Novartis faces production hurdles for new Blood Cancer drugs

As Novartis, Juno Therapeutics and Kite Pharma race to launch what may be the most effective treatments ever seen for leukemia and other blood cancers, they are grappling with how to make them widely available in a reliable and cost-efficient way.
The new therapies, known as CAR T cells, are made by extracting immune system T cells from an individual patient, altering their DNA to sharpen their ability to spot and kill cancer cells, and infusing them back into the same patient. In some early-stage clinical trials, the treatments eliminated all trace of leukemia and lymphoma in 40 percent to 90 percent of patients who had run out of other options.

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Industry analysts expect CAR T cell therapies will begin to reach the market in 2017 and command prices of up to $450,000 if such remarkable results are replicated in larger trials. The cost is for a one-time application after which, if it works, signs of the cancer are eliminated and the patient needs no more treatment.

"We feel confident we can scale up to thousands of patients a year with a true global facility," said Usman Azam, Novartis' head of cell and gene therapies. That would be enough to satisfy commercial demand for at least a few years after the treatment is first approved, he said, adding that a second plant could be built if necessary. Azam said the company's treatment, called CTL019, is "potentially curative."
Novartis plans to seek U.S. approval next year for CTL019 in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In 2017, Novartis will aim for a far bigger market: patients with the most common form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

New Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer

Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer now have access to the new FDA approved drug, Onivyde, that produced significant overall survival rates in an international clinical study conducted in part by researchers at Honor Health Research Institute and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.
"Results from our clinical trial research showed a patient survival rate of nearly two more months without decreasing the quality of life compared to the other treatments tested," said Gayle Jameson, principal investigator, NAPOLI-1 study and associate investigator, HonorHealth Research Institute. "Invariably pancreatic cancer progresses at some point and we don't have a universal standard of what to do next.  In this disease, two months of survival is a game changer for treating advanced pancreatic cancer and gives patients hope." Onivyde, will be used as part of a combination regimen with a two-drug chemotherapy. It was approved to treat patients with pancreatic cancer that progressed after treatment with a different chemotherapy. 

News reports often inflate Cancer drugs success

Researchers searched news stories on Google for the words "cancer drug" and over-the-top terms such as "home run," "groundbreaking" and "marvel." They found 94 news stories from 66 outlets published from June 21 to June 25  after the conclusion of a major cancer conference. News sources ranged from leading newspapers and TV stations to small trade publications.
While some new immune therapies put a fraction of patients into long-term remission, none have been proved to definitively cure patients, study co-author Vinay Prasad said.
Most new cancer drugs extend survival by only a few months, said Prasad, an assistant professor at the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health and Science University.
Hyping new cancer drugs "feeds into this mentality the newest thing has got to be the best thing," Prasad said. While newer often means better when it comes to cellphones or computers, that's not necessarily the case with cancer drugs. Prasad said the hard reality of cancer is that, for many tumors, "our treatments are just not that great yet."

UnitedHealth to expand Cancer care bundled payment project

Noting its pilot program's success so far, UnitedHealth Group now will expand its experiment to determine whether bundling chemotherapy payments can reduce cancer treatment costs.
UnitedHealth reported last year the results of its pilot study, in which it found that while spending on chemotherapy increased, the overall cost of cancer care dropped by about 34 percent due to the insurer's bundling of payments. Researchers cut the cost for cancer treatment by paying oncologists a single fee and rewarding patient outcomes. Medical oncologists were paid a single fee, in place of any drug margin, to treat their patients, and chemotherapy medications were reimbursed at the average sales price. The study found that eliminating existing financial chemotherapy drug incentives increased the use of chemotherapy, and bundling payments and rewarding positive outcomes resulted in a significant total cost reduction.
UnitedHealth says that the program will reduce the percentage of after-the-fact claim denials, which can cause frustration and extra cost for patients. In the long term, the insurer feels that the bundling payment program will gather data about tens of thousands of patients, as well as what prescriptions they are taking and how well they react to specific medications.

First Cancer-fighting virus approved

An engineered herpesvirus that provokes an immune response against cancer has become the first treatment of its kind to be approved for use in the United States, paving the way for a long-awaited class of therapies. On 27 October, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a genetically engineered virus called talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) to treat advanced melanoma.
With dozens of ongoing clinical trials of similar ‘oncolytic’ viruses, researchers hope that the approval will generate the enthusiasm and cash needed to spur further development of the approach. “The era of the oncolytic virus is probably here,” says Stephen Russell, a cancer researcher and haematologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “I expect to see a great deal happening over the next few years.”

Trial shows gene-targeted drug treats Prostate Cancer

A pioneering drug developed to treat women with inherited cancers can also benefit men with advanced prostate cancer, a major new clinical trial concludes.
The trial is a milestone in cancer treatment as the first to show the benefits of 'precision medicine' in prostate cancer with treatment matched to the particular genetic characteristics of a man's tumour.
Olaparib, the world's first drug to reach the market targeted against inherited cancer mutations, was found to benefit as many as a third of patients with prostate cancer, including many who did not inherit cancer genes but whose tumours had acquired defects in DNA repair.
The trial, called TOPARP-A, received support from a wide range of funders including Cancer Research UK, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Stand Up To Cancer, Prostate Cancer UK and the Movember Foundation.

