Adding a personalized vaccine to immunotherapy reduces recurrence in melanoma

Treatment vaccines can help the immune system learn to 

recognize and react to antigens and destroy cancer cells 

that contain them. Credit: NCI and Victor Segura Ibarra and Rita Serda

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.

Chemo before and after surgery boosts survival in pancreatic cancer patients

Image credit University of Colorado news

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 JAMA Oncology 

Parkinson's drug may substantially reduce chemo side effects

Left shows mouse kidney cells and the right shows
these same kidney cells after cisplatin treatment
revealing they are full of adenosine (red).
Image credit: Geoffroy Laumet

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.

The international research study conducted in mice was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation published online Nov. 15, 2022. It showed that the drug istradefylline can reduce the side effects of cisplatin while preserving its cancer-fighting properties.

CT screening for early lung cancer leads to long-term survival

Axial CT images of pulmonary nodules.
(A) Malignant nodule. (B) Benign nodule.
Image credit – RSNA

CANCER DIGEST – Nov. 27, 2022 – A new study shows that early detection of lung cancer with CT scanning dramatically increases long-term survival.

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.

New immunotherapy approach promises to improve cancer outcomes

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 The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI). 

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.

Metastasis-directed therapy may prolong progression-free survival

Image credit National Cancer Institute

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 The Journal of Urology.

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. 

Adding drug to androgen suppression boosts progression-free survival

Image credit CDC

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 Molecular Therapy.

The small trial conducted at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center in Los Angeles involved giving the 9 patients the monoclonal antibody immunotherapy drug, carotuximab.

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.

Cancer deaths continue to decline

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.

“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. 

Chemical hair straighteners linked to higher risk of uterine cancer

Credit – Sisters Study Facebook page

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.

Clinical trial matching tool shortened time to consent by 55 days

Image credit – MatchMiner 

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.

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.

Immunotherapy before targeted therapy boosts melanoma survival

Metastatic melanoma cells (Image: NCI Center for Cancer Research Creator: Julio C. Valencia)

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.

Ultra-processed foods linked to colorectal cancer risk in men

Photo credit – Wolfman via Creative Commons

CANCER DIGEST – Sept. 25, 2022 – Men who consumed large amounts of ultra-processed foods had a 29 percent higher risk of colorectal cancer than men who consumed less of such foods while the same correlation was not found in women, a new study shows.

Ultra-processed foods include convenience pre-cooked and instant meals that are also high in added sugars and low in fiber and tend to contribute to weight gain and obesity. These foods include such ready-to-eat products like sausage, bacon, ham, fish cakes.

Advanced cervical cancer rising fastest among White women in the South

HPV vaccination can prevent cervical cancer. CDC data shows vaccination rates by geographical region – source US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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 International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.

Older age, smoking and obesity raise cancer risk by as much as 29 percent

Photo credit – American Cancer Society

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.

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 Cancer.

Common type of starch may reduce certain cancers

Resistant starch as found in unripe bananas may protect against some
types of cancers

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. 

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. 

Adding an immunotherapy drug may boost survival in Hodgkin Lymphoma patients

Hodgkin lymphoma cells. Image Credit – Seagen (formerly Seattle Genetics)

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.

New research shows higher colorectal cancer deaths among young in NE Great Lakes region

New research from the Cleveland Clinic shows newly identified hotspots (red circles)
young-onset colorectal cancer – Image credit Cleveland Clinic

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.

Blood test can predict liver cancer in NAFLD patients

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 Science Translational Medicine.

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.

HIFU shown to offer effective control of intermediate prostate cancer

Using ultrasound wand inserted in the rectum, the doctor directs HIFU energy
to the prostate tumor to ablate or kill it. Image credit – SonaCare Sonablate

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 Lancet Oncology.

Rectal cancer trial achieves 100 percent response rate

Four of the first patients treated in the Memorial Sloan Kettering clinical trial

for the treatment of rectal cancer. Image credit – MSK click to view video

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 New England Journal of Medicine.

Counting cancerous lymph nodes could better predict survival

Counting the number of lymph nodes with cancer

could be key indicator of survival 

Image credit SEER via Wikimedia Commons

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. 

