Cancer
Practice-changing studies on how oncologists treat cancer to be presented at ASTRO Annual Meeting
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The following are highlights of new cancer research being released at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) 52nd Annual Meeting to be held October 31 through November 4, 2010, in San Diego.
For full copies of the abstracts and press releases, contact Nicole Napoli at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or Beth Bukata at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Studies are embargoed until October 25, 2010, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Adding radiation to hormone therapy for prostate cancer treatment will increase survival chances
Prostate cancer patients who are treated with a combination of hormone therapy and radiation have a substantially improved chance of survival compared to patients who do not receive radiation, according to interim results of the largest randomized study of its kind presented at the plenary session, November 1, 2010…
AACR Colorectal Cancer Conference to Focus on Screening, New Treatments
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The American Association for Cancer Research will hosts its first special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Therapy from Oct. 27-30, 2010, at the Loews Hotel, Philadelphia.
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer in men and women. While screening has brought mortality rates down, much work remains to be done.
“Colorectal cancer is still one of the deadliest cancers, and our current screening methods are not yet always efficient or complete,” said Anil Rustgi, M.D., chief of gastroenterology, T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine and Genetics, and American Cancer Society Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a program chairperson of the AACR special conference.
Hormone therapy raises breast cancer deaths -study
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Women who took hormone replacement pills had more advanced breast cancers and were more likely to die from them than women who took a dummy pill, raising new concerns about the commonly prescribed drugs, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to report more breast cancer deaths among women taking hormone replacement therapy.
And it contradicts prior studies that suggest women taking the drugs had less aggressive, easier-to-treat breast cancers.
Erlotinib improves progression-free survival as first-line therapy in advanced lung cancer
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For patients with advanced lung cancer whose tumors carry EGFR activating mutations, first-line treatment with erlotinib nearly tripled progression-free survival compared to a standard chemotherapy combination, show results from the first prospective Phase-III study to report findings in this setting.
The new results from the OPTIMAL trial were reported at the 35th Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Milan, Italy.
“Erlotinib is very effective and well tolerated in advanced NSCLC patients who harbor EGFR activating mutations. It is 2 to 3 times more effective than doublet chemotherapy,” said study leader Professor Caicun Zhou of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University, China.
Improving Endpoints for Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Trials
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The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC), the leading global initiative in advancing the emerging field of immuno-oncology, has proposed criteria for improved endpoints for cancer immunotherapy trials, which were published online on September 8 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
These improved clinical trial endpoints help to distinguish between the effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy and address long-needed adjustments of standard endpoints such as survival and anti-tumor response. In addition, they introduce harmonization criteria for immune response assays to help establish immune response as a biomarker in clinical trials.
Over the last six years, the CIC has worked across the community of scientists involved with cancer immunotherapy within academia, industry, and regulatory agencies, and has developed these trial endpoint recommendations based on consensus workshops and clinical and laboratory data.
New Signaling Pathway that Controls Cell Development and Cancer
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Researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a new cell signaling pathway that controls cell growth and development, a pathway that, when defective, helps promote the formation of several major forms of human cancer, including lymphoma and leukemia.
The new pathway, part of a global DNA damage response, turns off 136 genes, including some that have are known to cause cancer because, unchecked, they can promote aberrant cell division.
“It’s important to make sure this pathway works correctly, because it prevents cells from dividing excessively” said Dr. Michael Teitell, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study. “When this pathway is defective, cancers can happen.”
The study appears in the Sept. 24, 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Cell.
Novo says cancer risk with insulin drops over time
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The raised risk of cancer in people using insulin decreases over time, a large study showed, Novo Nordisk, the world’s biggest maker of insulin, said on Thursday.
Novo-owned Steno Diabetes Center said the biggest-ever registry linkage study on the effect of insulin duration or diabetes duration on cancer incidence confirmed a link between diabetes and cancer.
“This increased incidence was especially evident in the first years after diagnosis but decreased over time,” Steno said in a statement.
Fla. med student study reveals disparity of skin cancer knowledge—Ben-Gurion U. study
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There is a significant disparity between knowledge and attitudes on the dangers of skin cancer among male and female medical students in Florida according to a new study by a joint team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The study was published in the American Medical Association’s Archives of Dermatology.
While their overall knowledge was judged to be satisfactory there was a significant difference between male and female students’ knowledge survey scores: 93.1 percent for women vs. 87.7 percent for men. Female students reported more frequent sunscreen use and sun-avoidance behavior and more frequently engaged in other sun-protective behaviors than their male peers.
Overall, men had a lower knowledge level, less appreciation for the importance of sun protection and were less likely to use active sun-protective measures. It is known that men are at higher risk for melanoma than woman (1:41 compared to 1:61). Gender differences in knowledge and behavior possibly contribute to the higher melanoma incidence and mortality among men over women.
