Promising new drug for relapsed AML

Bone marrow aspirate showing
acute myeloid leukemia, arrows
indicate Auer rods – Wikipedia

CANCER DIGEST – June 24, 2017 – Researchers have found a drug that inhibits a particular mutation in a deadly form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with promise of producing longer survival.

The sub-type of AML has a mutation in a gene called FLT3, found in about 30 percent of patients’ leukemia cells.

Drug Improves overall survival in older patients with thyroid cancer

Illustration courtesy of Cancer Research UK

CANCER DIGEST – June 17, 2017 – A drug used to treat thyroid cancer that is resistant to standard therapy has been shown to increase survival in older patients, according to researchers.

Most cases of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) are successfully treated with radioiodine therapy. The thyroid absorbs nearly all of the iodine in the human body, consequently, patients with DTC are given radioactive iodine, which concentrates in thyroid cancer cells, killing them with little effect on the rest of the body. The treatment can be curative, but about 15 percent of DTC patients have cancers that are resistant to the therapy.

No survival benefit from surgery for advanced breast cancer

CANCER DIGEST – June 10, 2017 – A new Austrian study could change treatment for women diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer that has spread throughout the body.

Based on several analyses of past studies, current therapy starts with surgery to remove the main breast tumors followed by chemotherapy to try to kill the remaining tumors dispersed throughout the body, or hormone therapy to block or prevent hormones from feeding further tumor growth, called hormone therapy.