Hematology News and Research

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Hematology, also spelled haematology, is the branch of biology (physiology), pathology, clinical laboratory, internal medicine, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases. Hematology includes the study of etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and prevention of blood diseases.

Etanercept and chemo might reduce fatigue in cancer patients

Researchers here have found evidence that combining a drug typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis with chemotherapy might help reduce fatigue and muscle wasting that often afflicts cancer patients.

3 May 2006

New drug may revolutionize how chronic iron overload is treated in chronic anemia patients

Those with severe chronic anemias need frequent blood transfusions to remain healthy, but such frequent transfusions can cause a potentially deadly buildup of iron in the body, leading to heart and liver failure. The traditional treatment to remove excess iron is so onerous that many patients choose to forgo it, putting their own lives at risk. The results of an international study on deferasirox, a new drug that may revolutionize the way chronic iron overload is treated, will be published in the May 1, 2006, issue of Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

26 Apr 2006

St. Jude develop relatively simple and inexpensive test for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have developed a relatively simple and inexpensive test that identifies children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who have responded well enough to their first round of chemotherapy that they might be successfully treated with a much less aggressive follow-up treatment.

3 Apr 2006

Trial of paclitaxel with or without bevacizumab as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer

Results from a large, randomised clinical trial for patients with breast cancer show that those who received bevacizumab (Avastin.) in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol.) survived without the disease getting worse for almost twice as long as patients who received paclitaxel alone.

23 Mar 2006

Capsaicin drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves

Capsaicin, the stuff that turns up the heat in jalapeqos, not only causes the tongue to burn, it also drives prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, according to studies published in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research.

15 Mar 2006

Decitabine improves myelodysplastic syndrome treatment

A potent member of a new class of drugs increases survival in some patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and may become the new standard of therapy for this group of pre-cancer disorders

14 Mar 2006

Test for LDH enzyme may help determine risk factors in sickle cell disease

Researchers have found that a simple test for an enzyme called LDH may have significant importance for determining major risk factors in adults with sickle cell disease.

9 Mar 2006

FDA grants priority review for Revlimid

Celgene Corporation announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a Priority Review designation to its Supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for REVLIMID (lenalidomide) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

6 Mar 2006

Combination therapy improves Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome-Related Lymphoma outcome

Combining aggressive HIV therapy and chemotherapy significantly improves the survival rates of HIV-positive men and women treated for lymphoma, according to a new study.

27 Feb 2006

FOLFOX now treatment standard for colorectal cancer in the United States

One of the newest and most potent chemotherapies for colon cancer is as safe and effective for the elderly as it is for younger patients, based on a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-led data review.

16 Feb 2006

Rituximab maintenance therapy dramatically improves survival for patients with lymphoma

Two years of maintenance therapy with rituximab dramatically improves the chances of survival for patients suffering from one of the most frequent forms of lymphoma, indolent non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL).

14 Feb 2006

Monotherapy phase I clinical trials of novel cytotoxics, targeted therapeutics, antimetastatic agents/angiogenesis inhibitors, and immunotherapeutics/vaccines

Numerous novel oncology agents are currently in phase I monotherapy trials. New Medicine's Oncology KnowledgeBASE (nm|OK) has updated the records of 92 such agents with preclinical or clinical results reported during the 2005 meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

7 Feb 2006

Administering stem cells to patients with myocardial infarction leads to a reduction of the size of the infarct

This week, doctors at the Catholic University of Leuven, connected with the University Hospital - Gasthuisberg, the Stem Cell Institute Leuven (SCIL), and the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), are publishing a major breakthrough in the treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

9 Jan 2006

Oncologist should be the primary decision maker in some pediatric cancer situations

The oncologist should be the primary decision maker in some pediatric cancer situations, say researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston in an article appearing today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

29 Dec 2005

Children could be saved from neuroblastoma using antibody therapy

Combination of T cell, antibody to neuroblastoma cells and molecule that spurs T cell growth is designed to treat low initial tumor levels or small cancer cell populations that survive initial treatment, according to St. Jude.

22 Dec 2005

New strategies required to get blacks and Asians to participate in cancer trials

The better informed people are about cancer clinical trials, the more likely they are overall to consider participating in a trial, according to a UC Davis study published in today's issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. However, knowing about cancer clinical trials does not appear to increase participation among black and Asian Americans.

21 Dec 2005

AMN107 drug shows promise in leukemia resistance to Gleevec

The targeted agent AMN107 can produce dramatic benefits in patients with some forms of leukemia that are resistant to Gleevec, the standard therapy for these cancers, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

13 Dec 2005

New treatment for chronic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Data from a Phase II study of eltrombopag, an oral investigational drug that increases the production of platelets, demonstrate that the compound was effective in increasing platelet counts in patients with chronic Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a disorder characterized by episodes of frequent spontaneous bruising, mucosal bleeding, and in severe cases intracranial hemorrhage, and acute episodes of severe bleeding.

12 Dec 2005

Newly identified protein may help improve treatment for lung cancer

Researchers hope that a newly identified protein can one day help improve treatment for lung cancer. The findings are reported by researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

21 Nov 2005

Unique approach to enhance the immune system in patients with breast or colorectal cancer

The study uses a potent immune-enhancing gene delivered directly into the cancer cells to make them look foreign to the body's immune system, which will then attack and destroy the cancer.

1 Nov 2005