Searching for magic bullet against cancer caused by asbestos: One step closer?

Jan. 17, 2014 — Mesothelioma is a very aggressive cancer associated with asbestos exposure, which is usually diagnosed in an advanced stage. So far no therapeutic strategy has proven effective against this deadly cancer and the prognosis remains very poor with only few exceptions.

In December, the research team of Antonio Giordano, a pathologist, Director and Founder of the Sbarro Health Research Organization in Philadelphia, PA, and Professor of Pathology and Oncology at the University of Siena, Italy, published two separate studies aiming to address the urgent need to identify possible new methods for mesothelioma treatment.

In the first study, published in the scientific journal Cell Cycle, Giordano's researchers tested on mesothelioma cells the effect of two drugs designed to reactivate the p53 protein, one of the most important 'tumor suppressors', which is turned off in most human cancers. "In mesothelioma, although p53 is rarely mutated, it is inactivated by alterations in its pathway," says Francesca Pentimalli of the National Cancer Institute of Naples, Italy, lead author of the study. Both of the drugs used in the study target p53, but with different mechanisms of action. One in particular, called RITA, proved to be very toxic. Specifically, RITA caused mesothelioma cells, and not 'healthy' cells, to undergo apoptosis -- a type of programmed cell death that occurs through the activation of a specific 'cascade' of events.

"The ability of RITA to induce apoptosis is remarkable considering that mesothelioma is very refractory to this process. In fact the most aggressive and rare variant, sarcomatoid mesothelioma, did not respond to the treatment probably because of its intrinsically high levels of molecules acting as inhibitors of this process" says Alfredo Budillon, Head of the Experimental Pharmacology Unit of the National Cancer Institute of Naples and coauthor of the study. "It remains to be seen whether the combination of RITA with other activators of apoptosis can achieve efficacy also against the more aggressive cases."

Furthermore, challenging mesothelioma cells with RITA worked in synergy with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, which is the mainstay of treatment for this disease, suggesting that its use in a clinical setting could possibly help to reduce the required doses and the side effects of chemotherapy, thereby improving patients' quality of life.

The second study, published online in Cancer Biology and Therapy and led by Paola Indovina of the University of Siena and the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Temple University in Philadelphia, was designed along the same lines as the first study. In the second study, the authors tested, for the first time in mesothelioma, a new drug called MK-1775 in combination with cisplatin. MK-1775 is a selective inhibitor of WEE1, a protein that is crucial in activating a 'checkpoint' for the repair of damaged DNA before the cell starts its division process. The rationale for this strategy is based on the fact that many cancer cells, especially those with non-functional p53, rely on WEE1 to stall cell division and allow cells to repair the damage induced by genotoxic agents, such as many chemotherapeutic drugs, including cisplatin. WEE1 inhibition limits the time available for repair and, therefore, sensitizes cancer cells to DNA-damaging agents. Indeed, inhibiting WEE1 with MK-1775 selectively sensitized mesothelioma cells to the genotoxic action of cisplatin by preventing checkpoint activation and forcing the cells to divide despite the damage, thus triggering apoptosis.

"Overall our studies are aimed at identifying promising new molecular therapies against mesothelioma that hold the potential for clinical use in the near future. MK-1775, for example, is already being utilized in clinical trials for other types of tumors in the United States," Giordano concludes.

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Research proposes alternative therapy against lung cancer

Jan. 6, 2014 — Research from the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) informs that besides smoking, there are other factors associated to the development of lung cancer such as the smoke from burning lumber and coal, as well as pollutant particles.

"It has been considered that the upturn in cases of lung cancer is possibly related to this particles," explains Patricia Gorocica from the INER, who, alongside her research team, has been working in an alternative therapy to boost the immune system of patients with this disease.

The specialist adds that since several years ago is known that the immune system has all the mechanism to watch and destroy tumor cells as they develop, but sometimes this mechanisms are not effective for reasons associated to the tumor or alterations of the patients organism.

Based in this principle, research at INER is directed to regulate the immune system against tumors. The tumor that can be more easily eliminated are the ones that express specific antigens.

Patricia Gorocica, chief of the Department of Biochemical Research at INER, details that with current technology is possible to manipulate the immune response against tumors. "We are developing at the lab a system of cell activation from the patient's own blood so it can eliminate its tumors."

