A link between Citrus consumption and Skin Cancer

A large study published Monday that looked at the dietary patterns of more than 100,000 Americans discovered an unexpected link between high consumption of citrus - specifically whole grapefruit and orange juice, and risk of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.
Researchers found that 1,840 of the study participants developed melanoma and that those who had a serving of citrus fruit or juice 1.6 times daily had a 36 percent higher risk of the cancer as compared with those who consume it less than two times a week. A serving was defined as half a grapefruit, one orange or a 6 ounce glass of juice.
The authors theorize that the link may be due to high levels of something called furocoumarins found in citrus fruit. This substance are produced by plants as a defense mechanism and are photoactive meaning that their toxicity is enhanced by ultraviolet radiation. They have been known to cause skin to be more sensitive to sunlight.
Shaowei Wu, the lead study author and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, said that in a statement that the findings suggest that "those who consume a lot of grapefruit and/or orange juice should be particularly careful to avoid prolonged sun exposure."
The American Society of Clinical Oncology called the findings "intriguing" but said that it's far too soon for any changes to dietary recommendations about grapefruit and oranges.

With the Summer sun comes signs of danger

A British research team reported that a quarter or more of cells in the skin of middle-aged people have suffered sun-induced DNA damage. Although the cells were outwardly normal, the mutations that occurred could be the first stages of cancer.

Douglas E. Brash, a biophysicist at Yale University School of Medicine who has studied ultraviolet damage to cells for more than 40 years and wrote a commentary on the British study, described the new findings as “a canary in a coal mine” and a warning to take the effects of ultraviolet radiation, whether from sunlight or tanning beds, more seriously.

It is especially important, he said, “to be very conscientious about protecting young children,” who are more susceptible than teenagers and adults to ultraviolet-induced mutations.

“A lot of damage occurs when people go to the beach,” Dr. Brash said. “While the body does a great job of repairing the damage and gets 99.9 percent of things right, every once in a while, you do get a mutation that may make a cell resistant to death, allowing it to form a clone that can become a cancer.” A recently published study by Dr. Brash’s team at Yale, showed that much of the harm to skin cells caused by ultraviolet radiation occurs hours after the exposure has ended. Even in the dark, substances formed during UV exposure continue to damage melanin, the pigment that gives skin its color. Some consumers believe that choosing a more expensive sunscreen with a sky-high S.P.F. number like 70 or 100 will provide complete protection. However, the FDA has not determined that an S.P.F. of more than 50 has any added benefits.

CTCA in Arizona launches third new clinical Cancer Trial

Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at Western Regional Medical Center (Western) in Goodyear, Arizona, has begun a new Phase Ib/II clinical trial using a new immunotherapy treatment for patients with advanced kidney, non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and colorectal carcinoma. This "NivoPlus" clinical trial combines an immunotherapy drug (nivolumab) with already FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs (temsirolimus, irinotecan, and a combination of irinotecan and capecitabine). The addition of nivolumab is intended to activate the body's own immune system to improve on the results that otherwise might not be achieved from chemotherapy alone. This combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs is investigational in this study and is the third such combination clinical trial launched in the past year by CTCA at Western.
There are anticipated to be up to 49 patients enrolled on the multi-arm NivoPlus study. The first patient received treatment on this study earlier this month.
"Some of these drug combinations are not available elsewhere, giving CTCA patients additional treatment options," said Dr. Glen Weiss, Director of Clinical Research and Medical Oncologist, CTCA at Western. "Our ultimate goal is to evaluate if these combinations yield improved results for our patients."
Nivolumab works by inhibiting a protein called PD-1, which otherwise blocks the body's immune system from attacking cancerous cells.

Money is drastically needed for Cancer Trials

Only 3 percent of adult patients participate in trials, the rest discouraged for many reasons, including excessive administrative and regulatory burden and sharply decreased federal funding for clinical trials.

Federally funded research through the National Institutes of Health has played a critical role in every major advance in cancer treatment over the last 50 years. This funding has not increased a penny for more than a decade, leaving N.I.H. federal research funds with a 23 percent loss this year alone, when adjusted for biomedical inflation. Promising research is now going unfunded, and new studies are being scaled back, leaving fewer patients with the opportunity to participate in clinical trials.

UK scientists discover compounds that shrink Pancreatic Cancer

Scientists from UCL (University College London) have designed a chemical compound that has reduced the growth of pancreatic cancer tumors by 80 percent. The compound, called MM41, was designed to block faulty genes. It appears to do this by targeting little knots in their DNA, called quadruplexes, which are very different from normal DNA and which are especially found in faulty genes. "This research provides a potentially very powerful alternative approach to the way that conventional drugs tackle pancreatic cancer, by targeting a very specific area of the DNA of faulty genes. One of the genes that MM41 blocks, the BCL-2 gene is involved in regulating apoptosis, the body's natural process which forces cells to die if they become too damaged or unhealthy to be repaired. BCL-2 is present in high amounts in many tumours and helps cancer cells to survive, but when the BCL-2 gene is blocked by MM41, the cancer cells succumb to apoptosis and die."
"We are now working to optimize this class of compounds, but it's clearly worthy of further investigation for potential use in treating pancreatic cancer."

A microRNA may be therapy against Pancreatic Cancer

Indiana University cancer researchers found that a particular microRNA may be a potent therapeutic agent against pancreatic cancer. The researchers found that restoring missing microRNA-29 (miR-29) in pancreatic cancer stromal cells reduced the viability and growth of the cancerous cells.
A thick fibrotic shell around the cancer cells is known as "stroma," which protects the pancreatic cancer cells from anticancer drugs such as chemotherapy.
"We found that the loss of miR-29 is a common phenomenon of pancreatic cancer stromal cells, and that by restoring it, the stromal accumulation and cancer growth was reduced," Kota said. "The use of miR-29 as a therapeutic agent may be more effective in targeting reactive stroma, as a single miRNA regulates the expression of several genes associated with disease mechanisms."
"In healthy cells and tissues, a single miRNA controls the expression of hundreds of genes, and any alterations in their normal expression leads to abnormal overexpression of bad genes that are favorable for the growth of cancer cells and are harmful to normal cells," Kota explained.
"This is a novel approach that has the potential to overcome the problems associated with current anti-stromal drugs and that could lead to improved therapeutic strategies, enhanced drug delivery to the tumor bed, and, in the future, improved patient survival." 

Blood protein may spot Pancreatic Cancer early

Researchers have discovered a protein that pancreatic tumors consistently shed into the blood, making a potentially significant advance toward a blood test that could catch the deadly cancer early.

Scientists have tried, without great success, to find markers, or indicators, for pancreatic cancer, proteins in the blood that consistently and specifically signal the presence of the disease.

The marker that Kalluri's team found appears to be better than any others studied so far, said Dr. Kenneth Yu, an oncologist who was not involved in the research.

"This is really impressive," said Yu, who treats and studies pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "You rarely see something with 100 percent sensitivity and specificity."

Yu was referring to the fact that all pancreatic tumors analyzed in the study, from almost 250 patients, secreted high amounts of the marker, a protein called GPC1. Just as important, the protein was not released at high levels from noncancerous cells.

