Breaking Research News from sources other than Breastcancer.org
Comments
-
Thanks for the proton rads info! Very interested in this.
0 -
Re those Neratinib trial results ( Phase 3 NALA) - hype over nothing. They won't release the actual numbers until they publicly present the study (ASCO19?), but people in the know have been posting on Twitter saying that PFS is minor, there was no increase to OS, and QOL definitely suffered (lots of concern over this). I hate the way they try to make it sound good when it's not, just trying to pump up their stock price.
0 -
Hi Lori, I don’t know a thing about Her Pos but thought someone might be interested. Agree with you on the constant baiting with hope for things not yet available if ever.
FDA Approves Trastuzumab Biosimilar for HER2+ Breast Cancer
The FDA has granted an approval to CT-P6, a trastuzumab biosimilar, for the treatment of patients with HER2-overexpressing breast cancer.
0 -
the side effects for me re Shingrix: achy, chills, and a very sore arm for about 3 days. I had shingles and was never told I wouldn’t get it again. In fact I was told I am more at risk for getting it again. That’s why I got the 2 part vaccine. I had to wait for it to come in, and then I got a text and could arrange for the injection.
0 -
I happened to have an appointment already scheduled with my rheumatologist so he was the one who diagnosed my shingles last month. He told me that I would be immune for about 2 years, but should then get the newer, more effective vaccination. He also mentioned the shortage issue. Any potential benefit in terms of cancer would obviously be welcome.
0 -
Cancer may no longer be deadly in future, say British researchers announcing breakthrough
27th December 2018 Ragas Clan National Post
LONDON — Scientists have discovered a breakthrough treatment to fight cancer, and claim the disease will no longer be deadly for future generations.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London believe it is possible to strengthen the body's defences by transplanting immune cells from strangers. Patients will begin to receive the new treatment next year, and the team now wants to establish "immune banks" to store disease-fighting cells.
Prof Adrian Hayday, an immunology expert and group leader of the immunosurveillance laboratory at The Crick, said scientists and doctors could become more like engineers, upgrading the body rather than bombarding it with toxic chemotherapy.
"Using the immune system to fight cancer is the ultimate do-it-yourself approach," he said.
"Even a few years ago the notion that any clinician would look at a patient and deliver a therapy which wasn't going to directly affect the cancer in any way, shape or form, would have been pretty radical. But that's what's happening.
- Canadian lab takes a shot at producing cancer-killing treatment dubbed the 'rarest drug on Earth'
- How a tiny patch under the skin could give an early warning of most deadly cancers
- Scientists discover cancer cells all carry a 'flag,' which could help doctors target and kill tumours
"We're seeing impressive results with cells called natural killer cells. It's very early days but there are patients receiving them in this next year and the year after, and the nice feature is, unlike other immunotherapy, these cells aren't rejected.
"So you have the possibility of developing cell banks that could be used for anyone. You would call them up and deliver them to the clinic just hours before they were needed to be infused.
"We're not quite there yet. But that's what we're trying now. There is every capability of getting cell banks like this established."
Until this year, scientists thought it would be impossible to import a stranger's immune cells as the immunosuppressant drugs needed to ensure the body did not reject them, would cancel out the benefits. But in 2018, scientists realized that immune cells are unlike other cells, and can survive well in another person, opening the door to transplants.
More than 350,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year, and 30 years ago just one in four people would have survived for 10 years.
But radical advances over the past decade have seen the number of people surviving for at least a decade rise to 50 per cent and the team at The Crick want to make that 75 per cent in the next 15 years.
Prof Charlie Swanton, of the Cancer Evolution and Genome Instability Laboratory, said that the ability now to sequence tumours was heralding a new era of medicine tailor-made for a patient.
"It's a very exciting time. The technology available to us now is just incredible. We're able to sequence the genome of a tumour, understand its micro-environment, how it metabolises, what cells are controlling the tumour, and how those can be manipulated. Using the body's own immune cells to target the tumour is elegant because tumours evolve so quickly there is no way a pharmaceutical company can keep up with it, but the immune system has been evolving for over four billion years to do just that."
