Happy Holidays

Our library will be closed beginning at noon on Wednesday, December 24. We will re-open on Friday, January 2, 2015 at 0800 hrs. Postings will continue in the New Year.

Happy Holidays!

Bone drugs may protect against endometrial cancer

Bisphosphonates, which are drugs that treat bone loss, may lower the risk of endometrial cancer, new research suggests. The study found that women taking the drugs had about half the risk of endometrial cancer compared to women who don't take the drugs.

The study appears Dec. 22 in the journal Cancer. 

The study only found a connection between the bone-preserving medications and reduced risk of endometrial cancer. It did not prove cause-and-effect.

Study mentioned:

Cancer. 2014 Dec 22. Protective effect of bisphosphonates on endometrial cancer incidence in data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial.
Alford SH1, Rattan R, Buekers TE, Munkarah AR.

Researchers discover new genetic anomalies in lung cancer

Developing effective treatments for lung cancer has been challenging, in part because so many genetic mutations play a role in the disease. By analyzing the DNA and RNA of lung cancers, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that patients whose tumors contained a large number of gene fusions had worse outcomes than patients with fewer gene fusions. Read more here.

How does prostate cancer form?

Sirtuin enzymes have been implicated in neurodegeneration, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. Research published in The American Journal of Pathology shows the loss of one of sirtuin (SIRT1) drives the formation of early prostate cancer (prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia) in mouse models of the disease. "Using genetic deletion we found that SIRT1 normally restrains prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in animals. Therefore too little SIRT1 may be involved in the cellular processes that starts human prostate cancer," said Dr. Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, executive Vice President of Thomas Jefferson University and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. Read more here.

Lens-free microscope can detect cancer at the cellular level

UCLA researchers have developed a lens-free microscope that can be used to detect the presence of cancer or other cell-level abnormalities with the same accuracy as larger and more expensive optical microscopes. The invention could lead to less expensive and more portable technology for performing common examinations of tissue, blood and other biomedical specimens. It may prove especially useful in remote areas and in cases where large numbers of samples need to be examined quickly. Read more here.

Cells identified that enhance tumor growth and suppress anti-cancer immune attack

A study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists has identified the population of white blood cells that tumors use to enhance growth and suppress the disease-fighting immune system. The results, which appear in Immunity, mark a turning point in cancer immunology and provide the foundation for developing more effective immunotherapies. Working in the laboratory and in mouse models of cancer, researchers on this study showed immune suppression associated with myeloid-derived suppressor cells is primarily the work of a type of white blood cells called monocytes. Read more here.

Scientists look to 3-D printing to help treat cancer

British scientists have developed a new use for 3-D printing, putting it to work to create personalized replica models of cancerous parts of the body to allow doctors to target tumours more precisely. The initiative is the latest example of medicine harnessing the rapidly emerging technology, which has already been used to manufacture some medical implants. The new cancer work involves printing 3-D “phantoms” of tumours and organs based on CT scans taken of patients during treatment. These plastic moulds can be filled with liquid, allowing experts to see in detail the flow of so-called radiopharmaceuticals. Read more here.

FDA approves first in new class of drugs for advanced ovarian cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat advanced ovarian cancer, along with a test to identify patients eligible to receive the drug.
Lynparza (olaparib) belongs to a new class of drugs called poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors. The drug is for women who have already received extensive treatment for advanced ovarian cancer associated with defective BRCA genes, according to an FDA news release issued on December 19, 2014.

Approval of the AstraZeneca drug was based on a clinical trial of almost 140 women with BRCA mutation-associated ovarian cancer. Thirty-four percent of the patients on the drug had partial shrinkage or complete disappearance of their tumors for an average of eight months, the FDA reported.

SOURCE: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, news release, Dec. 19, 2014

Long noncoding RNAs: a novel prognostic marker in older patients with acute leukemia

A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute describes a novel marker that might help doctors choose the least toxic, most effective treatment for many older patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The researchers investigated patterns of molecules called long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). The researchers examined the abundance, or expression, of lncRNAs in patients who were 60 years and older and who had cytogenetically normal AML. Read more here.

Roswell Park study suggests additional applications for FL118 as personalized therapy for cancer

A team led by Fengzhi Li, PhD, and Xinjiang Wang, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute has reported new findings regarding therapeutic targets of the novel anticancer agent FL118. Previous studies from these researchers have showed that FL118 induces cancer cell death, or apoptosis, by inhibiting expression of multiple cell-survival proteins (survivin, Mcl-1, XIAP or cIAP2). Study results published in Cancer Research showed that FL118 can also activate the p53 tumor-suppressor pathway in cancer cells, encouraging cell senescence, or aging. Read more here.

