Oncology News and Research

RSS

Oncology, meaning bulk, mass, or tumor, and the suffix ''-logy'', meaning "study of") is a branch of medicine that deals with tumors (cancer). A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''.

Nurse safety measures around highly toxic drugs needed

Nearly 17 percent of nurses who work in outpatient chemotherapy infusion centers reported being exposed on their skin or eyes to the toxic drugs they deliver, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

22 Aug 2011

Risk of Parkinson's disease increases with traumatic brain injury and exposure to pesticide paraquat

Traumatic brain injury has entered the public's consciousness as the silent, signature wound brought back by many of our military warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. But such injuries don't only happen in warfare, they happen to civilians too. Think car crashes, a slip and fall, two football players colliding helmet to helmet.

22 Aug 2011

Johns Hopkins establishes Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine with Commonwealth Foundation gift

A $30 million gift from the Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research has enabled the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center to establish a Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine. The gift from the Richmond, VA- based foundation, will be used to support research and the development of new technologies that pinpoint the novel genetic characteristics of each patient's cancer.

22 Aug 2011

Modified Ecstasy could be effective against cancer: Study

Researchers from Birmingham University have designed a drug similar to the illicit drug Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) that could be used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma after making it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth.

22 Aug 2011

Wistar Institute, Graham Cancer Center enter research collaboration

Christiana Care Health System's Helen F. Graham Cancer Center and The Wistar Institute, an international leader in biomedical research, have entered into an historic partnership to collaborate on translational cancer research with the aim of bringing the latest discoveries in cancer research to cancer patients in the community.

20 Aug 2011

FDA approves Seattle Genetics ADCETRIS drug to treat Hodgkin lymphoma, ALCL

Seattle Genetics, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval of ADCETRISTM for two indications: (1) the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant or after failure of at least two prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimens in patients who are not ASCT candidates, and (2) the treatment of patients with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma after failure of at least one prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimen.

20 Aug 2011

Seattle Genetics receives FDA approval for Adcetris to treat Hodgkin lymphoma, ALCL

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Adcetris to treat Hodgkin lymphoma and a rare lymphoma known as systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

20 Aug 2011

Medicinal Genomics sequences entire genomes of two therapeutic Cannabis strains

Medicinal Genomics, a private company headquartered in Marblehead, Mass., USA and the Netherlands, announced today that it has sequenced the entire genomes of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica, representing two strains of the therapeutic plant.

19 Aug 2011

Amgen to present data from several Prolia studies at ASBMR 2011 meeting

Amgen today announced that it will present data from several Prolia (denosumab) studies, including eight year efficacy and safety data from a Phase 2 extension study in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis with low bone mineral density (BMD), at the 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif. from Sept. 16-20, 2011.

19 Aug 2011

Women being screened too often for cervical cancer

Researchers based at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that many primary care doctors would bring women back for cancer screening annually - while recommendations generally call for a three-year wait after normal tests. This translates to higher costs to women and the healthcare system, as well as a risk of unnecessary treatment for false-positive test results - with very little additional cancer-catching benefit say experts. Lead author Katherine Roland said, “There's really no advantage to annual screening compared to screening every two or three years.”

18 Aug 2011

EMA accepts Merck and ARIAD's MAA for ridaforolimus to treat metastatic bone sarcomas

Merck, known outside the United States and Canada as MSD, and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has completed its administrative validation process for the regulatory application for ridaforolimus, an investigational oral mTOR inhibitor developed for the treatment of metastatic soft-tissue or bone sarcomas in patients who had a favorable response to chemotherapy.

18 Aug 2011

Herbal supplements may weaken the effect of chemotherapy drugs

Acai berry, cumin, herbal tea, turmeric and long-term use of garlic - all herbal supplements commonly believed to be beneficial to your health - may negatively impact chemotherapy treatment according to a new report presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago this summer.

18 Aug 2011

Advanced ROS selects RayStation for conventional 3D-CRT treatments

RaySearch Laboratories AB has received an order for its RayStation treatment planning system from Advanced Radiation Oncology Services in Nyack, New York.

18 Aug 2011

FDA approves Zelboraf (vemurafenib) for advanced skin cancer

A new drug was approved for advanced skin cancer this Wednesday by U.S. regulators, offering the first new treatment for melanoma in 13 years.

18 Aug 2011

Endo terminates collaboration and axomadol development program with Grunenthal

Endo Pharmaceuticals announced today that it is terminating its research program and collaboration related to the development of axomadol.

18 Aug 2011

EMA accepts Pfizer's regulatory submissions of two investigational cancer drugs for review

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted Pfizer's regulatory submissions for review of two investigational compounds - crizotinib, an oral first-in-class anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, for the treatment of patients with previously treated ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and bosutinib for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the chronic phase.

18 Aug 2011

Neoprobe sells gamma detection device business to Devicor

Neoprobe Corporation, a diversified developer of innovative oncology surgical and diagnostic products, announced today that it completed the previously announced sale of its neoprobe GDS line of gamma detection device systems to Devicor Medical Products, Inc. for $30 million in upfront consideration, plus up to an additional $20 million in royalties based on Devicor's achievement of certain revenue milestones.

18 Aug 2011

Syndax receives European patent allowance for entinostat to treat metastatic breast cancer

Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage epigenetics oncology company, today announced allowance by the European Patent Office for the patent application titled "N-(2-AMINOPHENYL)-4[N-(PYRIDINE-3-YL) - METHOXYCARBONYL - AMINOMETHYL]-BENZAMINE (MS-275) POLYMORPH B."

18 Aug 2011

Enrollment commences in Allos' FOLOTYN Phase 3 trial for peripheral T-cell lymphoma

Allos Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the enrollment of the first patient in a Phase 3 randomized clinical trial (PDX-017) evaluating FOLOTYN in patients with previously undiagnosed peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

18 Aug 2011

Radioiodine being overused in thyroid cancer: Study

According to the latest research the use of radioactive iodine to treat thyroid cancer increased 40 percent from 1990 to 2008 even though the risks may outweigh the benefits for some patients, particularly those with early-stage tumors.

17 Aug 2011