tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50695764823112156032024-03-04T23:48:36.124-08:00Cancer DigestMichael O'Learyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16671406613345260617noreply@blogger.comBlogger565125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-5354335094438293752022-12-17T14:51:00.000-08:002022-12-17T14:51:56.097-08:00Adding a personalized vaccine to immunotherapy reduces recurrence in melanoma<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2020-01/nci-vol-10864-72.jpg?itok=_u17efE5" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2020-01/nci-vol-10864-72.jpg?itok=_u17efE5" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; font-family: Poppins, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Treatment vaccines can help the immune system learn to </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; font-family: Poppins, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">recognize and react to antigens and destroy cancer cells </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; font-family: Poppins, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">that contain them.<span style="font-size: 14px;"> <span style="font-size: 12px;">Credit: NCI and Victor Segura Ibarra and Rita Serda</span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST– Dec. 17, 2022 – Early results of a preliminary clinical trial shows that a combination therapy for stage 3/4 melanoma that has spread to lymph tissues in the body reduced recurrence and death by 44 percent.<span><a name='more'></a></span> <br />The results were announced in a joint press release from Moderna, Inc. and Merck, Inc. at the Dec. 10-13 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in New Orleans.<br /><br />The clinical trial involving 157 melanoma patients is testing the safety and effectiveness of combining Merck’s immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) and a personalized vaccine made using similar technology that resulted in Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. <br /><br />The vaccine uses mRNA technology to create a neoantigen, or a molecule that stimulates an immune response. In this case the vaccine contains the instructions to make up to 34 antigens, substances that trigger an immune response, based on DNA characteristics of each patient’s cancer. In other words the vaccine stimulates an immune attack tailored to specific features of that patient’s tumor.<br /><br />In the trial half of the patients received the combination vaccine with Keytruda and half received Keytruda alone. In the vaccine arm half the patients received a low dose every week, and the other half received a higher dose every other week for up to nine weeks. The results showed a 44 percent improvement in recurrence free survival for up to three years for those receiving the combination therapy versus those treated with Keytruda alone. <br /><br />"The results of this randomized Phase 2b trial are exciting for the field," </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">said Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the study and Deputy Director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone. "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">These data provide the first evidence that we can improve on the rates of recurrence-free survival achieved by PD-1 blockade in resected high-risk melanoma. These findings also provide the first randomized evidence that a personalized neoantigen approach may be beneficial in melanoma."<br /><br />The companies plan to discuss these results with regulatory authorities and initiate a Phase 3 study in melanoma patients in 2023. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The study is funded by Moderna, Inc. and Merck, Inc. Dr. Weber is a paid consultant for Merck and Moderna.</span><div><script>
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</script></div></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sources: <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2022/Moderna-and-Merck-Announce-mRNA-4157V940-an-Investigational-Personalized-mRNA-Cancer-Vaccine-in-Combination-with-KEYTRUDAR-pembrolizumab-Met-Primary-Efficacy-Endpoint-in-Phase-2b-KEYNOTE-942-Trial/default.aspx" target="_blank">Moderna</a> and <a href="https://www.merck.com/news/moderna-and-merck-announce-mrna-4157-v940-an-investigational-personalized-mrna-cancer-vaccine-in-combination-with-keytruda-pembrolizumab-met-primary-efficacy-endpoint-in-phase-2b-keynote-94/" target="_blank">Merck press releases</a>, and <a href="http://ClinicalTrials.gov">ClinicalTrials.gov</a></span></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-79430525067173222832022-12-10T13:47:00.003-08:002022-12-17T07:17:23.469-08:00Chemo before and after surgery boosts survival in pancreatic cancer patients<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://news.cuanschutz.edu/hubfs/cropped%20Cancer%20hope.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="800" height="191" src="https://news.cuanschutz.edu/hubfs/cropped%20Cancer%20hope.jpg" width="450" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit University of Colorado news</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 10, 2022 – A new study of pancreatic cancer treatments showed that patients who received chemotherapy before and after surgery survived longer compared to patients who didn't have the chemo. The findings were published in the Dec. 8, 2022 American Medical Association Association’s<i> <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2799187" target="_blank">JAMA Oncology</a> </i><br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Led by Marco Del Chiaro, MD, of the University of Colorado Department of Surgery and co-author Toshitaka Sugawara, MD, PhD, the study analyzed outcomes data from a nationwide database of 888 pancreatic cancer patients treated between 2010 and 2018. <br /><br />They found that patients treated with chemotherapy before and after surgery survived 27 months compared to 21 months for patients who did not receive chemotherapy. This was the case for all patients regardless of whether the cancer had spread to lymph nodes, or the status of the margin of tissue around the surgical area.<br /><br />Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer. In general, 5-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer in the United States is 11 percent, meaning only 11 of 100 people survive five years after diagnosis. This study shows that adding chemotherapy to those patients whose tumors are eligible for surgery might extend survival another six months versus not adding chemotherapy.<br /><br />“The success of adjuvant chemotherapy used to be unclear, with varied data available for doctors to consider," said Del Chiaro in a press release. "Our study suggests that adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery should be implemented no matter the biological stage of the cancer.”</span><span></span><span><!--more--></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sources: University of Colorado Cancer Center <a href="https://news.cuanschutz.edu/cancer-center/largest-study-of-its-kind-reveals-adjuvant-chemotherapy-improves-overall-survival-for-pancreatic-cancer-patients" target="_blank">press release</a>, and <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2799187" target="_blank"><i>JAMA Oncology</i></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p5" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://msutoday.msu.edu/-/media/assets/msutoday/images/2022/existing-drug-could-reduce-side-effects-of-gold-standard-cancer-treatment/orig-red-shows-more-adenosine-in-kidney-cells.jpg?rev=1264acb7ef694bcc8c0269eeb7f1d1dd&hash=1C74BCF5858FBEA571A23A6235D18F20" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="800" height="157" src="https://msutoday.msu.edu/-/media/assets/msutoday/images/2022/existing-drug-could-reduce-side-effects-of-gold-standard-cancer-treatment/orig-red-shows-more-adenosine-in-kidney-cells.jpg?rev=1264acb7ef694bcc8c0269eeb7f1d1dd&hash=1C74BCF5858FBEA571A23A6235D18F20" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #151a22; font-family: "Gotham SSm A", "Gotham SSm B", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Left shows mouse kidney cells and the right shows <br />these same kidney cells after cisplatin treatment <br />revealing they are full of adenosine (red). <br />Image credit: Geoffroy Laumet</span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 3, 2022 – Researchers have found that a drug already FDA-approved for treatment of Parkinson’s disease may reduce some of the severe side effects of cisplatin, the gold standard chemotherapy drug for cancer. <br /><br />The international research study conducted in mice was published in <i><a href="https://www.jci.org/articles/view/152924" target="_blank">The Journal of Clinical Investigation</a></i> published online Nov. 15, 2022. It showed that the drug istradefylline can reduce the side effects of cisplatin while preserving its cancer-fighting properties.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />Cisplatin has been a mainstay of cancer chemotherapy for nearly 60 years. It is used to treat ovarian, lung, bladder, stomach and head and neck cancers. The side effects, however, can cause severe pain in the hands and feet, kidney failure, nausea and vomiting. Patients need to undergo weekly blood tests to monitor for kidney damage while on cisplatin. <br /><br />Now with the findings of the current study led by Geoffroy Laumet at Michigan State University as part of four international teams at the University of Lille, the University of Strasbourg and the Pasteur Institute in France, and the University of Coimbra in Portugal, it appears that istradefylline might be used to substantially reduce those adverse side effects.<br /><br />“The exact interaction between istradefylline and cisplatin remains to be determined but we do know that tumor cells and cells that are stressed by the toxicity of cisplatin will release a lot of adenosines,” Laumet said in a press release. “Istradefylline blocks the effects of adenosine.”<br /><br />In the study, the researchers observed that the addition of istrdefylline increased production of a protein called A<span style="font-size: x-small;">2A</span>R, which appeared to alleviate the cisplatin-induced kidney toxicity without impacting the effectiveness of the tumor killing properties of cisplatin. It also significantly reduces kidney inflammation.<br /><br />The researchers concluded that because istradefylline has already been proven safe in humans, a clinical trial in humans should be launched soon.<br /><br /><br />Sources: Michigan State University <a href="https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/existing-drug-could-reduce-side-effects-of-gold-standard-cancer-treatment">press release</a> and <a href="https://www.jci.org/articles/view/152924">The Journal of Clinical Investigation</a></span>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-45821096798544499092022-11-27T07:48:00.003-08:002022-11-27T07:48:48.993-08:00CT screening for early lung cancer leads to long-term survival<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRaxX8hEILRJBiyax1IlrMsdAXXt0pP3oPIrMcgCc9FiZ11uWYf5HGwblFVAzIHcUTk8RjVp3uASUJN95nxEX718FDyIj-cOs9pIt4Bk3yJX7Tp0G1kjIyTwpGUDoKEFZg1124xkZy0J3QS1Qn59n9Iqe31-0H-bfxQQNR5_005jyINvfdbZkNYYZV/s1180/CT%20screening%20lungs%20RSNA.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="1180" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRaxX8hEILRJBiyax1IlrMsdAXXt0pP3oPIrMcgCc9FiZ11uWYf5HGwblFVAzIHcUTk8RjVp3uASUJN95nxEX718FDyIj-cOs9pIt4Bk3yJX7Tp0G1kjIyTwpGUDoKEFZg1124xkZy0J3QS1Qn59n9Iqe31-0H-bfxQQNR5_005jyINvfdbZkNYYZV/s320/CT%20screening%20lungs%20RSNA.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5px;">Axial CT images of pulmonary nodules. <br />(A) Malignant nodule. (B) Benign nodule.