Study explores power of digital storytelling on childhood cancer patients

It is an ancient art that, in this digital age of computers, cameras and cellphones, takes on an entirely new and compelling form — the art of telling stories. And while a component of weaving a tale has often included some element of learning, a new study conducted by Catherine Laing, assistant nursing professor, will hopefully take it a bit further. Laing will look at the therapeutic value of digital storytelling on young people affected by cancer and on the health-care professionals who care for them. “Although there is widespread anecdotal evidence about the benefits of digital storytelling, to the best of my knowledge, there is no research about its efficacy or therapeutic value — especially in childhood cancer patients and survivors,” Laing says. “This study will answer that.” Read more here.

MASCC/ISOO Annual Meeting, June 25-27, 2015

Being held in Copenhagen, Denmark, the MASCC/ISOO 2015 Annual Meeting will spotlight excellent science and cutting edge research aimed at enhancing the lives of people coping with cancer. In a few short years, MASCC/ISOO annual meetings have developed a reputation for providing the most current data and innovative techniques with regards to how best minimize therapy-induced side effects and complications associated with cancer. Read more here.

Health community welcomes Skin Cancer Prevention Act as vital law to protect youth

The health community is applauding the Alberta government’s decision to introduce legislation that will ban youth under the age of 18 from accessing tanning equipment. This much-anticipated new law will regulate the indoor tanning industry to address the significant cancer risk that tanning beds pose to young people. “Too many Alberta teens are put at a significantly higher risk of developing melanoma — the deadliest form of skin cancer — by using indoor tanning equipment,” says Sarah Hawkins of the Canadian Cancer Society. “We applaud the Alberta government for introducing Bill 22 and believe this legislation is an important step to protect youth from the harms of indoor tanning. We encourage the government to pass and proclaim this legislation without delay.” Read more here.

Society urges Canada to follow the lead of Great Britain and others on tobacco plain packaging

The British House of Commons has approved final regulations for plain packaging for tobacco products. The law will come into force on May 20, 2016. With plain packaging, all tobacco company logos, colours, graphics and promotional features are banned but health warnings remain. “Canada should follow the lead of Australia, Britain, Ireland and other countries and implement plain packaging as soon as possible,” says Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society. “Plain packaging is a key measure to reduce smoking and to protect kids from the tobacco industry. The Canadian Cancer Society has for years urged plain packaging requirements.” Read more here.

Measuring treatment response proves to be a powerful tool for guiding leukemia treatment

Measuring the concentration of leukemia cells in patient bone marrow during the first 46 days of chemotherapy should help boost survival of young leukemia patients by better matching patients with the right intensity of chemotherapy. The findings stem from a study of 498 children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) enrolled in a St. Jude-led protocol between 2000 and 2007. The clinical trial was the first to use measurement of residual leukemia cells - or minimal residual disease (MRD) - in bone marrow to help guide therapy. Read more here.

Kidney cancer detected early with urine test

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a noninvasive method to screen for kidney cancer that involves measuring the presence of proteins in the urine. The researchers found that the protein biomarkers were more than 95 percent accurate in identifying early-stage kidney cancers. In addition, there were no false positives caused by non-cancerous kidney disease. Read more here.

Scientists trace genomic evolution of high-risk leukemia

By genomic sequencing of leukemia cells from relapsed patients at different stages, scientists have discovered key details of how acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells mutate to survive chemotherapy. These mutations enable the cells to proliferate, causing relapse and often death. The researchers said their findings will lead to new tests to monitor children in remission and to detect signs of relapse. Read more here.

Indicators related to lung cancer recurrence, metastases and survival can inform treatment of patients

A new study describes prognostic factors for lung cancer spread and recurrence, as well as subsequent risk of death from the disease. The researchers estimated risks of metastasis and recurrence for surgically-treated (stage IA-IIIA) and non-surgically treated patients (stage IIIB-IV). The investigators observed that regardless of cancer stage, grade, or type of lung cancer, patients in the study were more likely to have distant metastasis than local recurrence. The experts noted that their estimates are likely applicable to the general population. Read more here.