Signaling mechanism could be target for survival, growth of tumor cells in brain cancer

UT Southwestern Medical Center neurology researchers have identified an important cell signaling mechanism that plays an important role in brain cancer and may provide a new therapeutic target. Researchers found that this mechanism -- a type of signaling termed constitutive or non-canonical epidermal growth factor receptor signaling -- is highly active in glioblastomas, the most common type of adult brain cancer and a devastating disease with a poor prognosis. When activated in cancer cells, it protects the tumor cells, making them more resistant to chemotherapy treatment. 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, is being released today 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. Read more and download the full report here.

Premenopausal women who received ovarian suppression treatment along with tamoxifen had a lower risk of breast cancer recurrence

A clinical trial sponsored and supported by NCI showed that suppressing ovarian function reduced breast cancer recurrence in premenopausal women receiving the drug tamoxifen after surgery for early-stage breast cancer. The trial, SOFT (Suppression of Ovarian Function Trial), used either monthly injections of the drug triptorelin, surgical removal of both ovaries, or radiation of the ovaries as methods of ovarian suppression in women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Read more here.

Adaptive pathways

Scientists argue that scientific and policy changes will make adaptive pathways the preferred approach to make new treatments available. A number of scientists, including members of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and its scientific Committees take this position in an article published in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

The concept of adaptive pathways foresees an early approval of a medicine for a restricted patient population based on small initial clinical studies. The first approval is followed by progressive adaptations of the marketing authorisation to expand access to the medicine to broader patient populations based on data gathered from its use and additional studies. Read more here.

Majority of women with early-stage breast cancer in U.S. receive unnecessarily long courses of radiation

Two-thirds of women treated for early-stage breast cancer in the U.S. receive longer radiation therapy than necessary, according to a new study from Penn Medicine researchers Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, and Justin E. Bekelman, MD. Their findings reveal that the vast majority of women after breast conserving surgery receive six to seven weeks of radiation therapy, despite multiple randomized trials and professional society guidelines showing that three weeks of radiation – called hypofractionated whole breast radiation – is just as clinically effective, more convenient, and less costly. Read more here.

New agent causes small cell lung tumors to shrink in pre-clinical testing

Small cell lung cancer has shown itself vulnerable to an agent that disables part of tumor cells’ basic survival machinery, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported. Investigators found that the agent THZ1 caused human-like small cell lung tumors in mice to shrink significantly, with no apparent side effects. The compound is now being developed into a drug for testing in human patients in clinical trials. Read more here.

Experience counts with radiation therapy for head and neck cancer

A recent study, led by researchers Evan Wuthrick, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), and Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the OSUCCC – James, compared survival and other outcomes in 470 patients treated with radiation therapy at 101 treatment centers through a clinical trial held from 2002 to 2005. The findings indicated that patients treated at the less-experienced centers were more likely to have cancer recurrence (62 percent versus 42 percent at five years) and had poorer overall survival compared with those at the highly-experienced centers (51 percent versus 69 percent five-year survival, respectively). Read more here.

NCCS Cancer Survival Toolbox - going fully digital

The award-winning Cancer Survival Toolbox®, a free audio program, is going fully digital. It was created by leading cancer organizations to help people develop skills to better meet and understand the challenges of their illness. The program contains a set of basic skills and special topics. Each scenario is inspired by true stories of real cancer patients. The Cancer Survival Toolbox is for people at any point in their care. It is used by patients, health care professionals, and by individuals or in support group settings. Read more and access the Toolbox here.

Agent prevents prostate cancer growth and spread in animal studies

Researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center have completed a critical step in the journey from a basic science discovery in the lab to a potential clinical application, showing that an experimental agent prevents tumor growth and spread in mice with prostate cancer harboring a common chromosomal abnormality. The scientists say the agent, YK-4-279, is the first drug targeted at the chromosomal translocations found in about half of prostate cancer cells. These translocations occur when two normal genes break off from a chromosome and fuse together in a new location. This so-called ETS fusion produces new genes that manufacture proteins, which then push prostate cancer cells to become more aggressive and spread. Read more here.

Older breast cancer patients still get radiation despite limited benefit

Women over the age of 70 who have certain early-stage breast cancers overwhelmingly receive radiation therapy despite published evidence that the treatment has limited benefit, researchers at Duke Medicine report. The study suggests that doctors and patients may find it difficult to withhold treatment previously considered standard of care, even in the setting of high quality data demonstrating that the advantages are small. Read more here.