Tumours evolve in a branched way, like trees, but scientists have recently found immune cells in their "trunks", which could be crucial to battling the disease from the base up.
Next year, Prof Swanton's team is beginning trials to see if ramping up those specific cells could be effective in fighting lung cancer. He added: "We will be expanding those immune cells from the patient's tumour in the lab and giving them back to the patient in hopefully overwhelming numbers to tackle the tumour at its trunk.
"It's personalised medicine taken to the absolute extreme. Each patients have a unique therapy, it's pretty much impossible to have the same treatment because no two tumours are the same."
The team is also studying a group of people known as "elite controllers", who have genetic mutations that prevent them developing cancer. In mice which have been genetically engineered to have the same mutations, it is almost impossible to induce skin cancer.
"One of the pivotal breakthroughs in HIV was the recognition of people with elite controllers who had mutations in receptors which rendered them resistant to infection and that changed the landscape utterly," added Prof Hayday.
"We have a group in Sardinia who have a conspicuously low rate of cancers. Despite the suffering that continues to plague the oncology wards, the family, the friends, the basis for optimism is extraordinary.
"I would go so far as to say that we might reach a point, maybe 20 years from now, where the vast majorities of cancers are rapidly treated diseases or long-term chronic issues that you can manage. And I think the immune system will be essential in doing that.
"Between 1980 and 2010, 519,000 cancer deaths were avoided because of cancer research. If that's not a note for optimism I don't know what is."
Prof Swanton added: "Bear in mind 30 years ago that was one in four so survival has doubled in my lifetime and I think it will double again over the next 30 years. The future is incredibly bright."
0 -
COMMENTARY - 28 Dec 2018
Complexity 'Biggest Challenge' of Metastatic Breast Cancer
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/906926?src=wn...
Interesting discussion of tumor heterogeneity, treatment approaches and resistance. Discussion of liquid biopsies and tool for monitoring treatment, progression and tumor changes. Particularly, it discusses research presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium which showed that positive CTC assays translated into an 18-fold increased risk for recurrence. Researchers are also looking at whether ctDNA can be used to assess treatment efficacy. "...the question is: Does having something abnormal in your blood mean you're very likely to be recurring or does it mean you still have dormant cells? And does having nothing in your blood mean you can safely stop taking therapy?" Despite the ongoing open questions, several studies have suggested that ctDNA testing can be used to identify targetable mutations linked to metastatic breast cancer up to 8 months before recurrence. Researchers are "in the process of designing trials where we might identify patients who have occult disease by some assays and then treat the patient" once any subclinical disease has been ruled out.
Another avenue of research that is beginning to bear fruit is in understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive metastasis. In 2016, the Condeelis group published a paper showing that the tumor cells intravasate into the circulation only at tumor microenvironment of metastasis (TMEM) sites. They have developed a triple immunostain that can identify these sites. Their stain, which has a high level of validity on digital pathologic analysis, has now been licensed to a company. Another group is now testing the oral kinase inhibitor rebastinib, as it has been shown to ....block intravasation at the TMEM sites. They have also done work ... showing that, when you treat patients with chemotherapy...it damages the microenvironment, and ... although the tumors are shrinking, they're becoming more efficient in metastasizing."
How will this affect clinical practice? For women who have finished treatment for early stage BC, "right now...no guideline body in the world recommends any kind of special follow-up other than clinical follow-up and routine age-appropriate mammography screening." "Maybe the time has come to readdress that in clinical trials, and that's what we hope to do in the near future."
There is a discussion of the old approach to metastatic BC that makes us all cringe: we can't cure it, so if it is not making you feel bad, we would prefer to ignore it for as long as possible. This is contrasted with the more optimistic approach: "the key to tackling metastatic breast cancer is treating the primary tumor as early as possible, ideally before it has even occurred." "Prevention, mostly; early detection, secondly; and better treatments in the adjuvant setting to eradicate the micrometastatic disease to begin with—I think that's where we're going to win."