This is a starting research, but it could be consolidated as an alternative therapy for the patients with lung cancer. The labor is being done with the support of the institutes of Biotechnology and Chemistry of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM), hoping that others will add to the cause, since this research requires a multi-disciplinary team for succeeding.

Gorocica adds that manipulating the immune system could be a new complementary therapy to chemo and radiotherapy usually used for treating lung cancer.

The research at INER is mainly focused in patients with lung adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer that has the most alterations in its tumor cells. It usually affects people of various ages, accentuated in people over 40, but has been known to affect the 20-something population.

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World malaria report 2013 shows major progress in fight against malaria, calls for sustained financing

11 December 2013 | Geneva/Washington DC - Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives since 2000, reducing malaria mortality rates by 45% globally and by 49% in Africa, according to the "World malaria report 2013" published by WHO.

An expansion of prevention and control measures has been mirrored by a consistent decline in malaria deaths and illness, despite an increase in the global population at risk of malaria between 2000 and 2012. Increased political commitment and expanded funding have helped to reduce incidence of malaria by 29% globally, and by 31% in Africa.

The large majority of the 3.3 million lives saved between 2000 and 2012 were in the 10 countries with the highest malaria burden, and among children aged less than 5 years – the group most affected by the disease. Over the same period, malaria mortality rates in children in Africa were reduced by an estimated 54%.

But more needs to be done.

“This remarkable progress is no cause for complacency: absolute numbers of malaria cases and deaths are not going down as fast as they could,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “The fact that so many people are infected and dying from mosquito bites is one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century.”

In 2012, there were an estimated 207 million cases of malaria (uncertainty interval: 135 – 287 million), which caused approximately 627?000 malaria deaths (uncertainty interval 473?000 – 789?000). An estimated 3.4 billion people continue to be at risk of malaria, mostly in Africa and south-east Asia. Around 80% of malaria cases occur in Africa.

Long way from universal access to prevention and treatment

Malaria prevention suffered a setback after its strong build-up between 2005 and 2010. The new WHO report notes a slowdown in the expansion of interventions to control mosquitoes for the second successive year, particularly in providing access to insecticide-treated bed nets. This has been primarily due to lack of funds to procure bed nets in countries that have ongoing malaria transmission.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of the population with access to an insecticide-treated bed net remained well under 50% in 2013. Only 70 million new bed nets were delivered to malaria-endemic countries in 2012, below the 150 million minimum needed every year to ensure everyone at risk is protected. However, in 2013, about 136 million nets were delivered, and the pipeline for 2014 looks even stronger (approximately 200 million), suggesting that there is real chance for a turnaround.

There was no such setback for malaria diagnostic testing, which has continued to expand in recent years. Between 2010 and 2012, the proportion of people with suspected malaria who received a diagnostic test in the public sector increased from 44% to 64% globally.

Access to WHO-recommended artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) has also increased, with the number of treatment courses delivered to countries rising from 76 million in 2006 to 331 million in 2012.

Despite this progress, millions of people continue to lack access to diagnosis and quality-assured treatment, particularly in countries with weak health systems. The roll-out of preventive therapies – recommended for infants, children under 5 and pregnant women – has also been slow in recent years.

“To win the fight against malaria we must get the means to prevent and treat the disease to every family who needs it,” says Raymond G Chambers, the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health MDGs and for Malaria. "Our collective efforts are not only ending the needless suffering of millions, but are helping families thrive and adding billions of dollars to economies that nations can use in other ways.”

Global funding gap

International funding for malaria control increased from less than US$ 100 million in 2000 to almost US$ 2 billion in 2012. Domestic funding stood at around US$ 0.5 billion in the same year, bringing the total international and domestic funding committed to malaria control to US$ 2.5 billion in 2012 – less than half the US$ 5.1 billion needed each year to achieve universal access to interventions.

Without adequate and predictable funding, the progress against malaria is also threatened by emerging parasite resistance to artemisinin, the core component of ACTs, and mosquito resistance to insecticides. Artemisinin resistance has been detected in four countries in south-east Asia, and insecticide resistance has been found in at least 64 countries.

“The remarkable gains against malaria are still fragile,” says Dr Robert Newman, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme. “In the next 10-15 years, the world will need innovative tools and technologies, as well as new strategic approaches to sustain and accelerate progress.”