Scientists suspect cause of Alzheimer and Parkinson is Air we Breathe

"We're getting hammered right now," Cross says, shouting over the hum of the engines. He's taken his gloves off to manipulate the display panel on his pollution monitor. The acrid smell of diesel is unmistakable. "Anytime you can smell it, you are in a regime that is very polluted," he says. "In many ways your nose is a better mass spectrometer than any device on the market."
Cross' monitor measures the presence of microscopic particles suspended in the air. Earlier, in his home, the device reported average concentrations of between 10,000 and 100,000 airborne particles per cubic centimeter of air (the latter after he burned some toast). Now it detects millions. The massive size of the fire trucks' engines, combined with their inefficient combustion, means that the air is replete with fine and ultrafine particles, specks of waste at least 36 times finer than a grain of sand, often riddled with toxic combinations of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium ions, hydrocarbons, and heavy metals. Though we have long known that these tiny particles cause and exacerbate respiratory problems, like asthma and infections and cancers of the lungs, they are also suspected to contribute to a diverse range of disorders, from heart disease to obesity. Now cutting-edge research suggests that these particles play a role in some of humanity's most terrifying and mysterious illnesses: degenerative brain diseases.

Insecticide Lindane found to cause Cancer

A common insecticide has been found to cause cancer in humans, according to a World Health Organization review. The product, Lindane, was once widely used in agriculture and continues to be found in some treatments for head lice and scabies. The WHO concluded today that the substance is carcinogenic and specifically said that exposure to the chemical could increase the risk of the rare immune cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, by 60%.
Although agricultural use of the chemical is heavily restricted in Britain, consumers may still be exposed through foods imported from some developing countries, where it continues to be used in agriculture.
The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) also said that the insecticide DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, “probably causes cancer”, after finding evidence that it could increase the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), testicular cancer and liver cancer.
Lindane has been banned or restricted in most countries since 2009 under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. It was previously used extensively for insect control in agriculture and continues to be used in some developing countries. DDT is also banned in the UK and US.

UK Researchers develop new breath test for Cancer

Researchers analysed breath samples of 210 patients using the test. They found that the test can discriminate between malignant and benign oesophageal cancer in patients for the first time.
The test is 90 per cent accurate and provides results in minutes, which can take up to four to six hours to process using other methods. The test can also be applied to detect gastric (stomach) cancer tumors. Oesophageal and gastric malignancies account for 15 per cent of cancer-related deaths globally. Both cancers are usually diagnosed in the advanced stages because they rarely cause any noticeable symptoms when they first develop. As a result, the long-term survival rate is 13 per cent for oesophageal cancer and 15 per cent for gastric cancer in the UK. Now, 400 patients at UCLH (University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust will take part in a further trial. The researchers hope to use the findings from the clinical trial to create a sensor device that can signal to clinicians if a patient has a malignant tumor.
Similar breath tests to discriminate between benign and malignant tumors exist but researchers say they have lengthy processing times and are unable to quantify the amounts of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) present in exhaled breath. 

Scientists join tobacco companies to fight Cancer

Scientists who have devoted years developing medicines to cure disease are now working for tobacco companies to make e-cigarette.
Philip Morris International Inc has hired more than 400 scientists and technical staff at its research facility in Neuchatel, Switzerland, including toxicologists, chemists, biologists, biostatisticians and regulatory affairs experts.Altria Group Inc, makers of Marlboro, has recruited dozens of scientific and healthcare experts, as have independent e-cigarette companies such as NJOY. They bring experience developing inhalation devices and navigating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, valuable knowledge in the new world of electronic cigarettes. 
    They say they're trying to improve public health.
"We were looking at drugs that make people very ill and maybe extend their life by 12 to 14 weeks," said Gizelle Baker, a PMI biostatistician based in Neuchatel who previously worked at the cancer drug developer Poniard Pharmaceuticals. "If you have a product that prevents cancer in the first place you can have a much bigger impact on public health." The goal is to improve the current generation of e-cigarettes and, where possible, provide evidence that they reduce the risk of disease. Companies that succeed could have an advantage in a market that Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, sees surpassing combustible cigarettes in the U.S. within the next decade.

Common chemicals when combined may trigger Cancer

Chemicals commonly found in our environment that are not considered carcinogenic to humans on their own may trigger cancer when combined in the body, according to new research.
Scientists from 28 different countries published their findings Tuesday, on the links between common chemicals and cancer risk.
The researchers studied 85 different chemicals that are not considered carcinogenic on their own. They found that, when combined, 50 of the chemicals supported key cancer-related mechanisms at exposure levels currently found in the environment. Paola Marignani, a professor at Dalhousie University, participated in the research project. She said the chemicals of concern are commonly found in our environment, as well as in products we use on a daily basis. "They include some of the fuels, some of the plastics, and some of the cosmetics we use," "They're in our food, our products, our preservatives, our pesticides."
The global taskforce behind the study was initially established in 2013, after meeting in Halifax to discuss concerns about the combined and additive effects of common chemicals.
Current research estimates that up to one in five cancer diagnoses could be caused by chemical exposures in the environment.William Goodson III, the study's lead author and senior scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center, said that the research should prompt the development of new testing methods."Since so many chemicals that are unavoidable in the environment can produce low dose effects that are directly related to carcinogenesis, the way we've been testing chemicals (one at a time) is really quite out of date," he said in a statement.
"Every day we are exposed to an environmental 'chemical soup,' so we need testing that evaluates the effects of our ongoing exposure to these chemical mixtures."

Clinical trials launching for Advanced Skin Cancer

Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) are helping launch a national clinical trial that will apply the latest in precision medicine to treat advanced melanoma skin cancer.
The study leverages advances in genomics, informatics, and health information technology, yielding more precise medical treatments for patients with this devastating disease.
Sponsored by Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) and the Melanoma Research Alliance. These clinical trials are the culmination of nearly four years of research under an SU2C Melanoma Dream Team grant.
Mayo Clinic and TGen researchers have a long history of innovative research into improving treatments for patients with metastatic melanoma. This new clinical trial represents the next generation of precision medicine for this disease.
The clinical trials, which will enroll patients lacking a particular genetic mutation for whom immune therapy did not work or was not an option, uses the latest molecular sequencing techniques to best match targeted drugs to the unique genetic alterations present in tumors missing the BRAF mutation. The study will evaluate if using this precision therapy approach improves outcomes over current treatments.
The clinical trials for the project, titled Stand Up To Cancer Consortium Genomics-Enabled Medicine for Melanoma (G.E.M.M.): Using Molecularly-Guided Therapy for Patients with BRAF wild-type (BRAFwt) Metastatic Melanoma, is being lead by Yale University and includes seven other institutions:

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Statins show promise to reduce major complications

Statins have been shown to reduce complications from cardiovascular surgery. To determine whether statins might also help those undergoing major lung surgeries, a team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center conducted a well-designed study that randomized patients to receive either a statin or placebo before and after surgery. They found that patients undergoing major lung resection experienced fewer complications overall, however, the differences between groups for specific complications or changes in inflammatory markers failed to reach statistical significance.
Because encouraging trends were observed, the authors have called for further evaluation in a larger multicenter, randomized, controlled trial. In an Editorial Commentary that accompanied the report, Betty C. Tong, M.D., of the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC), concurred. 'Imagine all the people who could potentially have benefited from the knowledge gained by this trial had it accrued as originally intended. With continued enthusiasm and surgeon commitment to multicenter clinical trials, we will be able to elucidate further the role of therapies such as this in preventing complications after lung resection,' noted Tong.
The original study design called for 480 patients to be enrolled. In part because previously unpublished data on the efficacy of the statin (atorvastatin) to reduce postoperative atrial fibrillation were released soon after the trial began and it became challenging to find patients who were not taking the drug, only 164 patients were randomized into two groups.