More about the Rebastinib trial here:
Rebastinib Plus Antitubulin Therapy With Paclitaxel or Eribulin in Metastatic Breast Cancer
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02824575
0 -
New #breastcancer clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov: NIMBUS: A Phase II Study of Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab in Metastatic Hypermutated HER2-negative Breast Cancer
0 -
Chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery might fuel metastasis
JULY 10, 2017
When breast cancer patients get chemotherapy before surgery to remove their tumor, it can make remaining malignant cells spread to distant sites, resulting in incurable metastatic cancer, scientists reported last week.
The main goal of pre-operative (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy for breast cancer is to shrink tumors so women can have a lumpectomy rather than a more invasive mastectomy. It was therefore initially used only on large tumors after being introduced about 25 years ago. But as fewer and fewer women were diagnosed with large breast tumors, pre-op chemo began to be used in patients with smaller cancers, too, in the hope that it would extend survival.
But pre-op chemo can, instead, promote metastasis, scientists concluded from experiments in lab mice and human tissue, published in Science Translational Medicine.
The reason is that standard pre-op chemotherapies for breast cancer — paclitaxel, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide — affect the body's on-ramps to the highways of metastasis, said biologist John Condeelis of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, senior author of the new study.
Called "tumor microenvironments of metastasis," these on-ramps are sites on blood vessels that special immune cells flock to. If the immune cells hook up with a tumor cell, they usher it into a blood vessel like a Lyft picking up a passenger. Since blood vessels are the highways to distant organs, the result is metastasis, or the spread of cancer to far-flung sites.
Related:Cancer researchers worry immunotherapy may hasten growth of tumors in some patients
Depending on characteristics such as how many tumor cells, blood vessel cells, and immune cells are touching each other, the tumor microenvironment can nearly triple the chance that a common type of breast cancer (estrogen-receptor positive/HER2 negative) that has reached the lymph nodes will also metastasize, Condeelis and colleagues showed in a 2014 study of 3,760 patients. The discovery of how the tumor microenvironment can fuel metastasis by whisking cancer cells into blood vessels so impressed Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, that he featured it in his blog.
The new study took the next logical step: Can the tumor microenvironment be altered so that it promotes or thwarts metastasis?
To find out, Einstein's George Karagiannis spent nearly three years experimenting with lab mice whose genetic mutations make them spontaneously develop breast cancer, as well as mice given human breast tumors. In both cases, paclitaxel changed the tumor microenvironments in three ways, all more conducive to metastasis: The microenvironment had more of the immune cells that carry cancer cells into blood vessels, it developed blood vessels that were more permeable to cancer cells, and the tumor cells became more mobile, practically bounding into those molecular Lyfts.
0 -
Marijen, thanks for your post about chemo facilitating mets. Scary! I also read that the linked article about immunotherapy. Troubling. These articles are from 2017. I am surprised that we have not seen reporting on these topics sooner. It seems like retrospective studies could be used to evaluate outcomes of patients given neoadjuvant treatment. Surely alarming results, or even meaningful subsets of outliers would, raise concerns/attract attention...?
0 -
I know Lumpie, I debated whether to post or not because it's 2017 and I also haven't seen anything like this article. I found it following a link from someone here on a totally unrelated topic. Although I was aware that chemo can worsen things, I didn't know the details.
Oh and did you read the study? It’s hard to decipher, glad this writer was able to do that.
0 -
Scary indeed. I always assumed it improved ones picture and not potentially making it worse.
0 -
In case anyone wants to review material on the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, I got this email blast:
Official Highlights from #SABCS18 NOW available on bestofsabcsnews.com for FREE!!
Now available on www.bestofsabcsnews.com
REGISTER NOW FOR FREE!
(The fine print says it is "free for health care professionals.")
0 -
Indeed, sounds like chemo prior to surgery is very scary , but I am glad all results are shared, not just positive and predictable.
