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.
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center investigators report that combination therapy with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone (combination is called Rev/Dex) looks like a breakthrough treatment for multiple myeloma. Results of a Phase II clinical trial were published online Aug. 23 in Blood.
Irradiation therapy for the brain cancer medulloblastoma is more likely to impair IQ and reading skills of younger children than older children even if the dose of radiation is reduced, according to the results of the largest study of its kind, conducted by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Texas Children's Cancer Center (Houston) and Royal Children's Hospital (Melbourne, Australia).
Vascular anomalies - birthmarks caused by abnormal development of arteries, capillaries, veins or lymph vessels - can sometimes begin to progress, requiring aggressive treatment to save the child's health or vision. Research at Children's Hospital Boston now suggests that urine testing can help monitor these anomalies and predict those about to become a serious threat.
When people hear "thalidomide," many think "birth defects," however, evidence has come to light that this once-banned drug can be used as a potent anti-cancer treatment.
The discovery of a specific pattern of gene expression linked to multiple-drug resistance of leukemic cells is giving researchers crucial information into why standard therapies fail to cure some children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This finding, from investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, could lead to development of drugs that would overcome that resistance.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital discovery of genetic links to multi-drug resistance gives clinicians new insight into the cause of treatment failure and suggests targets for novel anti-leukemic drugs
Some children with a rare brain tumor that is considered almost universally fatal can be saved if they receive radiation therapy followed by tandem (given one after the other) cycles of high-dose chemotherapy.
Inex Pharmaceuticals announced today that United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided an action letter detailing that the anticancer drug Marqibo (vincristine sulfate liposomes injection) is "not approvable" under the FDA's accelerated approval regulations based on the phase 2 clinical trial data submitted.
The combination of two pills -- thalidomide and dexamethasone -- may be an effective alternative to the intravenous chemotherapy commonly prescribed to patients with multiple myeloma, according to a large collaborative study conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and led by a Mayo Clinic investigator.
Thalidomide, a drug often used to treat symptoms of leprosy and in testing to fight HIV, is now demonstrating activity in fighting a common cancer that occurs in bone marrow, myeloma.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease caused by the abnormal growth and development of white blood cells (WBC) in the bone marrow and blood. ALL is the most common cancer occurring in children with an annual rate of approximately 30 to 40 new cases per million.
A new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology evaluates treatments for postherpetic neuralgia. The guideline is published in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Cell Therapeutics, Inc. has received fast track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pixantrone, a novel anthracenedione, being investigated for the potential treatment of relapsed, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).
Science is increasingly commuting the death sentence that is a diagnosis of multiple myeloma. A cancer of the plasma cells that primarily strikes the elderly, multiple myeloma has been deadly because patients have been unable to withstand the aggressive treatment necessary to combat it.