Vincristine News and Research

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Vincristine is the active ingredient in a drug used to treat acute leukemia. It is used in combination with other drugs to treat Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, and Wilms tumor. Vincristine is also being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer. It blocks cell growth by stopping cell division. It is a type of vinca alkaloid and a type of antimitotic agent.

Obesity can increase cancer incidence in leukemic children

Obesity is an important factor contributing to chemotherapy resistance and increasing relapse rates among children with leukemia, according to recent findings published online first in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

23 Sep 2009

Genentech releases Phase III PRIMA study findings

Genentech, Inc., a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group and Biogen Idec, today announced that a Phase III study (PRIMA) showed that patients with follicular lymphoma who continued receiving Rituxan (rituximab) alone after responding to Rituxan and chemotherapy lived longer without their disease worsening (progression-free survival or PFS) than those who did not continue to receive Rituxan.

17 Sep 2009

Genentech and Biogen Idec submit applications to FDA for Rituxan in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Genentech, Inc. and Biogen Idec today announced that the companies submitted two supplemental Biologics License Applications (sBLAs) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Rituxan (rituximab) plus standard chemotherapy for people with previously untreated or treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

20 May 2009

Blocking the dual leucine zipper kinase gene may help ease painful nerve condition

Scientists have identified the first gene that pulls the plug on ailing nerve cell branches from within the nerve cell, possibly helping to trigger the painful condition known as neuropathy.

15 Mar 2009

Study of Rituxan (rituximab) in lupus nephritis misses primary endpoint

Genentech, Inc. and Biogen Idec has announced that a Phase III study of Rituxan (rituximab) plus mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and corticosteroids in patients with lupus nephritis did not meet its primary endpoint of significantly reducing disease activity at 52 weeks.

11 Mar 2009

Rituximab useful for advanced indolent lymphoma

A new study has found for the first time that maintenance therapy with the novel antibody, rituximab (MR) following cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone (CVP) therapy improves progression-free survival in patients with stage III-IV indolent lymphoma, according to Howard S. Hochster, M.D. of NYU Langone Medical Center, lead author of a recent study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

11 Mar 2009

Rituxan in combination with chemo improves survival in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Genentech, Inc. and Biogen Idec have announced that two global Phase III studies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), CLL8 and REACH, showed Rituxan (rituximab) plus chemotherapy significantly increased the time patients lived without their disease advancing, as defined by the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS), when compared to chemotherapy alone.

8 Dec 2008

Vitamin C supplements appear to undercut the effectiveness of cancer drugs

A new study by scientists in the United States has revealed that vitamin C may blunt the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment.

1 Oct 2008

New hope for children with bilateral Wilms tumors

Physicians at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated that children with bilateral Wilms tumor, a cancer of the kidneys, can retain normal function in both kidneys by undergoing a procedure called bilateral nephron-sparing surgery, even when preoperative scans suggest that the tumors are inoperable.

25 Mar 2008

Cannabis compound may stop breast cancer spreading

American researchers have found that a compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body.

20 Nov 2007

Medical College of Wisconsin receives grant to study infantile hemangiomas

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee a three-year, $1 million Orphan Products Development grant to study infantile hemangiomas – a vascular tumor of the skin or internal organs.

25 Oct 2007

New chemotherapy regimen prolongs survival in difficult-to-treat childhood brainstem gliomas

Childhood brainstem gliomas (BSGs) are rare but can be very difficult to treat successfully and they tend to have poor survival rates.

26 Sep 2007

New hope for common form of childhood cancer

Dr. Richard Lock, Head of the Leukaemia Biology Program at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, Sydney, along with collaborators from the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California, USA, recently published their findings in the prestigious scientific journal Blood.

23 Jul 2007

New hope for childhood cancer sufferers

Scientists investigating drug therapies for children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) have presented new data demonstrating for the very first time that a small molecule called ABT-737 can increase the effectiveness of standard therapies.

17 Jul 2007

Novel cellular mechanism that may guide cell movement and possibly cancer cell invasion

Scientists have long thought that microtubules, part of the microscopic scaffolding that the cell uses to move things around in order to hold its shape and divide, originated from a tiny structure near the nucleus, called the centrosome.

23 Jun 2007

Adding radioimmunotherapy to chemo may help patients with lymphoma

Patients treated for follicular lymphoma, a slow-growing type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, may benefit from chemotherapy followed by radioimmunotherapy, according to a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago and published as Abstract 8005 in the ASCO proceedings.

5 Jun 2007

New chemical agent, MCP110, provides synergistic effect to standard drugs

Integrating the use of drugs targeted to specific cancer proteins into current chemotherapy regimens to improve the efficacy of systemic treatment is an important clinical goal at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

16 Apr 2007

New radiotherapy/chemotherapy strategy improves outcomes for children with medulloblastoma

Radiotherapy that is adapted for the severity of disease and followed by a shortened course of chemotherapy substantially improves the outcome of children with a type of brain tumour called medulloblastoma, claim investigators in an Online/Article in The Lancet Oncology.

7 Sep 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

New treatment advances for patients with follicular lymphoma

A newly published study recommends that doctors carefully choose their patients' initial therapies because there are significant differences in overall survival rates, according to researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.

20 Oct 2005