Transgenomic plans to launch Liquid Biopsy Cancer test pipeline

Transgenomic, Inc. a global biotechnology company advancing precision medicine through advanced diagnostic tests and clinical and research services, today announced that it is planning to launch up to six new genetic cancer tests this year based on its Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCR™ (MX-ICP) technology. The new tests will focus on actionable genetic mutations and alterations in patients with melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer, and will include both single tests and multi-gene panels. Transgenomic’s MX-ICP technology has demonstrated exceptional sensitivity and accuracy using either standard tissue or liquid biopsy samples such as blood and plasma. The tests are expected to be available for diagnostic use through Transgenomic’s CLIA-certified laboratory.
"We are ahead of schedule in commercializing our pipeline of laboratory-based cancer tests to meet the growing demand for targeted and personalized cancer treatments," said Paul Kinnon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transgenomic. "The unsurpassed accuracy of our Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCR technology and its ability to produce highly sensitive and accurate results from small amounts of virtually any type of patient sample enable its broad use for tumor detection and monitoring."

Discovery promises new treatments to fight Colon Cancer

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered how an immune system protein, called AIM2 (Absent in Melanoma 2), plays a role in determining the aggressiveness of colon cancer. They found that AIM2 deficiency causes uncontrolled proliferation of intestinal cells. Surprisingly, they also discovered that AIM2 influences the microbiota, the population of gut bacteria, apparently fostering the proliferation of “good” bacteria that can protect against colon cancer. The team, led by Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, Ph.D., a member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology, published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Cell.
“Since reduced AIM2 activity in colorectal cancer patients is associated with poor survival, it might be useful to detect the level of AIM2 expression in polyps taken from colonoscopy and use this as one of the biomarkers for prognosis,” Kanneganti said.
Kanneganti and her team believe that it might be possible to prevent the disease or reduce its risk by treating susceptible people to increase AIM2 activity and give them healthy donor bacteria. “In people who already have colorectal cancer, therapies that boost the expression of AIM2, such as interferons, might reduce tumor progression. Also, transferring healthy microbiota or a group of ‘good’ bacteria to patients with colorectal cancer at the early stage of disease may prolong survival,” Kanneganti said.

Denver based company improves how Clinical Trials are managed

The majority of cancer patients in the U.S. have very limited access to the host of potentially life-saving clinical trials that are currently underway across the country. The investigational drugs they offer today in many cases will eventually become the standard of cancer treatment tomorrow. Yet more than 95% of patients who would qualify, never have the opportunity to participate in the clinical trials needed for the FDA to approve these modern anticancer drugs. The challenge with cancer clinical research is twofold. First, each trial is available at only a limited number of centers around the country. Second, patients receive care in a system of thousands of cancer centers and clinics that, if they conduct clinical trials at all, work independently from one another.
Denver based company Pharmatech is completely changing how clinical trials studies enroll cancer patients by offering a patient centered, on-demand research alternative. Pharmatech helps cancer patients identify the right trial opportunity, then activates that trial at a nearby treatment center using a Just-In-Time delivery model. The Just-In-Time research system was originally conceived by Pharmatech's founder Dr. Matthew Wiener, and its development has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute. According to Rob Bohacs, Pharmatech's CEO, "The process of developing patient-centric cancer trials is a breakthrough in helping both patients and pharmaceutical companies. Patient's would like to learn about clinical trials, but most can't relocate to Houston or New York just to be eligible for a trial, so why not bring the trial to the patient?"  Pharmatech's network of 300+ research sites spans most of the U.S. The Just-In-Time system allows activation of any of the clinical trials in Pharmatech's portfolio, within 10 days of confirming patient interest and fit with a specific study.

New tool on horizon for surgeons treating Cancer patients

Surgeons could know while their patients are still on the operating table if a tissue is cancerous, according to researchers from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School.
Vilmos Kertesz describes an automated droplet-based surface sampling probe that accomplishes in about 10 minutes what now routinely takes 20 to 30 minutes. Kertesz expects that time to be cut to four to five minutes soon. For this proof-of-concept demonstration, researchers rapidly profiled two hormones from human pituitary tissue.
"Instead of having to cut and mount tissue and wait for a trained pathologist to review the sample under a microscope, a technician might soon perform an equally conclusive test in the operating environment," Kertesz said.
The new mass spectrometry-based technology provides an attractive alternative to the traditional method called immunohistochemistry, or IHC, which looks for specific protein biomarkers to make a diagnosis. Although the IHC approach provides a high degree of spatial recognition, it is time consuming and limited by the quality and specificity of the antibody used to detect the protein.
"The ability to quickly characterize the tissue distribution of larger macromolecular biomarkers like peptides and proteins would harness the diagnostic value of validated immunohistochemistry approaches for surgical decision-making," Kertesz said.

Possible treatment to stop Cancer from spreading

An international research team led by Mayo Clinic oncologists has found a new way to identify and possibly stop the progression of many late-stage cancers.
Dr. Konstantinos Lazaridis, the associate director at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, said the new approach can turn off the genes that prevent cancer from growing.
"This is a huge step. We have to understand what is behind this process to attack it effectively," Lazaridis said.
Lazaridis said the test and a potential treatment are based on an emerging discipline of medical research called epigenomics. That is the complex biological process through which individual cells read their genetic blueprints and then determine what type of tissue to become.
"We may be able to screen people earlier with new methods that can prevent the development of cancer if we know what predisposes them to development disease," Lazaridis said.
Anyone interested in the experimental treatment should visit http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/center-for-individualized-medicine/

New clinical trial for Advanced Melanoma Skin Cancer

Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute are launching a national clinical trial using precision medicine to treat advanced melanoma skin cancer.

Mayo Clinic is the only clinical site in Arizona to offer this new treatment, which is being sponsored by Stand Up to Cancer and the Melanoma Research Alliance.

The clinical trials are the culmination of nearly four years of research under an Su2C Melanoma Dream Team grant. Since then, the TGen dream team has received $6 million under that process and another $4 million from pharmaceutical companies and granting agency partners.

This trial is for patients who have failed conventional therapy.

The study is unique because it will offer more than 20 different treatment options in a single trial by leveraging the power of cancer genomics, said Dr. Alan Bryce, Mayo Clinic's lead clinical investigator on the trial.

New biomarkers for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer treatment

Metastatic Colorectal Cancer, the third deadliest cancer in the Unites States, is typically treated with two chemotherapy drugs, 5-Fluorouracil in combination with either Oxaliplatin or Irinotecan.
"Several large trials compared oxaliplatin and irinotecan head-to-head and concluded that the response rate is about equal. How an oncologist bases his or her treatment decision can be based on experience, comfort level prescribing and the patient's health," said senior author Paul FantaThe researchers found that 33 of their 41 patients had low ERCC1 levels. These same patients also had significantly longer average survival times (36 months) compared to patients with high ERCC1 levels (10 months). Similarly, 29 patients had low TS levels and significantly longer average survival times (36 months) than patients with high TS levels (15 months).
Twenty-two of the 41 patients had low levels of both ERCC1 and TS. Twenty of that group responded to Oxaliplatin, suggesting that this should be the first treatment choice for patients with low ERCC1 and TS. Patients responded to Irinotecan at the same rate whether they had low or high levels of these genes. This finding suggests that physicians might want to select irinotecan as the first-choice chemotherapy for patients with high ERCC1 or TS levels. ERCC1 and TS profiling could help physicians better manage patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, individualizing and optimizing therapy for subsequent interventions such as surgical removal of metastatic tumors
"Given this proof-of-principle, it's our hope that molecular biomarkers will be included in future. prospective clinical trials in metastatic colorectal cancer."