I had chemo prior to surgery and not only it shrunk my tumors, it has eliminated cancer cells completely per my pathology report. I know that does not happen every time, but it does happen. And if I had chemo after the surgery, I would not have even known if the treatment has worked or not. And because I had known, I was able to opt out of additional chemo post surgery.
0 -
Research Worth Watching: Overview from San Antonio 2018
Published December 17, 2018By Dr. Susan Love
Excerpt
As a surgeon, I was struck by the fact that the role of surgery and the value of mastectomy in breast cancer treatment has significantly diminished. There are several drivers of this shift but the key is the change in our understanding of the disease and its progression. When I started as a breast surgeon, we believed that after a cancer started growing in the breast, it slowly moved from one lymph node to another and then, after invading all the nodes, went into the blood stream, where it traveled to other parts of the body. We thought if we got there soon enough, and did a big enough surgery, we could slam the door before the migration to the nodes and blood stream began.
https://www.drsusanloveresearch.org/blogs/research...0 -
Marien, intresting.... especially given the research you posted on Dec. 30 "Chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery might fuel metastasis".... well, I don't know how this adds up... so many research reports and often quite contradictory, like these two... just thinking "aloud"
0 -
I don't know Jaboo, but cut poison and burn doesn’t seem to be working. It used to be 1 out of 20 got breast cancer, now it's 1 out 8. And still 40,000 plus are dying everyyear. One out of three go from early stage to Stage IV and 20% of all new dx are de nova stage IV. It's not pretty.
0 -
Antibiotic may prevent breast cancer recurrence
Published Monday 8 October 2018
By Tim Newman
Fact checked by Jasmin Collier
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323262.p...Generic Name: doxycycline (DOX i SYE kleen)
Brand Names: Acticlate, Adoxa CK, Adoxa Pak, Adoxa TT, Alodox, Avidoxy, Doryx, Mondoxyne NL, Monodox, Morgidox, Oracea, Oraxyl, Periostat Targadox, Vibramycin calcium, Vibramycin Hyclate, Vibramycin monohydrate, Vibra-Tabs
0 -
marijen,
I think part of the reason for those stats is western diet which is sooooo metbolically bad and taking over more and more...
0 -
Diet relates to an article I saw regarding cancer as a metabolic disease not a genetic one. I get really frustrated with buying fruit and vegetables because of the pesticides in trying to eat healthier. And so much of the processed food is bad for us because it is processed,
0 -
JaBoo, I had the exact same thought about that research. In fact, the research that chemo before surgery wasn't as effective was shared on this site.
Let's not rule out endocrine disruptors in hundreds of products we use every day, that are heavily perfumed (fragrance molecules are absorbed), parabens, and the like, as well as the polluted environments many of us live in. Those types of triggers should also be considered as to why more of us are getting b.c. than before.
I just watched a Netflix documentary, "Stink", that attempts to uncover the toxicities that the chemical industry exposes us to and increases in cancer rates because of those chemicals--it was quite interesting. Made me get rid of anything that wasn't a green cleaning product. I already try to avoid parabens when I can in my lotion, hair products, etc. --Avalon is a great company for that.
Claire in AZ
0 -
re chemo first vs surgery first... surgery also can provoke an inflammatory response which can cause the dissemination of cancer cells too. I read about that, and practices of anesthesia etc that discourage this from happening. And finally, there is the recent news that cells get out of tumors and into bloodstream at very early points in time, far ahead of visible lymph involvement. So most of us are systemic before we think we are. I did chemo first and it apparently worked very well but I still have concerns about stem cells lurking.
0 -
An interesting read for stage IV people
By bridging studies over time, we demonstrated improvements in survival for recurrent and de novo stage IV MBC overall and across ER-defined subtypes since 1990. These results can inform patient-doctor discussions about MBC prognosis and therapy.
0 -
A comprehensive list of treatments for stage IV.
https://thestormriders.org/science-research/promising-drugs/
0 -
kangaroo roo: great resource. I even sent it to my MO.
0 -
Is it possible to prevent breast cancer metastasis?
