Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

New drug lets kids feel good in their skin

Maria Anichini, a 20-year-old junior at Columbia College, zipped up a fetching black lace cocktail dress with spaghetti straps to go out with friends the other night.

17 Jan 2008

FDA extends review of Genasense NDA appeal in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Genta Incorporated has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended its review of Genta's appeal of the non- approvable decision for a New Drug Application (NDA) that proposed the use of Genasense (oblimersen sodium injection) plus chemotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

15 Jan 2008

Stem cells make bone marrow cancer resistant to treatment

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.

15 Jan 2008

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves new genetic breast cancer test

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a test that helps in assessing the risk of tumor recurrence and long-term survival for patients with relatively high-risk breast cancer. The TOP2A FISH pharmDx is the first approved device to test for the TOP2A (topoisomerase 2 alpha) gene in cancer patients.

14 Jan 2008

Scientists identify cells that promote formation of lethal lung metastases

Cancer patients usually ask what can be done after a primary tumor has already spread, or metastasized, to other organs.

11 Jan 2008

Investigational treatment for advanced melanoma to be studied

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers are participating in a multi-center research trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Allovectin-7, an investigational treatment for advanced melanoma.

10 Jan 2008

Intensity modulated radiation therapy

Newly diagnosed cancer patients should spend as much time researching a radiation treatment facility as they would spend picking out a new car or a home.

10 Jan 2008

Higher Medicare spending yields mixed bag for patients

Many recent studies have found that Medicare spending across the country varies greatly.

9 Jan 2008

Taranabant shows promise for weight loss in obese people

The first clinical studies of an experimental drug have revealed that obese people who take it for 12 weeks lose weight, even at very low doses.

9 Jan 2008

Docetaxel given after doxorubicin reduces recurrence

Adding the drug docetaxel to anthracycline-based chemotherapy slightly improved disease-free survival in breast cancer patients, according to a randomized clinical trial published online January 8 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

9 Jan 2008

New test for newly diagnosed breast cancer

A new test that can predict whether a patient’s cancer will spread beyond the breast site has been developed by scientists at the UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin and St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.

8 Jan 2008

Novel anti-tumor compound

Researchers at Emory University have developed a novel anti-tumor compound that represents a distinct strategy: targeting one of the most important "intercept points" for cancer cells.

4 Jan 2008

Benefits of short-term hormonal therapy for men receiving radiation therapy for prostate cancer far outweigh the risks

Researchers report that just four months of hormonal therapy before and with standard external beam radiation therapy slowed cancer growth by as much as eight years - especially the development of bone metastases - and increased survival in older men with potentially aggressive prostate cancer.

4 Jan 2008

FDA reviews new data on risks of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing new data from two studies that provide further evidence of the risks of anemia drugs known as erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, or ESAs.

4 Jan 2008

Three-drug cocktail improves outcomes in glioblastoma multiforme

New research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center suggests that a three-drug cocktail may one day improve outcomes in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of brain tumor with a dismal prognosis.

2 Jan 2008

Ashkenazi ovarian cancer patients with BRCA mutations live longer than those with normal gene

Israeli investigators have found that Ashkenazi Jewish women with ovarian cancer who have mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes lived significantly longer than Ashkenazi Jewish ovarian cancer patients without these mutations.

2 Jan 2008

Study shows that antiangiogenic agent delays progression of advanced breast cancer

The positive results of the first nationwide clinical study showing the benefits of an antiangiogenic agent in breast cancer therapy are reported in the Dec. 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

28 Dec 2007

Light powered platinum more targeted and powerful than similar cancer treatments

Researchers from the Universities of Warwick, Edinburgh, Dundee and the Czech Republic's Institute of Biophysics have discovered a new light-activated platinum-based compound that is up to 80 times more powerful than other platinum-based anti-cancer drugs and which can use "light activation" to kill cancer cells in much more targeted way than similar treatments.

28 Dec 2007

New information about how normal cells and cancer cells survive under stress

Scientists report that an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor may have both positive and negative effects on the growth of tumors, depending on whether or not the tumor cells have enough oxygen.

28 Dec 2007

Chemotherapy and tamoxifen reduce risk of second breast cancer

Among breast cancer patients, both chemotherapy and tamoxifen independently reduced the risk of developing a second cancer in the other breast, according to a study published online December 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

28 Dec 2007