Tag Archives: european

Bio-marker set forms the basis for new blood test to detect colorectal cancer

Max Mazzone (VIB/KU Leuven): “This research demonstrates how important it is to gain a thorough understanding of the role of our immune system in cancer. In this case, this knowledge will hopefully result in a new, more sensitive test to detect colorectal cancer at an early stage, so that more patients can be cured. I hope that we can soon find an industrial partner to help us achieve the following step, which is the development of the test.” Colorectal cancer: a growing medical problem In 2012, a total of 1.4 million people worldwide were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, this figure is expected to increase to 2.4 million by 2035. This is a condition that affects a growing number of people each year. …

Common prostate cancer treatment associated with decreased survival in older men — ScienceDaily

The findings are particularly important for men with longer life expectancies because the therapy exposes them to more adverse side effects, and it is associated with increased risk of death and deprives men of the opportunity for a cure by other methods. The research study has been published online in European Urology.� The focus of the new study is androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), in which an injectable or implanted medication is used to disrupt the body’s ability to make testosterone. ADT is known to have significant side effects such as heart disease, diabetes, increased weight gain and impotence; however a growing body of evidence suggests ADT may in fact lead to earlier death…

The secret life of anti-cancer drugs

But what happens to these drugs? When do they become accessible to cancer patients — if at all? In a new review published in ecancermedicalscience, researchers trace the journey anti-cancer drugs take between discovery and clinical practice. “Bringing a new medication to clinical practice is a lengthy process and involves many stakeholders with a very diverse background, ranging from researchers, regulatory agencies, payers, physicians and patients,” says Dr Felipe Ades of the Jules Bordet Institute, lead author of the review…

Sea sponge drug could boost advanced breast cancer survival by five extra months — ScienceDaily

Researchers led by Professor Chris Twelves, based at the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, looked at two major clinical trials of more than 1,800 women with breast cancer that had started to spread to other parts of the body. The phase III trials — the final stage of testing before deciding whether a drug can be prescribed to patients — compared the survival of women treated with eribulin to those given standard treatment…

Tomosynthesis improves cancer detection in women with dense breast tissue

The study found that adding tomosynthesis (3D mammography) to routine biennial digital mammography screening among U.S. women with dense breasts could improve health outcomes at a reasonable cost relative to digital mammography screening alone. This is the first comparative effectiveness study performed at the national level using an established model, and it could influence future screening recommendations for women with dense breast tissue who comprise nearly half of all women in the United States. “We felt that this analysis would help inform timely policy and practice decisions given both increased attention to screening for women with dense breasts and rapid adoption of tomosynthesis in routine practice,” said Christoph I. …

Mesothelioma: New Findings On Treatment Options

“Mesothelioma remains a difficult disease to find better treatment options for, so we asked whether high-dose hemithoracic radiotherapy would decrease the rate or delay the time of local recurrence after chemotherapy and radical surgery,” says lead author Prof Rolf A. Stahel, from the Clinic and Policlinic for Oncology, at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and current President of the European Society for Medical Oncology. The multicentre trial included 153 patients with surgically-treatable malignant pleural mesothelioma, who were first treated with three chemotherapy cycles of cisplatin and pemetrexed, followed by surgical removal of affected lung tissue, with the goal of complete removal of the cancerous areas of lung. …

Trastuzumab should remain as standard of care for HER2-positive breast cancer, trial suggests

This study, being presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2014 Congress in Madrid, reveals that when used as a single HER2-targeted therapy in addition to standard chemotherapy, trastuzumab offers a better outcome than does lapatinib (Tykerb), says Edith A. Perez, M.D., deputy director at large, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program at Mayo Clinic in Florida. …