Advances in Skin Cancer Treatment

Radiotherapy, a common cancer treatment, involves the use of directed, high-energy radiation. So to heal one form of skin cancer, scientists are now developing a type of radiotherapeutic bandage. Though tested only on animals so far, the bandage delivers radiotherapy directly to a squamous cell carcinoma, and might someday replace existing treatments, according to University of North Texas researchers. Caused by too much sun exposure, squamous cell carcinoma is one form of non-melanoma skin cancer. It's a common malignancy in the United States, and an estimated 700,000 cases of SCC are diagnosed each year. Radiation therapy is useful and effective, it requires cumbersome equipment, specialized instruments, and special facilities, the researchers said. As a possible less-invasive, more functional treatment, Dr. Anthony J. Di Pasqua, assistant professor at UNT College of Pharmacy, and his colleagues explored a radiotherapeutic bandage for SCC.
To create the radiotherapeutic bandage, Bhuvaneswari Koneru, a graduate student, and Yi Shi, a post-doctoral research associate, used nanoparticles and a technique called “electrospinning,” which uses an electrical charge to create thin fibers from a liquid. Prior to applying the bandages, they activated radioactive polymers, which were embedded within the fabric. Then, the research team placed the bandages on mice with SCC for one hour. Over a 15-day period, the team measured each animal's tumor size to see how effective the bandage was. On the 15th day, three out of 10 mice in the radioactive bandage-treatment group had complete tumor elimination while the other seven in the same group had significantly smaller tumors.
Di Pasqua and colleagues will study this technology in larger animals to gauge whether it might work for humans.

Rethinking Breast-Cancer Treatment

Many women with breast cancer are being massively overtreated. Thanks to advances in genomic testing and deeper insights into the biology of different kinds of breast cancer, doctors are learning that the one-size-fits-all approach isn’t working. They’re also learning that every woman brings with her a unique profile of biological risk, as well as a unique appetite for risk. That means that while some women require urgent and aggressive treatment, there are many who can slow down and take a more sparing approach.
Now those at the vanguard of breast-cancer treatment are calling for a major shift in the way doctors treat, and talk about the disease, from the first few millimeters of suspicious-looking cells in milk ducts to the invasive masses found outside of them. That’s making the tough conversations between a woman and her cancer doctor ever harder, but it also stands to make them more fruitful.
Because as good as we have gotten at finding breast cancer,and we’ve gotten very good, all this new data suggests there may be better ways to treat some breast cancers, particularly those at the early stages.
“As a surgeon, to say we shouldn’t be operating as much as we are is a very big deal,” says Dr. Mehra Golshan, a surgical oncologist at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. “And that’s what I’m saying.”

Cancer diagnosis brings income loss for families

The average U.S. adult diagnosed with cancer will miss five weeks of work in the first year and see total family income decline by 20 percent, according to a new study.
Those numbers may be even higher for some, as they average the experiences of people with various types and stages of cancer, and those who started out working full-time along with those who were not employed to begin with, the authors explain.
“This is average effects across the entire population and many are retired or stay at home parents, so the effect is diluted,” said lead author Anna Zajacova of the University of Wyoming.
The researchers used data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics between 1999 and 2009, a nationally representative study involving 8,000 families, or about 17,000 adults, including about 1,000 individuals with a cancer diagnosis. The researchers found that after a cancer diagnosis, hours worked decreased by about 200 hours, or five full-time weeks.Annual labor market earnings dropped 40 percent over the first two years and remained lower than before cancer diagnosis, though total family income often recovered within four years.“U.S. labor law and labor culture is among most severe compared to almost every other developed country,” Zajacova said. “There are no or very limited policies for sick leave or family leave, so the effects are likely to be worse in the U.S. than other developed countries.”

Protein found that causes Ovarian Cancer resistance to Chemo

Ovarian cancer can become more difficult to treat because of resistance to chemotherapy, however researchers at the University of Georgia have found the gene and protein it helps express that cause resistance, which may lead to better methods of treatment.
Most women treated for ovarian cancer have tumors come back, 85 percent are more aggressive and chemo-resistant, because of a genetic change in their cancer's cells. The researchers found a protein called RGS10, when activated by mTOR gene causes the drugs to ineffective. They think that keeping this protein from being turned off which is what causes chemotherapy to be ineffective could help the drugs work better. "Depending on the expression levels of RGS10, the chemotherapy for ovarian cancer is more or less effective," said Shelley Hooks, an associate professor at UGA. "If there were a way to reverse silencing of the RGS10 protein, then we could potentially restore sensitivity to drugs," she explained. "It would mean a better chance of survival for women with ovarian cancer."

Bacon, hot dogs and processed meats linked to Cancer

The Mediterranean diet, one heavy on veggies, nuts and fruit, with limits on meat and dairy, is the way to go. Study after study has shown it is the key to help you live longer and puts you at a lower risk for cancer and cardiovascular diseases. It even keeps your brain younger and healthier. And while you will feel better and potentially live longer on a diet that favors veggies and fruits, it will also help you maintain a healthy weight and a thinner waist line, which is good for your overall health, self-esteem and mental well-being too. Make your meals heavy on the vegetable, bean and cereal side. You can eat fish and poultry at least twice a week. Snack on nuts and fruit. You don't have to do anything so extreme as avoiding carbs. You can have three servings of those a day, especially if they are of the whole-grain variety. If you drink, enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner. The red variety is supposed to be particularly good for your heart health. Cook with olive oil as opposed to butter. And limit the amount of saturated fat, meat and dairy. If you can't give up your bacon or burger habit, be reassured one bite will not kill you. In fact, the National Cattleman's Beef Association says the scientific evidence does not support a causal relationship between red meat or processed meat and cancer. But the International Agency for Research on Cancer states that, an estimated 50-gram portion of processed meat you eat increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. That 50 grams is about two or three slices of bacon. And of course just because something raises the risk of cancer doesn't mean you will get it.

