Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

First Edition: June 14, 2010

Today's health policy headlines report on new White House rules on changes to health insurance benefits, a study regarding employers' medical costs and the likely impact of retirements within the health care workforce.

14 Jun 2010

TF12 antibody targets EGP-1 expressed in epithelial cancer: Immunomedics

Immunomedics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer and other serious diseases, today announced that TF12, in combination with radiolabeled peptides, produced specific, fast, high-contrast imaging and pretargeted radioimmunotherapy of epithelial cancers that include cancers of the prostate and the ovary.

14 Jun 2010

New bacterial strain could help in long-term cleanup of oil spills

Researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive "rhamnolipids," and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs - environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills.

14 Jun 2010

Nurse with enhanced clinical skills detects same breast abnormalities as surgeon

UK researchers have developed an Initiative that could help hospitals prevent delays to the two-week cancer target, following the reduction in junior doctors' working hours due to the European Working Time Directive. A specially trained nurse practitioner and consultant breast surgeon who examined 126 women referred to a symptomatic breast disease clinic picked up the same breast abnormalities in 92% of cases.

14 Jun 2010

Researchers report 4 pillars of preventive medicine for AD

Although effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease has been slow to emerge, there has been substantial progress in identifying AD risk factors and developing treatments that might delay or prevent onset of the disease. In a Special Issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, "Basics of Alzheimer's Disease Prevention," researchers report on key findings that point towards possible significant interventions.

14 Jun 2010

Monoclonal antibodies induce long-lasting, protective antiviral immune response

Monoclonal antibodies are the largest class of biotherapeutic drugs. When administered to infected organisms to blunt the propagation of pathogenic viruses, they may also induce a long-lasting and protective antiviral immune response similar to that achieved by vaccination. These results obtained in mice by the "Oncogenèse et Immunothérapie" group at the Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (CNRS/Universités Montpellier 1 and 2), have been published on 10 June in PLoS Pathogens.

14 Jun 2010

Study finds survival disparities among patients with colorectal cancer

Disparities in cancer stage and treatment are the main reasons why Medicaid-insured and uninsured rectal cancer patients are twice as likely to die within five years as privately insured patients. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Because poorer survival among rectal cancer patients without private insurance is largely attributable to later cancer stage at diagnosis and inadequate treatment, disparities may be lessened through health care reform.

14 Jun 2010

Consortium formed to improve community disaster readiness and recovery through research programs

Leading Gulf Coast medical centers, universities and public health institutions from Miami to Houston have united to form a consortium to improve community disaster readiness and recovery through research programs targeting health disparities, disaster preparedness and environmental health.

14 Jun 2010

ARBs increase risk of cancer: Study

University Hospitals Case Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered new research showing an increased risk of cancer with a group of blood pressure medications known as angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs).

14 Jun 2010

Study confirms impact of febrile neutropenia on chemotherapy delivery in NHL

Data presented at the 15th European Hematology Association (EHA) congress in Barcelona, highlights the impact of febrile neutropenia (FN) on chemotherapy delivery in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients. The IMPACT NHL study showed that unplanned hospitalisations, delays in chemotherapy and reductions of chemotherapy dose leading to suboptimal relative dose intensity (RDI) of chemotherapy were more frequent in patients who experienced FN than those who did not.

14 Jun 2010

Nexavar does not meet primary endpoint in Phase 3 NExUS trial for advanced NSCLC

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the final analysis of the Phase 3 NExUS (NSCLC research Experience Utilizing Sorafenib) trial evaluating Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that the study did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival in the first-line setting.

14 Jun 2010

CTI announces AIFA approval for manufacture of pixantrone at NerPharMa facility

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that the Italian Medicines Agency ("AIFA"), the national authority responsible for drug regulation in Italy, has approved the facility at NerPharMa DS (a pharmaceutical manufacturing company belonging to Nerviano Medical Sciences Srl, in Nerviano, Italy) for the production of CTI's drug candidate pixantrone.

14 Jun 2010

Phase III study of REVLIMID for treating patients with multiple myeloma shows improvement in PFS

Celgene International Sàrl announced that data from the planned second interim analysis (median follow-up of 21 months) of a phase III, randomized, double-blind study of continuous REVLIMID (lenalidomide) for the treatment of elderly patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma show improvement in progression-free survival, the primary endpoint of the study.