WHO is currently developing a global technical strategy for malaria control and elimination for the 2016-2025 period, as well as a global plan to control and eliminate Plasmodium vivax malaria. Prevalent primarily in Asia and South America, P. vivax malaria is less likely than P. falciparum to result in severe malaria or death, but it generally responds more slowly to control efforts. Globally, about 9% of the estimated malaria cases are due to P. vivax, although the proportion outside the African continent is 50%.

"The vote of confidence shown by donors last week at the replenishment conference for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is testimony to the success of global partnership. But we must fill the annual gap of US$ 2.6 billion to achieve universal coverage and prevent malaria deaths," said Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. "This is our historic opportunity to defeat malaria."

Notes for editors:

The "World malaria report 2013" summarizes information received from 102 countries that had on-going malaria transmission during the 2000-2012 period, and other sources, and updates the analyses presented in 2012.

The report contains revised estimates of the number of malaria cases and deaths, which integrate new and updated under-5 mortality estimates produced by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, as well as new data from the Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group.

For more information, please contact:

In Geneva
Fadela Chaib
WHO Communications Officer/Spokesperson
Telephone: +41 22 791 3228
Mobile: +41 79 475 5556
E-mail: chaibf@who.int

In Washington DC
Phil Coticelli
Telephone: +1 301 801 5801
E-mail: phil@coticelligroup.com

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Advances in nanotechnology's fight against cancer

Dec. 19, 2013 — As cancer maintains its standing as the second leading cause of death in the U.S., researchers have continued their quest for safer and more effective treatments. Among the most promising advances has been the rise of nanomedicine, the application of tiny materials and devices whose sizes are measured in the billionths of a meter to detect, diagnose and treat disease.

A new research review co-authored by a UCLA professor provides one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of research on nanomedicine-based approaches to treating cancer and offers insight into how researchers can best position nanomedicine-based cancer treatments for FDA approval.

The article, by Dean Ho, professor of oral biology and medicine at the UCLA School of Dentistry, and Edward Chow, assistant professor at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and the National University of Singapore, was published online by the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine. Ho and Chow describe the paths that nanotechnology-enabled therapies could take -- and the regulatory and funding obstacles they could encounter -- as they progress through safety and efficacy studies.

"Manufacturing, safety and toxicity studies that will be accepted by the Food and Drug Administration before clinical studies are just some of the considerations that continue to be addressed by the nanomedicine field," said Chow, the paper's co-corresponding author.

Compared with other available therapies, nanomedicine has proven to be especially promising in fighting cancer. In preclinical trials, nanomaterials have produced safer and more effective imaging and drug delivery, and they have enabled researchers to precisely target tumors while sparing patients' healthy tissue. In addition, nanotechnology has significantly improved the sensitivity of magnetic resonance imaging, making hard-to-find cancers easier to detect.

"A broad spectrum of innovative vehicles is being developed by the cancer nanomedicine community for targeted drug delivery and imaging systems," said Dr. Ho, the paper's corresponding author and co-director of the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at the UCLA School of Dentistry. "It is important to address regulatory issues, overcome manufacturing challenges and outline a strategy for implementing nanomedicine therapies -- both individually and in combination -- to help achieve widespread acceptance for the clinical use of cancer nanomedicine."

Ho's team previously pioneered the development of a nanodiamond-doxorubicin compound named NDX. In preclinical studies conducted with Chow, NDX was found to be safer and more effective than unmodified doxorubicin, a clinical standard, for treating breast, liver and other cancer models.

Ho and Chow's new report features multiple studies in which the use of nanoparticles was translated from the preclinical to the clinical stage. In several of the highlighted studies, nanotechnology-modified drugs showed improvements over conventional, drug-only approaches because of their ability to overcome drug resistance (which occurs when tumors reject the drug and stop responding to treatment), to more effective tumor reduction, among other advantages.

The authors also describe how algorithm-based methods that rapidly determine the best drug combinations, and computation-based methods that draw information from databases of drug interactions and side effects, to help rationally design drug combinations could potentially be paired with nanomedicine to deliver multiple nano-therapies together to further improve the potency and safety of cancer treatments.

"This research review by Dr. Ho and his colleagues lays the groundwork for nanomedicine to become a widely accepted cancer therapy," said Dr. No-Hee Park, dean of the UCLA School of Dentistry. "This blueprint for navigating the process from bench research to mainstream clinical use is invaluable to the nanotechnology community."

