Smaller, Faster Trials Can Improve Cancer Patient Survival
9/27/2011
With the advent of personalised medicine, gains in cancer survival over the long term could be improved by running smaller, faster trials with less stringent evidence criteria, a researcher told the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress [1] Monday 26 Sept...
Phase II Study Shows New Cancer Drug Combination Significantly Delays Breast Cancer Progression
9/27/2011
The first randomised trial to investigate the use of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) an antibody-guided drug for the initial treatment of HER2- (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2) positive metastatic breast cancer has shown that it makes a significant difference to the time women live without their disease worsening...
Results from a phase III clinical trial have shown that combining two existing cancer drugs to treat post-menopausal women with advanced breast cancer resistant to hormonal therapy significantly improves outcome...
Discovery Helps Explain Why Chemo Causes Drop In Platelet Numbers
9/27/2011
Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have identified a way that chemotherapy causes platelet numbers to drop, answering in the process a decade-old question about the formation of platelets, tiny cells that allow blood to clot. Platelets are formed by a process called 'shedding' where small fragments break off megakaryocytes (large cells normally found in the bone marrow)...
Cancer Care Becoming Impossibly Expensive In The First World Countries
9/26/2011
Along with Heart Disease, Cancer is one of the primary causes of death worldwide and while Heart Disease can be treated with surgery and lifestyle changes, it's even been theorized that an elderly person would eventually die of cancer if nothing else ails them first. It's therefore rather alarming to read that cancer treatments are becoming impossibly expensive...
MelaFind, Tool For Detecting Melanoma, Receives Approval Letter From FDA
9/26/2011
A medical device for detecting skin cancer melanoma - MelaFind - has been given an Approvable Letter by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in response to its PMA (Pre-Market Approval) application. Mela Sciences says it is liaising with the FDA to finalize patient and physician labeling, as well as providing a user's guide, and training program...
Soliris (eculizumab) Approved By FDA For Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, A Rare Pediatric Blood Disorder
9/26/2011
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Soliris (eculizumab) to treat individuals with atypical hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS). aHUS is a rare and chronic blood disease that can result in kidney (renal) failure and is linked with an increased risk of death and stroke. This disease accounts for 5 to 10% of all cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome...
A study published in the September 20 issue of the online open-access journal PLoS Biology reveals that researchers discovered, during their study of ovarian cancer, that a substantial number of ovarian tumors show a gene that is closely related to the estrogen receptor. The gene is broken and fused to an adjacent gene by a chromosome rearrangement...
Benefit-Risk Balance Of Multiple Myeloma Treatment Revlimid Remains Positive
9/26/2011
According to confirmation from the European Medicines Agency the benefit-risk balance for Revlimid (lenalidomide) remains positive within its approved patient population, however, doctors are advised of the risk of new cancers as a result of treatment with the medicine...
Different Fruits And Vegetables Affect Cancer Risk In Different Parts Of Bowel
9/26/2011
Eating more apples is linked to lower risk of distal colon cancer, brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts are linked to lower risk of cancer in both the proximal and the distal colon, while on the other hand, drinking more fruit juice appears to raise the risk of rectal cancer, according to new research from Australia published in the October...