Positive results using alternating electric field therapy in newly diagnosed glioblastoma

Glioblastoma is the most devastating primary malignancy of the central nervous system in adults. Most patients die within 1 to 2 years of diagnosis. Tumor-treating fields (TTFields) is a novel treatment strategy for glioblastoma, delivered continuously by transducers applied to a shaved scalp. The TTFs is an antimitotic treatment that interferes with cell division and organelle assembly.

In an open-label randomized trial of 695 adults with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, median survival was improved in patients assigned to wear the device during the adjuvant temozolomide phase of standard chemo radiation compared with those assigned to standard chemo radiation alone (21 versus 16 months).  

Use of the device is encouraged in interested patients, although the requirement to carry a device and maintain a shaved scalp for the duration of the treatment presents a potential burden that it not acceptable to all patients. 

More about the randomized trial in the link

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2475463

High-fat diet may fuel the spread of prostate cancer

Obesity is linked to prostate cancer, scientists know, but it’s not clear why. On Monday, researchers reported a surprising connection.

When prostate cancers lose a particular gene, they become tiny fat factories, a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston reported in a paper published in Nature Genetics.

Then the cancers spread from the prostate, often with deadly effect. Prostate cancers that have not lost that gene also can spread, or metastasize — in mice, at least — but only if they have a ready source of fat from the diet.

That finding suggests that dietary fat can substitute for the loss of the gene, fueling prostate cancer. Moreover, the investigators found, an obesity drug that blocks fat production can make metastatic prostate cancers regress in mice and prevent them from spreading. “What this paper suggests is that fat or high-fat diets promote more aggressive prostate cancer,”

The American Cancer Society estimates that prostate cancer will be diagnosed in about 165,000 American men this year, making it the second most common cancer in American men, behind only skin cancer.

Geneticists knew prostate cancers often start when a protective gene, PTEN, shuts down. But the tumors in men that lose only PTEN tend to languish, rarely spreading beyond the prostate and rarely becoming lethal. The cancers change, though, if a second gene, called PML, also shuts down. Suddenly, indolent cells become cancers that spread and kill. But why?

In the new study, researchers found that when PML was lost, cancerous cells — in petri dishes and in mice — started churning out fat, which may protect the cells from certain toxic molecules. But the fat also may help the cancers spread, the researchers suggested. PML is also lost in human metastatic prostate cancer, but it has never been clear what the consequences might be.

Then the group asked a bigger question: Could they could protect mice from metastatic cancer by blocking fat production? That led to the experiment with a new obesity drug, fatostatin. It not only halted the cancer’s spread in the animals, but made it regress. The Beth Israel Cancer Center group is planning a clinical trial with fatostatin to treat prostate cancer in humans.

Source NYT. More in the link

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/health/fat-diet-prostate-cancer.html

Who performed the first successful human bone-marrow transplant?

The first successful transplant was performed by Dr. Thomas in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the late 1950s. The transplant involved identical twins, one of whom had leukemia. Because identical twins share the same genetic make-up, transplants between twins avoid the problems associated with non-twin transplants, such as graft-vs.-host disease. GVHD occurs when the transplanted cells (the graft) attack the patient (the host) as they would a foreign object or infection. In 1975, Thomas moved his research to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where much of the developmental work on bone-marrow and blood stem-cell transplantation has been done. He received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1990, along with Dr. Joseph E. Murray, who pioneered kidney transplantation.

Statin dilemma: heart & maybe prostate cancer benefits, but big bump in Diabetes risk

Statins have been hailed as some of the best drugs ever. Given the massive, deadly prevalence of cardiovascular disease, some have even semi-jokingly talked about putting statins in the water supply for public health. The growing evidence that statins might significantly aid in prevention, delayed progression, or even post-treatment delay of recurrence o cancer seemed to add to the glowing rep of statins. But, unfortunately, statins impair glucose metabolism and very strongly increase the risk of developing Diabetes. This connection seems like the real deal. The higher the dose of statins taken, the greater the risk.

Are lung cancer screening rates low because of 'Ostrich Effect'?

Greeky Definition of the Ostrich Effect: The Ostrich Effect is the tendency to ignore a dangerous or risky situation. early 7 million people who were eligible for lung cancer screening in the United States, only 1% to 2% actually underwent low-dose computer tomography screening

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/890912?src=soc_tw_180111_mscpedt_news_onc_screening&faf=1#vp_2

Multiple myeloma: What you should know

Plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in the bone marrow, help your body fight infection by producing proteins called antibodies. When plasma cells become cancerous and grow out of control, they overcrowd healthy cells and harm the body. This is called multiple myeloma.

How is multiple myeloma diagnosed?
The most common way to diagnose myeloma before symptoms appear is through routine blood work. If a patient has elevated protein levels, several tests are conducted, and their combined results are interpreted to make a myeloma diagnosis.
What are common multiple myeloma symptoms?
Multiple myeloma patients often have problems with anemia, so they’ll be pale and fatigued. Myeloma can also affect the bones, breaking them down and causing pain. The body overcompensates to repair the damaged bones, so a patient may have high calcium levels. Finally, myeloma can cause kidney problems due to overproduction of proteins that deposit in the kidneys by the myeloma cells.
Are some people more likely to develop multiple myeloma?
As people get older -- above age 65 -- their chances of developing multiple myeloma go up.
Multiple myeloma is slightly more common in African-Americans, as well as in men.
Also, those who’ve had prior radiation exposure are more likely to be diagnosed with myeloma, and Agent Orange exposure may also put a person at increased risk.
How is multiple myeloma treated?
There’s no cure for multiple myeloma. But, we can manage the disease -- for decades, in some cases -- to enable patients to lead normal lives.
We tailor each treatment plan to a patient’s situation. We evaluate symptoms and how far the disease has advanced.
In some cases of myeloma where there are no symptoms, known as smoldering myeloma, we don’t treat the patients at all. We simply monitor them closely.
In myeloma patients who show symptoms, initial treatment involves a combination of drugs that are typically very effective. We also offer high-dose chemotherapy to kill the defective plasma cells and then stem cell transplantation to revitalize the bone marrow so it can start producing healthy cells. A stem cell transplant can be a viable way to recover a patient’s bone marrow and return the stem cells to proper function.
What new myeloma therapies are on the horizon?
One exciting area in myeloma research is immunotherapy. In 2015, two new drugs were approved by the FDA for myeloma; they’re called daratumumab and elotuzumab. Both drugs act by binding to specific proteins on the surface of the myeloma cells and stimulate the immune system to kill the myeloma cells. Now we’re testing a number of other drugs that target myeloma cells or the immune system using similar mechanisms.
We’re also exploring the use of CAR-T cells, which are specially programmed immune cells that attack myeloma cells. Finally, we’re continuing to discover what causes myeloma cells to grow or become resistant to standard treatments, and finding new drugs to overcome these hurdles.
There’s a lot of optimism and hope for myeloma patients as these new therapies will undoubtedly continue to build on the significant improvements in outcomes over the last decade.

Great year 2017 for FDA new drug approavals and new indications in hematological malignancies.

In this graphic, purple=4 new drug approvals for AML; red=5 new drugs for ALL/NHL; orange=supplemental approvals for new indications