It is scientific fact that Japan has a lower incidence of prostate cancer unless the Japanese men move to western societies and eat a different diet.
This short but compelling video explains what factors may increase the risk of developing prostate cancer:
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A non-surgical technique that may help doctors monitor how well non-small cell lung cancer patients are responding to treatment is currently being tested. Using a device known as a CTC-chip to analyze circulating tumour cells from patient's blood samples, it was possible to identify whether patients had genetic mutations that would make them less likely to respond to certain therapies.
The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is still in the early stages. However, if future studies confirm it works, the technique could offer lung cancer patients a non-invasive, safe way to monitor their disease and find out which treatments will work. Currently, in order to get that type of information, patients would have to undergo dangerous, invasive procedures to sample tissues and cells.
The current findings will need to be replicated in larger studies before the chip is used widely, since only 27 patients participated in the pilot study.
The CTC-chip opens up a whole new field of studying tumors in real time. When the device is ready for larger clinical trials, it should provide new ways of measuring treatment response, defining prognostic and predictive measures, and studying the biology of blood-borne metastasis, which is the primary method by which cancer spreads and becomes lethal.
Blood samples from 27 patients, 23 of whom had a cell-surface protein mutation known as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation were tested. Using the CTC-chip, the researchers were able to identify the mutation from the circulating blood tumour cells 92% of the time.
It was also noticed the chip could detect changes over time. Research has shown that tumours with the EGFR mutation are more likely to respond to a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or TKIs; Tarceva (erlotinib) and Iressa (gefitinib) are 2 TKIs used to treat lung cancer. However, the patient's tumours eventually come back. Using the CTC-chip, the researchers found out why; it appears that the tumour cell's genetic makeup evolved over the course of treatment.
Biopsy samples taken at the time of diagnosis can never tell us about changes emerging during therapy or genotypic differences that may occur in different sites of the original tumour, but the CTC-chip offers the promise of noninvasive continuous monitoring.
This information could one day help doctors see when a patient was becoming resistant to treatment so that new therapies could be tried earlier. However, there is still work to do to make this technique more efficient on the larger scale outside of the clinical trial setting.
Hot off the press with the negative news surrounding Gardasil and its paralysis side effects, comes the news that another cancer vaccine, Oncophage (Antigenics), failed to demonstrate sufficient efficacy in renal cell cancer in a phase III trial.
The data was published in The Lancet online.
The accompanying editorial, from James Yang, a respected physician from the NCI, criticised the company for its over enthusiastic and misleading press releases, noting that:
"The credibility of the field of cancer immunotherapy is weakened when some investigators, and particularly vaccine companies, cannot accept the results of randomized trials."
Scientists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are about to begin a trial to determine whether a new cancer treatment will be as effective at eradicating cancer in humans as it has proven to be in mice.
The treatment will involve transfusing specific white blood cells, called granulocytes into patients with advanced forms of cancer. A similar treatment using white blood cells from cancer-resistant mice has previously been highly successful, curing 100 percent of lab mice afflicted with advanced malignancies.
The basis of the study was the discovery of a cancer-resistant mouse and their subsequent finding that white blood cells from that mouse and its offspring cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice. They have since identified similar cancer-killing activity in the white blood cells of some healthy humans.
Human cancer-fighting cells from healthy donors have been tested against human cervical, prostate and breast cancer cells in the laboratory, with good results. The scientists say the anti-tumor response primarily involves granulocytes of the innate immune system, a system known for fighting off infections.
Granulocytes are the most abundant type of white blood cells and can account for as much as 60 percent of total circulating white blood cells in healthy humans. Donors can give granulocytes specifically without losing other components of blood through a process called apheresis that separates granulocytes and returns other blood components back to donors.
In a small study of human volunteers, it was found that cancer-killing activity in the granulocytes was highest in people under age 50. This activity can be lowered by factors such as winter or emotional stress. They said the key to the success for the new therapy is to transfuse sufficient granulocytes from healthy donors while their cancer-killing activities are at their peak level.
For the upcoming study, 500 local potential donors who are 50 years old or younger and in good health are being recruited to have their blood tested. Of those, 100 volunteers with high cancer-killing activity will be asked to donate white blood cells for the study. Cell recipients will include 22 cancer patients who have solid tumours that either didn't respond originally, or no longer respond, to conventional therapies.
The goal of the phase II study is to determine whether patients can tolerate a sufficient amount of transfused granulocytes for the treatment. Participants will be monitored on a regular basis, and after three months scientists will evaluate whether the treatment results in clear clinical benefits for the patients. If this phase of the study is successful, the study will be expanded to determine if the treatment is best suited to certain types of cancer.