So bottom line, if you must eat meat, make it a special treat rather than a staple!

New clue about chemo-resistance in tumors

Scientists have discovered a molecular mechanism that allows tumors to develop resistance to chemotherapy. The molecular mechanism acts as a backup when a gene called p53, that normally helps healthy cells prevent mutations, is missing. About half of tumors do not have p53.
The backup system is a pathway called MK2. It allows cells with damaged DNA to repair their DNA but does not trigger cell death if the DNA damage is non-repairable, so cells with damaged DNA continue to divide.
Chemotherapy works by damaging DNA so cells stop dividing. But in the absence of p53, cell division continues, thanks to the MK2 pathway, and so cancer cells continue to proliferate after chemotherapy. The study shows that cancer cells, like healthy cells, have molecular mechanisms that help them maintain their integrity and survive.
Researchers identified a molecule that helps BRCA2 cancer genes resist treatment. The team, from Yale School of Medicine, said that without the molecule, called co-factor DSS1, the mutated genes cannot do their job of repairing the cancer cells' DNA. BRCA2 is a tumor suppressor gene that can cause breast and ovarian cancers in as many as 60% of women who have the mutated form.

Research explains limits of Cancer immunotherapy drugs

Immuno-therapy treatments have proven wildly successful in treating some patients with cancer. But despite this success, the majority of patients do not respond to the treatments.
A new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center reveals molecular changes within the tumor that are preventing the immuno-therapy drugs from killing off the cancer.
Clinical trials with PD-L1 and PD-1 blockade suggested that tumors with a high number of inflammation-causing T cells were more responsive to the immuno-therapy-based PD-L1 and PD-1 inhibitors. Tumors with low inflammation, or low T cells, were less responsive. But what controls T cells in the tumor micro-environment is poorly understood.
"We defined a molecular mechanism to explain why some tumors are inflamed and others are not and consequently why some patients will be responsive to therapy and others not," says senior author Weiping Zou, M.D., Ph.D. "We hope this could be developed into a clinical trial testing a combination of PD-L1 and PD-1 blockade with epigenetic therapy. We want to see if we can make the responders more responsive and turn the non-responders into responders," Zou says.

Canine companionship helps calm children undergoing Cancer Treatment

Many hospitals have therapy dogs who visit with patients, and anecdotal evidence underscores the positive impact these programs have on children with cancer and their families. Preliminary findings from a new, multi-center trial provides some of the first quantitative data to validate these claims.
The study, to be presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference & Exhibition in Washington, DC, collected data on blood pressure, pulse rates and anxiety levels of children before and after a weekly visit from a therapy dog. During the visits, children pet or talk to the dog, brush its fur, view the dog's photos, watch the dog practicing tricks or commands, and learn about dog breeds.
Preliminary findings show that blood pressure readings in the group receiving animal-assisted interventions remains more stable across all sessions than in the control group, said lead researcher Amy McCullough, Ph.D., National Director of Humane Research and Therapy for the American Humane Association. Similarly, there was a higher degree of variability in heart rate within the control group patients than with the treatment group patients.
"These findings suggest that the dog may have a calming effect on the patient," Dr. McCullough said.

Cancer drug could be baldness remedy

Drugs developed to fight cancer and rheumatoid arthritis might work as creams to stimulate hair growth, offering a potential baldness cure, researchers reported Friday.
While cancer treatments are usually associated with hair loss, some specialized drugs called JAK inhibitors can actually help hair grow.
Angela Christiano and colleagues at Columbia University have been testing them as treatments for a rare form of hair loss called alopecia areata. This condition is caused by the immune system's mistaken attack on hair follicles, and the drugs work by suppressing inappropriate immune responses  that's why they help rheumatoid arthritis and some forms of blood cancer that involve immune cells.
"The surprise was when we started using the drugs on alopecia areata patients, when we used them topically the hair grew back much faster and more robustly than it did orally,"
There are several Food and Drug Administration-approved JAK inhibitors, including ruxolitinib, or Jakafi and tofacitinib, sold under the brand name Xeljanz.
Because they suppress the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections, it would be dangerous to use them to correct something cosmetic like male pattern baldness.
But applying such drugs topically would be far safer.

Osteoporosis drug new hope for Breast Cancer treatment

A new study, has found that a class of osteoporosis drugs called bi-sphosphonates may help to prevent breast cancer recurrence in older women. While many questions remain to be answered, the research suggests the drugs could soon become part of the standard of care for women with breast cancer, with the potential to save thousands of lives. Cancer doctors have suspected that these bone-strengthening drugs might help protect against the spread of breast cancer, but studies testing the theory have had mixed results.
"Our results show that adjuvant bi-sphosphonates in postmenopausal women prevent around a quarter of bone recurrences and one in six of all breast cancer deaths in the first decade of treatment," said Dr. Robert Coleman, a professor at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., and the lead author of the analysis. "These simple, well tolerated treatments should now be considered for routine use in the treatment of early breast cancer in women."

