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A CURE FOR CANCER? ISRAELI SCIENTISTS SAY THEY THINK THEY FOUND ONE
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/A-cure-for-ca...
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marijen Hope this true but I'll believe it when I see it
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A word of caution here.
"Morad said that so far, the company has concluded its first exploratory mice experiment, which inhibited human cancer cell growth and had no effect at all on healthy mice cells, in addition to several in-vitro trials. AEBi is on the cusp of beginning a round of clinical trials which could be completed within a few years and would make the treatment available in specific cases."
This prediction is the result of mice studies, they are not saying which cancers they think they can cure (remember bc has many variations) and they are not saying when they think this procedure would be widely available.
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They are taking the "throw everything in to kill the cancer once and for all" approach. Some MOs would do that but the risk is that if/when the cancer returns, it may be untreatable. Others MOs rather use the drugs one by one to try and extend the life of the patient knowing that eventually, the cancer does not respond to further treatments.
As others stated, if this is really a cure (like cure for HIV as mentioned) and cost less than current treatments, that's be super awesome!
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I wonder if using the drugs one by one isn’t simply making the cancer stronger.
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Correct, that's the view point of the MO who believe it is better to throw everything at the cancer. And also the reason that some drug combo are much more effective when used together instead of alone.
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Engineered Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium overcomes limitations of anti-bacterial immunity in bacteria-mediated tumor therapy
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2162402X.2017.1382791
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The Modern Tradgedy of Fake Cancer Cure
By MATTHEW HERPER @matthewherper
FEBRUARY 1, 2019
So it happened again. An underreported story about a half-baked advance in cancer medicine caught fire and scorched its way through social media, onto network TV, and into the minds of millions of people.
To start, no. There won't be "a complete cure for cancer" in a year's time, as the chairman of a small Israeli biotechnology firm predicted to the Jerusalem Post. The claim, absurd on its face, was particularly frustrating to those who work in medicine and drug development because it seemed so obvious there was not enough evidence to make it.
It doesn't take a lot of complicated biology to understand why. You simply need the information contained in the Jerusalem Post's article: that the data available so far are from a single study in mice and that they have not been published in a scientific journal.
Saying that most experiments in mice don't translate to human beings doesn't quite get the point across. It's more correct to say that almost none of them do.
According to the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the odds of a medicine being tested in human beings proving safe and effective enough for widespread use are just 1 in 10. Another analysis by MIT economists gives slightly better odds, of 1 in 7. But both groups agree that the chances of success for cancer drugs are far worse than the norm: 1 in 20, according to BIO, and 1 in 30 according to the otherwise more optimistic MIT group.
Related:So good it hurts: Why drug makers looking to replace opioids want to keep some pain in the picture
Stated another way, up to 97 percent of cancer drugs fail. What's more, the Israeli company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), is at an earlier stage in the development of its drug, a point at which its odds are still lower. The Jerusalem Post article says that the company has finished its first experiment in mice, but that it hopes to begin clinical trials that could be completed in a few years.
Another useful number on experience and speed: Loxo Oncology, which is being purchased by Eli Lilly for $8 billion, got its first medicine from mouse studies to approval quickly. Quickly, in this case, is five years.
If you have this background, the original quotes in the Jerusalem Post article sound like an entrepreneur trying to get attention for a technology he believes in. The Jerusalem Post quotes Dan Aridor, the chairman of AEBi, as saying: "Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market. Our solution will be both generic and personal." Plenty of entrepreneurs hope that. But reality is very, very hard. In another interview with The Times of Israel, the company's chief executive gave somewhat less enthusiastic quotes.
That shouldn't mask the fantastic progress being made with cancer drugs. A simple example: Jimmy Carter, the humanitarian and former U.S. president, is alive thanks in large part to a drug called Keytruda, made by Merck, that primes the immune system to attack tumors.
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But part of the problem is that even in cases like Carter's, this amazing progress comes with complications. Not everyone has such an amazing response to these cutting-edge treatments. In first-line melanoma, a quarter of patients who get the drug will still die. But in such a hard-to-treat disease, that's a great result.
Life is complicated, and so are cancer treatments. Cancer is older than human beings. Scientists have found dinosaurs with metastatic tumors. It's simply not likely we're going to outsmart all cancers with a single treatment, without drawbacks.
That's the seductive message that sold here, though. It's what Glenn Beck tweeted: "A TOTAL cure for cancer. Cheap, quick, no side effects." It's what led the Drudge Report to link to the story, saying: "Israeli Scientists Think They Found Cancer Cure…" It's what led to coverage on myriad other news sources, including local news.
Jonathan Swift noted that a lie can traverse the world while the truth limps behind it 300 years ago. In the age of social media, the problem seems as though it has gotten worse: think the rise of Theranos, or believing that Jack Andraka's high school science fair project was a breakthrough. In medicine, this kind of virality means false hopes, dashed dreams, and a whole lot of hype. We are desperate for a solution.
