Antibodies may better control viral complication of marrow transplants

Y-shaped antibodies shown controlling the virus. Image
courtesy of  Dr. Mariapia Degli-Esposti, Lions Eye
Institute, Perth, Western Australia

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 19, 2019 – A virus that has complicated bone marrow transplantation from its earliest days may be better controlled with specific antibodies say researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and University of Queensland, Australia. 

Study shows new leukemia drug is better than standard therapy

Malignant white blood cells
crowd out normal cells in CLL
– image courtesy American
Society of Hematology

In a study of patients with the most common form of leukemia, researchers have found that a newly approved drug is both more effective and easier to take than conventional therapy. 

The study led by Scott Smith, MD, PhD of Loyola Medicine and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, the researchers enrolled 547 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at 219 cancer centers in the U.S. and Canada. All participants were over the age of 65 and randomly assigned one of three treatments. The standard treatment of bendamustine plus rituximab, ibrutinib (Imbruvica®) alone, or ibrutinib plus rituximab.

States vary widely in obesity-related cancers

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 31, 2018 – Obesity-related cancer varies widely by state with the highest rate of 8.3 percent in the District of Columbia and the lowest rate of 5.9 percent in Hawaii according to a new American Cancer Society study.

Published in Dec. 27, 2018 JAMA Oncology, researchers led by Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, scientific director for Surveillance Research looked at cancer attributed to excess body weight among adults aged 30 and over between 2011 and 2015 in all 50 states and D.C.

Maintenance therapy prolongs remission, survival times for myeloma

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 26, 2018 – A new study shows that patients with newly diagnosed myeloma have extended remissions and better survival when given ongoing therapy with the drug lenalidomide (Revlimid®) according to researchers. 

Myeloma is a bone marrow cancer that results in over production of plasma cells resulting in a weakened immune system and interferes with normal production and function of red and white blood cells.

Using artificial Intelligence to improve breast mammograms

The 3CB artificial analysis identified the areas of suspected
cancer on the mammogram outlined in solid and dashed
lines. Photo courtesy RSNA.

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 15, 2018 – Artificial intelligence often conjures images of machines outwitting humans and taking away human control  ala HAL the computer that takes control in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In reality researchers are using artificial intelligence to see patterns that are not readily visible to the radiologist looking for tumors, for example, or to a research scientist looking for genetic patterns that spell a likelihood of XYZ disease.