UK launches World’s largest clinical Cancer Trial

The world’s largest ever clinical trial looking at whether taking aspirin every day stops some of the most common cancers coming back, launches across the UK today.
The Add-Aspirin phase III trial, the largest of its kind and funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research, aims to find out if taking aspirin every day for five years can stop or delay cancers that have been caught and treated at an early stage from returning. It will also study how the drug might do this.
The study will recruit 11,000 patients who have recently had, or are having, treatment for bowel, breast, esophagus, prostate or stomach cancer. It will be open at more than 100 centers across the UK and will run for up to 12 years.
The study will compare two groups of people taking different doses of aspirin and a group taking placebo tablets. There’s been some interesting research suggesting that aspirin could delay or stop early stage cancers coming back, but there’s been no randomized trial to give clear proof. This trial aims to answer this question once and for all.
It’s important not to start taking aspirin until the full results are in, as aspirin isn’t suitable for everyone, and it can have serious side effects.

FDA approves new treatment for Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Onivyde (irinotecan liposome injection), in combination with fluorouracil and leucovorin, to treat patients with advanced (metastatic) pancreatic cancer who have been previously treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy.
The FDA granted Priority Review and orphan drug designations for Onivyde. Priority Review status is granted to applications for drugs that, if approved, would be a significant improvement in safety or effectiveness in the treatment of a serious condition. Orphan drug designation provides incentives such as tax credits, user fee waivers, and eligibility for orphan drug exclusivity to assist and encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases.
The effectiveness of Onivyde was demonstrated in a three-arm, randomized, open label study of 417 patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma whose cancer had grown after receiving the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine or a gemcitabine-based therapy. The study was designed to determine whether patients receiving Onivyde plus fluorouracil/leucovorin or Onivyde alone lived longer than those receiving fluorouracil/leucovorin. Patients treated with Onivyde plus fluorouracil/leucovorin lived an average of 6.1 months, compared to 4.2 months for those treated with only fluorouracil/leucovorin. There was no survival improvement for those who received only Onivyde compared to those who received fluorouracil/leucovorin.

Shake-up at Cancer Treatment Centers

Gerard van Grinsven has resigned as president and CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America “to pursue other interests.” 
Van Grinsven will be replaced on an interim basis by COO Steve Mackin and Anne Meisner, CEO of the company's facility in Newnan, Ga. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based for-profit company operates five cancer hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
Before joining Cancer Treatment Centers of America in 2013, van Grinsven was president and CEO of Henry Ford West Bloomfield (Mich.) Hospital. He started at Henry Ford in 2006 to oversee the launch of the hospital, which opened in 2009.
Before Henry Ford, van Grinsven worked in the hotel industry, including a stint as VP and area general manager for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.'s properties in Dearborn, Mich., Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
A Modern Healthcare investigation last year found that three of the company's facilities were among the nation's leaders in receiving Medicare supplemental “outlier” payments, which are intended to compensate hospitals for unusually expensive episodes of care. The payments are derived in part from hospitals' retail prices, which typically exceed the actual cost of care.
The company has also been criticized for broadcasting commercials that promote false hope and cherry-picking patients to skew its outcomes. Van Grinsven acknowledged in a Modern Healthcare Q&A that the company's patient population “may not mirror the general population of cancer patients for various reasons.”

Synta halts study of Lung Cancer treatment

Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp has decided to end a late-stage trial of its lung cancer treatment after an independent review said it proved ineffective, nearly halving its stock in extended trading on Tuesday.
Lexington, Massachusetts-based Synta's shares were down 46.6 percent at $1.09 after the bell.
The late stage study aimed to see if a combination of its drug ganetespib with chemotherapy drug docetaxel would work better than docetaxel alone for advanced non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma.
The company said it stopped the trials on the recommendation of an independent data-monitoring committee, which said the combination of the two drugs was unlikely to show significant improvement in overall survival compared to docetaxel alone.

UK differs; Hormone replacement therapy DOES increase Cancer risk

Cancer Research UK is deeply concerned for women's health amid headlines that taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is safe, based on research presented to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Baltimore.
As reported, the research, from New York University, only looked at a very small number of women who had used HRT for an average of 14 years and found that women who took HRT did not have an increased risk of cancer, heart disease or diabetes.
But there is strong evidence from several much larger studies that HRT can cause some types of cancer including Breast, Ovarian and in some cases Womb. This includes the million women study , run by Cancer Research UK scientists, which has shown that different types of HRT can increase the risk of different cancers.
“The overwhelming body of evidence including the results of the million women study show women who are using combined hormone therapy double their risk of breast cancer compared to those not using it. How the risks and benefits stack up for everyone will be different. It’s important that women have good quality information to help them come to the right decision for them.”

New Breast Cancer guidelines...REALLY!

Reaction is pouring in after the American Cancer Society published new recommendations on at what age women should receive regular annual mammograms to screen for breast cancer. In the guidelines, ACS raised its recommended age for annual screening mammograms from 40 to 45 for women of average risk for breast cancer and every other year for women 55-74. In a news release, the Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization said that all women should have access to regular mammograms when they and their health care providers decide that it is the right time for screening based on individual risk for breast cancer, and that the screening tests should be covered by insurance companies and government programs.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) also has drafted guidelines that would raise the recommended age for regular mammography to 50 for women of average risk.

