Tag Archives: current

Breast radiation trial provides more convenience, better compliance, lowered cost and patient outcomes on par with current treatment

These interim results of the 5-year Phase II clinical trial using the experimental regimen are being presented at the Breast Cancer Symposium 2014 in San Francisco by Anthony E. Dragun, M.D., vice chair and associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Louisville. Dragun, a radiation oncologist with University of Louisville Physicians, launched the trial three years ago at UofL’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center, a part of KentuckyOne Health and the only site offering the experimental regimen in the United States. …

Drug used for DNA repair defects could treat leukemia, other cancers more effectively

The new study suggests that treatment with poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, together with standard chemotherapy drugs, could be more effective in combating leukemia. In the same study, researchers found that the inactivation of RUNX genes causes DNA repair defects and promotes the development of leukemia and other cancers…

Repurposing anti-depressant medication to target medulloblastoma

The multi-institutional group, led by scientists at Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, publish their results in the journal’s online edition on Aug. 24. The researchers suggest their laboratory findings in mouse models of the disease could lead to a more targeted and effective molecular therapy that would also reduce the harmful side effects of current treatments, which include chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. “Although current treatments improve survival rates, patients suffer severe side effects and relapse tumors carry mutations that resist treatment,” said lead investigator Q. …

Researchers identify priority targets for immunotherapy in epithelial ovarian cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer in women and has a relapse rate of 85%. “The MAGE family of proteins is part of a class of CTAs that may serve as a target for directed immunotherapy in ovarian cancer and other types of cancer,” said senior author Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, M. Steven Piver Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy at RPCI. “To achieve the important goal of tumor-directed immunity for ovarian cancer immunotherapy, it is critical to determine the extent to which this family of CTA molecules is expressed in these tumor cells.” Dr…

Imaging system guides brain tumor removal to improve patient outcomes

The imaging system is known as desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI MS). The technique was developed by R. Graham Cooks, Ph.D., at Purdue University, and the brain study was done with collaborators at Harvard Medical School and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and is described in the June 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science. DESI MS promises to be a significant improvement over the current method of distinguishing brain tumor tissue from healthy tissue, which relies on an extremely lengthy and difficult procedure for surgeons and patients…

Study shines new light on genetic alterations of aggressive breast cancer subtype — ScienceDaily

The study, led by Dr. Xiaosong Wang, assistant professor of medicine — hematology and oncology and of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor, published today in Nature Communications and focused on the more aggressive molecular subtype of the estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer known as luminal B breast cancer. …

Version 2.0 of Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator now online, complete with emojis — ScienceDaily

“The prostate cancer risk calculator has been updated using current risk factors and a better interface; the current version gives a more nuanced result that helps understand a man’s risk of prostate cancer,” said Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D., director of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the UT Health Science Center, who helped develop the risk calculator and co-authored a commentary published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The free calculator on the Health Science Center website takes just minutes to use and gives a man more information about his risk for both low-grade prostate cancer, which may never require treatment, and high-grade prostate cancer. It provides an “emoji” graphic readout that puts the numeric percentages into a visual perspective. …

Significant side effects experienced by BRCA mutation carriers following cancer risk-reducing surgical procedure

“These results reinforce the need for care providers to better understand and communicate with patients about the possible long-term effects of bilateral RRSO,” said lead author Susan Domchek, MD, director of Penn’s Basser Research Center for BRCA. …