Study reveals how blood vessels in the bone marrow protect dormant tumor cells, suggests a way to kill them in their sleep
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2019/01/prevent-cancer-metastasis-ghajar-study.html
0 -
Predictive and Prognostic Value of Circulating Blood Lymphocyte Subsets in MBC
- The aims of the present study were to explore the effects of circulating blood lymphocyte subsets on the survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer and to evaluate their predictive and prognostic value. The clinical data of 482 patients with metastatic breast cancer were retrospectively analyzed, and patients were grouped according to molecular types of breast cancer.
- Higher circulating levels of CD4+ and CD3+ at first diagnosis of HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer were significantly associated with worse survival outcomes. Low levels of plasma CD4+ and CD3+ were associated with increased anti-HER2 benefit in patients with HER2-positive disease.
- https://www.practiceupdate.com/c/78499/67/13/?elsc...
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/c...
- doi.org/10.1002/cam4.1891
0 -
(The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, nqy223, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy223 Published:21 January 2019)
ABSTRACT
Background
There is a paucity of information on the prevalence of dietary supplement use in breast cancer survivors. Only a few studies have examined the impact of dietary supplements, particularly antioxidants, on breast cancer prognosis and the results are inconclusive.
Objective
We examined pre- and postdiagnosis use of supplements in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors in Germany and investigated associations between postdiagnosis use of antioxidants and other supplements, and prognosis (total and breast cancer mortality, and recurrence-free survival) both overall and in women who received chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Design
Data from 2223 postmenopausal women diagnosed with nonmetastatic breast cancer from the population-based Mamma Carcinoma Risk Factor Investigation (MARIE) study were used. Women were interviewed at recruitment in 2002–2005 and again in 2009 and followed-up until 30 June 2015. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to estimate HRs and corresponding 95% CIs.
Results
Pre- and postdiagnosis supplement use was reported by 36% and 45% of the women, respectively. There were 240 deaths (134 from breast cancer) and 200 breast cancer recurrences after a median follow-up time of 6.0 y after the 2009 re-interview. After adjusting for relevant confounders, concurrent antioxidant use with chemotherapy or radiation therapy among 1940 women was associated with increased risk of total mortality (HR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.66) and worsened recurrence-free survival (HR: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.26, 2.68). Overall postdiagnosis supplement use was not associated with breast cancer prognosis.
Conclusions
Antioxidant use during chemotherapy or radiation therapy was associated with worsened breast cancer prognosis in postmenopausal women. There was no overall association between postdiagnosis supplement use and breast cancer prognosis. Results from our study align with the current recommendation to possibly avoid the use of antioxidants during chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
0 -
Pharma Making $ Hand Over Fist on Oncology Drugs
Some agents continued to make billions after market exclusivity
"Blame for the hefty price tags on cancer therapies is often pinned on research and development (R&D), but on average pharmaceutical companies made over 10 times what these agents cost to develop, a new analysis found.
For the 99 FDA-approved oncology drugs with available sales data, these agents generated a median cumulative revenue of $14.50 for every $1 spent on R&D through the end of 2017...
the revenue-to-cost ratio was even greater for some blockbuster agents...{including} Trastuzumab (Herceptin): $31.20
...a recent WHO report on cancer drug pricing that found pharmaceutical companies' pricing strategies were largely "based on commercial goals" rather than the clinical value of a given agent.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/hematologyoncology/ot...
0 -
Association Between MRI Background Parenchymal Enhancement and Future Risk of Primary Breast Cancer
- The goal of this study was to evaluate comparative associations of breast MRI background parenchymal enhancement (BPE) and mammographic breast density with subsequent breast cancer risk among 4247 women.
- BPE is associated with future invasive breast cancer risk, independent of breast density. BPE should be considered for risk-prediction models in women undergoing breast MRI.
- Journal of Clinical Oncology
- https://www.practiceupdate.com/C/78448/56?elsca1=e...
- http://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.18.00378
- DOI: 10.1200/JCO.18.00378
- PMID: 30625040
0