Kite Pharma scores big with new Cancer Treatment

Kite Pharma, hopes to revolutionize the treatment of a common, deadly lymphatic cancer, with a novel mix of highly trained lab techs and high-speed air travel.
The Santa Monica company's treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma reprograms a patient's T-cells, the kind that are supposed to fight disease, to seek and destroy only abnormal, cancerous lymph cells, not the healthy ones crucial for human life. In order to do so, blood must be drawn from a patient, refrigerated and flown to Kite's headquarters, where the cells are modified, frozen and then flown back to doctors who re-inject them into patients.
Although it could be a year or longer before the FDA approves its treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the clinical results are so promising that Kite has forged ahead with constructing a 44,000-square-foot facility that would become its cancer-fighting nerve center.
It's going up in El Segundo, better known for its cluster of aerospace companies, because the city is right next to Los Angeles International Airport, making it faster and easier in traffic-clogged L.A. to ship and receive T-cell specimens."We have seen tumors that originally failed every possible known treatment disappearing within weeks from the infusion," Belldegrun said. "Tumors were melting away." In addition to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Kite plans to use T-cell modification to treat leukemia and many other types of cancer. Kite's promising treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is called KTE-C19, which is in a clinical trial. It involves attaching an antibody to a T-cell that enables it to recognize and attack cancer cells. The testing is expected to conclude next year and sales could begin in 2017, assuming the Food and Drug Administration gives its approval.

Cancer Drug shows promise as Treatment for Parkinson's

A Novartis AG drug used for treating leukemia may also work for patients with Parkinson’s disease, judging from one small and early clinical test.
An early stage trial conducted by the Georgetown University Medical Center found a small dose of the medicine, Tasigna, produced “meaningful clinical improvements” in 10 out of 11 patients.
There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease and participants in the study saw production of the brain chemical dopamine increase so much researchers had to advise them to reduce or stop taking other drugs. Parkinson’s, a degenerative condition causing tremor and motor impairment, is associated with dysfunctions in the dopamine system and affects an estimated 10 million people worldwide.
Some patients in the study had Lewy body dementia, the second most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
The study marks the first time a therapy appears to reverse the “cognitive and motor decline in patients with these neuro-degenerative disorders.”

Breakthrough drug approval in Lung Cancer treatment

The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) says the move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant accelerated approval for a cutting-edge lung cancer treatment is a positive step forward that may help many patients improve their survival.
In early October, the FDA granted accelerated approval for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat patients with advanced (metastatic) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease continued to progress after other treatments, and with tumors that have a protein called PD-L1.

Malaria protein has potential as Cancer treatment

Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the malaria parasite because it produces a protein that binds readily to a sugar molecule in the placenta. This same sugar molecule is also found in most cancers. Now, researchers have shown it is possible to attach anticancer drugs to the malaria protein and use it to deliver them precisely to tumors by targeting the sugar. Scientists from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, describes how the new approach halted the growth of various tumors in mice. While the fact that the same sugar molecule (a type of chondroitin sulfate) is found in both the placenta and most Cancers is not surprising, since both have cells that grow fast.
Once the team discovered that the malaria parasite uses a protein it produces called VAR2CSA to embed itself in the placenta, they immediately saw the potential to use the process as a way to target cancer drugs to tumors. Mice implanted with three types of human tumors, the drug also showed varying degrees of success. In mice with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the treated tumors shrank to a quarter of the size of untreated tumors. With Prostate Cancer, the drug completely eliminated tumors in two of six treated mice within a month of administering the first dose, and with metastatic Breast Cancer, five of six treated mice were cured of the disease.
The researchers say the mice showed no adverse side effects from the treatment and their organs were unharmed by it.
Two companies, one in Vancouver and the other in Copenhagen, Denmark, where some of the researchers are based, are already developing the drug and preparing it for human trials, which they believe will take 3-4 years.

New test could personalize treatment for Childhood Cancer

A new gene test can identify which patients are likely to suffer more aggressive forms of the childhood cancer rhabdomyosarcoma, new research reports.
Examining the activity of only five genes in a sample of the tumour was enough to identify high-risk children who might benefit from more intensive treatment or from new therapies in clinical trials.
The findings, published today (Thursday) in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, could open up the opportunity for doctors to prescribe personalised treatment for children with cancer depending on the gene activity of their tumours.
This five-gene signature, known as MG5, was developed by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
It has now been validated in tests of samples from 68 patients led by scientists from the Children's Oncology Group in the US, in collaboration with The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).
The work was supported in the UK by the Chris Lucas Trust and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at The Royal Marsden and the ICR, and also received funding from the US National Cancer Institute and Fondation Medic.