Adoptive immunotherapy may help treat more types of Cancer

"Adoptive cell therapy is currently one of the most intensely researched strategies within cancer treatment, and in recent years we have seen some truly promising advances in treating certain types of cancer," said Jonathan Wilkinson. ACT is a personalized cancer therapy that involves generating tumor-targeting cultures from tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, and then reintroducing them to the patient. The cells are reintroduced with interleukin-2 and have been shown to lead to tumor regression. "The early promise of adoptive immuno-therapy is now coming to fruition, with exciting clinical responses being reported against various cancers."

Asbestos-related Cancer treatment breakthrough

Australian researchers are cautiously optimistic after using nanocells to achieve what could be one of the most significant breakthroughs in asbestos-related cancer treatment in a decade.

Scientists from the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse Centre have published a case report of a patient whose mesothelioma has almost entirely disappeared.
Ten patients were in a phase-one clinical trial of a new treatment that used very small genes known as microRNA to inhibit tumor growth.
"You can package basically anything in there that you like, so a chemotherapy drug, or in our case a mini-gene, and then it's injected into the body."
Once in the lung, the nanocells delivered the microRNA to the affected lung to inhibit tumor growth.

Canine Cancer research may speed advances

University of Illinois researchers are studying genetic similarities between some dog and human cancers, work they say may allow pet dogs to serve as useful models for studying new chemotherapies. University of Illinois veterinary clinical medicine professor Timothy Fan said pet dogs with naturally occurring cancers, rather than laboratory-induced tumors, are better subjects for early cancer drug trials.
"We have a lot of dogs in the United States, approximately 70 million of them, and it's believed that about 25 percent of pet dogs will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime," Fan said. "We're using dogs to help guide drug development for people, but at the same time we're offering new, innovative therapies that would otherwise never be available to dogs, to help them as well."

"Dogs tend to develop cancer as a geriatric population, just like people," he said. "Because the tumors develop spontaneously, there is heterogeneity in that tumor population, as a human being would have. The size of the tumors and the speed of growth of those tumors are comparable in dogs and human beings. So there are many attributes of a dog that develops cancer spontaneously that recapitulate the biology that we see in people."Fan demonstrated the effectiveness of an anti-cancer drug called PAC-1 in pet dogs with naturally occurring lymphomas and osteosarcomas. The results in dogs allowed the scientists to begin studying the drug as a potential therapy against human cancers in new clinical trials. Other experimental cancer drugs first tested in pet dogs include muramyl tripeptide, an immune-stimulating agent that could not be tested in immune-deficient mice or rats with induced cancers, Fan said.

Avocados may help beat Blood Cancer

Compounds derived from avocados could be effective in treating leukemia, a cancer of the blood cells, a research has found. A molecule in avocados combats acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by targeting the root of the disease - leukemia stem cells, the results showed. The results suggest that the new avocado-derived drug could significantly increase life expectancy and quality of life for AML patients. The lipid found in avocado joins just a handful of drug treatments available that attack leukemia stem cells directly while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
AML is an aggressive form of cancer that kills 90% of people over 65 who are diagnosed. Drugs that operate on stem cells are the most effective in treating the disease.
“The stem cell is really the cell that drives the disease,” said Professor Paul Spagnuolo, a researcher from the University of Waterloo responsible for the study, in a statement about the paper. “The stem cell is largely responsible for the disease developing and it’s the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse.”
While the drug is still years away from being approved for market use, Spagnuolo is already preparing it for a Phase I clinical trial.

"Not only does avocatin B eliminate the source of AML, but its targeted, selective effects make it less toxic to the body, too."

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"The stem cells are largely responsible for AML and it is the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse," said researcher Paul Spagnuolo, professor at University of Waterloo in Canada.

"We have performed many rounds of testing to determine how this new drug works at a molecular level and confirmed that it targets stem cells selectively, leaving healthy cells unharmed," Spagnuolo, who discovered the compound, said.

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"The stem cells are largely responsible for AML and it is the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse," said researcher Paul Spagnuolo, professor at University of Waterloo in Canada.

"We have performed many rounds of testing to determine how this new drug works at a molecular level and confirmed that it targets stem cells selectively, leaving healthy cells unharmed," Spagnuolo, who discovered the compound, said.

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New finding 'Death-associated protein' promotes cancer growth

Although traditionally understood to induce death in cancer cells, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that the DAPK1 protein is actually essential for growth in breast and other cancers with mutations in the TP53 gene. This discovery indicates DAPK1 may be a promising new therapeutic target for many of the most aggressive cancers.

As its name implies, DAPK1 (death-associated protein kinase 1) has well studied roles in activating pathways that stimulate apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in cancer cells. However, the current findings report that DAPK1 functions much differently in cancers with mutations in the TP53 gene (tumor protein p53).

"This is a little studied kinase that has not been previously focused on for the treatment of cancer," says Powel Brown, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair, Clinical Cancer Prevention, and senior author. "We discovered a yin and yang phenomenon in terms of DAPK1 function. In normal cells this protein functions as a death inducer, but in TP53 mutant cells DAPK1 acts a critical driver of cancer cell growth."
"This is probably the most exciting finding," says Brown. "While a new treatment for triple-negative breast cancers would be a major advance, DAPK1 inhibitors have the potential to be used to treat many different kinds of cancers with TP53 mutations, which include the most lethal cancers without effective treatments."

Queensland receives approval to produce Cellular Cancer Therapies

New cancer drugs could soon be a trial in Queensland after one of the state's research facilities received the green light to produce cellular therapies.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has granted QIMR Berghofer's manufacturing facility, Q-Gen, regulatory approval to produce new cancer drugs.
It would place the facility as a world leader in the fight against cancer, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in Philadelphia during her US trade mission.
"Queensland punches above its weight when it comes to medical research, and this decision will help advance the discoveries being made in laboratories across the state," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said the state already had the infrastructure and scientific personnel to develop treatments, but the approval would help attract companies to commercialise the drugs.
"This is about diversifying the economy," she said.
"This about putting biotechnology front and centre - about creating the jobs for the future."
One of the therapies being developed involves taking a patient's immune cells from the blood and "training" them to recognise the antigens found in particular cancers.
The cells then attack that cancer when they are re-infused back into the patient's system.
The treatment is safe and has no major side effects, preliminary trials have shown.

New test aids personalized Cancer care

In a highly successful, first-of-its-kind endeavor, a multidisciplinary team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has created a "tumor in a dish:" an ex vivo microenvironment that can accurately anticipate a multiple myeloma patient's response to a drug.

The advance could mean a giant step forward in efforts to tailor medical treatment plans to individual patients.

