Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Protherics announces start of Prolarix phase 2 study in liver cancer

Protherics PLC today announced the initiation of a phase 2a proof-of-concept study of Prolarix, a targeted prodrug chemotherapy being developed for the treaent of primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma or "HCC"). This follows promising data from a phase 1 study of Prolarix, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, USA on 2 June 2008.

27 Aug 2008

Child's aggressive cancer spotted in a photo sent to a friend

A baby girl's photograph shown online to a friend of her mother has led to the child being diagnosed with a cancerous tumour.

27 Aug 2008

Normalizing tumor vessels to improve chemotherapy drug delivery

Chemotherapy drugs often never reach the tumors they're intended to treat, and radiation therapy is not always effective, because the blood vessels feeding the tumors are abnormal-"leaky and twisty" in the words of the late Judah Folkman, MD, founder of the Vascular Biology program at Children's Hospital Boston.

25 Aug 2008

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals' OGX-011 granted FDA fast track status

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals has announced that OGX-011, also known as custirsen sodium, received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in combination with docetaxel for progressive metastatic prostate cancer.

24 Aug 2008

New vaccine to fight multiple influenza strains

A universal vaccine effective against several strains of influenza has passed its first phase of testing, according to Dr. Christine Turley of the University of Texas at Galveston.

21 Aug 2008

Scientists engineer first drug-delivery particles capable of passing through human mucus

Chemical engineers from Johns Hopkins University have broken the "mucus barrier," engineering the first drug-delivery particles capable of passing through human mucus - regarded by many as nearly impenetrable - and carrying medication that could treat a range of diseases. Those conditions include lung cancer, cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis, the research noted in a presentation scheduled for the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.

20 Aug 2008

Simple bowel cancer test spots deadliest tumours

British scientists say a simple bowel cancer test could save thousands of lives by spotting the deadliest tumours.

20 Aug 2008

Stanford develop method to overcome multiple drug resistant diseases

Many drugs once considered Charles Atlases of the pharmaceutical realm have been reduced to the therapeutic equivalent of 97-pound weaklings as the diseases they once dispatched with ease have developed resistance to them.

18 Aug 2008

New sickle cell unrelated transplant trial

Children's National Medical Center immunologist and blood and marrow transplant physician Naynesh Kamani, MD, will serve as the study co-chair for a new national clinical trial of unrelated donor marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants for severe sickle cell disease.

18 Aug 2008

Sngle-walled carbon nanotubes used as cancer drug delivery vehicles

The problem with using a shotgun to kill a housefly is that even if you get the pest, you'll likely do a lot of damage to your home in the process. Hence the value of the more surgical flyswatter.

14 Aug 2008

Risk of breast cancer recurring even after 5 years of therapy

New research has found that even after 5 years of systemic therapy, breast cancer patients still have a substantial risk of the disease recurring.

13 Aug 2008

Cheap drug combo stops breast cancer in its tracks

A drug 'combo' of chemotherapy and a treatment for brittle bones has a dramatic effect on breast cancer according to researchers in the UK.

13 Aug 2008

Breast cancer patients still have risk of relapse after 5 years of systemic therapy

Breast cancer survivors continue to have a substantial risk of disease recurrence after five years of systemic therapy, according to a study published in the August 12 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

12 Aug 2008

Experimental chemo shows promise in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer

A combination of chemotherapy agents that have been tested in other tumor types appears to be a promising alternative to standard treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, according to a report in the August 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

12 Aug 2008

Precisely targeted radiation therapy can control limited cancer spread

Precisely targeted radiation therapy can eradicate all evidence of disease in selected patients with cancer that has spread to only a few sites, suggests the first published report from an ongoing clinical trial.

12 Aug 2008

Medulloblastoma in children - two studies find clues to treatment

Medulloblastoma is one of the most common and most malignant brain tumours among children and teenagers. These tumours grow very rapidly, and fifty percent of patients in the long term die from the condition. The details of the processes that lead to the growth of these tumours have remained unknown until now.

12 Aug 2008

Finding cancer's original cell key to treatments

Cancer biologists are turning their attention to the normal cells that give rise to cancers, to learn more about how tumor growth might be stopped at the earliest opportunity.

11 Aug 2008

Medulloblastoma originates in normal brain "stem" cells that turn malignant

An aggressive childhood brain tumor known as medulloblastoma originates in normal brain "stem" cells that turn malignant when acted on by a known mutant, cancer-causing oncogene, say researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

11 Aug 2008

Researchers solve structure of enzyme vital for DNA repair

When dividing cells copy their DNA, mistakes can - and do - occur. To compensate, cells have a built-in system to correct these errors. That correction process isn't thoroughly understood, but researchers are piecing it together bit by bit.

11 Aug 2008

Researchers show how new chemotherapy drugs kill cancerous tumors

Dr Stephen Taylor and Karen Gascoigne at the University of Manchester's Faculty of Life Sciences have taken a new systematic approach to studying anti-mitotic drugs, which are used extensively for breast or ovarian cancer in the UK.

From The University of Manchester 6 Aug 2008