<br /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit – RSNA</span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 27, 2022 – A new study shows that early detection of lung cancer with CT scanning dramatically increases long-term survival. <br /><br />The study led by Claudia Henschke, PhD, MD of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, follows 87,000 participants at 80 cancer centers who have been diagnosed with early stage lung cancer. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago. <span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />“While screening doesn’t prevent cancers from occurring, it (CT scanning) is an important tool in identifying lung cancers in their early stage when they can be surgically removed,” Henschke said in a press release. <br /><br />The study shows that while targeted treatments of more advanced-stage cancers with immunotherapy have improved outcomes dramatically, the best tool for prevent deaths is early diagnosis through low-dose CT screening before symptoms appear. <br /><br />The International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) started in 1992. In 2006 the data showed that 10-year survival for patients whose cancer had been identified by CT screening was 80 percent. <br /><br />In the current study the results show the same 80 percent survival rate after 20 years for the 1,285 I-ELCAP participants. The survival rate for both the 139 participants with non-solid cancerous lung nodules and 155 participants with part-solid consistency was 100 percent. For the 991 participants with solid nodules, the survival rate was 73 percent. <br /><br />In short, the findings show that after 20 years, patients diagnosed with early stage lung cancer with CT screening and treated with surgery when the cancer is small enough, patients can be effectively cured long-term. <br /><br />The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual lung cancer screening with low-dose CT in adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. <br /><br />Source: Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/971401">press release</a></span><script>
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</script>Michael O'Learyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16671406613345260617noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-29375636566280338292022-11-19T10:57:00.000-08:002022-11-19T10:57:54.844-08:00New immunotherapy approach promises to improve cancer outcomes<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik49c59kp388go06TDpjfMH1rDS8jH9IccwXW81EQL7TcXbh4WDz01fA11IrEkKhwn0p9mZxCeEFw0XxsbWjOgPaTo8cvYQ73FUZUIW_wrSch2ffvfU0j_DqdzZGTqYpQOMNp37yCw1yLNbeLf5JMrs1rWy3LEVmrCb8Ed2J1Cc_ZrmHK_pBKg_DQhAQ/s1570/PVR.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="1570" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik49c59kp388go06TDpjfMH1rDS8jH9IccwXW81EQL7TcXbh4WDz01fA11IrEkKhwn0p9mZxCeEFw0XxsbWjOgPaTo8cvYQ73FUZUIW_wrSch2ffvfU0j_DqdzZGTqYpQOMNp37yCw1yLNbeLf5JMrs1rWy3LEVmrCb8Ed2J1Cc_ZrmHK_pBKg_DQhAQ/s320/PVR.png" width="320" /></a></div>CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 19, 2022 – Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have identified an additional protein cancer cells use to blunt immune system attacks on tumors. The study results were published in <i><a href="https://www.jci.org/articles/view/163620" target="_blank">The Journal of Clinical Investigation</a></i> (JCI). </span><br /><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Over the past 10 years the introduction of immunotherapy medicines such as Keytruda and Opdivo have extended survival for patients with a number of cancers, including colorectal, lung and melanoma and bladder cancers, among others. These drugs work by blocking what are called checkpoint inhibitors, which cancer cells use to trick the immune system into ignoring them and not attacking. <span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />These current checkpoint inhibitor drugs are very effective in allowing immune system T cells to attack tumors and shrink or eliminate cancers. Unfortunately, they only work in 10 percent to 30 percent of patients. <br /><br />Looking to increase the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitor drugs, the researchers led by Xingxing Zang, identified another protein cancer cells use to trick the immune system into ignoring them. Called PVR, this protein is usually absent or very rare in normal tissues, but is produced in abundance by many types of cancer cells. PVR has been shown to inhibit both T cells and another immune system cell, called Natural Killer or NK cells. PVR does this by binding to a pair of checkpoint proteins called TIGIT and KIR2DL5. <br /><br />There are more than 100 clinical trials under way using drugs that target TIGIT, but recent results have failed to improve cancer outcomes. That led Dr. Zang’s team to hypothesize that PVR blunts NK cells attack on cancers not by binding the TIGIT but by binding to KIR2DL5. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />In the JCI paper the team demonstrated that KIR2DL5 is a commonly occurring checkpoint receptor on the surface of NK cells, which PVR proteins produced by cancer calls use to suppress the NK attack on the tumor. They then showed in humanized animal models that blocking PVR from binding to KIR2DL5 allowed the NK cells to vigorously attack and shrink human tumors. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />The researchers have filed a patent application for their PVR/KIR2DL5 antibody and are actively pursuing approval for human clinical trials. If proven successful in patients, the addition of NK immunotherapy could increase the number of patients who experience long-term improvement from immunotherapies.</span><script>
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</script></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Source: Albert Einstein College of Medicine <a href="https://www.einsteinmed.edu/news/5904/einstein-researchers-develop-promising-new-cancer-therapy/" target="_blank">press release</a></span></div></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-50174655870206282552022-11-12T10:29:00.003-08:002022-11-12T10:29:54.224-08:00Metastasis-directed therapy may prolong progression-free survival<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDaR7WFFEojS9X0D6eISMdrtCdCzhZw-tkYXJPXAoRo-7O9yNZntZ_4gisyJfvRgyNnlnMzkE4hllnapaCttvq8lBlGOzjXqWHONj1k1qfSTVqMfT8cTX6BSu9fccc3Dq7z_rYrlIyQSB8c5FYj64QOBtyHwielUQfvbyoaliigD-BNrnkS8hL777zA/s548/Dr_Patient_interaction.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="548" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDaR7WFFEojS9X0D6eISMdrtCdCzhZw-tkYXJPXAoRo-7O9yNZntZ_4gisyJfvRgyNnlnMzkE4hllnapaCttvq8lBlGOzjXqWHONj1k1qfSTVqMfT8cTX6BSu9fccc3Dq7z_rYrlIyQSB8c5FYj64QOBtyHwielUQfvbyoaliigD-BNrnkS8hL777zA/s320/Dr_Patient_interaction.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit National Cancer Institute</span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 12, 2022 – For patients with prostate cancer that has spread to a single site outside the prostate, a therapy approach called metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) might extend the progression-free period following initial treatment, a small study shows in the Dec. 1, 2022 issue of <a href="https://www.auajournals.org/doi/10.1097/JU.0000000000002898"><i>The Journal of Urology</i></a>. <br /><br />Normally after surgery or radiation therapy to eradicate prostate cancer, men whose tumors had spread to a single nearby lymph nodes or bone, called "oligorecurrent cancer" are given androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in an effort to keep the cancer from continuing to grow. <span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The therapy blocks testosterone and other male hormones that are used by cancer tumors to speed growth. ADT, however, has a number of adverse effects including sexual dysfunction, bone thinning, muscle loss and other effects. <br /><br />In a small clinical trial of 124 patients led by Jack Andrews, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, AZ, 67 patients whose prostate cancer had spread to lymph nodes or other tissues were treated with surgery to remove the metastasized tumor, and 57 were treated with radiation therapy directed at the cancer that had spread to bone. <br /><br />The patients were then followed for a median of four and half years. Of those treated with surgery, 80.5 percent achieved a 50 percent reduction in their prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels, and 40.3 percent of those treated with radiation achieved a 50 percent reduction in PSA. <br /><br />The median time to cancer progression was three years for 29 percent of the surgery group and 17 percent of the radiation therapy. The median time to progression was 18.5 months for the surgery group and 17.8 months for the radiation month. <br /><br />"These results suggest that MDT without ADT can delay initiation of systemic therapy" in men with oligorecurrent prostate cancer," Dr. Andrews and colleagues concluded. <br /><br />The limitations of the study make the results insufficient to change current guidelines for the treatment of prostate cancer. The researchers call for further studies to determine which patients with solitary metastases can benefit the most from MDT. <br /><br />Sources: <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/970948">Press release</a> from Wolter Kluwer Health and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000002898"><i>The Journal of Urology</i></a></span><script>
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</script>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-15184438840865925222022-11-06T07:13:00.001-08:002022-11-06T07:16:23.528-08:00Adding drug to androgen suppression boosts progression-free survival<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcQg5SzI0AqrcJVkkGJypCt6AHcu1r23aZC8mLLQZgwDxfH3K8rylekP7cyX9rnc1oCiIj0iygtnBQ2BVqwAdghrrx2KS_rGoiYveJdPIgZCRbr3uXXTYnZM_B7G64USIaio_Vtu7MOMy2LbLEhpDyRQ-907t7G_gosQX8tPXaUab82jE1MjXd2kR/s1426/prostate.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1426" data-original-width="1212" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcQg5SzI0AqrcJVkkGJypCt6AHcu1r23aZC8mLLQZgwDxfH3K8rylekP7cyX9rnc1oCiIj0iygtnBQ2BVqwAdghrrx2KS_rGoiYveJdPIgZCRbr3uXXTYnZM_B7G64USIaio_Vtu7MOMy2LbLEhpDyRQ-907t7G_gosQX8tPXaUab82jE1MjXd2kR/s320/prostate.jpg" width="272" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit CDC</span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 6, 2022 – An investigational therapy increased progression-free survival in 40 percent of nine patients whose prostate cancer had become resistant to hormone-blocking therapy according to a study was published in the August 30, 2022 journal<a href="https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(22)00507-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS152500162200507X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue"> Molecular Therapy.</a><br /><br />The small trial conducted at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles involved giving the 9 patients the monoclonal antibody immunotherapy drug, carotuximab. <br /><br />In the trial led by Neil Bhowmick, PhD and Edwin Posada, MD, each of the 9 patients had become totally resistant to at least one androgen suppressor, these are drugs that suppress the hormones that fuel prostate cancer growth.