Led by Shigeki Miyamoto, a professor of oncology at UW-Madison, and David Beebe, the John D. MacArthur Professor and Claude Bernard professor of biomedical engineering at UW-Madison, the researchers published news of the advance in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Integrative Biology."We're taking the first steps toward mimicking the body in a dish," Beebe says.

Much of the research was led by Chorom Pak, who previously was a graduate student working in Miyamoto's lab. Researchers produced an assay, or testing process, which involves co-culturing multiple myeloma tumor cells with their surrounding non-tumor cells, all from the same patient, in a microscale petri dish. The researchers then treated the tumor cells with Bortezomib, a drug commonly used in multiple myeloma therapy. And after only three days, the researchers could determine whether the drug was effective, or not. The new assay could save many multiple myeloma cancer patients the psychological stress of having to try multiple drugs until they find the most effective one. The assay reduces clinicians' need for this trial-and-error approach while treating a patient, and it also lowers the cost of treatment.

German scientists grow Human Breast for Cancer research

Researchers at the German Research Center for Environmental Health have created the first ever three-dimensional human mammary gland outside of the human body. Using adult stem cells, the study examined how breast cancer cells can adopt aggressive traits and potentially become lethal. This innovative new technology has the ability to mimic normal human breast function, while also allowing researchers to examine types of breast cancers and how they develop.
Observing cells specifically with the ability to regenerate, researchers found that regenerative properties were dictated by the physical properties of the environment surrounding the cells.
“We were able to demonstrate that increasing the rigidity of the gel led to increased spreading of the cells, or, said differently, invasive growth. Similar behavior was already observed in breast cancer cells,” said Jelena Linnemann, author of the study. “Our results suggest that invasive growth in response to physical rigidity represents a normal process during mammary gland development that is exploited during tumor progression. This technological break-through provides the basis for many research projects, both those aimed to understand how breast cancer cells acquire traits, as well as to elucidate how adult stem cells function in normal regeneration,” she said.

UK offers patients access to Cancer Treatment records online

Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Registration Service (NCRS) and brain tumor support charity, Brainstrust, have teamed up to offer cancer patients easy access to their treatment records after early research reveals how patients respond to having their details available online.The portal allows patients to look at reports on samples of their tumor as well as details of their hospital visits and treatments and any other records held about them by the NCRS.
As well as potentially helping patients to understand their own diagnosis, it also allows patients to flag up if something is missing or incorrect in their records to help improve the accuracy and quality of the data the NCRS holds.
The portal has a 'quality of life' section where patients can fill in questionnaires to help track different factors such as fatigue. There is also space for patients to add their own notes, keep a list of contacts and directory of links to helpful information about support, treatment, clinical trials and research.
But while patients were generally in favor of the portal, clinicians were more cautious.
They were concerned that, "it may heighten a patient's anxiety about their condition" and "patients may interpret reports they see via the portal differently to how it has been presented to them".

1 shot of HPV vaccine may prevent Cervical Cancer

Protecting girls from cervical cancer might be possible with just one dose of the HPV vaccine rather than the three now recommended, a new analysis suggests.
The authors of the study acknowledged it isn't convincing enough to change vaccination strategies immediately. But if their results are confirmed, requiring just one dose of the vaccine could have a big impact on how many girls around the world get immunized.
Cervical cancer is the fourth-most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide and is estimated to kill more than 260,000 every year.
Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and elsewhere looked at data from previous trials covering more than 24,000 young women to see how much protection they got from one, two or three doses of the HPV vaccine, Cervarix. They estimated vaccine effectiveness after about four years to be between 77 percent and 86 percent for all the young women, regardless of how many shots they received.
If fewer doses could be used, "the potential is huge to prevent the deaths of millions of women," said Julia Brotherton, medical director of the National HPV Vaccination Program Register in Australia

Researchers use ketone supplements to enhance non-toxic Cancer Therapy

In the recent USF study, mice with advanced metastatic cancer were fed either a standard high-carbohydrate diet or a carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diet with ketone supplements and HBOT. Therapeutic ketosis causes the body to shift from using glucose to fatty acids and ketones bodies for energy. Normal healthy cells readily adapt to using ketone bodies for fuel, but most cancer cells lack this metabolic flexibility. Solid tumors also have areas of low oxygen, which promote tumor growth and metastatic spread. HBOT involves breathing 100 percent oxygen at elevated barometric pressure, saturating the tumors with oxygen. When administered properly, both ketosis and HBOT are non-toxic and may even protect healthy tissues while simultaneously damaging cancer cells.Animals receiving the combination of KD, ketone supplements, and HBOT lived 103 percent longer than mice fed a standard high-carbohydrate diet. The researchers suggest that their study demonstrates the potential of these non-toxic therapies to contribute to current cancer treatment regimens and significantly improve the outcome of patients with advanced metastatic cancer.
Researchers at USF and elsewhere are investigating the potential benefits of the physiological state of therapeutic ketosis for several major diseases. The USF team believes these novel ketone supplements may be effective in other disorders besides cancer and is conducting ongoing studies to test their potential use in wound healing, epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease, glucose transporter type 1 (GLUT1) deficiency syndrome, and exercise performance.

Genetic markers provide better Brain Cancer classification

A team of scientists from UC San Francisco and Mayo Clinic has shown that using just three molecular markers will help clinicians classify Gliomas, the most common type of malignant brain tumors, more accurately than current methods.“Unfortunately, classifying a tumor only by appearance and grade has not provided sufficient information about the way the tumor is likely to behave, how it will respond to treatment or the patient’s likely survival time,” said Margaret R. Wrensch, Ph.D. The three markers are a mutation in the region that promotes expression of the gene TERT, which expresses telomerase, an enzyme that helps keep cancer cells alive by protecting structures called telomeres; a mutation in the genes IDH1 or IDH2, referred to collectively as IDH mutation; and a combined mutation that deletes parts of chromosome 1 and chromosome 19.
The scientists found that among grade II and III tumors, 29 percent were “triple positive,” showing all three markers. Patients with these tumors had a median survival time of 13.1 years. Five percent had both TERT and IDH mutations, and had a median survival time similar to triple positive tumors. Forty-five percent had IDH mutation only, and a median survival time of 8.9 years. Seven percent of tumors were triple negative, with none of the mutations, and had a median survival time of 6.2 years. The 10 percent of tumors that only had the TERT mutation were associated with the shortest median survival time – 1.9 years. Wrensch suggested that once these or similar molecular markers are accepted by clinicians as part of the classification system, “it may make a great deal of difference in treatment approach for individual patients.”

New clinical trial for Metastatic Breast Cancer

Clinical Trials and Innovation Therapies continue to have the potential to drive the pharma and biotech sectors for the final six months of 2015 as forecasts point to the potential for another prosperous year.  Cancer new treatments show promise of immuno-oncology therapies as further studies & trials continue to progress.  Biotech Companies in focus today are Regen BioPharma, Inc. , Sanofi SA , Vical Incorporated , RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation , Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  & Neuralstem, Inc. 