Minority women get worse Breast Cancer care

No matter the type or stage of breast cancer, minority women are more likely to be diagnosed later in the disease than white women, and they are also less likely to receive recommended treatments, a new study shows.While prior studies have found such disparities before, the new research finds that it exists "across all breast cancer subtypes," study lead author Lu Chen, a researcher in the public health sciences division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said in a news release from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
Chen's team looked at data from 18 U.S. population-based cancer registries. Specifically, the researchers analyzed the demographics, stage of disease, tumor grade and size, treatment, and health insurance status for more than 100,000 American women.
The researchers also recorded the women's tumor subtypes, which can factor into prognosis and care.
For example, the investigators looked at the tumor's hormone receptor (HR) status, which means the tumor is more or less sensitive to hormonal therapies. They also looked at whether or not the tumor tested positive for human epidermal growth factor 2-neu (HER2), which can point to more aggressive tumors. According to the researchers, compared to black women, white women were more likely to have smaller tumors, and they were also more likely have less-aggressive forms of breast cancer.
Black women were more likely to have large tumors and an aggressive form of the disease known as "triple-negative" breast cancer. They were also 40 to 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease, in all subtypes of breast cancer.
Across all types of breast cancer, Hispanic women were also 30 to 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with stage 2 or 3 disease, the study found.
Racial and ethnic disparities also appeared to affect women's treatment. For nearly all types of breast cancer, black women were 30 to 60 percent more likely to receive inappropriate treatment, the study showed.

Cancer survivors often have bad diets

Cancer survivors may be less likely to follow a healthy diet than other people, particularly where leafy greens and whole grains are concerned, a U.S. study suggests.Researchers analyzed the diets of about 1,500 cancer survivors and 3,000 people without any history of tumors, ranking them based on how well they followed U.S. dietary recommendations. Neither group ate very well, but the cancer survivors generally had less nutritious habits than the other people in the study, researchers report in the journal Cancer.The findings are troubling because nutrition plays an important role in preventing diseases, and poor eating habits can exacerbate many chronic health conditions common among cancer survivors, lead study author Dr. Fang Fang Zhang, a nutrition researcher at Tufts University in Boston.
“It is remarkable that cancer survivors are still burdened by suboptimal dietary intake,” Zhang said. “Not getting enough fiber and having too many empty calories are established risk factors for many chronic health conditions.”

Rutgers unlocks mysteries of Lobular Breast Cancer

"Prior to this study, there had been very little clarity about the genetic defects driving lobular cancer development," said Michael Gatza, one of the lead authors on the analysis of more than 200 such tumors. The findings appear in the current edition of the medical journal Cell.Now, courtesy of his efforts along with those of colleagues around the country, a whopping 8,173 genetic coding mutations in lobular tumors have been identified. That lead them to be able to come up with three broad categories of sub-types of lobular cancer.
There was no single mutation common enough to be on par with the BRCA1 and 2 mutations, for which women with a family history of breast cancer are now tested. However, some of the mutations show up in other types of cancer - prostate cancer, for example - which raises the intriguing prospect existing drugs might be repositioned to battle lobular cancer.
Before the work of Gatza and his colleagues, not much was known about the biologic underpinnings of this form of cancer. Even less was known about tumors that displayed a mix of both ductal and lobular traits.
"The question we wanted to ask was, 'Is this really a third kind of cancer?," Gatza said. The answer is that when researchers look at these mixed tumors on the molecular level, they find they split into two categories of mostly ductal or mostly lobular, a distinction that might become important in considering treatment.

Computer training improves memory in Childhood Cancer survivors

Children who receive cancer treatments may suffer thinking problems later, but using an at-home computer training program can help reduce these deficits, according to a new study.
"This is the only computerized training so far in childhood cancer survivors," said lead author Heather M. Conklin of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
The study included 68 survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a blood cancer, or brain tumors, who had all survived at least one year after their cancer treatment ended. All of the children had thinking or memory problems reported by their parents.
On average, the participants were 12 years old, and had completed cancer treatment about five years earlier. They were randomly separated into two groups, one receiving the computer training program, another put on a "waitlist" to serve as a comparison.The first group was asked to complete 25 at-home sessions with the Cogmed program over five to nine weeks.Ten weeks after the study began, the youngsters' working memory, attention and processing speed increased more in the Cogmed group than in waitlist group. Cogmed is commercially available for adults with brain injury or children with attention-deficit disorder, but had not been used with childhood cancer survivors, Conklin said.Cogmed may help, but it is not covered by insurance and costs between $1,000 and $1,500 for the training program.

Breast Cancer cases among Men on the rise

The American Cancer Society estimates that around 2,350 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2015, compared with 231,840 in women. An estimated 440 men will die of breast cancer this year.
“It’s relatively unusual. Way more unusual than a female who gets breast cancer,” said Lynda Weeks, executive director of Susan G. Komen Louisville, part of the largest breast cancer research, education and advocacy organization in the country. “The figure is approximately one in 1,000, so it’s far less than females, but typically men are diagnosed at a later stage.”
Dr. Janell Seeger, a medical oncologist with the Norton Cancer Institute, said that although male breast cancer cases remain rare, “the number is increasing.” Reports show an increase of “up to 26% over the last 25 years,” in diagnosed cases.