The researchers also found that patient mortality risk increased steadily with increasing number of cancerous lymph nodes.

Combination therapy boosts prostate cancer survival

Some pelvic lymph nodes shown here in green.

 – Illustration credit Sam Webster

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 The Lancet.

Breast cancer drug found to halt brain tumor recurrence

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. 

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.

New drug approved for treatment of lymphoma subtype

Image credit – National Cancer Institute

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.

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 Blood Advances.

Handheld device accurately scans for skin cancer

Image of cancer from millimeter-wave device courtesy Stevens Institute of 

Technology

CANCER DIGEST – May 7, 2022 – When a crewmember of the Starship Enterprise became ill, Dr. McCoy would wave a wand-like device over the patient’s body and read the diagnosis. Now, researchers have developed a similar device that can detect skin cancer.

Researchers boost effectiveness of CAR T therapy for AML

CANCER DIGEST – May 2, 2022 – Researchers at Massachusetts General Cancer Center have developed a new strategy for making CAR T therapy more effective against the most common form of leukemia in adults.

Less prostate cancer cancer screening cuts over treatment in half

Missed aggressive cases rise slightly

CANCER DIGEST – April 23, 2022 – The incidence of the lowest-risk prostate cancer was cut in half following implementation of new guidelines in 2018, according to a new analysis of cancer data.

The results published in the March 28, 2022 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, showed that only 10 percent of radical prostatectomy specimens were found to be low-grade cancers, showing that

Researchers think they now know how exercise reduces bowel cancer risk

CANCER DIGEST – April 9, 2022 – It has long been known that exercise reduces the risk of colorectal cancer, but the biological mechanism for how it does that has been unknown, until now. 

Researchers at Newcastle University in the UK believe they have identified the exercise-released substance that affects cancer. Their study first appeared online Feb. 25, 2022 in the International Journal of Cancer.

Half of all women have false positive mammograms after 10 years of annual screening

Photo credit UC Davis Health

CANCER DIGEST – April 2, 2022 – Half of women who have an annual mammogram will experience a false positive result over 10 years of screening, according to a new analysis of breast cancer screening data published in the March 25, 2022 journal JAMA Network.

FDA approves new immunotherapy treatment for advanced melanoma

Photo credit – Oregon Health Sciences University
Fritz Liedtke

CANCER DIGEST – March 25, 2022 – There’s new hope for patients with an aggressive form of skin cancer that can’t be treated with surgery. 

The FDA approved a new treatment regimen that combines two immunotherapy drugs that significantly extends progression-free survival.

The FDA approval follows the results of the RELATIVITY-047 clinical trial that involved 714 patients with advance, previously untreated melanoma. 

Patients were randomly assigned to receive the combination therapy of relatlimab and nivolumab or nivolumab alone. Results of the trial were published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Jan. 6, 2022.

At one year after starting the trial, 48 percent of those in the combination therapy survived with the cancer not processing, called progression-free survival. That compared to 37 percent of the nivolumab group surviving that long without cancer progression. 

Could hydroxychloroquine make chemotherapy more effective in certain cancers?

Image credit – National Institutes of Health

CANCER DIGEST – March 19, 2022 – While it might not be an effective COVID-19 treatment, a new study suggests that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine might make a common chemotherapy treatment more effective for head and neck cancers.

Thrust into the headlines at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential treatment promoted by the former president of the US, hydroxychloroquine has been shown to breakdown tumor resistance to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, long used to treat a variety of cancers, including head and neck cancers.

Tweaking cancer drug to target iron boosts effectiveness and reduces toxicity

A microscopic image of KRAS-driven lung cancer (purple) in a
mouse model. Image credit – National Cancer Institute

CANCER DIGEST – March 11, 2022 – By tweaking an already FDA-approved cancer drug, researchers at the University of California San Francisco have opened up new therapies for cancers with a specific mutation that are particularly difficult to treat. The study appears in the March 9, 2022 Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Implantable beads produce cancer-killing drug to eradicate tumors

Rice University bioengineers Amanda Nash (left) and Omid Veiseh with vials of
bead-like “drug factories.” Photo credit – Rice University Media

CANCER DIGEST – March 5, 2022 – Implantable 'mini drug factories' have been shown to eliminate tumors in animal models. However, because the materials and the drug used are already FDA approved, the Rice University researchers hope to be able to begin human clinical trials later this year.

