8 more cancers linked to excess weight

Copyright: Kurhan 

CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 31, 2016 – An international team of researchers has identified eight additional types of cancer linked to excess weight and obesity: stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, ovary, meningioma (a type of brain tumor), thyroid cancer and the blood cancer multiple myeloma.

The findings are based on a review of more than 1,000 studies of excess weight and cancer risk analyzed by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Cancer on Research (IARC), based in France.  The results of the analysis were published Aug. 25 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

New test may identify primary tumor

Epigenetic tests, such as the Epicup
may be used to identify primary
tumors.

CANCER DIGEST -- Aug. 26, 2016 -- In an article published in The Lancet Oncology, researchers at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ​​show that a newly-developed test, called an epigenetic test, can determine the tissue type of the primary tumor, which would allow doctors to develop more specific treatments for it.

In patients with cancer, initial diagnosis most often includes the detection of the primary or original tumor and the presence or absence of metastasis, or the spread of cancer cells from the original tumor that are growing in other tissues.

Early radiation therapy after prostatectomy may forestall cancer spread

CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 17, 2016 – The return of PSA after surgery to remove the prostate is a disconcerting finding for any patient who has undergone such surgery. What to do about it has been controversial among oncologists; should patients undergo immediate radiation therapy or wait and see if the presence of prostate specific antigen (PSA) rises.

A new study by researchers at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic and nine other institutions suggests that early radiation therapy in such cases reduces the chances that the PSA levels rise and the chance that the cancer will spread to another part of the body. The study was published online ahead of print in the Aug. 15, 2016 Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Venetoclax safe, shows promise for AML

CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 12, 2016 – In a small trial with 32 patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) that no longer responded to chemotherapy, four patients treated with a new drug achieved a complete response, meaning no sign of cancer, and six had no cancer cells present, but continued to have signs of the cancer in their blood.

That is enough of a response to the drug Venclexta (venetoclax) to give researchers hope of adding a new approach to treating acute myelogenous leukemia, a particularly deadly type of blood cancer in which only about 27 percent survive five years after diagnosis.

Patch eliminates colorectal cancer

Researchers at MIT are developing 

an adhesive patch that can stick to 

a tumor site, either before or after 

surgery. – Image courtesy IMES

CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 6, 2016 – One day your doctor may use a patch, much like nicotine patches used to help people stop smoking, to eradicate colon cancer and keep it from coming back, according to a report in the journal Nature Materials.

In an experiment done in mice, researchers at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, have shown that the patch, designed to deliver a triple combination of therapies, was effective whether the tumor was completely removed or not. By contrast, 40 percent of the mice with no patch applied after tumor removal, saw tumor recurrence.