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The downside of inflammatory news about cancer
By Dena Battle
https://www.statnews.com/2019/02/01/downside-infla...
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Yes, this was a shocker, one of the worst for a long while.
To quote the author:
If the Jerusalem Post and other news outlets that carried the story had looked beyond their quest for hype, the headline would have been "A theory that might lead to a curative therapy for some cancer patients perhaps in the next decade."
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Thanks for posting that quote, Traveltext. Sums it up nicely. (I should have included it. )
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Pfizer's Trastuzumab Biosimilar Noninferior in Two Breast Ca Trials
Results similar to branded drug in metastatic, neoadjuvant breast cancer studies
A biosimilar to trastuzumab (Herceptin) demonstrated noninferiority versus the branded drug in a randomized trial of patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.
Treatment with Pfizer's biosimilar PF-05280014 plus paclitaxel led to objective responses in 62.5% of patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer compared with 66.5% for European-sourced (EU) trastuzumab and the taxane, a difference that met statistical requirements for noninferiority. The two treatment groups had virtually identical progression-free survival (PFS), as reported in the British Journal of Cancer (BJC).
The incidence of grade 3/4 treatment-emergent adverse events (irrespective of cause) was 38.1% for patients treated with the biosimilar and 45.5% for the group that received the branded product. No patient in the PF-05280014 group developed antidrug antibodies as compared with 0.89% in the trastuzumab-EU group.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/hematologyoncology/br...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0340-2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0340-2
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dang it! I knew that Jerusalem article sounded too good to be true 😤
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February 01, 2019
Long-Term Incidence of A-Fib Increased in Women With Breast Cancer
Women younger than 60 years have increased short-term, longer-term risk.HealthDay News — Women with breast cancer have an increased long-term incidence of atrial fibrillation(AF), according to a study published online January 28 in Heart Rhythm.
Maria D'Souza, MD, from Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev-Gentofte in Denmark, and colleagues estimated the long-term incidence of AF in patients with breast cancer identified from 1998 to 2015 using nationwide registries. A total of 74,155 female patients with breast cancer were matched with 222,465 patients from the background population by age and sex.
The researchers observed a correlation for breast cancer with incident AF; the correlation varied between age groups and follow-up time periods. Breast cancer was associated with an increased incidence of AF during the first 6 months and from 6 months to 3 years for patients younger than 60 years (hazard ratios, 2.1 [95% confidence interval, 1.25 to 3.44] and 1.8 [95% confidence interval, 1.38 to 2.35], respectively). Breast cancer was not associated with an increased incidence of AF during the first 6 months but was associated with an increased incidence from 6 months to 3 years for patients older than 60 years (hazard ratios, 1.13 [95% confidence interval, 0.95 to 1.34] and 1.14 [95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 1.25], respectively).
"Our findings should encourage doctors to focus on the risk of AF in patients with recent breast cancer in order to diagnose and treat as early as possible," D'Souza said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
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The Risk of Cardiovascular Hospitalizations After Early-Stage Breast Cancer
- This matched cohort study was designed to evaluate the risk of cardiovascular hospitalizations after early-stage breast cancer. The 10-year incidence of cardiovascular hospitalization was 10.8% among patients after treatment for early breast cancer compared with a 9.1% incidence among controls. Atherosclerotic diagnoses were more common than heart failure as the reason for hospitalization. Heart failure hospitalization tended to occur among patients with risk factors preceding chemotherapy.
- Following treatment for early-stage breast cancer, the most common reason for cardiovascular hospitalization was atherosclerotic disease. Most patients with heart failure had risk factors evident prior to chemotherapy, and this may present opportunities for health promotion.
Journal of the National Cancer InstitutePublished: 31 January 2019
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Safety of T-DM1 in Patients With HER2+ Advanced Breast Cancer: Primary Results From the KAMILLA Study Cohort 1
- Published in: European Journal of Cancer This phase IIIb study was designed to evaluate the safety of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) for patients with previously treated advanced HER2-positive breast cancer. T-DM1 was found to be tolerable and safe in this setting. Grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 37.5% of patients, the most common of which were anemia, thrombocytopenia, and fatigue. Median progression-free survival was 6.9 months, and median overall survival was 27.2 months.These results are similar to those reported in previous randomized studies and confirm that T-DM1 is safe, effective, and well-tolerated in women with previously treated HER2-positive advanced breast cancer.