Lung Cancer Culprit Could Offer Target for Therapy
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A tiny molecule that spurs the progression of non-small-cell lung cancer could become a player in fighting the disease, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, who published a study on how the molecule behaves in mice in the Sept. 14 issue of Cancer Cell.
Scientists have known that the molecule microRNA-21, or miR-21, is present in overabundant quantities in human tumors, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Until now, however, it was unclear whether miR-21 contributed to the development of lung cancer, or whether it was simply an indicator of the presence of the disease.
To find out, lead study author Dr. Mark Hatley, an instructor of pediatric hematology/oncology, and UT Southwestern colleagues used mice that had been altered specifically to harbor non-small-cell lung cancer. In some of these mice, they genetically engineered the animals to produce too much miR-21. In another group, they deleted the miR-21 gene altogether, which eliminated the molecule in the rodents.
Magnetic fields won’t up kids’ brain cancer risk
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Exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MFs)—emitted by anything from power lines to appliances or improperly grounded wiring—is not likely to increase children’s risk of developing brain tumors, the authors of a new analysis conclude.
Researchers have been investigating the health risks of these magnetic fields since 1979, Dr. Leeka Kheifets of the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology. There is some evidence that exposure at certain levels may be related to childhood leukemia, they add.
Evidence for a link between ELF-MF exposure and childhood brain tumors is weaker, according to Kheifets and her team, but to date a pooled analysis investigating the association has not been performed. Pooled analyses involve taking data from several different studies of the same topic and analyzing them as a whole, using a variety of statistical techniques to take as many differences between the studies into account as possible.
Scientists make leap forward in early detection for Alzheimer’s and cancer
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Scientists at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory have developed a new strategy for quicker and more precise detection of biomarkers – proteins which indicate disease. The work could pave the way for new tools to detect early stages of Alzheimer’s and cancer at the molecular level.
All diseases have proteins specifically linked to them called biomarkers. Identifying these in body fluid such as blood can be a powerful tool in identifying diseases in their early stages. This would help doctors increase the success rate of treatment through early intervention and help drug companies develop more effective drugs for these diseases.
The search for new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to underpin targeted medicines is of growing priority. However the potential of biomarkers is currently hampered by technical difficulties in detecting them. They are often present at very low levels, in amongst many other different proteins. Reducing a sample down to a concentration where they could be identified is difficult and time-consuming.
Robot doesn’t make cancer surgery cheaper: study
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Minimally invasive surgery for endometrial cancer is cheaper on a society-wide and hospital level than surgery done with a robotic system or a more invasive hysterectomy, according to a new study.
But the robot still has other benefits that aren’t reflected in the dollars-and-cents calculation, the authors say, such as greater ease and comfort for the surgeon.
More than 43,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with endometrial cancer - cancer that forms in the lining of the uterus - in 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute. About $1.8 billion is spent on treating endometrial cancer each year in the U.S., but it’s unclear how that number will change if more of the surgeries are done robotically.
Personalized medicine: Molecular imaging predicts treatment success in many cancers
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A series of studies published in the September Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) show that molecular imaging plays a critical role in the evaluation and treatment planning for a broad spectrum of cancers, including thyroid cancer and lymphoma.
According to researchers, molecular imaging allows physicians to identify the severity and extent of disease and, in turn, provide patients with personalized care. In addition, molecular imaging allows doctors to see how effective a treatment is early in the process so that changes can be made to ensure the best treatment for each individual patient.
“For patients with thyroid cancer, ‘one size fits all’ no longer applies,” said Ravinder Grewal, M.D., corresponding author of “The Effect of Posttherapy 131I- SPECT/CT on Risk Classification and Management of Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer” and an assistant attending physician in nuclear medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “Through molecular imaging, the paradigm is changing toward more tailored and customized management of treatment. As a result, we can see how far a disease has spread and spare the patient from additional examination, time and radiation exposure.”
High-risk pools an early test for health overhaul
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When James Howard was diagnosed with brain cancer in March he did not know how he would pay for radiation treatments costing $87,000 and $2,300 a week for chemotherapy.
At the time of his diagnosis, Howard was insured by UnitedHealth Group Inc, a policy for which he paid because his employer, Hennessey Performance near Houston, Texas, did not provide healthcare insurance for its employees.
After his diagnosis, UnitedHealth revoked Howard’s policy on the grounds that his was a pre-existing condition. A Texas high-risk insurance pool would have paid for his treatments, but only after a year.
Tackling cancer among poor doesn’t have to cost dear
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The growing burden of cancer in developing countries could be reduced without expensive drugs and equipment, scientists said Monday, but it requires a global effort similar to the fight against HIV/AIDS.
In a study in The Lancet, scientists from the United States, who have formed a Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC), said cancer is now a leading cause of death in poor nations but is often neglected in health authorities’ prevention and treatment plans.
While only about 5 percent of global resources for cancer are spent in developing countries, the burden of the disease is far greater there than in rich nations, with up to 80 percent of cancer deaths each year occurring in poorer nations.
