Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

STA announces results from ABRAXANE plus gemcitabine phase III trial on pancreatic cancer

Australian biopharmaceutical company Specialised Therapeutics Australia announces that a phase III clinical trial of world leading breast cancer drug ABRAXANE (nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel) in combination with current standard of care gemcitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer has demonstrated substantially improved survival times, with double the number of patients surviving two years.

23 Jan 2013

Calmangafodipir protects against side effects of cancer treatments

A drug developed at Linköping University in Sweden protects against the side effects of cancer treatments while strengthening the effects on the tumour.

22 Jan 2013

BRCA1-deficient cancer cells take advantage of DNA repair mechanism

Cancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Researchers have uncovered one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 can resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death. The study appears in the January 21st issue of The Journal of Cell Biology.

22 Jan 2013

Golden nanoparticle starves cancer cell to death

How do you annihilate lymphoma without using any drugs? Starve it to death by depriving it of what appears to be a favorite food: HDL cholesterol.

21 Jan 2013

Bevacizumab QoL impact highlighted in ovarian cancer patients

The ICON7 study results suggest that improved progression-free survival with bevacizumab therapy for high-risk ovarian cancer may come at the cost of health-related quality of life.

21 Jan 2013

MRI ‘good accuracy’ for detecting residual breast cancer

Magnetic resonance imaging is superior to mammography for the detection of residual breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, research confirms.

21 Jan 2013

Stage IV cancer cells even more susceptible to grape seed extract than stage II

When the going gets tough, grape seed extract gets going: A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Cancer Letters shows that the more advanced are colorectal cancer cells, the more GSE inhibits their growth and survival. On the other end of the disease spectrum, GSE leaves healthy cells alone entirely.

19 Jan 2013

New method may help predict response to chemotherapy for bowel cancer

Scientists at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital have developed a new method of predicting which patients with bowel (colorectal) cancer will respond effectively to chemotherapy. The results of this study are published in the current issue of the prestigious Cancer Research journal.

19 Jan 2013

New math model may help predict colon cancer resistance to chemotherapy

Scientists may be able to better predict which patients with colorectal cancer will respond to chemotherapy using a new mathematical model that measures the amount of stress required for a cancer cell to die without harming healthy tissue. The results of this study are published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

19 Jan 2013

Researchers analyse breast cancer mortality in Spain among different age groups from 1981-2007

Since 1992 the number of deaths linked to breast cancer in Spain has decreased among young and middle aged patients but not among the elderly. Spanish researchers also predict that it will continue to decline over the next decade, although more slowly as observed up until now.

18 Jan 2013

Study finds key association between Kallikrein 6 and malignant tumors

One of the most common types of brain tumors in adults, glioblastoma multiforme, is one of the most devastating. Even with recent advances in surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, the aggressive and invasive tumors become resistant to treatment, and median survival of patients is only about 15 months. In a study published in Neuro-Oncology, researchers at Mayo Clinic identify an important association between the naturally occurring enzyme Kallikrein 6, also known as KLK6, and the malignant tumors.

18 Jan 2013

New compounds can target RNase H enzyme in HIV

Scientists who study HIV are facing a troubling consequence of their own success. They created drugs that can now give infected patients almost normal life expectancy. However, those same drugs will eventually cause the constantly mutating virus to evolve into a form that eludes current treatments.

18 Jan 2013

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases, thanks to a new global strategy, a regular supply of quality assured, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners.

17 Jan 2013

Boehringer Ingelheim receives FDA Priority Review for afatinib to treat EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC

Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that the New Drug Application (NDA) for its investigational oncology compound afatinib has been accepted for filing and granted Priority Review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

17 Jan 2013

Scientists to investigate how cancer cells hide to avoid chemotherapy drugs

Scientists hope to improve leukaemia treatment by investigating how cancer cells use 'hiding places' in the body to avoid chemotherapy drugs.

17 Jan 2013

Astellas announces FDA acceptance of Tarceva sNDA for EGFR activating mutation-positive NSCLC

Astellas Pharma US, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc., today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for filing a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for Tarceva (erlotinib) for first-line use in people with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations.

17 Jan 2013