Smoking may be linked to prostate cancer's return

A new study conducted at the University Hospital in Basel Switzerland indicates that smoking doubles the recurrence of prostate cancer after surgery.  According to lead author Dr. Malte Rieken, the study of 7,200 men, followed over a 28-month period shows that "current smokers and patients who had only quit smoking within the previous 10 years were about twice as likely to have their cancer return as those who never smoked."

Click here to read more about this study, presented on March 21, 2015 at the European Association of Urology annual meeting in Madrid, Spain.

Doctors say women with aytpia or DCIS should seek second opinions after breast biopsies

The accuracy of breast biopsy diagnoses has not been well studied, but it is a critical element in treating women with breast disease appropriately. This work takes a new approach to informing what is known about the over- and under-interpretation for breast cancer and benign breast disease, and identifies the greatest clinical challenge for accurate interpretation. This study involved 115 participating pathologists from 8 states, providing a total of 6,900 breast pathology interpretations. The overall concordance rate was 75.3%, with a rate of 96% for biopsies with invasive carcinoma. The concordance rate for atypia was just 48%, and it was 84% for DCIS. Read more here.

Study suggests precision medicine for adrenal cancer

A new international study gives a glimmer of hope for personalizing treatment for one of the most rare and aggressive forms of cancer. In a randomized phase 3 trial, adrenal cancer patients receiving the investigational drug linsitinib fared no better than patients receiving a placebo. But the researchers noticed a small subset of patients who had significant response and remained on the drug for an extended time. “While it was only a small subset of patients who responded to linsitinib, this remains very promising in the era of precision medicine,” says co-principle investigator Gary D. Hammer, M.D., Ph.D., Millie Schembechler Professor of Adrenal Cancer at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Read more here.

Does aspirin prevent colorectal cancer? Depends on your DNA

A new study by public health researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has discovered that the benefits of using aspirin and NSAIDs like ibuprofen to cut colorectal cancer risk actually hinge on a person’s particular DNA. The researchers compared genetic and lifestyle data from 8,624 people who developed colorectal cancer with that of 8,553 people who did not (both groups were matched by age and gender) and found some intriguing differences. “People with different genetic backgrounds, even if they’re exposed to the same thing like NSAID use, will react differently with the same exposure,” said Fred Hutch co-author Dr. Li Hsu. Read more here.

Scientists discover how to change human leukemia cells into harmless immune cells

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that when a certain aggressive leukemia is causing havoc in the body, the solution may be to force the cancer cells to grow up and behave. After a chance observation in the lab, the researchers found a method that can cause dangerous leukemia cells to mature into harmless immune cells known as macrophages. Read more here.

When cancer cells stop acting like cancer

Cancer cells crowded tightly together suddenly surrender their desire to spread, and this change of heart is related to a cellular pathway that controls organ size. These two stunning observations are reported by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "What we really need in cancer treatment is a way to stop cancer from growing in the organ it has spread to, and we have discovered a mechanism that seems to do that," says the study's senior investigator, Anton Wellstein, MD, PhD, a professor of oncology and pharmacology at Georgetown Lombardi. Read more here.

Aspirin users with common genes may get less colon cancer: study

Researchers have identified common genetic traits that may explain how aspirin can help protect against colon cancer. The researchers pooled genetic and lifestyle data from 10 studies involving more than 17,000 people, about half had colon or rectal cancer. Overall, frequent aspirin use reduced chances of developing colo-rectal cancer by an average of about 30 per cent, compared with nonusers. The studies used different definitions of frequent use, but in most it was at least twice weekly for more than a month. Read more here.

