Florida - October 2014 Archives

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the U.S. Department of Defense have awarded researchers at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville approximately $6 million in two grants to further their studies aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from either amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). NINDS has awarded Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Neuroscience, and his colleagues Kevin Boylan, M.D., Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., and Dennis Dickson, M.D., a five-year P01 grant (P01 NS084974-1) to combine their expertise in neurology, genetics, neuropathology and cell biology. Given that no biomarker or blood test currently exists for clinicians to definitely diagnose ALS or FTD, the funding will allow researchers to improve understanding of C9ORF72-related neurodegeneration, identify potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets, and develop a biological fluid and tissue resource to aid future drug discovery. MEDIA CONTACT: Kevin Punsky, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 904-953-0746. Email: punsky.kevin@mayo.edu

Years After Treatment for HER2-Positive Early Stage Breast Cancer Trastuzumab Shows Life-Altering Benefit  JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After following breast cancer patients for an average of eight-plus years, researchers say that adding trastuzumab (Herceptin) to chemotherapy significantly improved the overall and disease-free survival of women with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer. They found that the use of trastuzumab produced a 37 percent improvement in survival and a 40 percent reduction in risk of cancer occurrence, compared to patients treated with chemotherapy alone. These findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, demonstrate how important trastuzumab has been to the treatment of this form of breast cancer, says the study’s lead author, Edith A. Perez, M.D., deputy director at large, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and director of the Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Program at Mayo Clinic in Florida.