A recent study published in The Prostate showed that analysing peritumoural lymphatic vessel density (PTLD) in prostate biopsy cores could help to predict the lymphatic spread of clinically localized prostate cancer.
Researchers examined positive biopsy cores from 99 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy, immunostaining them with a monoclonal antibody against lymphatic endothelium. It was found that peritumoural lymphatic vessels were present in at least one positive biopsy core in 90.9 percent of cases, while intratumoral lymphatic vessels were seen in just 23.2 percent of cases.
Positive biopsy core rates were significantly associated with average and maximal PTLD and the presence of intratumoral lymphatic vessels.
This approach may become a useful technique for predicting early spread of the disease and suggests that patients with high PTLD in biopsy specimens should be carefully monitored after surgery.
Sen. Edward Kennedy's battle with a malignant brain tumour (glioblastoma multiforme) is likely to put a dramatic personal stamp on a health care cause he first championed nearly 40 years ago: The nation's war on cancer.
Kennedy had already begun work on an overhaul of the 1971 National Cancer Act when his tumour was diagnosed, and advocates hope the fact that Kennedy has fallen victim to this disease will generate public support and lend new urgency to the need to update the bill. The 76-year-old Kennedy has been a prominent and passionate advocate of cancer research and other health care issues throughout his long tenure in the Senate.
His name has become virtually synonymous with the push for universal health care coverage. He was a leader in enacting several landmark bills, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the State Children's Health Insurance Program and the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill protecting workers from losing health insurance when they switch jobs, or from being denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. He's been instrumental in promoting biomedical research, AIDS research and treatment, a national bone marrow donor registry and anti-tobacco bills.
Kennedy has been working closely with Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and plans to file the legislation in the coming weeks. As one of the Senate's shrewdest legislators and dealmakers, Kennedy is known for joining forces with Republicans to win passage of major bills.
The bill Kennedy plans to put forth seeks to improve the coordination of cancer research, prevention and treatment while giving more money to the National Cancer Institute and other public research agencies.
Congress is on a Memorial Day recess, and it is unclear when Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will be back on Capitol Hill. He returned to his family's Hyannis Port, Mass. compound last week after being released from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Kennedy emerged as a leader in winning passage of the National Cancer Act after he became chairman of the Senate's health subcommittee in 1971. At the time, there was wide concern about cancer as the nation's second leading cause of death.
His family has been touched by cancer over the years; two of his children, Kara and Edward Kennedy Jr., are cancer survivors. Edward Kennedy Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 at age 12, and Kara was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago. Both were given a 15 percent chance of survival, but are cancer-free now. The senator threw himself into their care, finding the best medical advice and treatment options for them.
A few weeks ago, Kennedy and Hutchison teamed up with seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong at a Senate hearing and a news conference calling on Congress and the country to step up the fight against cancer. The events were aimed at building support for the bill. Kennedy mentioned how his children overcame the disease. When Kennedy's diagnosis was revealed, Armstrong said renewing the fight against cancer would be a good way to honour the senator.
References:
Hatch-Kennedy Bill
The global market for cancer drugs will grow twice as fast as that for all other pharmaceuticals as the developing world spends more on health care. It could reach $80 billion by 2012, according to IMS Health, which tracks prescription drug sales.
IMS noted that expensive new treatments, coupled with an increasing number of patients on chemotherapy in major markets and evidence that more people in emerging markets are gaining access to modern targeted therapies will contribute to sales of cancer drugs growing at a compound rate of 12 to 15 percent.
In 2008, sales of oncology products will exceed $48 billion, contributing nearly 17 percent of global pharmaceutical sales growth this year, led by Genentech's breast cancer drug Herceptin, Novartis' leukemia drug Gleevec and other blockbusters, according to IMS.
The cancer market may see double-digit sales growth, fueled by increased use of targeted therapeutic agents introduced over the past 10 years, along with first-time innovations coming to the market and chronic treatment for growing numbers of patients. China, Brazil, Russia and other emerging countries are also becoming bigger customers for pharmaceuticals as they invest more in treating and diagnosing cancer.
IMS expects growth to be fueled by the introduction of 25 to 30 new chemical entities between 2008 and 2012, as expensive new biotechnology drugs and the increasing use of combination therapies contribute to the exploding cost of treatment.
Data from clinical studies of many of the newest cancer drugs will be presented and discussed at the nation's largest oncology meeting later this month in Chicago. Much of the data will be unveiled on Thursday ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
There are several factors that could moderate growth over the next five years. They include financial constraints of payers, slowing growth of some current blockbuster therapies and patent expirations of four cancer drugs with annual sales exceeding $1 billion, including Eli Lilly's Gemzar and Taxotere from Sanofi-Aventis.