Dr. Ho, also a professor of bioengineering and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and California NanoSystems Institute, noted that nanomedicine regulation is still in its early stages, but the clinical use of existing nanoparticle drugs, such as the protein-modified breast cancer drug Abraxane, is a promising start.

"The FDA's approval of Abraxane provides a strong foundation for the continued acceleration of new cancer nanomedicine therapies and imaging solutions in the fight against cancer," Ho said.

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Children in typhoon-hit Tacloban, Philippines, receive vaccines against measles, polio

26 November 2013 | Tacloban, Philippines - Children in Tacloban - the city hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan - were today vaccinated against measles and polio in the first phase of a mass campaign by the Government of the Philippines with support from WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other partners. They also received Vitamin A supplements to help improve their immunity against infections.

30 000 children targeted in first phase

Over 30?000 children are expected to be reached by the campaign which is taking place at fixed sites in evacuation centres and in communities using mobile health teams.

"It is virtually unprecedented that within two-and-a-half weeks of a disaster of this scale, with this level of devastation and these logistical challenges, that a mass vaccination campaign is already rolling out."

Dr Julie Hall, WHO Representative in the Philippines

The vaccination drive in Tacloban is the first phase of a campaign targeting children aged less than 5 years in all the typhoon-affected areas. Fifteen teams (10 foreign and 5 national) including volunteers from the Department of Health, the Philippines Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations, were in locations across Tacloban giving vaccines today. The first to receive them were children in 20 evacuation centres, such as San Jose Elementary School, where more than 300 families currently live in conditions that can heighten the risk of infectious diseases.

"The children of Tacloban need all the protection they can get right now," says Angela Kearney, UNICEF Coordinator for the Emergency Response in Tacloban. "Disease is a silent predator, but we know how to prevent it and we will do everything that we can."

WHO and UNICEF coordinate vaccine supply and establish cold chain

At the Government’s request, UNICEF purchased over US$ 2 million worth of vaccines to replenish in-country stocks now being used for the campaign. In addition, UNICEF and WHO are helping to re-establish the broken cold chain, which is critical in keeping vaccines at the right temperature.

"WHO and UNICEF staff hand-carried supplies from Manila to Tacloban, coordinated teams to give the vaccines and trained them on how to do it under these difficult circumstances. It is virtually unprecedented that within two-and-a-half weeks of a disaster of this scale, with this level of devastation and these logistical challenges, that a mass vaccination campaign is already rolling out," says Dr Julie Hall, WHO Representative in the Philippines.

During the campaign children being immunized are also screened for malnutrition by measuring their mid-upper arm circumference which will indicate if they are undernourished and require referral for treatment.

For further information, please contact:

Nyka Alexander
Communications Officer
WHO, Manila
Telephone: +63 906 493 5097
E-mail: alexandern@wpro.who.int

Gregory Hartl
Coordinator, News and Social Media
WHO, Geneva
Telephone: +41 79 203 6715
E-mail: hartlg@who.int

Zafrin Chowdhury
UNICEF, Tacloban
Telephone: + 63 917 867 8366
E-mail: zchowdhury@unicef.org

Kate Donovan
UNICEF, Tacloban
Telephone: + 1 212 303 7984,
Mobile: + 1 917 3781 2128
E-mail: kdonovan@unicef.org

Denise Shepherd-Johnson
UNICEF, Manila
Telephone: + 63 917 464 7028
E-mail: dshepherdjohnson@unicef.org

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Typhoon babies fight against odds in ravaged Philippine city

By Stuart Grudgings

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - In the chapel of the only functioning public hospital in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban, seven tiny, premature babies lie sweltering in intense heat, looked over by anxious mothers and a wooden statue of Christ.

An eighth, born two days after Friday's monster storm hit the central Philippines, is kept alive only by his exhausted grandmother who pumps air by hand into his sick lungs. Only one baby, his face bruised purple from a hurried delivery by forceps, is strong enough to cry.

The others are eerily quiet as they battle to survive in a hospital without power, clean water, and running out of essential medical supplies.

It remains the only medical option in the city of Tacloban for most survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, which may have killed thousands of people. The storm destroyed all but two hospitals in the city, one of them private.

"Our immediate problems are immense," said Dr. Alberto de Leon, the 62-year-old director of the hospital, the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, adding he nearly lost his own life in the surge of ocean water that accompanied Haiyan.