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />“Every single one of the patients in our trial was totally resistant to at least one androgen suppressor, and the normal course of action would be to simply try a different one or chemotherapy, which research has shown generally doesn’t stop tumor growth for more than about three months,” Bhowmick said in a press release. “Carotuximab prevented the cancer’s workaround and made the tumor sensitive to androgen-suppressing therapy.” <br /><br />In these nine patients, the researchers instead began a regimen of carotuximab, which blocks the protein made by a gene called CD105. What happened next surprised the physicians, 40 percent of the patients experienced progression-free survival, based on x-ray imaging. Progression-free survival is the amount of time a patient’s tumor stops growing or begins to shrink. <br /><br />When they looked at what was happening, the researchers found that the carotuximab re-sensitized the prostate cancer tumor to the androgen-blockers. Furthermore, the drug prevented cells surrounding the tumor from becoming resistant to the hormone-blockers.<br /><br />In addition, the researchers have identified three biomarkers that could help identify which patients will respond to adding carotuximab to androgen-blocker therapy. The group is now planning a larger clinical trial to validate their findings. <br /><br />Source: Cedars Sinai<a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/developing-therapies-for-treatment-resistant-prostate-cancer/"> press release</a></span>Michael O'Learyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16671406613345260617noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-40683131117697854172022-10-29T09:50:00.002-07:002022-10-29T09:50:40.072-07:00Cancer deaths continue to decline<script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2022-10/ARN%202022%20graphic%20(FINAL).jpg?h=d7af4a70&itok=JGCMRw9s" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="667" height="400" src="https://www.cancer.gov/sites/g/files/xnrzdm211/files/styles/cgov_article/public/cgov_image/media_image/2022-10/ARN%202022%20graphic%20(FINAL).jpg?h=d7af4a70&itok=JGCMRw9s" width="334" /></a></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 29, 2022 – Cancer deaths in the US continued to decline between 2015 and 2019 according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published Oct. 27, 2022 in the journal Cancer.<br /><br />“Today’s report is good news in our fight against cancer and is a reminder of the importance of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot℠ initiative,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“I’m deeply impressed by the progress we’re making against cancer and firmly believe we can meet the President’s goal of reducing the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. We can and must end cancer as we know it.”<br /><br />The report shows that from 2015 to 2019 overall cancer deaths decreased by 2.1 percent per year in men and women combined. Among men the decline was 2.3 percent and among women the decrease was 1.9 percent.<br /><br />The cancers showing the steepest declines included lung cancer (4 percent) and melanoma (5 percent) among men and women. Death rates increased for pancreas, brain and bone cancers in men and in cancer of the pancreas and uterus in women<br /><br />Cancer deaths in the US continued to decline between 2015 and 2019 according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published Oct. 27, 2022 in the journal Cancer.<br /><br />“Today’s report is good news in our fight against cancer and is a reminder of the importance of President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot℠ initiative,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “I’m deeply impressed by the progress we’re making against cancer and firmly believe we can meet the President’s goal of reducing the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years. We can and must end cancer as we know it.”<br /><br />The shows that from 2015 to 2019 overall cancer deaths decreased by 2.1 percent per year in men and women combined. Among men the decline was 2.3 percent and among women the decrease was 1.9 percent.<br /><br />The cancers showing the steepest declines included lung cancer (4 percent) and melanoma (5 percent) among men and women. Death rates increased for pancreas, brain and bone cancers in men and in cancer of the pancreas and uterus in women.<br /><br />Cancer incidence, the number of people diagnosed with cancer each year remained relatively stable in the years 2014 to 2018 with the number of cases in women rising slightly by 0.2% per year. <br /><br />The cancer incidence with the sharpest rise in men was pancreatic cancer, rising 1.1 percent per year, while the steepest decline was in lung cancer, which decreased in men by 2.6 percent. In women, melanoma rose fastest at 1.8 percent per year, while thyroid cancer fell by 2.9 percent.<br /><br />The annual report is a collaboration of the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease control and Prevention, the National Program of Cancer Registries and the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program.<br /><br />Source: National Cancer Institute <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/press-releases/2022/annual-report-to-the-nation-2022">press release</a></span></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-87177531579477308822022-10-22T09:57:00.000-07:002022-10-22T09:57:00.918-07:00Chemical hair straighteners linked to higher risk of uterine cancer<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdcoiagv2GpwUroOIRJS2oHGpajzCqAkT2v4s4v7FGLYIYoryAM8tCGWy-2oUdMC1tcKna2jFr-XuYNAVl7HrTT_jgfacx4XSiFjjST_OQd6HX4Ksxn4WiHLCUzvpXDw-b6wsWH9c8p-XNeRnRzINitmpIn_uR1r-DoWCJTcU3sUy-go2qNLXQ1E5/s856/Sisters%20Study.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="504" data-original-width="856" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqdcoiagv2GpwUroOIRJS2oHGpajzCqAkT2v4s4v7FGLYIYoryAM8tCGWy-2oUdMC1tcKna2jFr-XuYNAVl7HrTT_jgfacx4XSiFjjST_OQd6HX4Ksxn4WiHLCUzvpXDw-b6wsWH9c8p-XNeRnRzINitmpIn_uR1r-DoWCJTcU3sUy-go2qNLXQ1E5/w400-h235/Sisters%20Study.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Credit – Sisters Study Facebook page</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 22, 2022 – The risk of cancer of the uterus was found to be double among women who use chemical hair straightening products compared to women who did not use such products, a new study shows. <span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The study conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the NIH, tracked 33,497 women between the ages of 35-74 over a period of 11 years. During that time 378 uterine cancers were diagnosed. <br /><br />When the researchers looked at risk factors among those women and those who did not develop uterine cancer, they found that only 1.64 percent of women who never used hair straighteners would develop uterine cancer by age 70 compared to 4.05 percent of the women who frequently used hair straighteners. <br /><br />"This doubling rate is concerning," said Alexandra White, PhD, in a <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2022/october17/index.cfm">press release</a>. She is head of the NIEHS Environment and Cancer Epidemiology group, and lead author of the study. "However, it is important to put this information into context. Uterine cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer." <br /><br />While it accounts for only about 3 percent of new cancer cases each year, it is the second most common cancer of the female reproductive system with an estimated 65,950 new cases diagnosed in 2022. <br /><br />The study is the result of data from the <a href="https://sisterstudy.niehs.nih.gov/English/index1.htm">Sister Study</a> that has been following the women since 2011. Approximately 60 percent of the women who reported using hair straighteners in the previous year identified themselves as Black. While the study did not find a difference in uterine cancer cases by race, it did suggest that because Black women tend to use hair straitening products more frequently, these women may be at higher risk. <br /><br />The finding meshes with earlier studies that have found such products were associated with hormone-related cancers in women, and this research team’s own previous findings linking hair dye and straighteners with increased breast and ovarian cancer. <br /><br />The products often contain parabens, bisphenol A, metals, and formaldehyde, which are chemicals that have been linked to cancer. <br /><br /><br />Source: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2022/october17/index.cfm">press release</a></span><script>
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</script>Michael O'Learyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16671406613345260617noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-45432099913247315582022-10-15T11:18:00.003-07:002022-10-15T11:18:50.959-07:00Clinical trial matching tool shortened time to consent by 55 days<script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/matchminer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Final_Mockup_030322.png?w=1749&ssl=1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="800" height="254" src="https://i0.wp.com/matchminer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Final_Mockup_030322.png?w=1749&ssl=1" width="468" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit – MatchMiner </td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 15, 2022 – A clinical trial matching system shortens the time for matching cancer patients with targeted therapy trials by eight weeks, a new analysis shows.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />With the growing number of advanced cancer therapies that target ever more specific genetic features of each patient’s tumors, the task of finding clinical trials for a given patient has become time consuming and complicated, so complicated that the time to match a patient and get their consent has now stretched into a months long process. That is time many cancer patients don’t have.<br /><br />Simplifying and shortening the time for matching patients to appropriate clinical trials has been the goal of the Knowledge Systems Group of researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute led by Ethan Cerami, PhD, and Michael Hassett, MD, MPH. <br /><br />The analysis of the Dana-Farber clinical trials matching system, called MatchMiner showed that the system shortened the time to consent of a patient to participate in a targeted therapy trial was by 55 days, a 22 percent improvement. The report was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-022-00312-5">npj Precision Oncology </a>on Oct. 6, 2022.<br /><br />“Profiling patient tumors for genomic alterations has become a widespread part of cancer care, especially as new drugs targeting those alterations go into clinical trials or are approved as cancer therapies,” says Tali Mazor, PhD, the co-lead author of the paper with Dana-Farber colleague Harry Klein, PhD. “The combination of this growing body of genomic data and increasing number of precision medicine trials has created a kind of disconnect: finding the right trial for each patient can be a difficult task. MatchMiner helps bridge that gap.”<br /><br />The system helps oncologists and clinical researchers find potential matches between patients and targeted therapy trials based on the genetic profile of patients’ tumors.<br /><br />In the new study, investigators analyzed enrollment data for precision medicine trials at Dana-Farber. They found 166 instances where MatchMiner was used to match patients to a clinical trial. They compared the time to consent for those patients to the time to consent for 353 patients matched to trials without using MatchMiner. The result was the match and consent process was shortened on average by 55 days using MatchMiner.<br /><br />Unlike many other clinical trials matching systems designed for single institutions, MatchMiner is available for use by other institutions. MatchMiner is currently testing artificial intelligence based predictions to better identify patients who may soon need a new therapeutic option like a clinical trial.