March 2019 Volume 109, Pages 92–1020 -
Effects of Neratinib on Health-Related Quality-of-Life in Women With HER2-Positive Early-Stage Breast Cancer
- Annals of Oncology The authors report health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) data from a phase III trial evaluating neratinib for adjuvant therapy among patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.Adjuvant neratinib was associated with a transient decrease in HRQoL during the first month of treatment. There were no other meaningful changes in HRQoL.https://academic.oup.com/annonc/advance-article-ab...https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdz016Published: 23 January 2019
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HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
FDA Approval Sought for Adjuvant T-DM1 in High-Risk HER2+ Breast Cancer
Genentech has completed its FDA submission of a supplemental biologics license application for ado-trastuzumab emtansine as an adjuvant treatment for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer who had residual disease following neoadjuvant therapy.
New Findings Expand Options in Early HER2-Positive Breast Cancer
During a recent OncLive Peer Exchange®, panel members discussed the use of HER2-targeted therapies in patients with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer in the neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings.
Margetuximab Improves PFS in Metastatic HER2+ Breast Cancer
Margetuximab in combination with chemotherapy improved progression-free survival compared with trastuzumab and chemotherapy in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer.
HER2+ Breast Cancer Treatment Evolving With New Data, Novel Agents
Erika P. Hamilton, MD, reflects on the latest data in HER2-positive breast cancer and additional therapies moving through the pipeline.
Making Sense of Adjuvant Therapy in HER2+ Breast Cancer
Given recent changes in the treatment paradigm of HER2-positive breast cancer, the expert panelists outline their approaches to selecting adjuvant therapy.
Pathologic Complete Response in HER2+ Breast Cancer
The role of pathologic complete response (PCR) is brought into question by the panel of experts, who reflect on its prognostic value in HER2-positive breast cancer.
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Wow Marijen - Thanks. I watched a couple of the discussions & will watch again. Things have really changed for HER2+ since 2014. One article required that I sign in or register to continue past page one. Do you know if you have to be an MD? Or can anyone register?
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Glad to help MinusTwo. I have a sign in and not a professional. They just want to know who’s reading - patient, researcher, whatever. It’s free.
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Cristofanilli Explains Precision of Liquid Biopsies in Advanced Breast Cancer
https://www.onclive.com/web-exclusives/cristofanil...
In the pivotal SOLAR-1 trial... Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) was a major indicator of response to the drug, as it better reflected molecular status of the disease at the time of progression.
"The liquid biopsy is becoming more of a standard of care," said Cristofanilli. "It is very clear we need to use it more and more, as soon as a patient is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and there is the possibility to obtain a biopsy."
We... asked the question, "Can we identify patients who have worse outcomes in the overall population and in the de novo established disease?" If that was the case, we do have different diseases, because that is the basis of staging.
We are moving from calling this >5 or <5 CTCs to stage IV indolent and stage IV aggressive [disease]. We essentially had demonstrated [in a statistically significant fashion] that >5 is a much worse outcome in patients who have de novo disease and in the overall population. This is for first- and second-line settings, as well as later lines of therapy.
Now, this means a lot; it means that when we try to propose the standard of care a patient for their more aggressive or less aggressive disease, we have to consider them as different biologies. If we try to develop drugs in this space of metastatic disease, we have to at least stratify by CTC levels because these are 2 different diseases with different outcomes. It might take a much longer sample size of patients with indolent disease to show the difference. Also, we tried to connect CTC-high and these more aggressive features with other [characteristics] of the liquid biopsy. We are looking into cfDNA and other mutations. One [set of findings] that we presented at the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was that patients who had >5 CTC also had more mutations. This is all relevant, because it means that we not only have a prognostic signature, but molecular features that are actionable0 -
Aggressive breast cancer risk elevated with Type 2 diabetes
The risk for developing a "more aggressive" form of breast cancer is higher among women with type 2 diabetes compared with women without diabetes, according to findings published in Diabetes Care.
Use of insulin analogues did not increase risk for more aggressive breast cancers, according to researchers.
The researchers found that tumors were larger among women with type 2 diabetes compared with women without type 2 diabetes (P < .01). In addition, women with type 2 diabetes had more lymph nodes affected (P < .05), a more advanced tumor stage (P < .01) and grade (P < .05) and less frequent instances of a progesterone receptor-negative breast tumor (P < .0001) than women without type 2 diabetes.
https://www.healio.com/endocrinology/diabetes/news...
Overbeek JA, et al. Diabetes Care. 2019;doi:10.2337/dc18-2146.
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Statin Drugs to Reduce Breast Cancer Recurrence and Mortality
The benefits of statins on reducing breast cancer recurrence appears to be strongest in younger patients... {researchers} demonstrated a 36% reduction in the risk of breast cancer recurrence in patients taking lipophilic statins...data in aggregate suggest lipophilic statins, and not hydrophilic statins, reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence, which may indicate a role for statins as agents to impede this mortal stage of tumor progression and secondarily implicate a non-cholesterol effect such as direct tumor cell reduction of prenylation or an indirect effect via reduced inflammatory cytokine release. the majority of published data suggest that statins have a mortality benefit in most cancer types.
