The Society of Cancer Management
  • Home
    • An After Life
    • News Archive
  • About
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Notice
  • Contact

. . . supporting research that improves cancer survival.

 
Please contact us if you would like to contribute a news item. We are keen to publish more articles from UK-based research and findings that relate to microbial infections during therapy.

The “Goldilocks” principle for curing brain cancer

4/10/2019

0 Comments

 
In the story of Goldilocks, a little girl tastes three different bowls of porridge to find which is not too hot, not too cold, but just the right temperature. In a study published in Advanced Therapeutics, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers report on a “Goldilocks” balance which holds the key to awakening the body’s immune response to fight off brain cancer.

The most common form of adult brain cancer is glioblastoma. Doctors diagnose about 14,000 glioblastoma cases in the U.S. each year. This aggressive cancer has claimed the lives of Senators John McCain and Edward Kennedy.

“Our body has armies of white blood cells that help us fight off bacteria, viruses and cancer cells. This constellation of cells constitute our immune system,” said senior author Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, Lyle French Chair in Neurosurgery and Head of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “One of the key reasons why glioblastoma is so aggressive is that it shuts off this immune system.”

The importance of the immune system in cancer therapy is highlighted by the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize was awarded to the discovery of a drug that activates the patient’s immune response against cancer cells. Treatment with this immunotherapy drug has produced impressive long-term survival in many cancer types. Unfortunately, this drug does not appear to work against glioblastomas.

“Immunotherapy works by activating the white blood cells that are present in many cancer types. For reasons that are not clear, glioblastomas contain few white blood cells. So, there is nothing for immunotherapy to activate,” commented Andrew Kummel, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California San Diego and co-senior author of this study.

Read More
0 Comments

Ibrutinib linked to high blood pressure and other heart problems

4/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash
Hypertension with ibrutinib more common than previously reported; this study is first to show association between cancer drug-related hypertension and other heart problems.

Over half of the people prescribed the targeted blood cancer-fighting drug ibrutinib developed new or worsened high blood pressure within six months of starting the medication, according to a new study published online today in Blood. The analysis is also the first to tie ibrutinib-related hypertension to a heightened risk of heart problems, particularly atrial fibrillation. Moreover, the association of ibrutinib with cardiovascular complications remained regardless of the prescribed dose.

“This study provides a more clear picture of the extent of hypertension development among patients taking ibrutinib, while allowing us to tease out what ibrutinib-related hypertension means in the long run for other cardiovascular events and survival,” said Daniel Addison, MD, of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Cancer Control Research Program, and the study’s senior author. “Overall, both the magnitude and level of hypertension that developed was higher than previously thought and appears to portend a higher risk of other cardiac events.”

In fact, after controlling for traditional risk factors, people treated with ibrutinib who developed new or worsened hypertension were more than twice as likely to develop other heart problems, including arrhythmias, compared with people who did not develop hypertension while taking the cancer drug. The good news: Addison and his team found that the initiation of blood pressure-lowering medications among ibrutinib patients with new or worsened high blood pressure was associated with a 60 percent reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events.

Read More
0 Comments

    Cancer Therapy & Palliative Care News

    This feed features recent developments in cancer therapy and palliative care. Views in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the Cancer Management Society.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    General
    Presentation
    Research
    Review

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact Us

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Copyright Notice

RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
© The Society of Cancer Management 2017