New treatment for GVHD could benefit some COVID-19 patients

Image credit – UC Davis Health

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 26, 2021 – New research shows promise of significantly limiting one of the most severe complications of stem cell transplants for cancer, called graft vs host disease.

Findings show more colorectal cancer patients may benefit from immunotherapy

RAS Mutations in green were found
to be immunotherapy sensitive

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 19, 2021 – More colorectal cancer patients may be eligible for immunotherapy than previously thought, a new study shows.

Colorectal patients with certain cancer promoting mutations currently are not offered targeted immunotherapy because their tumors have mutations thought to cause resistance to such drugs. 

New research however at the Salk Institute, led by Edward Stites, MD, challenges the blanket contraindication for these patients. The study was published Dec. 14, 2021 in the journal Cell Reports.

New treatment boosts survival in high-risk neuroblastoma

CANCER DIGEST – Dec. 11, 2021 – Using a modified monoclonal antibody in combination with immunotherapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and stem cell transplantation, improved survival by 20 percent in children with high-risk neuroblastoma, results of a small clinical trial show.

Neuroblastoma is a rare cancer of immature nerve cells and is diagnosed in about 700 people, mostly children under age 5, in the U.S. each year according to the American Cancer Society.

New biomarker could boost survival in 30 percent of brain cancer patients

MRI of glioblastoma – photo credit Wikipedia

CANCER DIGEST  – Dec. 4, 2021 –Clinical research is painstakingly incremental with many clinical trials that fail to show an overall advance in survival, but instead identify small subsets of patients who to gain a significant benefit from a particular therapeutic approach or a new drug.

In a recent clinical trial of immunotherapy for glioblastoma, the most common and deadly form of brain cancer, there was no overall survival benefit shown in the group of patients treated, however, the researchers found that a subset of the patients did show a strong response and long-term survival.