hoping a timeline of four to six weeks will become possible as they refine the process. The researchers are eager to try it out on other Cancers that are associated with carcinogens, like Bladder, Lung, and Colorectal Cancers.

Takeda working on a pill to replace Velcade Cancer drug

Takeda Oncology’s best-selling Multiple Myeloma treatment Velcade achieved blockbuster status in the United States last year, becoming one of only 10 cancer drugs ever to generate annual US sales of more than $1 billion. The local research lab of Takeda, formerly known as Millennium Pharmaceuticals, developed the first oral proteasome inhibitor to treat Multiple Myeloma, a Cancer of plasma cells, and is preparing to report data from late-stage clinical trials. If all goes well, the company plans to apply for US and European approval of the pill, called Iixazomib, later this year.
“When you have a simpler, potentially safer treatment than Velcade, it’s more convenient for patients,” Christophe Bianchi, president of Takeda’s global oncology business unit, said in an interview, noting that Velcade has to be injected into patients. “The [pill] will transform the market, we believe, because it doesn’t require patients to visit a clinic.”
Ixazomib, like Velcade, works in cancer cells by blocking proteasome, a cell switch that breaks down proteins. In cancer cells, the proteins are produced rapidly. So inhibiting the proteasome allows so many of the proteins to accumulate that the cancer cells die.
Because many physicians prescribe Velcade as part of a three-drug cocktail with two pills, patients today have to travel to clinics only for the proteasome inhibitor. If regulators approve Ixazomib, patients will be able to take the entire cocktail at home orally, swallowing Iixazomib once a week for three weeks and skipping the fourth week before repeating the regimen.

A new Cancer Drug, made in China

Xian-Ping Lu left his job as director of research at drug maker Galderma R&D in Princeton, N.J., to co-found a biotech company to develop new medicines in his native China. It took more than 14 years but the bet could be paying off. In February, Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences’ first therapy, a medication for a rare type of Lymph-node Cancer, hit the market in China. The willingness of veterans like Dr. Lu and others to leave multinational drug companies for Chinese startups reflects a growing optimism in the industry here. The goal, encouraged by the government, is to move the Chinese drug industry beyond generic medicines and drugs based on ones developed in the West.
Chipscreen’s drug, called Chidamide, or Epidaza, was developed from start to finish in China. The medicine is the first of its kind approved for sale in China, and just the fourth in a new class globally. Dr. Lu estimates the research cost of chidamide was about $70 million, or about one-tenth what it would have cost to develop in the U.S.
Chidamide now is on the market in China for 26,500 yuan ($4,275) a month, a price far lower than patients in the U.S. pay for some of the newest cancer medicines but much more than the typical Chinese patient pays for drugs. Dr. Lu said the price reflects a balance between affordability for patients and return for shareholders. 

Modified viruses show promise in treating Melanoma

Utah has the highest rate of melanoma cases in the nation, and now researchers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute said they may be close to finding a cure using a process that involves injecting live viruses into the patient’s skin. “Our patients are living longer, and we’re able for the first time in melanoma to potentially talk about a cure, which is something we have not been able to talk about before,” said Dr. Robert Andtbacka, who is a surgical oncologist.
Andtbacka said the new treatment teaches the body to heal itself. So far, 60 percent of the clinical trial patients are seeing dramatic results.
“What we do with this treatment, we take the virus… this is not the common virus; we take these viruses for herpes, others are cold viruses, and what we do is change the way these viruses work,” Andtbacka said. Researchers said the viruses are injected directly into the melanoma tumor, and cells then learn to fight and stop the cancer. “It develops a memory in the immune system, so it can fight this at other sites and distant places,” Andtbacka said. It also allows patients to avoid having to go through chemotherapy and other painful surgeries. “Many patients view as standard chemotherapy being very difficult to take,” Andtbacka said. “You lose your hair. You feel nauseated and other side effects. These viruses are very easily tolerated.”
This is a nationwide study with the Huntsman Cancer Institute playing one of the leading roles. They said they’re not ready to declare a cure yet, but they’re on the road to get there.

Scientists find therapy for deadly Brain Cancer genes

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a method that goes a step further than chemo and stops the source that creates those cells. Scientists observed that, in mice, the molecule miR-182 suppressed tumors and reduced the expression of multiple oncogenes that cause cancer to progress. The molecule works by blocking cancer cell death in response to radiation and chemo, according to a news release. MiR-182  is a microRNA that can bind to hundreds of genes to reduce their protein expression in cells. Human gliobastoma multiform patients with greater levels of miR-182 also have higher survival rates than those with lower levels.
SNAs, which are comprised of DNA and RNA located around a nanoparticle center, are “a very promising platform to silence the particular genes that drive or contribute to cancer progression in individual patients,” senior study author Alexander Stegh, assistant neurology and medicine professor at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, said in the news release. Study co-author Chad Mirkin, a medicine professor at Northwestern, invented SNAs, a technique that prevents toxicity or activation of the immune system.
“Our approach to gene silencing has not been demonstrated before in such a powerful way for the treatment of brain cancers,” Stegh said. “These particles, microRNA-based SNAs, could also potentially be used for gene silencing in other cancers and diseases of genetic origin.”
The study authors said further research will involve testing miR-182 with the nanoparticle delivery in human patients.

Abilene, Texas medical center offers new Breast Cancer treatment

A new treatment is being offered at Hendrick Medical Center called 'Brachytherapy.'
Hendrick has always treated Breast Cancer patients, but those that lived outside of Abilene, Texas had to decide between traveling every week for radiation or undergoing a mastectomy. The surgeon removes the breast tumor and inserts a balloon device to make it possible for the radiation oncologist to treat the area after surgery.
Tiny, hollow catheters are temporarily inserted directly into the area where the tumor was removed. Doctors say it will drastically cut down on both treatment and recovery time.
"With this therapy, we can complete a patients surgery and radiation therapy in two weeks time," said Brent Mahoney, radiation oncologist at Hendrick Cancer Center. "This is opposed to a therapy that can last 3 to 4 months." "This really allows them to have the choice to decide what they want," said Norton. "If they qualify for this treatment, they can just come here, stay here and get their radiation therapy in five days instead of six weeks, so it's great for the patients."
Another big advantage of this treatment; less severe side effects, which is a big factor for patients fighting cancer. Another treatment option in the war against Cancer.

Old Cancer drug could have new use

A drug used for decades to treat leukemia may have other uses in the fight against cancer, researchers at the University of Missouri have found. Previously, doctors used 6-Thioguanine, or 6-TG, as a chemotherapy treatment to kill cancer cells in patients with leukemia. In recent years, many doctors have shelved 6-TG in exchange for newer drugs that are more effective. Now, Jeffrey Bryan, an associate professor of oncology at the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, and his colleagues found that 6-TG can not only kill cancer cells, but also works to change how certain cancer cells function, weakening those cells so they can be killed by other drugs. When testing the drug on cells from dogs with cancer, the MU researchers found that 6-TG can affect these epigenetic markers in cancer cells through a chemical process called demethylation. This process works to turn off damaging epigenetic markers and turn on markers that make the cells act in a healthy manner. Bryan says this discovery could lead to future cancer treatments using multiple drugs to fight the disease from different sides.
"While 6-TG is no longer one of the more powerful cancer-killing drugs doctors have at their disposal, we found that it could still be useful to fight cancer in conjunction with other drugs," said Bryan, who also is the director of the Comparative Oncology and Epigenetics Laboratory at MU. "If we can use 6-TG to turn off dangerous markers in cancer cells so that those cells become easier to kill, we then can use more powerful cancer-killing drugs to eliminate the cells for good."
"Epigenetic markers work similarly in dogs and humans, so we expect to see similar results with these drugs in humans as we do in dogs," Bryan said.