<br /><br /><br />Sources: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute <a href="https://www.dana-farber.org/newsroom/news-releases/2022/computer-platform-helps-match-patients-with-cancer-to-trials-of-targeted-therapy/">press release</a></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-78572280327153409782022-10-08T10:19:00.002-07:002022-10-08T12:56:50.405-07:00Lifelong stress may lead to higher risk of cancer death<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://executivemedicine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/effects-of-stress-on-body.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="500" height="395" src="https://executivemedicine.com.au/wp-content/uploads/effects-of-stress-on-body.jpg" width="378" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image credit – <a href="https://www.executivemedicine.com.au" target="_blank">Executive Medicine</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 8, 2022 – Chronic, life-long stress increases the risk of dying of cancer, according to a new analysis of national health data. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The research was led by Dr. Justin Xavier Moor, an epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The study analyzed the effects of stress on cancer risk using data collected from 41,000 people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2019. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The results were published in the Sept. 2022 journal <i><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322001641?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">SSM Population Health</a>.</i></span><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i><span></span></i></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“As a response to external stressors, your body releases a stress hormone called cortisol, and then once the stress is over, these levels should go back down,” <a href="https://www.augusta.edu/cancer/research/cpcph/justin-moore.php">Moore</a> said in a press release. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“However, if you have chronic, ongoing psychosocial stressors that never allow you to ‘come down,’ then that can cause wear and tear on your body at a biological level.” </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />The research team analyzed the NHANES data for the level of internal and external stressors faced by participants throughout their lives, including age, social and economic demographics, race, sex, and poverty-to-income ratio. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />The stress level called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/allostatic-load" target="_blank">allostatic load</a>, was determined by body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, and C-reactive protein, a measure of inflammation. The participants were categorized by allostatic load, low, medium or high. That data was then cross-referenced with the National Death Index maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics. </span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Without adjusting for any variables, the researchers found that those with a high allostatic load were 2.4 times more likely to die from cancer than those with low allostatic loads. When they looked at age they found that people of the same age with a high allostatic load had a 28 percent higher risk of dying of cancer than those with a low allostatic load. <br /><br />When they looked at sociodemographic factors, such as sex, race, education, those with a high allostatic load had a 21 percent increase compared to low allostatic load. <br /><br />Looking at race alone, however, yielded indeterminate results because the sample sizes were too small, for example among the 41,000 people studied, there were 11,000 non-Hispanic Black people, which meant too few cancer deaths to draw statistically meaningful results.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">However, based on the researchers' earlier work, they had found that Black and Latino adults have an increased risk of high allostatic load when compared with their white counterparts.</span><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(35, 35, 35); color: #232323; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Moore believes that difference can be attributed to structural racism — things like difficulty navigating better educational opportunities or fair and equitable home loans could over a lifetime raise a person's allostatic load.<br /><br />“If you’re born into an environment where your opportunities are much different than your white male counterparts, for example being a Black female, your life course trajectory involves dealing with more adversity,” he says.</span><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div></div></div><div>Sources: Augusta University <a href="https://jagwire.augusta.edu/wear-and-tear-from-lifelong-stress-can-increase-cancer-mortality/" target="_blank">Health News</a> and <i><a href="Saturday, October 8, 2022 Lifelong stress may lead to higher risk of cancer death Image credit – Executive Medicine CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 8, 2022 – Chronic, life-long stress increases the risk of dying of cancer, according to a new analysis of national health data. The research was led by Dr. Justin Xavier Moor, an epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center. The study analyzed the effects of stress on cancer risk using data collected from 41,000 people who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2019. The results were published in the Sept. 2022 journal SSM Population Health. Continue reading Posted by Michael O'Leary at 10:19 AM Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest 0 comments" target="_blank">SSM Population Health</a></i></div>Michael O'Learyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16671406613345260617noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-91267096172113784282022-10-02T08:02:00.002-07:002022-10-02T08:02:59.212-07:00Immunotherapy before targeted therapy boosts melanoma survival <span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lombardi.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/melanoma-cells-16-9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="256" src="https://lombardi.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/melanoma-cells-16-9.png" width="455" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #63666a; font-family: proxima-nova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Metastatic melanoma cells (Image: NCI Center for Cancer Research Creator: Julio C. Valencia)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 2, 2022 – Giving immunotherapy followed by targeted therapy boosts survival in certain advanced melanoma patients by 20 percent, according to results of an ongoing clinical trial.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The national </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: proxima-nova, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19.2px;">DREAMseq </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">clinical trial comparing two different therapy approaches, has shown that for advanced melanoma cancer in people with a specific gene mutation, there was a 20 percent increase in two-year survival when patients were given a combination immunotherapy before administering a targeted therapy. The results were so dramatic the trial was stopped early in order to allow all patients to benefit from the better regimen.<br /><br />The clinical trial led by oncology professor Michael Atkins, MD, deputy director of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, is part of large consortium of oncology researchers, called ECOG-ACRIN that includes nearly 1300 academic and community-based cancer centers across the U.S. The findings of the trial confirm early results presented last December at the meeting of the American College of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and were published in the Sept. 27, 2022 <a href="https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.22.01763"><i>Journal of Clinical Oncology.</i></a><br /><br />The trial involved 265 patients with advanced melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer, who also had a specific gene mutation called <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/braf-mutation-melanoma#what-is-a-braf-mutation">BRAFV600</a>. Approximately 40 percent to 60 percent of melanoma patients have this mutation. It is most common in patients whose tumors arise on skin without chronic sun-induced damage, according to research in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/cc.4.10.2026" target="_blank"><i>Cell Cycle.</i></a><br /><br />The patients were randomly assigned to one of two therapy approaches. One group received the drugs dabrafenib/trametinib (Tafinlar® and Menkinist®) targeting the BRAF tumors first, followed by the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab/ipilimumab (Opdivo® and Yervoy®). The second group received the immunotherapy drugs first, followed by the targeted therapy. <br /><br />After two years the results showed that 72 percent of the immunotherapy-first group survived compared 52 percent of the targeted therapy-first group. As a result of the dramatic 20 percent advantage to patients receiving immunotherapy first, the trial was stopped so that all new patients could be given the better combination regimen.<br /><br />Sources: Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center<a href="https://lombardi.georgetown.edu/news-release/advanced-melanoma-survival-improves-significantly-when-immunotherapy-is-given-before-targeted-therapy/#"> press release</a> and the <a href="https://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10.1200/JCO.22.01763">Journal of Clinical Oncology</a></span><script>
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These foods include such ready-to-eat products like sausage, bacon, ham, fish cakes.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The analysis included data from two long-running Nurses Health Studies and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Data was collected from 159,907 women and 46,341 men followed for more than 25 years. Among these participants there were 1,294 cases of colorectal cancer among men and 1,922 cases among women. The study was published Aug. 31, 2022 in the <i><a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj-2021-068921" target="_blank">British Medical Journal (BMJ) .</a></i><br /><br />The researchers divided the participants' consumption of ultra-processed food into five groups ranging from lowest to highest. They found that men who developed cancer tended to be among the group consuming the highest amounts of such foods, but the same was not found among the women participants.<br /><br />In addition the researchers found that higher consumption of sugary beverages such as sodas, fruit-based beverages and sugary milk based beverages were also associated with higher colorectal cancer risk, however, there was an reverse association for ultra-processed dairy products such as yogurt.<br /><br />“We found an inverse association between ultra-processed dairy foods like yogurt and colorectal cancer risk among women,” co-senior author <a href="https://nutrition.tufts.edu/profile/faculty/fang-fang-zhang">Fang Fang Zhang</a>, a cancer epidemiologist and interim chair of the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School said in a press release. "Foods like yogurt can potentially counteract the harmful impacts of other types of ultra-processed foods in women.”</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Zhang added that the protective effect of such foods as yogurt may point to the potential role of food additives in altering gut microbiotics, promoting inflammation, and contaminants formed during food processing or migrated from food packaging may all promote cancer development.