U.S. Cancer doctors drop pricey drugs thay have little effect

U.S. oncologists, aware that patients are paying more of the costs of expensive cancer drugs, are increasingly declining to prescribe medicines that have scant or no effect, even as a last resort.
At least half a dozen drugs, including colon cancer treatments Cyramza, from Eli Lilly & Co, and Stivarga, sold by Bayer AG, aren't worth prices that can exceed $100,000 a year, top cancer specialists said.If specialists do start considering a drug's cost in their prescribing habits, such decisions could dent the multi-billion dollar cancer drug business.
Worldwide spending on cancer medicines reached $100 billion in 2014, a year-over-year jump of more than 10 percent. "There are drugs that don't make much sense given how much they cost, given their small benefits," said Dr Peter Bach, director of Memorial Sloan Kettering's Center for Health Policy and Outcomes in New York. "There are drugs that can cost up to $10,000 a month that provide, at the median, a few weeks or less than a month of additional life, but with substantial toxicity." Major medical groups including the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology are developing ways to consider a drug's affordability in their treatment decisions.

UK research finds new diagnosis and therapy for Breast Cancer

Scientists at the University of York, using clinical specimens from charity Breast Cancer Now's Tissue Bank, have conducted new research into a specific sodium channel that indicates the presence of cancer cells and affects tumour growth rates.
Led by Dr Will Brackenbury, a Medical Research Council Fellow in York's Department of Biology, a team studied a particular protein, or sodium channel, known as Nav1.5.Sodium channels, also known as VGSCs, exist in the membranes of excitable cells, such as neurons, where they are involved in the transmission of electrical impulses. Also present in breast cancer cells, research indicates they play a significant role in the growth and spread of tumors.
Dr Brackenbury said: "This research into Nav1.5 gives us further mechanistic understanding of this particular molecule's role in a cancer cell. As our separate studies show, this sodium channel is both up-regulated in breast cancer and is also seen to play a key role in rates of tumor growth and metastasis.
"Gaining a detailed understanding of the presence of Nav1.5 in tumors is significant as it could lead to a potential new diagnostic tool for breast cancer. The sodium channel's effect on tumor growth rates also signifies that Nav1.5 is a useful therapeutic target, perhaps holding a key to the development of future molecular treatments for specific cancers."

Elephant Cancer is so rare, may help Human treatments

Compared with just one copy in humans, elephants' cells contain 20 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene, two teams of scientists report. The gene helps damaged cells repair themselves or self-destruct when exposed to cancer-causing substances.
The findings aren't proof that those extra p53 genes make elephants cancer-resistant, but if future research confirms it, scientists could try to develop drugs for humans that would mimic the effect.
Peto's paradox refers to the fact that large animals including elephants and whales, have comparatively low cancer rates even though they have many more cells than smaller species. Cancer involves uncontrolled cell growth.Schiffman's team also analyzed necropsy data and found that elephants sometimes live as long as humans, yet only about 1 in 20 die of cancer, versus about 1 in 4 humans.
The second group of researchers, working with frozen zoo specimens, looked at more than 60 other species and found only elephants and wooly mammoths, their extinct relatives, had extra copies of the cancer-suppressing gene.This team inserted elephants' p53 genes into mouse cells and found that those cells behaved just like elephants and self-destructed when exposed to DNA-damaging drugs.
Schiffman's team is seeking funding for research into possible treatments based on the elephant research.

UK Skin Cancer drug treatment approved

Keytruda (pembrolizumab) had been available through an early access scheme which fast tracks unlicensed medicines to severely ill patients.
It has now been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) for treating advanced skin cancer in patients who have already tried another drug, ipilimumab.
There were over 13,000 people diagnosed with malignant melanoma in the UK in 2011. Melanoma accounts for more deaths than all other skin cancers combined.
Keytruda was the first drug to be approved through the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency's Early Access to Medicine Scheme (EAMS).
Professor Carole Longson, director of the Nice health technology evaluation centre, said: "We are pleased to be able to recommend pembrolizumab, the first EAMS drug, in final guidance.
"This will be welcome news to patients and healthcare professionals alike."

Ovarian tissue transplants safe and successful

Ovarian tissue transplants for women who want to have a baby after cancer treatment appear to be safe and are very successful, according to a team of experts in Denmark, where the procedure is routinely offered.
One in three young women who had a transplant and wanted to become pregnant succeeded in having a baby, analysis of results over the last 10 years has shown. Half of the children were conceived naturally, without the help of IVF.
Many doctors have been wary of ovarian tissue transplants, worried that they might cause a return of the cancer. But among the 41 women in the study, none had a recurrence as a result. The successes also bring closer the potential option for women to postpone having a family by having ovarian tissue frozen until they are established in a relationship or career, without having to worry about the ticking of the reproductive clock.
In Denmark, young women with cancer are routinely offered ovarian tissue freezing, but it is not automatic in the UK or elsewhere.

FDA approves new treatment for Advanced Lung Cancer

The drug, Keytruda, was given breakthrough therapy designation and a sped-up approval because it was deemed to be a significant improvement over available treatments based on the results of clinical trials.
"Our growing understanding of underlying molecular pathways and how our immune system interacts with cancer is leading to important advances in medicine," Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
Keytruda blocks a cellular pathway found in the body's immune cells and some cancer cells, helping the immune system fight cancer cells. The drug specifically works in patients with a genetic mutation, which the FDA requires patients be tested for in order to be eligible for the treatment.
The drug was tested with 550 advanced lung cancer patients, 61 of whom had the genetic mutation and already been treated with chemotherapy. In 41 percent of patients, tumors shrank after treatment with the drug, an effect that lasted between 2.1 and 9.1 months.
"The approval of this drug and a test to identify patients most likely to benefit has the potential to transform the way that lung cancer is treated."

