Category Archives: Cancer Treatment

Hope builds for drug that might shut down variety of cancers

In the Nov. 7 issue of Cell, investigators pinpoint two cellular enzymes — Type 2 phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases and β (Type 2 PIP kinases) — as essential for cancer growth when cells have lost p53, the powerful tumor-suppressor gene long dubbed the "guardian of the genome." More than half of all cancers lose this gene, allowing these cancers to grow at will. The researchers discovered that the Type 2 PIP kinases are not critical for the growth of normal cells but become essential for cell growth when p53 is lost due to mutations or deletions. The scientists showed, in animal and lab studies of human cancer cells, that targeting these molecules effectively shuts down the growth of p53 mutant cancers…

Nuclear medicine therapy increases survival for patients with colorectal cancer, liver metastases

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer worldwide in men and the second in women, and it is also the third most common cause of death. In approximately 50 percent of patients, metastases to the liver are present at diagnosis or during follow-up, which account for a large portion of morbidity and mortality in patients…

Researchers help make pediatric eye cancer easier to detect

Although children in the United States who are treated for retinoblastoma have a 95 percent survival rate that figure drops below 50 percent for children in developing countries. However, surviving retinoblastoma is just the first hurdle. Typically, "survivors experience moderate to severe vision loss" and in some cases loss of both eyes, but early detection and treatment can increase the chances of survival and vision preservation…

Customizing treatments for deadly prostate cancer with tumor genomics

"Men with castration-resistant prostate cancer have abysmal survival rates, typically living an average of two years once hormone therapies fail," says Manish Kohli, M.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist and principal investigator of the Prostate Cancer Medically Optimized Genome-Enhanced Therapy (PROMOTE) study. Dr. Kohli says the poor prognosis for men with this cancer highlights the need for studies like PROMOTE, which seek to match new targeted drugs with the genomic characteristics of individual patients’ tumors. Several new therapies have recently been approved by the FDA for use in treating castration-resistant prostate cancer, offering new hope for men with this disease. …

Chemists develop new way to kill cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy drug

A new study from MIT and the University of Toronto offers a possible way to overcome that resistance. The researchers found that when cisplatin was delivered to cellular structures called mitochondria, DNA in this organelle was damaged, leading to cancer cell death. …

Drug combination therapy causes cancer cells to ‘eat themselves’

"It is still too premature to estimate when a clinical trial will open to further test this drug combination therapy, but we are now in the planning phase and encouraged by the results of these laboratory experiments," says Andrew Poklepovic, M.D., oncologist and member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center and assistant professor in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care at VCU School of Medicine. …

Imaging studies may predict tumor response to anti-angiogenic drugs

"Two recent phase III trials of another anti-angiogenic drug, bevacizumab, showed no improvement in overall survival for glioblastoma patients, but our study suggests that only a subset of such patients will really benefit from these drugs," explains Tracy Batchelor, MD, director of the Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology at the MGH Cancer Center and co-lead and corresponding author of the current study. "Our results also verify that normalization of tumor vasculature appears to be the way that anti-angiogenic drugs enhance the activity of chemotherapy and radiation treatment." Anti-angiogenic drugs, which block the action of factors that stimulate the growth of blood vessels, were first introduced for cancer treatment under the theory that they would act by ‘starving’ tumors of their blood supply…