A meta-analysis by Liu et al. demonstrated a 43% reduction in BCSM in women with breast cancer, which was confined to those taking lipophilic statins.[50] A nationwide cohort study in Finland by Murtola and colleagues demonstrated a 46% and 54% reduction in BCSM for pre- and post-diagnosis statin users, respectively.[51] A nationwide cohort study in the UK by Cardwell et al. demonstrated a 16% reduction in BCSM considering all statins, but a greater reduction in patients taking simvastatin, a lipophilic statin.[52] Finally, a nationwide cohort study in Scotland by McMenamin et al. demonstrated a 15% reduction in BCSM in pre-diagnosis statin users.....data suggest statin usage can reduce cancer-specific mortality. Coupling this with the foregoing data suggesting statins can decrease breast cancer recurrence leads to the conclusion that statins can reduce the percentage of patients who experience relapse after therapy and thereby increase breast cancer survival.
Prospective clinical trials should investigate statin use as adjuvant therapy in breast cancer.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/907711_1
Breast Cancer Res. 2018;20(1)
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Robotic Mastectomy in US: Starts, Draws Fire, Stops
Potential 'Disaster' or Evolutionary 'Next Step'?
Robotic mastectomy for invasive breast cancer was performed for the first time in the United States last year, but the move toward this surgical approach ground to a halt soon afterward.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/908823#vp_1
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Roche Adapts Newer Breast Cancer Drug in Face of Herceptin Imitations
Roche aims to broaden the use of Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine) for breast cancer as rivals crowd into the market with biosimilar copies of its older mainstay Herceptin (trastuzumab).
Roche said on Tuesday it had applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Kadcyla, a five-year-old drug, for post-surgical use in women with a form of early stage breast cancer who still show signs of disease after treatment with Herceptin and chemotherapy.
"With Kadcyla, the approximately 60 percent share of sales generated by Herceptin as an adjuvant would be secured for several years..."
Of people treated with Kadcyla, 88.3 percent did not see their breast cancer return after three years - compared to 77 percent treated after surgery with Herceptin - according to a clinical study Roche is using to underpin its approval case with the FDA.
The FDA has granted the medicine a speedy review, Roche said, pointing to a decision in coming months.
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Half a Million Breast Cancer Deaths Avoided in Last 30 Years
Encouraging Statistics Are a Result of Improved Treatment and Screening
Progress in both detection and management of breast cancer may have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of women over the past three decades, according to a new report.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/908920#vp_1
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/c...
Cancer 2019;0:1-7
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Calif. Physician Indicted in Alleged Cancer Drug Scam
Benedict Liao, MD, was featured in earlier MedPage Today investigation
by John Fauber, Reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage TodayFebruary 08, 2019
A physician who was the subject of a 2018 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Todayinvestigation has been indicted by federal prosecutors as part of an alleged $1.6-million scheme to sell an unapproved cancer drug to patients around the country.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/et...
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iMedicalApps: Medicare's 'What's Covered' Review
Unravel the mysteries of Medicare on your mobile device
In January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a new app called "What's covered." The app takes some of the most popular information from the Medicare website and puts it in the palm of patients and providers hands via an intuitive app.
The primary focus for the app is on the common "what's covered" preventive services questions....The app contains key information on both Part A and Part B coverage and the prices for what is/isn't covered in those two areas....The app emphasizes those preventive services that are or are not covered (such as USPSTF recommendations) and both hospital and outpatient information. All data is available on the Medicare website, but the app is more user-friendly regarding Medicare -- what's covered.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/iltifathusain/7...
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'Remarkable' New Benefit in HER2+ Breast Cancer
KATHERINE and T-DM1 Change Practice
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/909055?src=wn...
{More on the results of the KATHERINE trial - clearer coverage of some aspects of the trial, IMHO.}
The trial enrolled patients with stage I to III HER2-positive disease who were found to have residual disease upon excision after standard neoadjuvant treatment (chemotherapy plus a HER2-targeted drug). The trialists randomized these patients to post-surgery ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1; Kadcyla, Roche) or the current adjuvant standard — trastuzumab — for 14 cycles.
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Chocolate Fights Coughs Better Than Codeine, Says Science
https://www.coastalliving.com/food/chocolate-cures...
Good news for chocoholics. The next time you come down with a cough, just pop a piece of your favorite treat and you'll get all the cough-suppressing effects of codeine syrup without the fuzzy-headed side-effects. Here's how it works.
{To quote the contact who sent me this link "a friend sent me this article. I have prudently decided to accept the conclusion without evaluating the scientific evidence
" Chocolate is my favorite therapy.} 0