Regen BioPharma, Inc. announced today the initiation of a collaboration with Dr. Santosh Kesari , Professor and Director of Neuro-oncology at University of California San Diego . The goals of the collaboration is to  address  questions  posed by the FDA regarding  Regn BioPharma, Inc.'s planned  Phase I/II clinical trial assessing safety with signals of efficacy of the dCellVax gene silenced dendritic cell immunotherapy for treating breast cancer and to modify the existing Investigational New Drug application in order to maximize the probability  of clinical trial success . The proposed trial will recruit 10 patients with metastatic breast cancer and will involve 4 monthly injections of the dCellVax gene-silenced dendritic cell therapy. The trial will last one year, with tumor assessment before therapy and at 6 and 12 months.

"Using the immune system to treat cancer offers great potential in that the immune system destroys tumor cells, but then establishes immunological memory, which constantly patrols the body for rogue cells." Said Dr. Kesari, "Having served as a member of Regen's Scientific Advisory Board,  I am excited to be involved in this collaboration, in which we aim to help expediently address the questions posed by the FDA and allow for clinical entry of dCellVax."  

Study redefines brain tumor diagnosis and treatment

Not all brain cancers are the same but together they represent a deadly disease that has been difficult to identify and treat. Scientists at multiple institutions have found a new way of classifying brain cancers that could very well change how the illness is diagnosed and treated.

The study, a project of The Cancer Genome Atlas, found striking molecular differences between various forms of gliomas or brain tumors.

"We found molecular signatures that better define clinical behavior based on our analysis," said W.K. Alfred Yung, M.D., chair of Neuro-Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Center. "We hope this will impact how physicians both diagnose and plan therapies for brain cancer."
The study looked at the molecular makeup of brain tumors including gene mutations, chromosomal abnormalities and other alterations. Results from the study were published in the June 10, 2015 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study represents a major step in classifying and treating brain tumors more precisely based on their genetic makeup, said Daniel J. Brat, M.D., Ph.D., a researcher and neuropathologist at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, and co-leader of the study. The scientists believe that the use of the biomarkers in the diagnosis of these forms of brain tumors will lead to a much more consistent manner of diagnosis and patient management. The study, which involved 44 institutions, concluded that molecular tests in addition to standard histopathological examination under the microscope will be more accurate in indicating whether the disease is more aggressive or will respond to certain chemotherapies.

UK discovery of Breast Cancer spread ‘trigger’

New therapies to stop the progression of breast cancer could emerge from a fresh study into the disease, researchers believe. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh said they have discovered a “trigger” that allows breast cancer cells to spread to the lungs. They found that blocking those signals in mice with breast cancer greatly reduces the number of secondary tumors found in the lungs.
The researchers hope their findings may one day translate into new treatments to stop the progression of breast cancer in the human body. The majority of deaths from breast cancer are caused by the tumor spreading to other parts of the body, with the lungs often among the first organs affected.
Researchers at the university’s MRC centre for reproductive health investigated the role that immune cells called macrophages play in helping cells spread from the original tumor. Their previous research has shown that breast cancer cells need the support of macrophages to invade the lungs and set up secondary tumors.The team’s latest research found that macrophages require signalling molecules called chemokines to communicate with breast cancer cells. But when scientists blocked these signals in mice, they found the number of secondary tumors in the lungs was reduced by up to two-thirds.
In addition, blocking the signals helped stop the cancer cells getting into the lungs from the blood stream, and hindered those that did get into the lungs from establishing themselves and forming new tumors. Human cells appear to use the same chemokine signals to communicate with each other, prompting researchers to hope that their findings may translate into new treatments to stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body.The results suggest that targeting a signalling molecule called CCR1 may result in fewer unwanted side-effects for patients while stopping the spread of breast cancer cells, experts said.

German research findsTheranostic drug that aids in Prostate Cancer Therapy

A novel radionuclide drug tackles the challenge of prostate cancer imaging and takes a turn as a cancer-killing therapy for tumors in and out of the prostate, according to research presented during the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI).

The drug works by delivering diagnostic- or therapy-grade radionuclides to cells that express a protein called prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), found on the surface of prostate cancer cells and their metastatic counterparts throughout the body. Clinicians can diagnose or stage disease and monitor therapy with the aid of a special hybrid scanner used to perform minimally invasive positron emission tomography (PET).

"Prostate cancer still represents one of the main causes for cancer-related deaths among men," said Matthias Eder, PhD, co-author of the study and a researcher in the division of radiopharmaceutical chemistry at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. "The diagnosis and therapy of metastatic prostate cancer is still challenging. The current clinical methods are not sensitive enough for detecting disease beyond the prostate, but we are convinced that this novel theranostic radiotracer represents a significant step forward that could have a major impact on the future of prostate cancer care."
The PSMA-inhibiting theranostic agent, called PSMA-617, is still in its initial stages, but it could be ideal for the treatment of patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancers, which are notoriously difficult to control and linked to poor prognosis. Options for these patients are few, and they come with substantial adverse effects. Diagnosis and therapy with the theranostic agent PSMA-617 could offer more effective and sensitive visualization, better staging and significantly higher therapeutic potential.

DNA test detects Cancer during Pregnancy

The same test that screens for chromosomal disorders like Down syndrome may also identify early stage cancers in expectant mothers.
The study, published in JAMA Oncology, examined the accuracy of noninvasive prenatal testing among more than 4,000 moms to be. Noninvasive prenatal testing, which involves a blood test done as early as 10 weeks, is gaining popularity as a genetic test for pregnant women. Until recently, the test was primarily used to screen those with a higher risk for having an infant with Down syndrome."Considering the bad prognosis of some cancers when detected later, and given that we know that it is both possible and safe to treat the disease during pregnancy, this is an important added advantage of [noninvasive prenatal testing]," study author Joris Vermeesch, professor and head of the Laboratory for Cytogenetics and Genome Research at the University of Leuven in Belgium, said in a press release.Vermeesch and colleagues identified Ovarian Cancer, Lymphoma and Hodgkin Lymphoma in three of the women enrolled in the study. Two of the three women were treated for cancer; the third woman did not require treatment at the stage of diagnosis.
The researchers say this type of testing should not be limited to pregnant women.
"However, our study feeds into the ethical debate about whether or not to report incidental findings to patients, and also has implications for the current political discussions concerning reimbursement and funding of (noninvasive prenatal testing) by national health care systems," Vermeesch said in the release.

Rabbit virus improves bone marrow transplants

University of Florida Health researchers have discovered that a rabbit virus can deliver a one-two punch, killing some kinds of cancer cells while eliminating a common and dangerous complication of bone marrow transplants. For patients with blood cancers such as leukemia and multiple myeloma, a bone marrow transplant can be both curative and perilous. It replenishes marrow lost to disease or chemotherapy but raises the risk that newly transplanted white blood cells will attack the recipient’s body. Now researchers say the Myxoma virus, found in rabbits, can do double duty, stopping the unwanted side effects of a bone marrow transplant and destroying cancer cells.
The virus could be especially helpful to patients who have recurring cancer but cannot find a suitable bone marrow donor, said Christopher R. Cogle, M.D., the study’s lead investigator and an associate professor in the UF College of Medicine’s division of hematology and oncology. Bone marrow transplants from partially matched donors carry about an 80 percent risk of graft-versus-host disease, and the myxoma treatment would address that, Cogle said.The myxoma virus is attached to a type of white blood cell known as a T-cell. The virus-laden white blood cells can then be delivered as part of a bone marrow transplant from a donor. That’s when the virus gets activated and goes to work. It blocks graft-versus-host disease.The white blood cells then deliver the myxoma virus to cancer cells, which are killed off by the virus.

