Votrient (Pazopanib) Gets FDA Panel Green Light For Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma Treatment
3/20/2012
The FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) has recommended the approval of Votrient (pazopanib) for the treatment of the rare cancer advanced soft tissue sarcoma. Patients who were already administered chemotherapy will be eligible for pazopanib if the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) goes along with the Committee's recommendation...
Establishing National Standards For Cancer Survivorship Care
3/20/2012
People are living longer with and after a cancer diagnosis, making survivorship clinics and programs - as well as official guidelines and practices governing the care of survivors - an important emerging component of modern cancer care. Many institutions are looking to gather these resources into an easily understandable plan for their survivors...
Shrinking Triple-Negative Breast Tumors
3/20/2012
Putting the brakes on an abundant growth-promoting protein causes breast tumors to regress, according to a study published on March 19th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Triple-negative breast tumors lack all of the known growth receptors that serve as treatment targets in other types of breast cancer, making this the most clinically challenging subtype of the disease...
Vemurafenib Extends Survival To 16 Months For Some Patients With Metastatic Melanoma
3/20/2012
An international team of researchers from the United States and Australia, including researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that the oral BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (PLX4032) when tested in a phase II clinical trial offered a high rate of response in patients with previously treated metastatic melanoma and who had the BRAF mutation...
Steady Drop In Smoking And Lung Cancer Deaths, USA, 1975-2000
3/19/2012
According to a study published March 14 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, even though there has been a significant decline in smoking and lung cancer mortality in the United States, more deaths could have been prevented had all smoking ceased following the 1964 Surgeon General's Report. Since the mid 1950's, the number of smokers in the U.S...
New Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines Issued By USPSTF
3/19/2012
According to new guidelines from the United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), published early online in Annals of Internal Medicine, women aged between 21 and 65 should have a Pap smear every 3 years. If women aged 30 to 65 undergo the humanpapillomavirus (HPV) test at the same time as the Pap, they can safely extend the screening interval to once every 5 years...
Potency Boosted, Side Effects Reduced Of IL-2 Protein Used To Treat Cancer
3/19/2012
The utility of a naturally occurring protein given, sometimes to great effect, as a drug to treat advanced cancers is limited by the severe side effects it sometimes causes. But a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist has generated a mutant version of the protein whose modified shape renders it substantially more potent than the natural protein while reducing its toxicity...
Air Emissions Near Fracking Sites Contain Hydrocarbons And May Impact Health
3/19/2012
In a new study, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health have shown that air pollution caused by hydraulic fracturing or fracking may contribute to acute and chronic health problems for those living near natural gas drilling sites...
Resistance To Cancer Drugs In East Asians Explained By Genetic Variation
3/19/2012
A multi-national research team led by scientists at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School has identified the reason why some patients fail to respond to some of the most successful cancer drugs...
Aiming To Disable Cancer Cells' Defenses Against Radiation
3/19/2012
Researchers at Winship Cancer Institute are developing a technique to remove cancer cells' defenses against radiation. Radiation primarily kills cells by inducing DNA damage, so the aim of the technique is to sensitize cells to radiation by disabling their ability to repair DNA. The technique sneaks RNA molecules into cells that shut down genes needed for DNA repair...