14 Jun 2010

Discarded livers have potential to be reengineered into usable replacement organs: Researchers

A team led by researchers from the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital has developed a technique that someday may allow growth of transplantable replacement livers. In their report that will be published in Nature Medicine and is receiving early online release, the investigators describe using the structural tissue of rat livers as scaffolding for the growth of tissue regenerated from liver cells introduced through a novel reseeding process.

14 Jun 2010

Australian rainforests may provide potential cancer cure

Queensland scientists have discovered a drug to cure cancer that has effectively worked in animals and is to be tried on humans in the next phase of trials. This drug is plant-derived and is called EBC-46 for trial purposes. The plant from which it is obtained is found in the Australian tropical rainforest. The drug has shown to reduce inoperable tumors in 150 dogs, cats and horses and a ferret to a significant extent. The drug was developed over the past six years from the seed of a rainforest plant found in the Atherton Tablelands. Scientists had cultivated their own plantation of the plant since forming the company QBiotics Limited in 2004.

14 Jun 2010

Telmisartan reduces hypertension, cardiovascular risk in ACE-intolerant patients: Boehringer Ingelheim

Telmisartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker, is one of the best researched drugs worldwide. It has been studied in clinical trials in more than 50,000 patients. Its positive safety profile has been confirmed also in a market exposure of 34.5 million patient years. Convincing safety data for patients with a high cardiovascular risk were collected in the three long-term outcome trials ONTARGET, PRoFESS and TRANSCEND which followed some of the patients for up to five years.

14 Jun 2010

Researchers find new way to prevent blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found a way to use a radical new type of gene therapy to prevent blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa, giving hope to the estimated 100,000 Americans who suffer from this debilitating disease.

14 Jun 2010

Blood flow interruption during renal surgery can increase risk of chronic kidney disease

Interrupting the blood flow for more than 20 to 25 minutes during kidney cancer (http://www.mayoclinic.org/kidney-cancer/research.html) surgery leads to a greater risk for patients developing chronic kidney disease, a Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic collaborative research team has found. The study was published today in the journal, European Urology.

14 Jun 2010

New guideline to improve IHC testing for expression status of ER and PgR in breast cancer issued

The College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Clinical Oncology today issued a joint guideline aimed at improving the accuracy of immunohistochemistry testing for the expression status of estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer. The two groups conducted a systematic review of medical research literature in partnership with Cancer Care Ontario to develop the recommendations.

14 Jun 2010

Cancer survivors forego medical care because of financial concerns

A new analysis has found that two million cancer survivors did not get needed medical services in the previous year because of concerns about cost. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study raises the concern that the long-term health and well-being of cancer survivors could suffer because patients have financial worries about their care.

14 Jun 2010

Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

First Edition: June 14, 2010

TF12 antibody targets EGP-1 expressed in epithelial cancer: Immunomedics

New bacterial strain could help in long-term cleanup of oil spills

Nurse with enhanced clinical skills detects same breast abnormalities as surgeon

Researchers report 4 pillars of preventive medicine for AD

Monoclonal antibodies induce long-lasting, protective antiviral immune response

Study finds survival disparities among patients with colorectal cancer

Consortium formed to improve community disaster readiness and recovery through research programs

ARBs increase risk of cancer: Study

Study confirms impact of febrile neutropenia on chemotherapy delivery in NHL

Nexavar does not meet primary endpoint in Phase 3 NExUS trial for advanced NSCLC

CTI announces AIFA approval for manufacture of pixantrone at NerPharMa facility

Phase III study of REVLIMID for treating patients with multiple myeloma shows improvement in PFS

Discarded livers have potential to be reengineered into usable replacement organs: Researchers

Australian rainforests may provide potential cancer cure

Telmisartan reduces hypertension, cardiovascular risk in ACE-intolerant patients: Boehringer Ingelheim

Researchers find new way to prevent blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa

Blood flow interruption during renal surgery can increase risk of chronic kidney disease

New guideline to improve IHC testing for expression status of ER and PgR in breast cancer issued

Cancer survivors forego medical care because of financial concerns

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