Risk of developing endocrinopathy determined in children and young adults after radiotherapy for brain tumours

A recently published study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology reports on the association between radiotherapy dosage for brain tumours in children and young adults and the risk of developing endocrine dysfunction.  Following the analysis of 222 patients between 1 month-26 years of age, it was determined that "patients between 6 and 10 years of age had a higher rate of endocrinopathy than patients less than 6 years old at treatment outset; patients 10 years of age or older shows the lowest incidence of hormone deficiency."


To read more about this study, click here.


Study mentioned: Vatner RE, Niemierko A, Misra M, et al. Endocrine Deficiency as a Function of Radiation Dose to the Hypothalamus and Pituitary in Pediatric and Young Adult Patients With Brain Tumors. J Clin Oncol; Published online 17 August 2018. DOI:  10.1200/JCO.2018.78.1492

Altering chemotherapy improves outcomes in early-stage pancreatic cancer

The outlook for people diagnosed with early-stage pancreatic cancer can be expected to improve due to the results from two clinical trials. In the first trial, changing the type of chemotherapy given after surgery from a single drug to a multi-drug regimen greatly improved how long patients lived. Patients in the trial treated with the multi-drug regimen survived for an average of 4.5 years after treatment, substantially longer than expected.

To read more about the clinical trials, click here.

Dabrafenib–Trametinib combination approved for melanoma, anaplastic thyroid cancer

The use of two targeted drugs, dabrafenib (Tafinlar) and trametinib (Mekinist), has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of two different cancers. As of May 4th, the drug combination can be used to treat some patients with advanced melanoma and anaplastic thyroid cancer (an aggressive and rare form of thyroid cancer).

To read more about the drug approval, click here.

Overdiagnosis is a major driver of the thyroid cancer epidemic

18 August 2016 – A new report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in collaboration with the Aviano National Cancer Institute in Italy shows that the growing epidemic of thyroid cancer reported in recent decades in several high-income countries is largely due to overdiagnosis (i.e. the diagnosis of tumours that are very unlikely to cause symptoms or death during a person’s lifetime).

The article, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, used high-quality cancer registry data from IARC’s reference publication Cancer Incidence in Five Continents to estimate the number of overdiagnosed cases of thyroid cancer in 12 countries (Australia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, Scotland, Sweden, and the USA).

Full report is here.

Study mentioned:
Worldwide Thyroid-Cancer Epidemic? The Increasing Impact of Overdiagnosis

Analysis of rare endocrine cancer reveals novel genetic alterations

May 8, 2016 - In the most comprehensive molecular characterization to date of adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare cancer of the adrenal cortex, researchers extensively analyzed 91 cases for alterations in the tumor genomes. They identified several novel genetic mutations as likely mechanisms driving the disease. They also found that whole genome doubling, wherein a cell has one or more extra sets of chromosomes, as a probable driver of the disease. Read more here.

Mentioned study: Thomas J. Giordano, Roel G.W. Verhaak Comprehensive Pan-Genomic Characterization of Adrenocortical Carcinoma Cancer Cell 29(5) p723–736, 9 May 2016

European Medicines Agency recommends granting marketing authorisation for cinacalcet mylan

On 24 September 2015, the European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorisation for the medicinal product cinacalcet (Cinacalcet Mylan), intended for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism and reduction of hypercalcaemia in patients with parathyroid carcinoma. 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.

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.

More than 300 million people in at least 70 countries use smokeless tobacco

The first-ever report on the global use and public health impact of smokeless tobacco finds that more than 300 million people in at least 70 countries use these harmful products. The report, Smokeless Tobacco and Public Health: A Global Perspective, was released by the CDC and the National Cancer Institute at the National Conference on Smoking or Health in Mumbai, India. Thirty-two leading experts from around the world contributed to the report. The serious health effects of smokeless tobacco have been documented. As the report explains, there is sufficient evidence to conclude that smokeless tobacco causes oral cancer, esophageal cancer, and pancreatic cancer in humans. Read more here.

Read the full report here.

Radiation exposure linked to aggressive thryoid cancers

For the first time, researchers have found that exposure to radioactive iodine is associated with more aggressive forms of thyroid cancer, according to a careful study of nearly 12,000 people in Belarus who were exposed when they were children or adolescents to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Researchers examined thyroid cancers diagnosed up to two decades after the Chernobyl accident and found that higher thyroid radiation doses estimated from measurements taken shortly after the accident were associated with more aggressive tumor features. Read more here.

TCGA study improves understanding of genetic drivers of thyroid cancer

A comprehensive analysis of the genomes of nearly 500 papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) – the most common form of thyroid cancer – has provided new insights into the roles of frequently mutated cancer genes and other genomic alterations that drive disease development.

Investigators with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network identified new molecular subtypes that will help clinicians determine which tumors are more aggressive and which are more likely to respond to certain treatments.

The researchers, led by Thomas Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Gad Getz, Ph.D., Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported their results online October 23, 2014, in Cell.

View the full news here.