Caught unawares by the wall of water that engulfed the city of 220,000 on Friday morning, he clung to a refrigerator as the living room of his single-storey home filled almost to the ceiling.

At the entrance of the hospital, next to a sign asking people to take bodies straight to the morgue, urgent needs are listed on a makeshift sign: a generator, drinking water, oxygen, cooking gas, medicine and manpower.

A single gasoline-fuelled generator is the only source of power, leaving patients to sweat in dark corridors as they await treatment from a wide range of wounds caused by the churning, debris-packed seawater.

That also means there is no way to stop the bodies of 18 victims of the typhoon from decomposing in the morgue.

"I'm worried the newborns will get hospital-acquired infections," said de Leon. "The cadavers at the back could be a source."

Many of the 80 babies born in the hospital since the typhoon came prematurely, their mothers shocked into labor by Friday's trauma. In the chapel, a tangle of intravenous drips and oxygen has been planted between the pews to keep the newborns alive, but basic medicines are running short, nurses said.

The mostly Roman Catholic Philippines has one of Asia's highest birth rates, particularly in poorer areas such as the central Visayas region.

Nanette Salutan, 40, went into premature labor hours after the storm blew the roof off her house in a small town near Tacloban.

She then endured a two-hour ride on the back of a motorbike, dodging fallen trees and electricity poles, before giving birth by flashlight in the hospital early on Saturday.

Heavily pregnant Mary Jane Tevez, 16, and her husband escaped from their own collapsing house on Friday only to be trapped in the rapidly crumbling home of a neighbor. She began feeling unbearable pain in her pelvis even as they fought for their lives by sheltering under thick plywood.

Their baby boy was born early on Saturday. Its name? Yolando, the masculine version of Typhoon Haiyan's Philippine name Yolanda.

"It's because we don't want to forget what we had to go through and because we got another life," said his father, Meller Balabog.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

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Gale Sayers' lawyers to drop concussion suit against NFL

By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - A lawyer for pro football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers said on Saturday he would drop a federal lawsuit filed on the former player's behalf that accuses the National Football League of failing to warn him about and protect him against head injuries.

Attorney John Winters told Reuters he would voluntarily withdraw the lawsuit, filed on Friday in United States District Court in Chicago, after hearing from the Sayers' family that the Chicago Bears great no longer wanted to pursue the matter.

Attempts by Reuters to get comment from Sayers were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit came three weeks after the league agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of former players, many suffering from dementia and health problems, who accused the league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries.

Winters said Sayers, 70, contacted him earlier in the week, wanting to know about the concussion lawsuit against the NFL.

"After that conversation, he instructed me to file a lawsuit and then today I found out through family members he no longer wants to pursue it," Winters told Reuters on Saturday.

The lawsuit also accused helmet maker Riddell of failing to warn him of the risks of concussions, and of not disclosing that the helmets would not prevent concussions.

Sayers, known as the Kansas Comet, played running back for Chicago from 1965 to 1972, when he retired in the preseason. Sayers led the league twice in rushing and was a four-time Pro Bowler during his career that was cut short by knee injuries.

Sayers was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.

In 1970, he published a memoir, "I am Third," describing his rise to football glory and his friendship with Chicago Bears teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer. The autobiography was the basis for the 1971 film "Brian's Song."

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Karen Brooks and Peter Cooney)

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Report Sees Continued Advances in War Against Cancer

TUESDAY, Sept. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly 14 million people in the United States, or one in 23, are now cancer survivors.

In comparison, only 3 million people, or one in 69, were cancer survivors in 1971, according to the third annual cancer progress report, issued Tuesday, by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

While there are increasing numbers of cancer patients because some cancers are more common with age, "there is a large increase in the number of survivors," said AACR President Dr. Charles Sawyers. "That's a return on our investment in cancer research."

Sawyers, who chaired the report writing committee, is also an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and chair of the human oncology and pathogenesis program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City.

Other noteworthy advances, Sawyers said, is the approval of 11 new anticancer drugs in the past year alone, which he called "amazing." Also of note is the evolution of immune system modifiers for cancer, such as drugs for certain lymphomas and multiple myeloma, that rev up the immune system to fight the cancer. "Science is paying off, finally," he said.

From 1990 through 2012, more than 1 million lives have been saved from cancer, according to the report.

"The progress is astonishing," said Dr. Cy Stein, a distinguished professor and chair of medical oncology and experimental therapeutics at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif.