Vegan diet appears to lower cancer risk

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 25, 2022 – Vegetarians who eat no meat have a 14 percent lower risk of cancer compared to people who eat meat more than five times per week, according to a large observational study published Feb. 24, 2022 in the journal BMC Medicine.

Led by Cody Watling, a team of Oxford University researchers surveyed 472,377 British adults were participants in the UK Biobank, a large long-term study in the United Kingdom that is investigating genetic and environmental factors in the development of disease.

Participants who were between 40 and 70 years old were asked about their diets, specifically their consumption of meat and fish. After accounting for health conditions like diabetes, lifestyle, and socioeconomic factors the researchers calculated the incidence of cancer over an 11 year period.

New combination therapy shows promise for advanced ovarian cancer

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 19, 2022 – Ovarian cancer patients whose tumors have recurred or resisted standard chemotherapy treatments showed promising response to a new combination regimen using ixabepilone (Ixempra®) and bevicizumab (Avastin®), results of an early clinical trial show.

Ovarian cancer continues to be one of the most lethal gynecologic cancers with 5-year survival rates ranging from 31 percent to 93 percent depending on type and stage of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. However, the cancer often recurs and becomes resistant to current taxane-based treatments. Such drugs like Paclitaxil block cell growth by interfering with cell division.

Cancer patients under treatment more susceptible to Covid misinformation

Photo credit – Virginia Commonwealth University

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 12, 2022 – Cancer patients actively undergoing treatment were more likely to believe misinformation related to Covid-19 than cancer survivors or people with no cancer history, a new study shows.

Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University led by Jeanine Guidry, PhD, director of the Media and Health Lab in the Cancer Prevention and Control research program conducted an online survey of 897 adults between June 1 and June 15, 2020.

Melanoma drug shows promise for treating rare form of ovarian cancer

Photo credit – MD Anderson Cancer Center

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 4, 2022 – A drug used to treat skin and lung cancers reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 52 percent compared to current therapies for a rare form of ovarian cancer, a new study shows.

Immunotherapy before surgery may reduce liver cancer recurrence

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 22, 2022 – Giving liver cancer patient immunotherapy before surgery substantially reduced liver tumors in a third of those treated, a new study shows.

Researchers at Mount Sinai’s Tisch Cancer Institute in New York reported the results of a small phase 2 trial in the January 2022 journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 

The results showed that the immunotherapy killed not only more of the tumor but microscopic cancer cells that likely would have been missed by surgery, and would potentially cause the tumor to regrow and spread.

Dr. Thomas Marron, lead author and director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at the Tisch Cancer Institute said the results hold implications for other types of cancers, not just liver cancer in terms of administering immunotherapy before or after surgery.

Study shows AI can help improve prostate cancer diagnoses

Diagram showing a transperineal prostate biopsy
– Credit Cancer Research UK via Wikipedia

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 16, 2021 – A major international collaboration validating artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnosing and grading prostate cancer has shown results researchers say suggest that AI systems are ready to be used as a complementary tool in prostate cancer care. The study was published in the Jan. 13, 2022 Nature Medicine.

Led by researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, a group of more than 1000 AI experts engaged in a competition to test AI algorithms for accurately grading prostate cancer. 

High fiber diet may boost effects of ICB therapy for melanoma patients

Photo credit National Institutes of Health

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 8, 2022 – In an unusual study involving humans and mice, researchers have found that a high fiber diet may improve the treatment of melanoma.

AIDS drugs may be useful in treating low-grade brain tumors

Photo Credit Plymouth University

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 1, 2022 – Drugs already approved to treat HIV/AIDS may be effective in blocking common forms of brain tumors from developing into cancer, new research shows.

A study led by Drs. Sylwia Ammoun and Rober Belshaw at the Brain Tumor Research Centre at the University of Plymouth found that specific sections of DNA that contain genes that produce proteins, called HERV-K, that play a key role in tumor development. The results were published in the December 2021 journal Cancer Research.