Unprecedented benefit seen in worldwide test of a three-drug treatment for multiple myeloma

In the treatment of multiple myeloma, the addition of carfilzomib to a currently accepted two-drug combination produced significantly better results than using the two drugs alone, according to a worldwide research team led by investigators from Mayo Clinic. Interim analysis of the ASPIRE clinical trial, which enrolled 792 patients with relapsed multiple myeloma from 20 countries, found an “unprecedented” prolongation of the time patients were free of disease progression, says the study’s lead investigator, Keith Stewart, M.B., Ch.B, a Mayo Clinic oncologist in Arizona. Read more here.

Immunotherapy achieves breakthrough result in patients with Hodgkin lymphoma

A therapy that liberates the immune system to attack cancer cells drove Hodgkin lymphoma into complete or partial remission in fully 87 percent of patients with resistant forms of the disease who participated in an early-phase clinical trial, investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and partnering institutions report in a new study. The results provide some of the most dramatic evidence to date of the potential of therapies that increase the ability of the immune system to kill cancer cells. Read more here.

Narrow subset of cells is responsible for metastasis in multiple myeloma, study finds

Although it is among the most highly metastatic of all cancers, multiple myeloma is driven to spread by only a subset of the myeloma cells within a patient’s body, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found in a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology. The study suggests that attacking those subsets with targeted drugs may degrade the disease’s ability to spread throughout the bone marrow of affected patients. Read more here.

Laparoscopic electric morcellators - update on the risk of spread of unsuspected uterine cancer - notice to hospitals

Health Canada has issued a Notice to Hospitals about the use of laparoscopic electric morcellators during hysterectomy and myomectomy for presumed benign uterine fibroids. The Notice stated that the use of these devices, which allows for a minimally invasive surgical approach, may result in the spread and upstaging of occult uterine cancer, which cannot be reliably detected preoperatively. The frequency of unsuspected uterine cancer in women undergoing surgery for the removal of presumed benign fibroids has now been estimated to be in the range of 1-in-350, which is more prevalent than previously reported. Health Canada has reviewed the relevant clinical and scientific data pertaining to this medical safety issue. Based on the results of its review, Health Canada will be working with device manufacturers to revise the instructions for use of laparoscopic electric morcellators. Read more here.

Ceritinib in ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer

Ceritinib is a new oral highly potent and selective ALK inhibitor. Shaw et al, conducted a phase 1 study of Ceritinib to determine safety, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), pharmacokinetic properties and anti-tumour effects in patients with ALK-rearranged tumours. Read more here.

Adolescents and young adults with ALL benefit from paediatric protocols

Results from a large, prospective clinical trial add to mounting evidence that adolescent and young adult patients, aged 16 to 39 with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), tend to fare better when treated with high-intensity paediatric protocols than previous patients who were treated with standard adult regimens. Read more here.

Researchers identify how opium poppies synthesize promising new drug

After only four years of intensive research, scientists from the University of Calgary have identified a pathway of genes in opium poppies that underlies the synthesis of noscapine — a promising cancer-fighting agent and a cough suppressant used in many European countries. Researchers Peter Facchini, recent PhD graduate Thuy Dang, and postdoctoral fellow Xue Chen identified 10 of the 11 dedicated steps encoded by a cluster of genes that lead to noscapine biosynthesis. Their work adds to knowledge of how the opium poppy makes the compound noscapine. Read more here.

Study debunks link between HPV vaccination and early sex

Vaccinating young girls against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) doesn’t lead to an increase in risky sexual activity, a new study shows. Teen girls in the study who were vaccinated against HPV were no more likely to become pregnant or contract another sexually transmitted infection than girls who were not vaccinated, the researchers found. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all boys and girls receive three HPV shots, which protects against multiple strains of the virus, which can cause cervical, anal, penile and throat cancer. Read more here.

FDA approves blinatumomab to treat a rare form of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

The USA Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on 3 December, 2014 blinatumomab (Blincyto) to treat patients with Philadelphia chromosome-negative precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-cell ALL), an uncommon form of ALL. Read more here.

Smoking still causes large proportion of cancer deaths in the United States

A new American Cancer Society study finds that despite significant drops in smoking rates, cigarettes continue to cause about three in ten cancer deaths in the United States. The study, appearing in the Annals of Epidemiology, concludes that efforts to reduce smoking prevalence as rapidly as possible should be a top priority for the U.S. public health efforts to prevent cancer deaths. Read more here.