UK's Ovarian Cancer patients denied innovative drug

Cancer charities have criticized the decision by the NHS treatment watchdog to reject an innovative new drug to treat ovarian cancer on the grounds of cost.Nice, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, said in draft guidance it was disappointed that it must turn down Olaparib (Lynparza), but the price tag of more than £49,000 a year was considerably higher than its ceiling of £20,000 to £30,000. When tests to assess patient suitability for the drug are included, the price rises higher still. However, cancer charities were dismayed, pointing out that the death toll in ovarian cancer was very high and that the drug was available elsewhere in Europe. Cancer Research UK said the decision was “hard to understand”. The Institute of Cancer Research said the “frustrating delay will prevent around 450 women each year from being able to access a beneficial treatment”.
The drug is for women who have the most common form of ovarian cancer and a mutation of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which make them highly susceptible to the disease.
Nice, however, said there was not enough conclusive evidence on the drug’s effectiveness to justify the high cost. “Olaparib slows the progression of the disease for patients with some forms of ovarian cancer but the evidence that it can extend life is uncertain,” said Sir Andrew Dillon, the chief executive. “Because patients are already living longer than two years with conventional treatment, we weren’t able to apply the flexibility we can sometimes use when we appraise cancer drugs. “The cost to the NHS of using this new drug isn’t consistent with the benefits that patients for whom it works will gain and so we were disappointed not to be able to recommend it in this draft guidance.”

UK release, new Breast Cancer drugs could extend life of sufferers

Women with advanced breast cancer could live longer thanks to two new drugs hailed as offering an “amazing” step forward in treatment. One therapy destroyed 40 per cent of tumors among patients with one of the most deadly forms of cancer, twice as many as those given standard treatment.

Experts said that they were hopeful that the treatment would save lives, with signs it could spare one in three breast cancer sufferers from undergoing invasive surgery.

The second combination therapy, which works for the most common type of breast cancer, more than doubled the time tumors were kept at bay.

It meant women with advanced disease were able to secure an extra five months before enduring grueling sessions of chemotherapy.
When the drug Perjeta was given to such women, in combination with standard treatment, tumors disappeared in 40 per cent of cases, without surgery.
Leading specialists said the “terrific results” from a trial of 417 women meant that around one in three of those who would normally undergo breast removal could be spared the surgery.
Huge tumors, some as large as 4 inches, were totally destroyed, the experts said.
The second drug, Palbociclib, made by Pfizer, was tested in women with the most common form of breast cancer, suffered by three in four sufferers.When women with advanced oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer were given the treatment, in combination with a second agent, they were able to double the time before disease advanced.
The findings were so exciting that investigators stopped the trial early, so all women in the study could access the drugs.

New drug shows potential for Blood Cancer

A two-pronged immune-boosting drug could provide new hope for people stricken with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, according to clinical trial findings.
The experimental drug, Elotuzumab, reduced the risk of cancer progression and death by 30 percent when doctors combined it with the standard two-drug therapy for multiple myeloma, researchers found.
Elotuzumab works against this relatively rare cancer through a dual mechanism, said senior study author Dr. Sagar Lonial. It makes cancer cells vulnerable to immune attack, and also enhances the immune system's ability to kill cancer.
"It's a bit of a double-whammy," said Lonial, executive vice chair of hematology and oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Patients receiving the three-drug elotuzumab cocktail did not seem to suffer an increase in side effects, compared with those who took the two-drug standard regimen.
Elotuzumab is being developed by Bristol-Meyers Squibb and AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, which helped fund the study.

Exact Sciences, MD Anderson developing blood tests for Lung Cancer

Less than a year after Exact Sciences secured FDA approval and Medicare coverage for a colon cancer diagnostic, Cologuard, the company has set its sights on its next challenge: early detection of lung cancer. Madison, WI-based Exact this morning announced a partnership with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to co-develop multiple blood-based diagnostic tests for lung cancer. The agreement brings together MD Anderson’s “extensive research into predictive biomarkers for lung cancer” with Exact’s “successful development and commercialization of Cologuard,” the press release noted.
One of the planned tests would determine the need for low-dose computed tomography (CT) scans, which combine a series of X-ray screens from different angles and can be used to detect lung cancer. That product would be designed for screening the nearly 11 million Americans who are current or former smokers at high risk of developing lung cancer. Another proposed diagnostic would assess tumors found via CT scans or other imaging tests. Lung nodules, growths on the lungs that may or may not be cancerous, are discovered in 4 million Americans annually, according to the press release.
“Taking on lung cancer offers an opportunity to build on the success of Cologuard,” Conroy said in the release. “A simple blood test to complement CT could significantly improve early-stage lung cancer detection."

Statins could halve risk of dying from Cancer

The research, presented in Chicago at the world’s biggest cancer treatment conference, found statins increased women’s survival from common cancers such as breast, bowel and ovarian cancer by 40%. In bone cancer, the death rate was reduced by 55%. A second study showed that men with advanced prostate cancer taking statins were also 40% less likely to die than those who were not.
The two studies were observational, they looked back to see whether there was a difference in the death rate in a large group of people with cancer, some of whom had been taking statins and some of whom had not. They were not randomised controlled trials, considered the “gold standard” in drug research.
Dr Ange Wang of the Stanford University School of Medicine, who led the women’s study, said the findings suggest statins could play an important part in cancer treatment. “We’re definitely very excited by these results,” she said. Unlike aspirin, which research has shown can help prevent cancers, statins did not have a protective effect among those who took them, but once they had cancer, they were less likely to die from it.

Herpes virus drug treats Skin Cancer

A new drug based on a genetically modified herpes virus has been used to successfully treat patients with aggressive cases of skin cancer, and it’s hoped it could be used to treat other forms of cancer, too. The new treatment uses a form of the herpes virus which is modified so that it doesn’t produce the protein which allows it to attack healthy cells.

In a phase-three trial, the final stage of testing for drugs on large groups of patients, the technique, known as T-VEC, has been show to work. Working with 400 patients with “aggressive” cases of skin cancer, researchers injected the virus into the site of the skin cancer. They’ve shown that 25 percent responded to the treatment and 10 percent showed no signs of remaining cancer. Across all the participants, those treated with T-VEC lived an average of 41 months; those in a control arm lived just 21.5 months. The results, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are the first time this kind of virus therapy has been shown to help treat cancer in a phase-three trial.

A particularly interesting finding of the study is that once the cancer cells begin to die, the body’s immune system appears to be kick-started, too. The researchers have noticed that cancers elsewhere in the body are detected and attacked more effectively by the body’s own immune system, and not the drug, once T-VEC has begun to work its magic. It’s not yet clear why this happens, but the recent trial certainly shows it to be the case: secondary tumors in some patients were seen to shrink or even disappear.

The drug has already been submitted to the FDA and European Medicines Agency for approval and the researchers hope that it could be available for use in US patients by 2017.