<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mingyang Song, co-senior author on the study and assistant professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, added that, “Further research will need to determine whether there is a true sex difference in the associations, or if null findings in women in this study were merely due to chance or some other uncontrolled confounding factors in women that mitigated the association.” </span></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-44999123174408221672022-08-21T08:10:00.005-07:002022-08-21T08:16:04.039-07:00Advanced cervical cancer rising fastest among White women in the South<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hpvmap4-5.png?fit=2128,1196" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="800" height="273" src="https://wp.technologyreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hpvmap4-5.png?fit=2128,1196" width="490" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">HPV vaccination can prevent cervical cancer. CDC data shows vaccination rates by geographical region – source US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 21, 2022 – While the number of cases of advanced cervical cancer, cancer that has spread beyond the cervix, is highest among Black women, it is rising faster in White women than any other racial group, according to a new analysis in the Aug. 18, 2022 <a href="https://ijgc.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/05/ijgc-2022-003728"><i>International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.</i></a> <span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The study also showed that while such cancer is relatively rare, there was no racial/ethnic group, age group, or region where the number of cases of advanced cervical cancer has fallen over the past 18 years. Those most at risk were Black women aged 55 to 59 years living in the South with a rate of 2.6 per 100,000, nearly double the rate (1.39 per 100,000) of same aged White women in the South. <br /><br />The study analyzed data from the US Cancer Statistics program and national surveys of screening and vaccination during the period of 2001 to 2018. During that time 29,715 women were diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. <br /><br />After adjusting for age, the researchers, led by Alex Andrea Francoeur of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that cases of early stage disease fell by an annual rate of 1.6%, while cases of advanced disease rose by 1.5% per year. <br /><br />When they sorted those diagnosed with advanced disease by race, geographical region, and age, the data showed that the steepest annual rise in stage IV cervical cancer was among White women in the South aged 40-44, with a rate of 4.5%. <br /><br />In addition, the data showed that Black women were nearly twice as likely to be screened for cervical cancer with a rate of 26.5% compared to 14% for White women, and HPV vaccination rates was lowest among White women aged 13-17, while the greatest increase in annual vaccination rates was 7% among Black teens. <br /><br />The researchers acknowledged that a limitation of their study was a lack of a national screening and vaccination registry for cervical cancer causing them to rely on multiple sources of data that could have affected their findings. <br /><br />Nevertheless, the researchers concluded that, "Over 90% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV (human papilloma virus); the lower rate of vaccination among White women, coupled with non-guideline screening in this population could explain the trend toward higher rate of increase in distant disease in White women." <br /><br />The authors added that their findings demonstrate the public health need to vaccinate more young women and girls against HPV infection. <br /><br /><br />Sources: British Medical Journal <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/961974">press release </a>and the <a href="https://ijgc.bmj.com/content/early/2022/08/05/ijgc-2022-003728"><i>International Journal of Gynecological Cancer</i></a></span><script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;">CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 13, 2022 – Older age and smoking are the strongest risk factors linked to developing any type of cancer, a new study shows.<br /><br />The large study of nearly 430,000 people participating in two ongoing American Cancer Society studies showed that there were 15,226 invasive cancers among participants within five years of enrolling in the studies. The results were published in the Aug. 3, 2022 journal <i><a href="https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.34395" target="_blank">Cancer</a></i>.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The analysis led by Dr. Alpa Patel, senior vice president for population science at the American Cancer Society, found that after accounting for a number of variables, the two most significant lifestyle factors linked to a cancer diagnosis was age and smoking accounting for an absolute 2 percent higher risk of cancer, compared to similar participants who were never smokers.</span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Among long-term smokers with a BMI (body mass index) greater than 25 or a parent or sibling diagnosed with cancer, the absolute risk of being diagnosed with cancer was as high as 29 percent in men and 25 percent in women.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />“As we consider the possibility that future tests may be able to identify several types of cancer, we need to begin understanding who is most at risk for developing any type of cancer,” said Patel in a press release. “These types of data are not widely available, but necessary to inform future screening options, such as blood-based multi-cancer early detection tests that could help save lives.”<br /><br />In men alcohol intake, family history of cancer, red meat consumption, and physical inactivity were also linked to cancer risk. Among women, additional risks of cancer were linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, hysterectomy, child bearing, family history, high blood pressure, tubal ligation, and physical inactivity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Source: American Cancer Society <a href="http://pressroom.cancer.org/cancerscreening" target="_blank">press release</a><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-19107568055257032112022-07-30T07:30:00.003-07:002022-07-30T07:30:37.534-07:00Common type of starch may reduce certain cancers<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/media/wwwnclacuk/pressoffice/images/news/july2022/green%20banana%20grid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="800" height="253" src="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/media/wwwnclacuk/pressoffice/images/news/july2022/green%20banana%20grid.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Resistant starch as found in unripe bananas may protect against some<br />types of cancers<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – July 30, 2022 – A type of starch found in oats, breakfast cereal, rice, beans and other common foods may reduce the risk of a range of cancers by 60 percent, a new study shows. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Led by researchers at the Universities of Newcastle and Leeds in the the UK, the 20-year study called CAPP2 involved following 1000 people with Lynch Syndrome, a hereditary condition associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer in particular, as well as a broad range of other cancers, including endometrial, ovarian, stomach, liver and brain cancers. <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />The participants from 43 cancer centers in Europe, Australia, the Americas, and Africa were randomly assigned to receive 600mg of aspirin daily, or a resistant starch supplement, or placebo for two years. <br /><br />Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that isn’t digested in the small intestine. Instead, it ferments in the large intestine feeding beneficial gut bacteria. The dose used in the trial is equivalent to eating a daily banana before it becomes too ripe and soft. The starch in such a banana resists breakdown and reaches the bowel where it can change the type of bacteria that live there. <br /><br />At the end of the treatment stage of the trial, there was no overall difference in colorectal cancers between those who had taken resistant starch or aspirin, and those who had not. However, an analysis of the followup data of the resistant starch and placebo groups found there were just 5 new upper gastrointestinal cancers among 463 people who had taken the resistant starch compared to 21 cancers among the 455 people taking the placebo. Upper GI cancers include cancers of the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine. <br /><br />“We found that resistant starch reduces a range of cancers by over 60%. The effect was most obvious in the upper part of the gut,” explained Professor John Mathers, professor of Human Nutrition at Newcastle University in a press release. “This is important as cancers of the upper GI tract are difficult to diagnose and often are not caught early on. <br /><br />“Resistant starch can be taken as a powder supplement and is found naturally in peas, beans, oats and other starchy foods. The dose used in the trial is equivalent to eating a daily banana; before they become too ripe and soft." <br /><br />The study was published in the July 25, 2022 issue of the journal <a href="https://aacrjournals.org/cancerpreventionresearch/article/doi/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-22-0044/707189/Cancer-Prevention-with-Resistant-Starch-in-Lynch" target="_blank"><i>Cancer Prevention Research</i></a>. As a result of the findings, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is now recommending aspirin and resistant starch for people at high genetic risk of cancer. <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2022/07/dietsupplementcanpreventhereditarycancer/">Read more …</a> </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Sources: Newcastle University <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2022/07/dietsupplementcanpreventhereditarycancer/">press release</a>, <a href="https://aacrjournals.org/cancerpreventionresearch/article/doi/10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-22-0044/707189/Cancer-Prevention-with-Resistant-Starch-in-Lynch">Cancer Prevention Research</a>, and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30366-4/fulltext">The Lancet</a></span><script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/688953528#t=9s" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="1096" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHqDkyK5vKNN2Dk22YE4y9TgF8-VxgtDKvL6NzimbEbO1PZOg52CjyB8XXeXqivWbomMWixQeSGEKAB6lA7o67JcqQo1NCMkplCEwh1X8a89idHRm5k1IqEFa2opuegIyclDSYxBxpPt04iUofZZgK9hh7B9NfVaYxsoKLDK8X-TCiJ31NfRTG6q7NJw/w479-h287/Seagen-medication-brentuximab-vedotin.jpeg" width="479" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/688953528#t=9s" target="_blank">Hodgkin lymphoma cells. Image Credit – Seagen (formerly Seattle Genetics)</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">CANCER DIGEST – July 16, 2022 – Almost 94 percent of Hodgkin Lymphoma patients given the drug brentuximab vedotin in addition to standard chemotherapy survived 6 years compared to 89.4 percent of those given the standard therapy, a new Mayo Clinic study shows.<span><a name='more'></a></span></div><br />The results were presented by Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago in June and published this week in the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206125"><i>New England Journal of Medicine.