Trojan Horse targets metastatic cancer

Image credit: Pellecchia Lab, UC Riverside

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 24, 2018 – Researchers have developed a Trojan Horse that delivers anti-cancer drug to a metastatic cancer cell. If proven successful, it could be used to reduce or halt metastases, which is the leading cause of death in cancer.

Once cancer metastasizes, or spreads to other parts of the body, there is no current therapy that can target those traveling cancer cells, and chemotherapy is indiscriminate, destroying healthy as well as cancerous cells.

Accuracy of tests for predicting breast cancer recurrence vary significantly

Image courtesy Queen Mary
University of London

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 17, 2018 – Tests used to predict breast cancer recurrence vary significantly in accuracy according to the first side-by-side comparison of the four most common tests.

In a study published in the Feb. 15, 2018 journal JAMA Oncology researchers led by Ivana Sestak, PhD of the Centre for Cancer Prevention at Queen Mary University of London, compared the predictive performance of the four most widely used biomarker analysis tests: Oncotype DX, PAM50, Breast Cancer Index (BCI) and the EndoPredict (EPclin), which all work by looking at the levels of multiple genes related to breast cancer.

Imaging-first strategy effective for prostate cancer

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 9, 2018 – An advanced imaging technique is a cost-effective first test for the diagnosis of prostate cancer when followed by a combination imaging-guided biopsy say researchers.

The PROMIS study published in the January 2018 European Urology was designed to compare cost and effectiveness of three diagnostic strategies: transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUSB), template prostate mapping biopsy (TPMB), and multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer.