Cancer - June 2012 Archives

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — June 28, 2012.  Twenty-five years ago, in June 1987, a crew of just 47 physicians and 225 allied health employees rallied to formally launch Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Before the doors even opened, 1,800 patient appointments had been booked. Now, at the organization's 25th anniversary, set for Friday, June 29, 470 physicians and scientists and nearly 5,000 allied health employees, including many from the "original crew," will celebrate Mayo Clinic's many successes over the past quarter century of operation. Mayo Clinic in Arizona now spans two campuses, comprising more than 400 acres of land, and has added two research buildings on the Scottsdale campus and, on the Phoenix campus, a 244-bed hospital, a specialty clinic, housing for transplant and cancer patients and leased space for a child care center, a hospice and a hotel. Offsite family medicine practices were also added in Scottsdale and Glendale, Ariz. A visible new development on the Phoenix campus is construction currently under way for the Proton Beam Therapy Program, a precise form of cancer treatment that allows greater control over radiation doses, using pencil-beam scanning. Located just east of Mayo Clinic Hospital, the 100,000-plus square foot facility is expected to open its first treatment rooms by 2016. The center will be the first one in the Southwest. Plans were also announced in September 2011 for development of a branch of Mayo Medical School, called the Mayo Medical School – Arizona Campus, in collaboration with Arizona State University. Expected to open in 2015, the school will offer both a medical degree granted by Mayo and a master's degree in the Science of Health Care Delivery through ASU.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — June 20, 2012.  A molecule widely believed to fight many forms of cancer actually helps deadly thyroid tumors grow, and cancer therapies now being tested in humans might boost the activity of this newly revealed bad guy, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida say. Their findings are published online this month in the Journal of Cell Science. The study found that in anaplastic thyroid cancer, the Forkhead transcription factor, FOXO3a, is not the helpful tumor suppressor everyone thought it was, but, instead, is a lethal promoter of tumor growth. When FOXO3a was silenced in laboratory models of human anaplastic thyroid cancer, the cells grew slowly, but when it was added, they grew much faster. "This result is exactly the opposite of what we expected," says senior author John A. Copland, Ph.D., a Mayo cancer biologist. "We were more than surprised. We were concerned." FOXO3a is known as a suppressor of tumor growth because it responds to all forms of cell stress, including that produced in cancer, by turning on genes inside the nucleus that trigger the cell's death. Cancer, in turn, is known to shut down FOXO3a by sending it out of the nucleus and into the cell's cytoplasm, where it is degraded. The molecule that ships FOXO3a out of the nucleus is Akt, which tries to keep cancer cells alive. The research team used an Akt blocker — similar to the ones now being used in human cancer clinical trials — expecting to increase nuclear FOXO3a and suppress cancer growth in anaplastic thyroid cancer. They were trying to find a treatment for one of the deadliest known cancers, which accounts for just 2 percent of thyroid cancer cases in the U.S. but is responsible for about 40 percent of thyroid cancer deaths. "The issue we are grappling with is that there are no effective treatments for this cancer. These tumors are so aggressive because there are so many genetic abnormalities," says study co-author Robert Smallridge, M.D., a Mayo endocrinologist who treats thyroid cancer patients. "We are studying what drives this cancer and how it can be treated." The study showed that FOXO3a remained in the nucleus, with the use of an Akt inhibitor, and that instead of helping to kill cancer cells, FOXO3a was accelerating their growth. This raises concern about the use of Akt inhibitors since one of the mechanisms is to cause FOXO3a to remain active in the nucleus. "We discovered a biological switch that turns FOXO3a from a good guy into a bad actor, but we don't know what that is yet, or in which cancers that might happen," says lead researcher Laura Marlow, a Mayo biologist. "Cancer researchers, including those testing Akt inhibitors, should know that FOXO3a has pro-cancer activity as well as anti-cancer properties," Dr. Copland says. "Concern should be raised that an Akt inhibitor will enhance retention of FOXO3a in the nucleus, causing FOXO3a to remain active.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — June 13, 2012.  There is a lot of conflicting advice about prostate cancer screening. A recent U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommendation against prostate-specific antigen testing, regardless of age, has added to men's confusion about how to protect themselves from a cancer that hits roughly 240,000 new patients every year and claims 28,000 lives. VIDEO ALERT: PSA: To Test or Not To Test To download broadcast quality video of this report, please register for the Mayo Clinic News Network. Mayo Clinic urologists recommend a personalized approach to determining whether or not a patient should consider PSA screening for prostate cancer. This approach should begin at age 40 and include: Individual and family medical history. The patient's age, recognizing the age-related increase in cancer risk. The patient's ethnic background, noting that African-American men have the highest risk of prostate cancer. A discussion of the pros and cons of PSA screening. Other medical conditions that can affect PSA score. Organizations that recommend PSA screening generally encourage the test between ages 40 and 75 and in men with a higher risk of prostate cancer, says Mayo urologist Jeffrey Karnes, M.D. "It may be a simple test but it's not a simple decision," Dr. Karnes says. "A PSA test is something you should decide after discussing it with your doctor, considering your risk factors and weighing your personal preferences." Cancer overall is the No. 2 health threat to men. June is Men's Health Month, highlighting health issues of particular concern to men and strategies for prevention and treatment. Dr. Karnes and other Mayo Clinic urologists are available for media interviews about prostate cancer screening strategies for men in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s that take into account the pros and cons of PSA testing. They're also available to talk about new gene-based prostate cancer screening tests on the horizon.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — June 6, 2012.  It's the most common form of skin cancer, but in its advanced stages, basal cell carcinoma has the potential to become disfiguring and life threatening. An international phase 2 study headed by Mayo Clinic led to the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of the first drug of its kind to help advanced basal cell carcinoma patients who have few treatment options. The results appear in the June 7 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. VIDEO ALERT: Click here for footage of Dr. Sekulic. The study found the drug Erivedge (vismodegib) shrank advanced basal cell carcinoma tumors in 43 percent of patients with locally advanced disease and in 30 percent of patients whose disease spread to other organs. "This targeted therapy represents a new paradigm in cancer treatment," says lead researcher Aleksandar Sekulic, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist and cancer researcher at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. More than 2 million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancer are found in this country each year. Basal cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 80 percent of all diagnosed non-melanoma skin cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. It occurs when a basal cell develops a mutation in its DNA, causing it to multiply rapidly, with the potential of forming a cancerous tumor. In most cases, when basal cell carcinoma is diagnosed early it is treated effectively by surgery. When the cancer reaches an advanced state, surgery is not always an option or can be disfiguring. The disease can also be life threatening if left untreated or if it further advances into the skin, bone and tissue. Erivedge can shrink a tumor by targeting a molecular signaling pathway that fuels the cancer cells and shut it down, Dr. Sekulic says. "These findings are very exciting because we haven't had any therapies before that worked to this degree for advanced basal cell carcinoma," he says. Dr. Sekulic adds that more research is needed to determine if the drug has the potential to improve treatment for those in earlier stages of the disease, those with multiple basal cell carcinomas and those with a genetic predisposition to the disease. The study included researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; Sint-Augustinus Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium; University of Colorado Cancer Center, Denver; Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Nashville, Tenn.; University of California, San Francisco; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; John Hopkins University, Baltimore; Genentech, Inc., San Francisco; and the Universitatsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany.

It’s the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, and in its advanced stages can become disfiguring and life threatening. For patients with few ...