Cancer - June 2014 Archives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAyvFbGlWKY&feature=youtu.be CHICAGO — No maior estudo clínico já realizado para analisar a eficácia do tratamento do câncer de mama HER2 positivo, com um ou com a combinação de dois medicamentos, os pesquisadores relataram que o uso do lapatinibe (Tykerb) não apresentou  benefício ao tratamento auxiliar padrão com trastuzumabe (Herceptin), conforme apresentado durante o  50º encontro anual da Sociedade Americana de Oncologia Clínica (ASCO — American Society of Clinical Oncology). Resultados do estudo clínico de fase III ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization Study) demonstraram que ao acrescentar lapatinibe ao tratamento com trastuzimabe e quimioterapia não melhorou os resultados gerais para os pacientes (definidos como sobrevida livre da doença ou sobrevida total) e que o uso de lapatinibe aumentou de forma significativa a toxicidade do tratamento.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8PYNOBQyhM&feature=youtu.be CHICAGO — Ao examinar porque alguns pacientes com melanoma avançado respondem tão bem à imunoterapia experimental MK-3475, enquanto outros obtêm uma resposta mais fraca, pesquisadores da Clínica Mayo de Jacksonville, na Flórida, descobriram que o tamanho dos tumores, antes do tratamento, era a variável mais forte.

A beloved tennis coach is diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer and is given nine months to live. Six years later he continues to coach college ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Researchers at Mayo Clinic have demonstrated in a mouse model that their recently developed synthetic peptide carrier is a potential delivery vehicle for brain cancer chemotherapy drugs and other neurological medications. The findings appear in PLOS ONE. “Not only have we shown that we can transport eight different molecules, we think this method will be less disruptive or invasive because it mimics a normal physiological process,” says Mayo Clinic neuroscientist Gobinda Sarkar, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study. The researchers are able to transport the drugs without modifying any of the molecules involved. They say this development will aid in evaluation of potential new drugs for brain cancer. The blood-brain barrier is meant to protect the brain from numerous undesirable chemicals circulating in the body, but it also obstructs access for treatment of brain tumors and other conditions. Too often the only recourse is invasive, which often limits a drug’s effectiveness or causes irreversible damage to an already damaged brain. Nearly all of the drugs that could potentially help are too large to normally pass through the barrier. Additionally, other methods may damage the vascular system.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Tumor sequencing of several different lung cancers and their surrounding tissue complicates the prevailing theory of linear lung cancer progression and offers new insights for management of this deadly cancer, according to a new Mayo Clinic study. Sequencing results provide, for the first time, strong molecular evidence of progression from phenotypically indolent components to more aggressive disease and also show that both components can progress independently, even if they arise from the same precursor, according to the study. The paper appears online in Cancer Research. “This study sheds light on potential changes in our understanding of both the molecular pathogenesis and best treatment of lung adenocarcinoma,” says George Vasmatzis, Ph.D., senior author of the study and co-director of the Biomarker Discovery Program in the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. “The heterogeneity of lung cancer tells us repeatedly that the natural history of tumors and the roads to progression vary among cases, and multiple models are possible in certain cancers.” Lung cancer accounts for nearly 160,000 deaths every year in the United States, more than the next three most-common cancers combined, according to the American Lung Association. Treatment of early-stage cancers may be tailored according to the type of genomic alterations observed, says Dr. Vasmatzis. In some cases, this could mean less-aggressive treatment and periods of close observation, while other situations may call for more immediate interventions, such as surgery or radiation. “As suggested by clinical studies demonstrating improved disease-free and overall survival for treatment of lesions containing components of adenocarcinoma in situ [noninvasive lung cancer], it may be that this represents a distinct clinical entity that can be treated less aggressively by either sub-lobar resection or even periods of watchful waiting with close imaging follow-up prior to any treatment,” says Dr. Vasmatzis.

PHOENIX — A promising new study from Mayo Clinic, in conjunction with Caris Life Sciences, points to immunotherapy as a possible treatment option for patients with the difficult-to-treat triple negative breast cancer mutation. The study was presented this week at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. “This study may change our ability to treat triple negative breast cancer patients,” says Barbara Pockaj, M.D., lead investigator of the study and Mayo Clinic surgeon. “We may have signs that these patients can be treated with immunotherapy. We don’t have a lot of options for these patients and this would really expand our options.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAyvFbGlWKY&feature=youtu.be Journalists: Broadcast soundbites with Dr. Perez are available in the downloads. CHICAGO — In the largest clinical trial testing the effectiveness of one versus two drugs to treat HER2-positive breast cancer, lapatinib (Tykerb) did not add benefit to the standard trastuzumab (Herceptin) adjuvant therapy, researchers report at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Results of the phase III clinical trial, ALTTO (Adjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization study), demonstrated that adding lapatinib to trastuzumab and chemotherapy did not improve patient outcome (defined as disease-free survival or overall survival), and that use of lapatinib significantly increased toxicity. “These findings suggest that standard adjuvant (post-surgery) treatment for early stage HER2-positive breast cancer should remain trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy,” says Edith A. Perez, M.D., deputy director at large of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, and director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program at Mayo Clinic in Florida.