</i></a><br /><br />“Our randomized study showed that the addition of an antibody drug conjugate, brentuximab vedotin, to standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma improved overall survival for patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma, when compared to patients who received standard chemotherapy alone,” Dr. Ansell said in a press release.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />In the study 664 patients with advanced (stage 3 or 4) Hodgkin Lymphoma were assigned to receive the brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy and 670 received the standard combination chemotherapy regimen of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine. <br /><br />Brentuximab vedotin (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 16px;">ADCETRIS®) </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">is an engineered drug called an antibody conjugate. It combines an antibody that specifically binds to certain types of cells including cancer cells with a drug that kills the cells the antibody binds to.<br /><br />After following patients for a median of six years, 39 patients in the brentuximab vedotin group had died compared to 64 patients in the standard therapy group. The overall survival for the brentuximab group was 93.9 percent compared to 89.4 percent of the standard therapy group. In addition, fewer patients in the brentuximab group needed additional therapy after the initial regimen had been administered.<br /><br />The study also evaluated toxic side effects of the brentuximab vedotin plus chemotherapy and found that patients experienced neuropathy, or tingling and numbness often felt in the feet and hands, that resolved over time. <br /><br />Hodgkin lymphoma is cancer of the lymph system, part of the body’s immune system. It is most common in early adulthood (age 20-29) and in older adults (age 65 and older). In the US an estimated 8,500 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma each year. Once a uniformly fatal disease, thanks to advances in treatment it is now largely curable, even in an advanced stage, in the great majority of patients. The focus of further research in this disease has been on improving cure rates while reducing toxic side effects.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/brentuximab-vedotin-may-improve-overall-survival-in-patients-with-hodgkin-lymphoma/" target="_blank">Read more..</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sources: Mayo Clinic <a href="https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/brentuximab-vedotin-may-improve-overall-survival-in-patients-with-hodgkin-lymphoma/" target="_blank">press release</a> and <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2206125" target="_blank"><i>New England Journal of Medicine</i></a><br /></span></div><br /><br /></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-12532768241465535542022-07-09T09:24:00.001-07:002022-07-09T09:24:52.619-07:00New research shows higher colorectal cancer deaths among young in NE Great Lakes region<script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lerner.ccf.org/lrinews/upload_docs/news_1654891171x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="301" src="https://www.lerner.ccf.org/lrinews/upload_docs/news_1654891171x.jpg" width="536" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">New research from the Cleveland Clinic shows newly identified hotspots (red circles)<br />young-onset colorectal cancer – Image credit Cleveland Clinic</td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – July 9, 2022 – Young people are dying of colorectal cancer in greater numbers in the Midwest and northeastern Great Lakes region of the US, according to a new study by the Lerner Research Institute and the Center for Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer at the Cleveland Clinic.<span><a name='more'></a></span></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />The findings add to a better understanding of what might be driving a steady rise in colorectal cancer occurrence and mortality in people under age 50. The study was published in the June 18, 2022 journal <i><a href="https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(22)00662-X/pdf?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2F">Gastroenterology</a>.</i><br /><br />“With this study, we aimed to establish where yoCRC mortality rates were higher or lower than expected," said the study’s senior author Stephanie Schmit, PhD, MPGH in a press release. "Known as hot and cold spots, in order to pinpoint regions in the country warranting further investigation and to understand the factors contributing to this increasing burden.”<br /><br />The researchers used colorectal cancer-specific mortality data from 3,036 US counties for the two decades between 1999 and 2019. After adjusting for young colorectal cancer risk factors such as race/ethnicity, obesity, smoking and alcohol consumption, the researchers split the deaths into four age groups: those diagnosed younger than 35, those between 34-49, 50-64, and those older than 65 and plotted them according to geography.<br /><br />The picture that emerged showed newly identified hotspots in the upper Midwest and north eastern Great Lakes regions, in addition to earlier identified hot spots in southern and Appalachian counties among those younger than 50. <br /><br />The deaths in the 34-50 age group, however, closely followed southern patterns seen in general population, however hotspots in those younger than 35 did not follow that pattern, which suggests colorectal cancer deaths in the youngest patients may be driven by a distinct set of factors.<br /><br />The research also revealed cold spots in western and southwestern counties where there is a lower risk of dying of colorectal cancer for those 50 and under.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Read more ...</span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sources: Cleveland Clinic <a href="https://www.lerner.ccf.org/news/details/?Researchers+Discover+Young-Onset+Colorectal+Cancer+Mortality+Hot+and+Cold+Spots&47381e0624c9b7a58e4c2b1741691b9845cfca24&181f17fcea466b897a18b2d99da785de42e46c99" target="_blank">press release</a> <i></i></span>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-70947737866045828062022-06-25T06:51:00.000-07:002022-06-25T06:51:57.555-07:00Blood test can predict liver cancer in NAFLD patients <script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXNk6WhJItMZaAAOdhGyvZXjUBNr_WwLCM3rUG1tlqvANbv1hwy2z8zt0cFP22_wJ0VVNsfAvmnXhISuN_ZhySOd22jfErIy0yoAobdX2dZXWKL9r1-GcON4IpW62fVgPwYaHlW2L_Wk4TRstWTYROZv7IVb8XH1n0KUfkF1Kmi6NVT-jV6LkYkVm9g/s450/Pancreatic_123rf_33131272.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="450" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKXNk6WhJItMZaAAOdhGyvZXjUBNr_WwLCM3rUG1tlqvANbv1hwy2z8zt0cFP22_wJ0VVNsfAvmnXhISuN_ZhySOd22jfErIy0yoAobdX2dZXWKL9r1-GcON4IpW62fVgPwYaHlW2L_Wk4TRstWTYROZv7IVb8XH1n0KUfkF1Kmi6NVT-jV6LkYkVm9g/w334-h334/Pancreatic_123rf_33131272.jpg" width="334" /></a></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">CANCER DIGEST – June 25, 2022 – Researchers have identified a panel of four proteins that can be used to predict liver cancer risk in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that might be used to track how well medications are working to reduce that risk. The results were published in the June 22, 2022 journal<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo4474"> <i>Science Translational Medicine.</i></a><br /><br />Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) increases the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer. An estimated one-quarter of US adults have NAFLD. Knowing which of their NAFLD patients were mostly likely to develop cancer would help doctors prescribe treatments that could reduce their patients’ risk.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The research led by Yujin Hoshida, M.D. and Naoto Fujiwara, M.D., PhD at the University of Texas Southwestern analyzed the blood from 409 NAFLD patients to find 133 genes that make proteins at higher or lower levels than average in the patients who developed liver cancer over a 15-year period. The patients were then stratified by high and low risk and 22.7 percent of the high-risk group were diagnosed with HCC, while no patients in the low-risk group developed HCC.<br /><br />“This test was especially good at telling us who was in that low-risk group,” said Dr. Hoshida in a press release. He is the director of UTSW’s Liver Tumor Translational Research Program. “We can much more confidently say now that those patients don’t need to be followed very closely.”<br /><br />The researchers then further defined the high-risk genes and developed a blood test for four proteins whose levels could be used for easier risk assessment. When NAFLD patients were sorted into low and high risk based on these four proteins they found that 37.6 percent of high-risk patients were diagnosed with HCC during the 15-year follow up period.<br /><br />When the researchers analyzed the four proteins they discovered that all were involved in inflammatory processes, which points to the importance of inflammation to the development of HCC. They also found that the levels of these four proteins could be altered by certain therapies such as bariatric surgery, cholesterol drugs and immunotherapy.<br /><br />“This means we could actually use these panels of molecules to track how well patients are doing over time or to inform potential effectiveness of medical interventions to reduce liver cancer risk,” said Dr. Hoshida. "For instance, the protein blood test, dubbed PLSec-NAFLD, is already being used to monitor the effectiveness of a cholesterol drug in reducing liver cancer risk in an<a href="https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05028829?term=PLSec&draw=2&rank=1"> ongoing clinical tria</a>l."<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2022/june-predict-liver-cancer-risk.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Read more…</span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Sources: UTSW<a href="https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2022/june-predict-liver-cancer-risk.html"> press release</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo4474">Science Translational Medicine</a><br /></span><br />Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-65977906691314579622022-06-19T07:53:00.003-07:002022-06-19T07:57:34.989-07:00HIFU shown to offer effective control of intermediate prostate cancer<script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8aBMGONdsYgtiWJdjB9rPk0Vteoi4j3xG7oGBKsSF1FGBCplpbuNSNg-mJl19Je7G0NHuEjvCWRXrMpmS9n1dK9024NjbrbyHKWXtBaMQsH1gS2-huQIJsvXxZMFLabsarFrCIvdh0AgC4pd6MgHIk5e4qRMYP4S-9-lbyTnmyDbYNOV3PLfZBA9IA/s1366/Sonablade_HIFU.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1366" height="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm8aBMGONdsYgtiWJdjB9rPk0Vteoi4j3xG7oGBKsSF1FGBCplpbuNSNg-mJl19Je7G0NHuEjvCWRXrMpmS9n1dK9024NjbrbyHKWXtBaMQsH1gS2-huQIJsvXxZMFLabsarFrCIvdh0AgC4pd6MgHIk5e4qRMYP4S-9-lbyTnmyDbYNOV3PLfZBA9IA/w446-h357/Sonablade_HIFU.jpeg" width="446" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span face=""open sans", sans-serif" style="color: #10203c; text-align: center;">Using ultrasound wand inserted in the rectum, the doctor directs HIFU energy <br />to the prostate tumor to ablate or kill it. </span>Image credit – SonaCare Sonablate</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />CANCER DIGEST – June 19, 2022 – High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) guided by MRI can effectively control intermediate risk prostate cancer without surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, and few adverse side effects, according to results of a new phase 2 clinical trial. The trial results were published in the June 14, 2022 <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(22)00251-0/fulltext"><i>Lancet Oncology</i></a>.