General Cancer Research
2010
Kansas Research Team Uses Particles to Battle Cancer
A team at Kansas State University is exploring the use of nano-particle induced hyperthermia to battle cancer cells in pre-clinical trials.
June 28, 2010
DA Developing Guidance on Rational Development of Combined Novel Drugs
FDA is developing guidances -both in general and for specific therapeutic areas- for co-development of investigational drugs intended to be used in combination.
FDA Pink Sheet.
June 14, 2010
bioMerieux and GlaxoSmithKlane Enter into Alliance to Develop Molecular Theranostic Test for Cancer Treatment Selection The two companies signed an agreement to develop a novel molecular test for cancer to aid oncologists in choosing the appropriate treatment for metastatic melanoma. May 11, 2010
Shutting Out Soft Tissue Cancers in the Cold
"Cryotherapy, an interventional radiology treatment to freeze cancer tumors, may become the treatment of the future for cancer that has metastasized in soft tissues
(such as ovarian cancer) and in bone tumors."
March 16, 2010
Warning Sign for Potential Anti-Cancer Approach
Protein "TLR7 stimulant imiquimod is used for the treatment of skin cancer and metastatic melanoma. However, new research ... suggests that such approaches should be developed with caution because stimulation of human lung cancer cells with TLR7 or TLR8 agonists increased tumor cell survival..."
March 8, 2010
Gene Test Aid to Cancer Treatment
To predict how well chemotherapy will work. "Starting with 829 genes in breast cancer cells, the team [Cancer Research UK] whittled down the possibilities to six genes which had an impact on whether a drug worked. They then showed that these genes could be used to predict the effectiveness of a drug called paclitaxel in patients." To try out in other cancers.
March 1, 2010
Cancer Detection Blood Test Hope
"Personalized blood tests which could track whether cancer treatment is working or if the disease has come back have been developed by US researchers."
February 19, 2010
2009
Annual Report: Cancer Death Rate Down; Increase in Certain Cancer Types
Continued decline in incidence and death rates for all cancers taken together. Authored by "researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)." But melanoma incidence rose for both men and women. Published online in Cancer.
December 7,2009
New Stem Cell Lines Open to Research
From NIH.
December 2, 2009
Morphine May Contribute to Spread of Tumors
"... [O]piate painkillers ... can promote cancer cell growth and have an inhibiting effect on the immune system.... If confirmed clinically, this [finding] could change how we do surgical anesthesia for our cancer patients."
November 22, 2009
Forty Years' War. A Place Where Cancer Is the Norm.
Patients (including three with advanced skin cancer) and physicians att;br />M. D. Anderson Cancer Center discuss treatment and life when therapy does not work or is experimental and uncertain. Issue being raised in oncology is whether patients know what they are getting into with aggressive treatment. On true cures, or "are we there yet?" a physician-patient replies, "Not even close."
October 25, 2009
Experimental Cancer Vaccine Goes into Clinical Trials
"Cornell University researchers have produced the first batch of a cancer vaccine known as NY-ESO-1 recombinant protein that will be used in clinical trials for patients facing either ovarian cancer or melanoma.... [I]t has been the central focus of a global network of laboratory and clinical scientists...."
September 1, 2009
New Technology to Mass Produce Artificial Skin Offers Hope for Burn Victims, Cancer Patients
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft science institute "created the technique to make the artificial skin, which is more affordable than similar ones in use now. It relies on computers that control the solution in which the skin grows.... 'Burn victims and skin cancer patients stand to benefit the most from the new skin,'" from Dr. M. Eidelman of Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Vincent's Medical Center.
July 16, 2009
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Rules Will Allow Financing for Old Stem Cell Lines
"The crucial test [for cell lines to be eligible for federally financed research] is whether the embryos used to create the stem cell lines were created for reproductive purposes, and whether donors freely consented for their use in research procedures.... The rules still forbid financing of research using stem cell lines from embryos created solely for research."
July 6, 2009
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Two Categories of Cancer Drugs?
Dr. J. L. Marshall speculates on video that drug trials might be more efficient if at the outset developers differentiated between two quite different drug types: those likely to help most patients, but only in a minor way, and those that will help only few, but in a major way.
February 6, 2009
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SNP Link to Several Cancers [but Protect Against Melanoma]
Iceland's K. Stefansson of deCODE and others of the international team "linked common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 5 to five different types of cancer while at the same time conferring protection against melanoma." TERT-CLPTM1L in the chromosome 5p15 region. In Nature Genetics.
January 28, 2009
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2008
Genomic Screen Captures Genes that Prevent Spread of Cancer
Dr. M. Green et al. of Howard Hughes Med. Inst. “developed a systematic method for screening the genomes of cancer cells to detect likely metastasis suppressors.” Tested method “in cell lines developed from mice with metastatic melanoma and identified 22 genes which, when ‘knocked down’ with RNA interference, allowed tumors to metastasize but had no effect on the growth of the original tumors.”
November 3, 2008
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In Long-Awaited Maps of Cancer, The Breakthrough Is the Problem
3 major studies. “… [T]he picture is enormously complicated. For example, scientists had expected to identify certain key genes that were frequently mutated. They found the opposite: a large number of mutated genes, but each mutated in a smaller fraction of the tumors.”
September 5, 2008
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Gene Trawl Shows Curing Cancer Harder than Thought
“The findings suggest that popular new targeted therapies may not work broadly, because they affect only one mutated gene, while cancer is caused by dozens. A better approach would be to find the pathways — networks of genes — that control a tumor's uncontrolled growth.”
September 4, 2008
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Genetic Mutations Linked to Deadly Cancers. Findings of 3 Studies Focus on Brain and Pancreatic Tumors.
“The findings suggest that most solid tumors, particularly those of the brain and pancreas, won't respond to treatments that target a single gene.”
September 4, 2008
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Numerous Undiscovered Gene Alterations in Pancreatic and Brain Cancers Detected
“The best hope for new therapies may lie in the discovery of agents that target the physiologic effects of the altered pathways and processes, rather than their individual genetic components."
September 4, 2008
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Trouble at the Office. Comprehensive Discussion of Issues Between Drug Companies and FDA on Clinical Trials and Criteria for Cancer Drugs
Importance of “surrogate endpoints” as alternatives to overall survival data. Some history on the failure of the FDA to approve Genasense for melanoma and the new current trial.
September 12, 2008
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