Gene therapy shows promise against Brain Cancer

Early trials of a new form of gene therapy may give hope to patients battling Glioblastoma, the most deadly form of brain cancer. Called AdV-Tk therapy, the new treatment involves two steps. As the researchers explained it, the first step involves taking DNA from the herpes virus and injecting it into tumor cells, and then attacking those DNA-tagged cells with a powerful drug.
In the second step, the drug helps spur the patient's immune systems to eliminate more of the cancer cells over time. All of the patients in the study had also undergone surgeries aimed at minimizing the tumor, the researchers noted.
"Surgery, along with chemotherapy and radiation, is the only current treatment option," he added. "This cancer is like an octopus, it reaches into all parts of the brain [and] you can only ever get some of it out."
However, "this particular gene therapy is better than anything else we have," said Baskin, who also directs the Peak Brain Tumor Center at the Houston hospital. "By inserting a virus into the tumor, then attacking that virus with medication while also firing up the patient's own immune system, you can get a real one-two punch treatment effect, and prolonged survival."

A game changer in Cancer Treatment

Nausea and vomiting, common side effects of chemotherapy, may soon be a thing of the past. Heron Therapeutics’drug Sustol significantly reduced symptoms in patients participating in late stage trials, according to the company. The stock jumped more than 60% on the news in part because the study showed the drug works longer than current treatments.
Eight out of every 10 people treated for cancer using chemotherapy experience waves of nausea, according to the American Cancer Society.  Many patients suffer in the days following chemotherapy after initial treatments wear off.
CEO Barry Quart stated, “Went after an area of unmet medical needs,” adding that the drug can ward off the effects of chemo for up to five days following treatment, longer than rivals. “We feel very good that we have been able to differentiate our product.” He believes Sustol is more effective than the current leading drug Aloxi, made by Helsinn Healthcare S.A.
Sustol, which is part of a three-drug regime, is injected about 30 minutes before chemotherapy and is typically administered in oncology centers.
Quart said the company will file an application for approval with the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) in a “couple of months.” From that date, the FDA could issue a decision in as little as six months. If approved, Quart says the company can have the drug available in a month or two and plans to hire a new team of sales reps nationally.

Cancer trials are changing, Nationwide in July

The National Cancer Institute’s announced that it will soon begin a nationwide trial to test treatments based on the genetic mutations in patients’ tumors, rather than on where the tumors occur in the body, highlights a profound shift taking place in the development of cancer drugs.
Researchers increasingly are using DNA sequencing, which has become far faster and cheaper over time, to identify molecular abnormalities in cancers. That technology is allowing them to develop drugs they hope will prove more effective in specific sets of patients and to design clinical trials that get the most promising drugs to market more quickly.
“We are truly in a paradigm change,” James H. Doroshow, director of the division of cancer treatment and diagnosis at the NCI, said in announcing the initiative Monday. He called the project “the largest and most rigorous precision oncology trial that’s ever been attempted.”
The NCI project announced Monday comes amid a push by the Obama administration to promote “precision medicine.” Beginning July 1, the institute will begin screening several thousand patients at 2,400 sites around the country, from large academic hospitals to community medical facilities. Those who meet certain criteria will be sorted into nearly two dozen treatment arms of 30 to 35 patients each, based on the genetic mutations of their cancers.

New Combo Therapies for forms of Leukemia, Lymphoma and Breast Cancer

Asher Chanan-Khan, of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., called the addition of ibrutinib, a drug that targets cancer cells, to the chemotherapy agent bendamustine and the immunotherapy drug rituximab "a blessing from God" for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who had not responded well to the two drugs alone. Khan, who led a study of the three-drug combination therapy, said its development will wind up as the "most important changing point in the history" of the disease.
In a study of 578 people, the group of patients that received the third drug improved their chances of avoiding progression of the disease or death by 80 percent when compared to patients who received a placebo. Perhaps more significantly, a median limit for progression free survival of the patients receiving the third drug had not yet been reached when the study results were collected. The drug was deemed so effective that 90 patients who had received the placebo were switched over to the group getting the third drug.
The triple-drug therapy had no more side effects than the traditional treatment, the research showed.
When a separate group of researchers added a cancer-targeting drug called obinutuzumab to the chemotherapy drug bendamustine, they produced much better results for people suffering from the "indolent"  form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

New treatments prolong health after Breast Cancer

A new targeted therapy that appears to double the amount of time cancer can be held in check, a drug that offers more women a chance at healthy lives post-diagnosis and a surgical option to remove extra tissue in order to reduce the likelihood of cancer's return were among the findings presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.
The targeted drug, palbociclib, is made by Pfizer and was granted accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year for use in women with the most common form of advanced breast cancer, known as estrogen receptor positive (ER+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-). According to the findings of a phase III trial presented at the ASCO meeting, the drug when used in combination with an anti-estrogen agent called Fulvestrant was able to double the time women spent without having their cancer advance.
The combination delayed disease progression for just over nine months, compared to nearly four months in women taking Fulvestrant alone, according to a randomized study of 521 women, most of whom were post-menopausal. Those results led investigators to stop the trial early because it was so effective."After initial hormonal therapy stops working in metastatic breast cancer, the next step is typically chemotherapy, which can be effective, but the side effects are often very difficult for women," said lead study author Nicholas C. Turner, a consultant medical oncologist at The Royal Marsden and a team leader at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, United Kingdom.
"This relatively easy-to-take new drug can substantially delay the point when women need to start chemotherapy, making this an exciting new approach for women."

Cancer study could change Radiation Treatment

The study, one of three discussed at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago, found that contrary to conventional wisdom, radiation therapy to the whole brain did not improve survival, and harmed memory, speech and thinking skills.
“This is the classic question: Which is worse, the disease or the treatment?” said one study leader, Dr Jan Buckner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Radiation helped control the cancer, Dr Buckner said, “but at the cost of cognitive decline”.
The two other studies discussed on Sunday also questioned longstanding ways in which patients are treated. One found that removing lymph nodes when oral cancers are first diagnosed, not routinely done now, dramatically improves survival. Another found the opposite was true for people with the skin cancer melanoma that had spread to a few lymph nodes.
The first study affects the most patients by far. An estimated 400,000 patients in the US alone each year have cancer that spreads to the brain, usually from the lungs, breast or other sites.
Dr Paul Brown of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer in Houston led a study of 213 patients with one to three tumors in the brain to see whether the risks of whole brain radiation were worth its help in controlling cancer.
Half of the patients had the usual radio-surgery and the rest had that followed by whole brain radiation. Three months later, 92% of patients who got both treatments had cognitive decline versus 64% of those given just radio-surgery.
“The negative effects far outweigh any benefits” of the combination treatment, Brown said.

The big new hope for Cancer Treatment

In Chicago, at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting, where so many promising cancer drugs have been announced in the past, not always in the long term fulfilling the high hopes, experts are saying that the results of a trial involving a combination of two new immunotherapy drugs for melanoma patients are spectacular.
Half the patients in the British trial, considered terminally ill and with little time left, responded to ipilimumab, a drug licensed four years ago, combined with the new and the unlicensed drug nivolumab. On its own, ipilimumab works for around a fifth of patients. The combination of the two shrank the tumours of 58% of patients. There is hope they may disappear altogether. Results from the trial of 945 patients, led by the Royal Marsden hospital in London, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the conference presentation.
Both ipilimumab, sold under the brand name Yervoy, and nivolumab were developed by an American biotech firm called Medarex, based in New Jersey and set up by a handful of immunologists from Dartmouth medical school. Their belief in immunotherapy for cancer has been amply rewarded – in 2009, their small company was bought by the pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb. The following year, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced the first major trial results of ipilimumab. Companies have been clambering over each other to get involved ever since.