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />Led by Dr. Behfar Ehdaie, a urologic surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the trial treated 101 patients with MRI-guided HIFU between May 2017 and December 2018. The men were between 58 and 67 years old with grade group 2 or higher prostate cancer. Biopsies at six months and 24 months showed that 78 patients (88 percent) had no evidence of prostate cancer in the treated area, and only one had severe (grade 3) adverse treatment-related side effects.<br /><br />The HIFU treatment uses ultrasound to ablate or kill the cancer tumor confined to the prostate, the treatment is called partial gland ablation.<br /><br />“To draw a parallel with how breast cancer treatment changed 30 years ago," Dr. Ehdaie said in a press release, "you could think of focal therapy as a ‘male lumpectomy.’ Instead of removing all the tissue in a breast or prostate, we have learned that it is safe and effective to treat specific areas and greatly reduce the burden on patients.”<br /><br />When prostate cancer is confined to the prostate, conventional treatment included active surveillance, surgery, and/or radiation. Each of which often results in urinary or sexual dysfunction.<br /><br />MR-guided focused ultrasound is an outpatient treatment that takes about two hours. Patients are given anesthesia and placed in an MRI machine that covers the lower half of the body. Using the image produced for guidance, the doctor delivers the focused ultrasound waves to the tumor, which heats the cancer cells to more than 158 degrees Fahrenheit, killing them.<br /><br />After the anesthesia wears off the patient can go home and return to normal activity immediately. In the study, none of the participants reported any urinary incontinence or experienced bowel problems. Most were able to achieve erections.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.mskcc.org/news/high-intensity-focused-ultrasound-hifu-can-control-prostate-cancer-fewer-side-effects" target="_blank">Read more ...</a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Sources: Memorial Sloan Kettering press release and June 14, 2022 <i><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(22)00251-0/fulltext" target="_blank">Lancet Oncology</a></i><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-48917572417045473862022-06-11T11:17:00.002-07:002022-06-11T11:23:20.064-07:00Rectal cancer trial achieves 100 percent response rate <div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.mskcc.org/videos/meet-four-patients-who-were-successfully-treated-rectal-cancer-thanks-clinical-trial-involving-immunotherapy-msk" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="938" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-7CraFhZFRkf6mW9AOOGXETNh1pt9NdwJeRJAMKz1O6mjItmlQmC6eqQjMg1xvM5WkNC4IV1tsYhaT1l5oMdkFs9-lB7MOm7Rw9pXNqUzVnN7eOChDO_6j5Nf4n1U7qYTfkqs1ILbKIjy_IEtx0Xg10SCw20-Ve8Ml1ZvPMcvLhokXG--Z8UYyECqSQ/w482-h331/4MSK_patients.jpg" width="482" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.mskcc.org/videos/meet-four-patients-who-were-successfully-treated-rectal-cancer-thanks-clinical-trial-involving-immunotherapy-msk" target="_blank">Four of the first patients treated in the Memorial Sloan Kettering clinical trial</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://www.mskcc.org/videos/meet-four-patients-who-were-successfully-treated-rectal-cancer-thanks-clinical-trial-involving-immunotherapy-msk" target="_blank">for the treatment of rectal cancer. Image credit – MSK click to view video</a></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">CANCER DIGEST – June 11, 2022 – In a small clinical trial involving 12 patients with rectal cancer, all 12 experienced complete eradication of their cancer after receiving a new immunotherapy treatment, according the findings published in the June 5, 2022 <i><a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2201445?query=recirc_curatedRelated_article">New England Journal of Medicine</a>.<span><a name='more'></a></span></i><br /><br />In the trial, led by Drs. Andrea Cercek and Luis Diaz, Jr. at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 12 patients were selected for the study because of a specific genetic abnormality called mismatch repair-deficiency (MMRd). This particular mutation occurs in between 5 percent and 10 percent of all rectal cancer patients.<br /><br />“An MMRd tumor develops a defect in its ability to repair certain types of mutations that occur in cells," Dr. Diaz said in a press release. He heads the MSK division of Solid Tumor Oncology and holds the Grayer Family Chair. "When those mutations accumulate in the tumor, they stimulate the immune system, which attacks the mutation-ridden cancer cells."<br /><br />Nevertheless, cancer has a trick to stop the immune system from attacking the tumor. Immune system cells have safety switches, called checkpoints that prevent them from attacking normal cells. Cancer cells have the ability to flip that switch to shut down the immune cells.<br /><br />The new drug used in this trial is called dostarlimab (Jemperli®), which is FDA approved for the treatment of endometrial cancer. It is specifically designed to target MMRd cancer cells to turn the checkpoint back on, allowing the immune cells to attack them. <br /><br />The standard approach to treating rectal cancer is to administer chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the tumor as much as possible followed by surgery to remove any remaining cancer. The trouble with that approach is it leaves the patient with bowel and bladder dysfunction as well as incontinence, infertility and sometimes with sexual dysfunction.<br /><br />Drs. Diaz and Cercek decided to try using immunotherapy first to shrink the tumor completely and then monitor closely for any recurrence. To further increase the odds of success, they chose a subset of patients whose stage 2 or 3 rectal cancers specifically had the MMRd mutation. Patients were treated with intravenous dostarlimab every three weeks for six months.<br /><br />Using MRI, endoscopy and other imaging tests to monitor for recurrence they found that the tumors shrank much more rapidly than anticipated.<br /><br />“My research nurse Jenna Sinopoli would tell me, ‘The patient has only received one treatment and already they’re not bleeding anymore and their terrible pain has gone away.’ ” Dr. Cercek said in a press release. “Patients came to my office after just two or three treatments and said, ‘This is incredible. I feel normal again.’ ”<br /><br />In patient after patient the complete response was repeated in all 12 patients initially enrolled, and now in two more who have enrolled. So far, none of the patients have needed surgery or any additional treatment, and there has been no recurrence of the cancer in follow ups ranging from six months to more than two years.<br /><br />The clinical trial is continuing and Dr. Cercek and Diaz are asking for rectal cancer patients to get tested for MMRd and if they are positive, to have their physicians contact them regardless of cancer stage at 833-647-7597.</span>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-91184529490396870302022-06-04T07:05:00.000-07:002022-06-04T07:05:06.276-07:00Counting cancerous lymph nodes could better predict survival<script>
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</script><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Illu_lymph_chain03.jpg?20061229194406" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="300" height="273" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Illu_lymph_chain03.jpg?20061229194406" width="380" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Counting the number of lymph nodes with cancer</div><div style="text-align: left;">could be key indicator of survival </div><div style="text-align: left;">Image credit SEER via Wikimedia Commons</div></td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – June 4, 2022 – The number of cancerous lymph nodes is a best predictor of survival for 16 of the most common types of solid tumor cancers, a new analysis shows. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The researchers also found that patient mortality risk increased steadily with increasing number of cancerous lymph nodes.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The study co-led by Zachary Zumsteg, MD and Anthony Nguyen, MD, PhD at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center analyzed the outcomes of 1.3 million patients from the National Cancer Database diagnosed between 2004 and 2015 together with an additional 2 million patients from the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry. Their study appears in the March 21, 2022 <i>J<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jnci/djac059/6551282?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">ournal of the National Cancer Insititute.</a></i><br /><br />Often a cancer patient’s prognosis, or chances of survival, is both the patient’s most urgent question for their oncologist, and the key to deciding on a course of treatment after diagnosis. Determining a patient’s prognosis has been a complicated process of examining multiple factors including lymph node involvement and staging, but lymph node staging has been highly variable, depending on the site of the primary tumor.<br /><br />Because staging helps determine which treatments patients receive, getting it right should be consistent, accurate and universal, which is not always the case. For that reason Nguyen and Zumsteg decided to try to find a simpler, more reliable way to "get it right" when it comes to patient prognosis.<br /><br />They asked if simply counting the number of cancerous lymph nodes might be the easiest, more accurate process they were looking for. To test their hypothesis, they did an analysis of data already collected on more than 3 million patients, whose diagnosis and outcomes had been recorded in two national databases. <br /><br />What they found validated their thinking. The more cancerous lymph nodes the poorer the outcome, and it didn’t matter whether it was breast cancer or lung cancer or any other of the 16 most common solid tumor cancers they analyzed.<br /><br />The finding could change the process of staging a patient’s cancer, and make determining a course of treatment more consistent across a variety of cancer diagnoses.<br /><br />“These findings are significant because they can potentially improve and simplify how most solid cancers are staged,” said study co-author Nguyen in a press release. "Lymph node counting is possible in virtually all medical settings, including resource-poor countries, without increased cost to the provider or patient. It also is objective and concrete—almost all pathologists can look at lymph nodes and agree about how many are cancerous.”<br /><br />While the study’s findings are promising, the researchers only focused on survival, and a patient's chances of recurrence and cancer spread are also important factors to consider in treatment decisions. The pair will next look into whether higher positive lymph node counts will also be a predictor of more recurrence and spread to distant sites.</span></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-46016726350535394332022-05-28T09:58:00.004-07:002022-05-29T06:33:10.737-07:00Combination therapy boosts prostate cancer survival <span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXqTjWvumajsEt5XLSDTRHlMUsT5kKnN5Do5QwmzjSH9Lu3Ik12xwJJUqncyXn-eEvrzOrQgmtMO2XuP3YILMuidiJdR7kop_FXCYCNTdrXJR1_D94iQ0XrW-UCmLCZ5QaRVPdQZnUT_Q-x4ZA4FkpwiJ8aTA8ze0RiKp4rksDY-IWawVZt-_QI_NSrg/s760/Pelvic%20Lymph%20nodes%20_Sam%20Webster%202022.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="760" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXqTjWvumajsEt5XLSDTRHlMUsT5kKnN5Do5QwmzjSH9Lu3Ik12xwJJUqncyXn-eEvrzOrQgmtMO2XuP3YILMuidiJdR7kop_FXCYCNTdrXJR1_D94iQ0XrW-UCmLCZ5QaRVPdQZnUT_Q-x4ZA4FkpwiJ8aTA8ze0RiKp4rksDY-IWawVZt-_QI_NSrg/w324-h271/Pelvic%20Lymph%20nodes%20_Sam%20Webster%202022.