"Things have been getting better. That is the truth of this report," said Stein, who is also deputy director of clinical research at City of Hope. He was not involved in the report.

Among the successes noted in the report are that the five-year survival rates for women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer have increased from 75 percent in the mid-1970s to 90 percent or more now.

For children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, the five-year survival rates have increased from 58 percent to 90 percent or greater during the same time period.

But the progress has not been uniform for all cancers. For instance, the five-year survival rates for some cancers, including the aggressive brain cancer known as glioblastoma multiforme, as well as liver, lung and pancreatic cancers, have not improved much over more than 40 years, with survival rates of 4 percent to 16 percent.

Despite the progress, more than 1.6 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer this year and more than 580,000 deaths are expected from cancer in 2013. Experts say the number will increase dramatically in the next two decades, largely due to the aging of the population, and cancer becoming more common with age.

Most cancers are detected in those age 65 and above, and this part of the population is growing quickly.

However, up to 50 percent of cancer deaths are related to preventable causes, including smoking, being obese or overweight, being sedentary and eating a poor diet, the report noted. "The average person would be surprised by how much cancer is preventable, " Sawyers said.

While smoking's link to cancer is well known, he said that many people remain unaware of the obesity-cancer connection. Obesity increases the risk for many cancers, such as esophageal, colorectal, endometrial, kidney and pancreatic cancers, and breast cancers in women past menopause.

Continued progress is jeopardized by the slashing of research funds, the report said. Earlier this year, the U.S. National Institutes of Health's budget was cut by $1.6 billion -- or more than 5 percent.

While the report covers a lot of ground, City of Hope's Stein said the authors didn't emphasize an important fact: "That people with cancer live better."

"A lot of times, even those with advanced cancer on therapy are able to engage in everyday activities," Stein said. "A lot of that is [due to] the research that we did a long time ago that has been paying off for a long time."

More information

To learn more about cancer prevention through living healthy, visit the American Cancer Society.

Copyright c 2013?HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Experimental Drug Shows Benefits Against Melanoma in Early Study

SUNDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- A new drug called lambrolizumab appears to improve outcomes in patients with advanced melanoma, according to the results of a phase 1 trial.

Lambrolizumab is an antibody that works by revealing the cancer to the immune system so it can mount a response and kill the cancer cells with few serious side effects, the researchers said.

"This is early, but it's very encouraging," said lead researcher Dr. Antoni Ribas, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"This is a new class of drugs for cancer that are giving benefits in patients with melanoma, in terms of having a high rate of tumor responses that are durable in patients with metastatic melanoma," he said.

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer and, until recently, there was no effective treatment, Ribas said. In metastatic melanoma, the cancer has spread.

One of the ways some cancer cells fool the immune system is with a protein called PD-L1 on their surface, which renders the cancer invisible. "PD-L1 is a way the cancer tries to conceal itself or hide from the immune system," Ribas said.

Lambrolizumab blocks the protein and "exposes the cancer to the immune system," he said.

Ribas said that lambrolizumab might also be effective against other cancers, and has already been tested in patients with lung cancer.

The new study was a "phase 1b" trial, which seeks to determine if a drug is safe and also looks for signs of effectiveness. More testing and randomized trials are needed before the drug could become available, Ribas said.

The report was published online June 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the Sunday presentation of the findings at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

For the trial, 135 patients with advanced metastatic melanoma were placed in three groups and treated with different regimens of lambrolizumab.

The researchers found that, overall, the drug improved cancer in 38 percent of the patients regardless of dose. Specifically, 25 percent of the patients who received the lowest dose showed improvement as did 52 percent of those given the highest dose.

In all, 77 percent of the patients showed some response to treatment, they noted.

How long the positive response lasts isn't known. Five patients were taken off the drug because their cancer worsened. So far the longest response has been over one year, Ribas said.

Most side effects with lambrolizumab were mild and easily managed, he added. These included fatigue, fevers, skin rash, loss of skin color and muscle weakness.

According to Ribas, 13 percent of patients had more serious side effects, including inflammation of the lung or kidney, and thyroid problems.

The research was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme, the maker of lambrolizumab.

In April, lambrolizumab received "breakthrough therapy" designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which means the agency will expedite reviewing the data to speed up getting the drug approved, Ribas said.

One dermatologist welcomed the news of the study results.

