Exercise is the best cure for fatigue caused by cancer

It's usually impossible to know why one person develops cancer and another doesn’t. But there are known risk factors

Precision Diagnosis and Treatment for Advanced Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Original article available online: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1703413

Prof Reck is the co-author of the publication and one of the greatest investigators who actively collaborate with QuintilesIMS in clinical trials. 

Alectinib is an exceptional drug against CNS metastases!

Alectinib (produced by Roche) has shown an extraordinary efficacy never seen before by any other new-targeted therapies in development. In the ALEX trial, which explored the agent in the frontline setting in ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer patients, the CNS-specific objective response rate (ORR) with alectinib was 36% compared with 28.6% with crizotinib (Xalkori) in patients treated with prior radiotherapy. For those without prior radiotherapy, alectinib showed a CNS ORR of 74.4% versus just 24.3% with crizotinib.
In those with CNS metastases treated with radiotherapy, the median PFS was not reached with alectinib versus 12.7 months with crizotinib (HR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.15-0.78; P = .0078). Those without prior radiotherapy had a median PFS of 14.0 months with alectinib versus 7.2 months with crizotinib (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25-0.78; P = .0041).

“This is another important goal reached in the field of thoracic oncology. A drug which has this activity on brain metastases can allow to modify treatment and reduce the need for whole brain radiotherapy."

All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.

              Albert Einstein!

Who invented the stethoscope?

Rene Laennec was a French physician. He invented the stethoscope in 1816, while working at the  Necker Hospital, and pioneered its use in diagnosing various chest conditions. Dr Laennec coined the term mediate auscultation (indirect listening), as opposed to the popular practice at the time of directly placing the ear on the chest. He named his instrument the stethoscope, from the Greek words [stethos] (chest), and [skopos] (examination).

Photo of a moderm stethoscope

A new hope for patients with deadly malignant melanoma using a combined treatment of novel drugs

New study combining Incyte’s immune-oncology drug Epacadostat and Merck’s Keytruda cancer treatment in patients with advanced melanoma (deadly skin cancer) showed increased effectiveness.

A combination of Incyte’s oral pill and Merck’s injectable medicine shrank metastatic melanoma tumors, or caused the tumors to disappear, in 56 percent of the 65 patients in the Phase 1-2 study. With Keytruda alone, tumors shrank or disappeared in 33 percent of patients, based on Merck’s past studies.

Among other findings presented at the ESMO 2017 meeting in Spain last week were that the advanced melanoma did not progress, or get worse, in half the patients given Epacadostat plus Keytruda for 12.4 months. The disease progressed within four months to six months with Keytruda alone.

Among patients who had no previous treatment for advanced melanoma, the disease did not progress for up to 22.8 months when the patients were given the Merck-Incyte drug combination.

As far as adverse side effects, the most serious were rashes, elevated liver enzymes, fatigue, and body aches and pains in about 20 percent of the patients. With Keytruda

Merck and Incyte have initiated a large Phase 3 study with 700 patients, in which half are taking only Keytruda and the other half the combination Keytruda-Epacadostat. The study will conclude next May.

Amazing video of immune cells (neutrophil) chasing bacteria in the blood and engulfing them afterwards. It is extraordinary the mobilization of the neutrophil to kill the infecious agent.

Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:

1. Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
2. Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

 

Marcus Tullius Cicero

 

AstraZeneca Immunotherapy offers new hope for patients with stage III locally advanced lung cancer 

During the Presidential Symposium In the ASCO 2017 (9 September 2017) , Dr Luis Paz-Ares from Hospital Universitario 12 de Octobre, Madrid, Spain presented a potentially practice-changing data from the phase III Pacific study up to 12-month immunotherapy with durvalumab (PDL-1 inhibitor).  In 709 patients with locally advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without progression after platinum-based treatment and radioterpy, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 16.8 months with durvalumab vs 5.8 months with placebo . Adverse events were comparable in both arms. Although overall survival data is still immature, these impressive results must surely prefigure maintenance immunotherapy becoming part of the standard practice in locally advanced NSCLC. The Pacific study is was one the largest studies ever conducted in stage III NSCLC. QuinitlesIMS was the CRO that run the trial.