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Some pelvic lymph nodes shown here in green.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> – Illustration credit <a href="https://samwebster.net/" target="_blank">Sam Webster</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span>CANCER DIGEST – May 28, 2022 – Combining hormone suppression therapy with lymph node radiotherapy after the prostate has been removed, expanded the number of men who had no progression of their prostate cancer after five years, according to a May 14, 2022 study in </span><i><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01790-6/fulltext">The Lancet</a>.<span><a name='more'></a></span></i></div><i><span></span></i><br />In a clinical trial that could change standard practice, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles led by Howard Sandler, MD, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, reported that prostate cancer patients who had radiation therapy to the area of the removed prostate, androgen deprivation therapy, and pelvic lymph node radiation had a median five-year survival of 87 percent. <br /><br />That compared to 71 percent of men who underwent standard radiation to the prostate area after removal of the prostate, and to the 81 percent 5-year survival of a third group that had received a combination of androgen deprivation therapy in addition to radiation therapy to the area of the removed prostate.<br /><br />“We can now confirm that pelvic lymph node treatment used together with androgen deprivation therapy, or even used as a stand-alone treatment option, greatly improves outcomes in patients with postoperative prostate cancer,” Sandler said in a press release. “These findings are an encouraging step forward, both for the medical community and for the patients and their loved ones seeking curative treatment options.”<br /><br />The clinical trial conducted at 283 cancer centers in the US, Canada, and Israel involved 1,792 men who had undergone surgery to remove the prostate and had persistently detectable PSA or had initially undetectable PSA that had risen to between 0.1 and 0.2. PSA measures the level of a protein produced by the prostate in the blood. After surgery to remove the prostate that level should be near zero. When the PSA rises years after surgery it is an indication that further radiation therapy is needed.<br /><br />The men in the trial were randomly assigned to three different treatment regimens. Group 1 received radiation to the area of the removed prostate. Group 2 received that same radiation plus androgen deprivation therapy, a treatment that suppresses levels of certain hormones, including testosterone that stimulate cancer growth. The third group received the standard radiation plus radiation therapy to the lymph nodes in the pelvic region and androgen deprivation therapy.<br /><br />After five years 1,716 participants could be analyzed, and 71 percent of the men in Group 1 had a median progression-free survival of 5 years. Half had longer progression-free survival and half had less than five years. In Group 2, 81 percent survived progression free and in Group 3, 87 percent remained progression free for 5 years. <br /><br />The researchers concluded that adding short-term hormone suppression to radiation therapy to the prostate bed and the lymph nodes results in meaningful reductions in disease progression after prostatectomy.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/new-combined-therapy-helps-extend-lives-of-men-with-prostate-cancer/">Read more…</a></div><br /><br />Sources: Cedars Sinai <a href="https://www.cedars-sinai.org/newsroom/new-combined-therapy-helps-extend-lives-of-men-with-prostate-cancer/">press release</a> and the journal <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01790-6/fulltext"><i>The Lancet</i></a></span><script>
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</script><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-64157464659455536792022-05-25T06:54:00.000-07:002022-05-25T06:54:23.905-07:00Breast cancer drug found to halt brain tumor recurrence<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/09/Tumor-351x185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="351" height="185" src="https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/09/Tumor-351x185.jpg" width="351" /></a></div>CANCER DIGEST – May 25, 2022 – Researchers have identified a drug that slows the growth of the most aggressive types of brain tumors in both mouse models and in off-label use in patients who had no other treatment options, suggesting clinical trials should be considered for the drug. </span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In addition, the researchers have discovered a better way to analyze such tumors to more precisely identify which of these types of tumors will respond to the drug.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br />The drug is called abemaciclib, (Verzenio®), which is currently used in combination with aromatase inhibitors for the treatment of hormone sensitive breast cancers. The research co-led by Stephen Magill, MD, PhD at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, and Abrar Choudhury, PhD, at the University of California San Francisco was published May 9, 2022 in the journal <i><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01061-8">Nature Genetics</a>.</i><br /><br />In animal models, select patients and cell cultures, the investigators discovered that meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, could be classified into molecular subgroups by clinical outcomes and recurrence rates. Meningiomas are the most common primary tumors in the brain and central nervous system with nearly 31,000 people in the use diagnosed in the US every year. <br /><br />In the study, the researchers analyzed the genetic makeup of the tumors resulting in three separate groups based on biology. They found that aggressive tumors have multiple molecular changes in a common cell division pathway, which enables the cells to come back after surgery.<br /><br />They then looked for medications that would block that cell division pathway. In mouse models and in patients who had no other treatment options, they found that abemaciclib was effective in blocking that aggressive cell division pathway. Using the new classification method the researchers were able to more accurately predict which tumors were most likely to respond to the drug. <br /><br />The next step is to validate these findings in additional patients to determine whether their tumor classification methods can be applied to a broader range of patients. <br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/05/recurring-brain-tumor-growth-is-halted-with-new-drug/"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Read more …</span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br />Sources: Northwestern Medicine <a href="https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/05/recurring-brain-tumor-growth-is-halted-with-new-drug/">News Center</a><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5069576482311215603.post-73562398514535201212022-05-14T11:05:00.008-07:002022-05-14T11:05:57.874-07:00New drug approved for treatment of lymphoma subtype<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBstXBHz_SXOSTnesFBW4_aCfUtpnO8U_dOcM1fwhqyJMQXh0-Qipy8-JqstH0rQi39uHaEp5YPoVLgTeWR_y-CIsKZYCdbDUriXUFD9tcGmwgT2MqdWtRTntpLQfGOlf2NmsEwFHgef7zI_NlKacjm389kvYnClTeBxQrRLBX5aiAJbtIJ9Tb5KYB0A/s1000/Lymphoma_NCI_2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="1000" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBstXBHz_SXOSTnesFBW4_aCfUtpnO8U_dOcM1fwhqyJMQXh0-Qipy8-JqstH0rQi39uHaEp5YPoVLgTeWR_y-CIsKZYCdbDUriXUFD9tcGmwgT2MqdWtRTntpLQfGOlf2NmsEwFHgef7zI_NlKacjm389kvYnClTeBxQrRLBX5aiAJbtIJ9Tb5KYB0A/w400-h290/Lymphoma_NCI_2022.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Image credit – National Cancer Institute</td></tr></tbody></table>CANCER DIGEST – May 14, 2022 – The FDA has granted provisional approval for a new drug to treat a form of slow-growing cancer called marginal zone lymphoma. The approval is based on early results of a small clinical trial and a secondary study.<br /><br />The drug, zanubrutinib, belongs to a new class of drug that blocks a certain enzyme that plays a crucial role in allowing the cancer to survive and grow. The results of the early clinical trial led by Tycel Phillips, MD, of the University of Michigan appear in the April 7, 2022 journal <i><a href="https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/doi/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021006083/484634/Zanubrutinib-monotherapy-in-relapsed-refractory">Blood Advances</a>.<span><a name='more'></a></span></i><br /><br />Marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) is a group of slow growing non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas, which account for approximately eight percent of all NHL cases. The average age at diagnosis is 60 years, and it is slightly more common in women than in men, and has few treatment options.<br /><br />These lymphomas are called marginal zone according to the area of the immune system the cancer started. The largest group of these cancers start outside the lymph nodes and are centered in the stomach, small intestine, salivary glands, thyroid, eyes and lungs, according to the <a href="https://lymphoma.org/aboutlymphoma/nhl/mzl/">Lymphoma Research Foundation.</a><br /><br />In the early clinical trial, 16 of 20 patients with MZL had their cancers shrink and 5 of the 20 had a complete response, meaning the cancer disappeared. Progression-free survival, meaning the period of time cancer had not grown had not been reached after a median of 33.8 months. <br /><br />In 33 patients with a similar type of cancer, called follicular lymphoma, imaging after treatment showed no sign of cancer in 18 percent of them.<br /><br />“Treatment options with improved tolerability and better disease control were much needed for marginal zone lymphoma and follicular lymphoma,” said <a href="https://www.uofmhealth.org/profile/3018/tycel-jovelle-phillips-md">Phillips, M.D.</a> in a press release. He is a hematologist at the Rogel Cancer Center. “While the small size of this study limits broad conclusions, the safety and efficacy results highlight the potential for zanubrutinib as an addition to available therapies for these cancers.”<br /><br />Given the limited treatment options for marginal zone lymphoma that has returned or proven resistant to other treatments, and based on the results of this research and a secondary study named <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03846427">MAGNOLIA</a>, the Food and Drug Administration approved zanubrutinib on a contingent basis. Full approval will be based on larger clinical trials.</span><script>
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</script><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Dr. Phillips receives consulting fees from BeiGene, Ltd., the manufacturer of the drug studied in this clinical trial.</span><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-notes/early-study-finds-new-lymphoma-drug-effective" target="_blank">Read more ...</a></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sources: <a href="https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-notes/early-study-finds-new-lymphoma-drug-effective" target="_blank">Michigan Health Lab news</a>,<i><a href="https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/doi/10.1182/bloodadvances.2021006083/484634/Zanubrutinib-monotherapy-in-relapsed-refractory" target="_blank"> Blood Advances</a></i>, and <a href="https://lymphoma.org/aboutlymphoma/nhl/mzl/" target="_blank">Lymphoma Research Foundation</a></span></div>Medical Digest Publicationshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00463721708558629724noreply@blogger.com0