"I had a patient who was treated with this and it is definitely a lifesaver," said Dr. Doris Day, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City. Before being treated with lambrolizumab her patient had moved to California, but kept Day updated.

Current treatment for advanced melanoma is interferon, which has severe side effects, Day said. "You kind of wish you were dead, because you feel awful," she explained. Lambrolizumab, however, has very mild side effects, she added.

"Life extension is one thing, but if you can't extend life without quality then there's really no point. My patient did well and had good quality of life," Day said.

"Having metastatic melanoma may not be as much of a death sentence as it was," Day noted. "There is hope. There are options now that extend life and quality of life."

More information

To find out more about melanoma, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

SOURCES: Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; Doris Day, M.D., dermatologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; June 2, 2013, presentation, American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, Chicago; June 2, 2013, New England Journal of Medicine, online

Copyright c 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Immune-Based Drug Shows Promise Against Advanced Melanoma

SATURDAY, June 1 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly one-third of patients with advanced melanomas who received nivolumab, a new immune-based drug, experienced reductions in the size of their tumors, a preliminary study reveals.

Since these types of drugs have typically shrunk tumors in only 5 percent to 10 percent of patients in prior studies, the new results are a boost for immunotherapy generally, the researchers noted.

"I think nivolumab is a real breakthrough drug for patients with metastatic melanoma, and probably for other diseases, too," study author Dr. Mario Sznol, a professor of medical oncology at the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Conn., said in a news release.

"The high level of activity observed with this drug opens up a number of avenues for future research to understand and challenge the ways tumors evade the immune system. We're very excited that there is potential for even more activity in combination with other drugs," Sznol added.

One expert not connected to the study was also optimistic about the results.

"Nivolumab shows exciting promise for patients suffering from an otherwise fatal disease -- metastatic melanoma," said Dr. Michele Green, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "The fact that 30 percent of patients showed improvement from this immunotherapy drug is remarkable since these patients had some of the worse disease."

The study was funded by drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb and is scheduled for presentation Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. Findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

According to the researchers, nivolumab works by honing in on PD-1 cellular receptors located on immune system T-cells. These receptors are known to function as immune system "gatekeepers," and by working to open such gates the patient's immune system is triggered into cancer-fighting action.

The new study involved 107 patients, all of whom had been previously treated with multiple forms of standard therapies that failed to halt their disease.

Following treatment with one of five different doses of nivolumab, the team found that 31 percent of the patients went on to experience a minimum tumor shrinkage of 30 percent across the various doses.

Forty-three percent of the patients are estimated to have survived two years after treatment, the researchers said, and average survival for patients across all treatment doses is now projected to be nearly 17 months.

In an ASCO news release, melanoma expert Dr. Lynn Schuchter called the results "truly remarkable."

The findings "confirm that 'revving' up the immune system is a powerful approach in shrinking melanoma," said Schuchter, who is also a spokeswoman for ASCO. "Melanoma patients are living longer and better with these new treatments."

However, although the study participants were described as being "typical" patients with advanced melanoma, the investigation's findings are tempered by the fact that it was not a randomized clinical trial and did not compare the impact of nivolumab directly against the performance of other drugs.

"[But] while this was not a randomized clinical trial, it had a considerable number of patients and the durability of responses is a sign of very promising clinical activity," Sznol said in the news release.

A randomized phase III trial has begun, aimed at confirming these initial findings.

Another expert agreed that the drug shows the promise of immunotherapies in general.

"The results of this study are truly remarkable and demonstrate that immunotherapy truly can make the difference for many melanoma patients," said Dr. Yvonne Saenger, assistant professor of hematology/oncology and dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City.

Saenger, who was not connected to the new study, noted that "earlier immunotherapies, such as interleukin 2 and even Yervoy, can only help a small minority of patients," but nivolumab seems to do much better.

More information

There's more on melanoma at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

SOURCES: Michele Green, M.D., dermatologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Yvonne Saenger, M.D., assistant professor of hematology/oncology and dermatology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City; June 1, 2013, news release, American Society of Clinical Oncology

Copyright c 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Bolivia's Morales promotes quinoa against food crisis

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday praised the quinoa plant popular among health-conscious foodies as a way to help solve the global food crisis during a visit to the UN food agency in Rome.

Bolivia is the main producer of the high-nutrient plant, whose seeds have been consumed in the Andes for thousands of years and is being promoted by the United Nations as a way of helping local farmers and organic production.

