Brain Cancer Vaccine Results Are Provocative

Lengthening the life of a patient with brain tumors is wonderful news. Phase 2 of the clinical trials paves the way for testing a new therapy that combines a brain cancer vaccine with the oncology drug, Avastin

A new report of this news was reported today by the University of California, San Francisco.

This vaccine is individualized by using tissue from the patient's tumor. This procedure has proven effective in a multicenter phase 2 clinical trial at extending their lives by several months or longer. The patients suffered from recurrent glioblastoma multiforme—which kills thousands of Americans every year.

These results, to be announced Tuesday, April 17 at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) meeting in Miami, compared the effectiveness of the vaccine for more than 40 patients treated at UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the Seidman Cancer Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland and at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

The trial found the vaccine could extend survival for the patients by several months when compared to 80 other patients who were treated at the same hospitals and received standard therapy—47 weeks compared to 32 weeks. Several of the patients who received the cancer vaccine have survived for more than a year.
“These results are provocative,” said UCSF neurosurgeon Andrew Parsa, MD, PhD, who led the research. “They suggest that doctors may be able to extend survival even longer by combining the vaccine with other drugs that enhance this immune response.”

The next step, he said, will be a more extensive, randomized clinical trial to look at the effectiveness of the vaccine combined with the drug Avastin, a standard therapy for this type of cancer, compared to the effectiveness of Avastin alone. Those trials, to be run by the National Cancer Institute, will begin enrolling patients later this year.

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http://www.newswise.com/articles/brain-cancer-vaccine-proves-effective?ret=/articles/list&category=medicine&page=1&search%5Bstatus%5D=3&search%5Bsort%5D=date+desc&search%5Bsection%5D=10&search%5Bhas_multimedia%5D=

Colorectal Cancer Patients Drug Resistance

Recent research has discovered in the lab a way to overcome drug resistance in colorectal cancer.  This recent article explains the the findings and it is great news!

The results, which highlight the use of a novel drug called ARI-4175, may eventually point to new approaches that can be used in treating other cancers
When combined with other treatments, the drug cetuximab—which works by slowing or stopping the growth of cancer cells—has been shown to extend survival in certain types of cancer, including metastatic colorectal cancers. Unfortunately, about 40 percent of colorectal cancer patients—specifically those who carry a mutated form of a gene called KRAS—do not respond to the drug. Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, however, have been working on a way to overcome this resistance to cetuximab by unleashing a second cetuximab driven mechanism using a novel drug called ARI-4175.
In mice that had KRAS mutated colorectal cancer, researchers found that ARI-4175 not only blocked tumor growth when used alone, but also when used in combination with cetuximab. They hypothesize that the new drug may work by enlisting "natural killer" cells of the body's own immune system to reject the tumor.
"We've discovered that ARI-4175 appears to increase the level of natural killer cells that could play a role in rejecting the tumor," Hossein Borghaei, DO, director of thoracic medical oncology at Fox Chase and lead author on the study says. He notes that this action—rallying the body's own immunologic defenses—may explain why ARI-4175 effectively stops the growth of tumors. "My theory is that this particular drug turns on the host's anticancer immune response, while cetuximab serves to help direct it toward the cancer."
Borghaei, along William W. Bachovchin, PhD, professor of biochemistry at Tufts Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences (also co-author on the study) and colleagues, tested ARI-4175 in colorectal cancer cell lines and in mice with two types of cetuximab-resistant colorectal tumors.
Neither cetuximab nor ARI-4175, separately or together, succeeded in killing the cells in lab dishes. In the mice, however, ARI-4175 blocked tumor growth, and was more successful at higher doses of the drug. The research shows an even stronger effect in mice that received ARI-4175 combined with cetuximab.
Cetuximab, which is FDA-approved for metastatic colorectal cancer and some head and neck cancers, works by blocking a crucial receptor on the surface of a cancer cell—causing the cell to die. In people carrying the mutated form of the KRAS gene, cetuximab is not effective, but ARI-4175 may open up a detour around that impasse.
Borghaei notes that a cancer treatment like the immune stimulator ARI-4175, which uses the body's own defenses, may be more effective than drugs targeting tumor oncogenes that are susceptible to mutations that lead to resistance. "Tumors often develop resistance to targeted therapies," he says, "but it's more difficult to find resistance to a patient's own immune system. Bringing in the activity of the immune system might be the most effective way to fight some of these cancers."
"Our immune system can actually be a very useful partner in the fight against cancer," he says.
The researchers say their results suggest ARI-4175 warrants further testing in clinical trials. Although the researchers investigated colorectal cancer, their findings may also point to new approaches to treating other types of cancer. "If we can show that the drug overcomes resistance to cetuximab, it can be used against head and neck cancers as well," says Borghaei.

http://www.bioresearchonline.com/article.mvc/Researchers-Uncover-A-Viable-Way-For-0001

Better Treatment Option Recently FDA Approved For Basal Cell Carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer and usually found on the upper body.  As this cancer advances it can become disfiguring and fatal.

After a few years of testing and clinical trials the FDA has approved a new drug called Erivedge.

Testing found that the drug, Erivedge, shrank tumors in 30 percent of patients whose disease had metastasized and spread in the body. Also, 43 percent of patients in which the disease had spread to surrounding tissue had a complete or partial response.
Erivedge, a pill taken once a day, works by blocking the signals in the cellular pathway that leads to cancer growth.
Scottsdale Healthcare and TGen began working on Phase 1 of the drug's clinical trial in 2007, through a partnership the entities have maintained for seven years.
It is amazing how those in cancer research are committed to improving the lives of cancer patients!

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/01/30/20120130skin-cancer-drug-tested-valley-approved.html#ixzz1l9NNowLY