Breast biopsy accuracy varies, especially with pre-cancer conditions: study

Biopsy specialists frequently misdiagnose breast tissue, potentially leading to too-aggressive treatment for some women and under-treatment for others, a study suggests. The results indicate that pathologists are very good at determining when invasive cancer is present in breast tissue, but less adept at making the right diagnosis with less serious conditions or when biopsied tissue is normal. The study involved 115 U.S. pathologists and 240 breast biopsy specimens. Read more here.

Tetanus shot may help boost brain cancer survival

A study conducted at the Duke Cancer Institute indicates that adding a tetanus short to another vaccine as a treatment option for glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer, can have a profound effect on increasing a patient's life span.  According to study author Kristen Batich, a dual medical-doctoral degree student at Duke University, the average survival period for a gliobastoma patient is 12 to 15 months; the addition of the tetanus shot caused patients to live "years longer than expected."  While the Duke University study was conducted on a small scale, the findings put new forms of therapy into perspective.

To read more about this study, click here

'Super seniors' study hopes to identify genes that resist cancer

500 "super seniors" have been selected to take part in a new study funded by the Canadian Cancer Society. Researchers plan to analyze the genetic factors that have helped the seniors live cancer-free into their 80s, 90s and beyond. Angela Brooks-Wilson, lead investigator and professor at Simon Fraser University, says the super seniors involved in the study could be "genetically protected" from "cancer-causing mutations." Read more here.

FDA approves first therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma

On 10 March 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dinutuximab (Unituxin) as part of first-line therapy for paediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Read more here.

Hippo ‘crosstalk’ may be vital to tumor suppression

Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered new information about a key pathway known as Hippo, a metaphoric name referencing its link to tissue “overgrowth.” The Hippo pathway has been shown to regulate cell death and cell growth, thus playing a role in the development or prevention of tumors. Junjie Chen, Ph.D., chair of Experimental Radiation Oncology, has revealed that the Hippo pathway can be manipulated to regulate the fuel, or glucose, that feeds all cells including those in tumors, thus presenting a potentially new avenue for cancer therapy. Read more here.

Innovative light therapy reaches deep tumors

Using a mouse model of cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have devised a way to apply light-based therapy to deep tissues never before accessible. Instead of shining an outside light, they delivered light directly to tumor cells, along with a photosensitive source of free radicals that can be activated by the light to destroy cancer. Read more here.

FDA approves first biosimilar product in the USA

On 6 March 2015 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved filgrastim-sndz (Zarxio), the first biosimilar product approved in the United States.

Sandoz Inc.’s Zarxio is biosimilar to Amgen Inc.’s Neupogen (filgrastim), which was originally licensed in 1991. Zarxio is approved for the same indications as Neupogen, and can be prescribed by a health care professional for:

• patients with cancer receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy;
• patients with acute myeloid leukaemia receiving induction or consolidation chemotherapy;
• patients with cancer undergoing bone marrow transplantation;
• patients undergoing autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell collection and therapy; and
• patients with severe chronic neutropenia.

Read more here.

Researchers map "genomic landscape" of childhood adrenocortical tumors for the first time

In an advance that could lead to better identification of malignant pediatric adrenocortical tumors, and ultimately to better treatment, researchers have mapped the “genomic landscape” of these rare childhood tumors. Their genomic mapping has revealed unprecedented details, not only of the aberrant genetic and chromosomal changes that drive the cancer, but the sequence of those changes that trigger it. The study was led by Raul Ribeiro, M.D., Jinghui Zhang, Ph.D., and Gerard Zambetti, Ph.D., all members respectively, of the Departments of Oncology, Computational Biology and Pathology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Read more here.

Chromosomal rearrangement is the key to progress against aggressive infant leukemia

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital—Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project reports that a highly aggressive form of leukemia in infants has surprisingly few mutations beyond the chromosomal rearrangement that affects the MLL gene. The findings suggest that targeting the alteration is likely the key to improved survival. The study is the most comprehensive analysis yet of this rare but aggressive subtype of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that occurs during the first year of life and is sometimes diagnosed at birth. Read more here.