"Faced with the global food crisis, the Andean people have various responses and one of them is quinoa," Morales said at a ceremony in the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) where he was named "ambassador" for quinoa.

Morales, himself a former quinoa and coca grower, said quinoa had also been identified by NASA as having the healthiest balance of nutrients.

"This is seen as the ideal diet for astronauts," he said.

FAO has declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa to promote the "super grain" as a way of boosting food security, nutrition and poverty eradication.

FAO director general Jose Graziano da Silva said: "We want to publicise its nutritional qualities."

Bolivia is the world's top producer of quinoa, which was little known in the outside world until recently. It is also grown in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.

Immunology strengthens the fight against Colon Cancer Stage 4

Immunotherapy is undoubtedly a new medical strategy that evokes the human immune system to eradicate the disease. To summarize, in a span of 30 years, focusing the research conducted by both teams of doctors and scientists has shown that this approach is clinically successful for a wide range of diseases. Advances in adoptive immunotherapy, which focuses on expanding and infusion of specific disease-fighting white blood cells in patients, fast have followed this scientific arena its peak in terms of being an effective treatment for viral diseases, colon cancer, and surprisingly even stage 4 cancer types.

We can suppose, taking into consideration the reliable results and continuous progress, the importance of immunotherapy to grow exponentially-especially as it applies to late stage colon and other Stage 4 cancer. Currently, colon cancer stage 4 targets with little more than chemo and radiation, so the statistics are grim ... Renowned care providers do not dare report data of survival beyond the first couple of years as it is disappointing, with marginal promise.

New immunotherapy treatments, however, are inspiring as they provide an essential part of the puzzle-treatment with better overall results collaborated and quality of life for patients.

Envita leads the field in stage 4 Colon Cancer

A string of results published are shown the effects of adoptive immuno therapy in cancer patients. Dedicated medical team of Envita has evaluated the most reliable studies said and given the strengths and weaknesses of each. Their Immaculate research requires a protocol that incorporates only the most effective procedures for the extension and application of cells as a powerful immunotherapy. Our protocols are based on the latest published literature in the arena, by many hospitals and universities most prestigious both nationally and globally. Predictably, our treatment has been specially formulated specifically to treat colon cancer and immune systems of cancer patients in 4 phases.

Of Envita Colon Cancer 4 dual phase and immunotherapy of cancer 4th stage

Natural Envita Medical Center established in Mexico is using NK and CTL cells in real-time as immunotherapy for treatment of cancer and stage 4 colon cancer. Immune therapy of proprietary vaccine Envita appropriately is labelled AAIT\R (for immune system therapy autologous foster), and there are 4 main types of cells involved-the most significant being natural killer cells and T cells. The following are the types of cells that make up the treatment of Envita:

= > ‧ Natural killer cells
= > ‧ Natural killer t cells
‧ Cytokine Induced > = killer cells
= ‧ Cytotoxic T lymphocytes >

The being was created with the expansion of a patient's own immune cells in antitumor mega amounts. These cells are then analyzed for activation indicators and highlighted for their ability to destroy the colon cancer and other cells in the laboratory under controlled conditions, and then re-infused into the patient.

AAIT\R immunology available for Colon cancer and Stage 4 cancer patients to Mexico Envita

Natural Envita Medical Center is currently using T lymphocytes, NK and NKT as support for immunotherapy of cancer patients. Proprietary Envita vaccine stage 4 colon cancer is recorded as AAIT\R-one who increases a patient's own cancer cells of the immune system in the billions in a span of several weeks. These cells are evaluated for indicators, analysed for their ability to neutralize tumor cells stage 4 colon cancer in the lab and then eventually re-infused into the patient. Heralded by scientific research and clinical results of AAIT\R immunotherapy Enivta presents a valuable option for cancer patients who are acutely dedicated to conquering colon cancer stage 4 and others, while a intact immune system balance. Envita administers only top-level combinations of conventional cancer treatment and alternative accentuated by advanced cancer treatment natural help patients secure better health and improve the overall quality of life.

Understanding Stage 4 cancer is vital for those patients seeking remission of cancer at any stage. Recognizing necessary approaches, you will improve your chances of remission, the quality and length of life. Patients involved with the most comprehensive treatment plans always respond better to treatment. Let Envita better tailor prostate cancer Stage 4 treatment plan in place for you.

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