Cancer and height are linked

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, The taller you are, the greater your risk of cancer, a new Swedish study released Friday suggests.
A massive 50-year study by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm tracking five million Swedes supported previous research that suggests that height and cancer are connected. In the study, taller people were found to have higher incidences of breast and skin cancer as well as other types of cancer.
According to the study, cancer risk grows by 18 percent in women and by 11 percent in men for every four inches in height. Taller women had a 20 percent greater incidence of breast cancer, and taller adults, male or female, had a 30 percent higher incidence of skin cancer.
Researchers still haven't yet been able to find why height and cancer are connected. Theories include taller people have more growth factors in their youth that might encourage the development of cancer cells. Another is that taller people simply have more cells, thus increasing the opportunity for cancer to begin.
Dr Emelie Benyi, who led the study, said the results do not mean being tall causes cancer, but the results could help identify risk factors that lead to treatments.
"As the cause of cancer is multi-factorial," Benyi said. "It is difficult to predict what impact our results have on cancer risk at the individual level."

Experimental gene therapy doubles Glioblastoma survival rate

An experimental gene therapy drug doubled the survival rate for Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer that kills two-thirds of patients within five years, researchers reported at a cancer conference.
Typically, Glioblastoma patients whose cancer comes back are expected to survive for weeks or months. Researchers reported the results of a Phase 2 clinical trial at the European Cancer Congress 2015 as Phase 3 of the trial begins.
The drug, VB-111, works by blocking the cancer's ability to grow new blood vessels. A substance secreted by tumors activates the drug.
"This drug outsmarts the cancer," said Dr. Andrew Brenner, a researcher in the Cancer Therapy and Research Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, in a press release. "These numbers compare favorably to any current benchmark in recurrent Glioblastoma and may change the treatment paradigm for these patients."
Researchers recruited 46 patients with recurrent Glioblastoma for the multicenter study. All 46 patients received VB-111 at the outset of the trial. When their cancer progressed, the researchers treated 23 with VB-111 and the standard chemotherapy treatment Avastin, while 22 received Avastin alone.Patients who received VB-111 continuously survived an average of 15 months, compared with patients treated only with Avastin surviving for about 8 months. The researchers noted that VB-111 also induced an immune system response, as 25 of the patients who received the drug developed a fever. Feverish patients saw an increased survival rate of about 16 months, compared to those without a fever who survived about 8.5 months.

Breast Cancer gene test predicts who can skip Chemo

Doctors have used a genetic test to decide which patients may be able to skip chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer.
Now a study confirms that this test, called Oncotype DX, works well for a small group of patients. But a longer, follow-up study is needed to draw conclusions for a fuller range of patients with riskier tumors.
Oncotype DX analyzes 21 genes in the tumor to estimate a woman's risk of the cancer coming back after surgery.
For patients who fell into the test's low-risk category, 99 percent didn't develop metastatic breast cancer five years after surgery, even though they didn't have chemotherapy. The overall survival rate among this group was 98 percent."This is really great news for the patients we're treating" says Dr. Sharon Giordano
, an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who wasn't involved in the study.
Oncotype DX is recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is considered the standard of care for a particular type of breast cancer, Giordano says.

Will the FDA approve these Cancer Drugs in Oct

On Oct. 2, 2015, the FDA is expected to make its decision as to whether or not to expand the label of Keytruda, a cancer immunotherapy developed by Merck, to include patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
Merrimack's MM-398, a treatment for pancreatic cancer that has a PDUFA decision date of Oct. 24, 2015. Among cancer types, few offer a more discouraging long-term survival rate than pancreatic cancer. Merrimack's MM-398 didn't cure patients' pancreatic cancer in the NAPOLI-1 trial, but it did demonstrate a more durable response that led to a statistically significant improvement in median overall survival. Overall median survival for the MM-398 arm in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin rose to 6.1 months from 4.2 months in the control arm without MM-398.
Amgen  with its cancer immunotherapy, talimogene laherparepvec (also known as T-Vec).
T-Vec is a reengineered herpes simplex virus designed to replicate inside cancer cells to make them burst. In addition, it draws the attention of the immune system, eliciting a response. Specifically, T-Vec is being targeted as a treatment for advanced melanoma, although combining the drug with other cancer immunotherapies and/or tackling other cancer indications does seem to be in the cards if T-Vec wins approval from the FDA on or before its PDUFA decision date of Oct. 27, 2015.  

Cancer Treatment doesn’t harm unborn baby

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that cancer treatments do not harm unborn children. “Prenatal exposure to maternal cancer with or without treatment did not impair the cognitive, cardiac, or general development of children in early childhood. Prematurity was correlated with a worse cognitive outcome, but this effect was independent of cancer treatment.”

One of the lead researchers of the study, Professor Frédéric Amant, said the following about the findings: “Our results show that fear of cancer treatment is no reason to terminate a pregnancy, that maternal treatment should not be delayed and that chemotherapy can be given. The study also shows that children suffer more from prematurity than from chemotherapy, so avoiding prematurity is more important than avoiding chemotherapy.” Amant’s team examined 129 children born after their mothers underwent cancer treatment while their children were still in utero. Remarkably, radiotherapy, chemotherapy nor surgery harmed the unborn babies. This information led the researchers to believe that women who are pregnant and have cancer should not delay treatment and do not “need” to abort their baby.