Annual report on progress against cancer from ASCO

Now in its 10th year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO’s) report, “Clinical Cancer Advances 2015: An Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer,” for the first time identifies ASCO’s Advance of the Year. Other new features in this special anniversary issue include: A Decade in Review, which recounts the biggest changes in cancer care since this report’s introduction; The 10-Year Horizon, which previews trends likely to shape the next decade of cancer care; and a special series of research, which highlights exciting new leads for treatment of rare cancers. In keeping with this report’s tradition, ASCO also explores the clinical advances of the prior year that stand to make the biggest impact on improving cancer prevention, treatment, and care. Read the full report here.

European Medicines Agency recommends a variation to the terms of the marketing authorisation for panitumumab

The change concerns first-line combination treatment with FOLIFIRI.

• On 26 February 2015, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion recommending a variation to the terms of the marketing authorisation for the medicinal product panitumumab (Vectibix).  Read more here.

US women's awareness of breast density varies

Researchers conducted a national cross-sectional survey of 2,311 women ages 40 to 74 in English and Spanish. The survey response rate was 65 percent. Overall, more than half of women who responded (58 percent) had heard of breast density, 49 percent were aware that breast density affects breast cancer detection and 53 percent knew that breast density is associated with cancer risk. Read more here.

New nanodevice defeats drug resistance

Chemotherapy often shrinks tumors at first, but as cancer cells become resistant to drug treatment, tumors can grow back. A new nanodevice developed by MIT researchers can help overcome that by first blocking the gene that confers drug resistance, then launching a new chemotherapy attack against the disarmed tumors. The device, which consists of gold nanoparticles embedded in a hydrogel that can be injected or implanted at a tumor site, could also be used more broadly to disrupt any gene involved in cancer. Read more here.

MD Anderson study shows why some brain cancers resist treatment

Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center may have discovered why some brain cancer patients develop resistance to standard treatments including radiation and the chemotherapy agent temozolomide. “A major obstacle to effective treatment is acquired resistance to treatment,” said Wei Zhang, Ph.D., professor of Pathology. “Enhanced DNA repair can allow these cancer cells to survive, contributing to resistance and tumor recurrence. We have identified Aktr3 as having the ability to robustly stimulate glioma progression.” Read more here.

MASCC Comes to Australia: announcing Adelaide as host city to the MASCC Symposium, 2016

The MASCC/ISOO (Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer) Annual Meeting on Supportive Care in Cancer is designed to educate and inform an international audience of healthcare professionals on ways to minimize symptoms and complications associated with cancer as well as therapy-induced side effects. This meeting is intended for physicians, nurses, dentists, oral surgeons, dental hygienists, pharmacists, social workers, nutritionists, and other healthcare providers involved in the care of cancer patients. Read Professor Ian Olver (CEO, Cancer Council Australia) and Professor Dorothy Keefe (Service Director, South Australia Cancer Service) comments on holding the 2016 MASCC Symposium in Adelaide here.

Canada reports first-ever cancer stage data

The need for reliable pan-Canadian data on cancer stage was recognized more than 25 years ago. Data for at least 90% of Canadians diagnosed with breast, colorectal, prostate or lung cancers (2010 diagnosis year) in nine provinces are now available. This is the result of the Partnership’s investment in the National Staging Initiative and the efforts of our partners in the cancer control community. This report provides a first look at how these efforts can help us better understand cancer system performance and quality.

Read the full report, Cancer stage in performance measurement: a first look: a system performance spotlight report, here.

Society study looking at the role of avoidable cancer risk factors

A new study, funded by the Canadian Cancer Society, will for the first time determine the most comprehensive estimates of how many cancer cases could be avoided if Canadians improve their lifestyles and reduce their exposure to environmental carcinogens. When complete, this new study will provide the most comprehensive and accurate breakdown of cancer risk factors across the country. This information can then be used to promote the creation of the most effective and targeted programs and policies to reduce our risk of developing cancer. Read more here.