Traditionally, treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer is chemotherapy followed by the removal of the patient’s entire bladder, known as a radical cystectomy. However, Beaumont researchers have data suggesting that treatment consisting of limited surgery followed by combination chemotherapy and radiation is just as effective, while allowing patients to keep their bladder and maintain function. “This is a big deal. No one wants their bladder removed,” said Craig Stevens, M.D., Ph.D., chairman,
A combination of the standard-of-care chemotherapy drug known as azacitidine, with nivolumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, demonstrated an encouraging response rate and overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) according to findings from a Phase II study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Results from the trial, led by Naval Daver, M.D., associate professor of Leukemia, were published in the Nov. 8 online issue of Cancer Discovery. The study followed 70 patients
A 21-gene test performed on tumors could enable most patients with the most common type of early breast cancer to safely forgo chemotherapy, according to a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Loyola Medicine oncologist Kathy Albain, MD, is among the main co-authors of the study and a member of the clinical trial's steering committee. First author is Joseph Sparano, MD, of Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx,
Researchers from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine have discovered why many multiple myeloma patients experience severe pain when treated with the anticancer drug bortezomib. The study, which will be published April 27 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that a drug already approved to treat multiple sclerosis could mitigate this effect, allowing myeloma patients to successfully complete their treatment and relieving the pain of myeloma survivors. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral
Researchers from Mount Sinai and Sema4, a health information company and Mount Sinai venture, have discovered that giving metastatic bladder cancer patients simultaneous chemotherapy and immunotherapy is safe and that patients whose tumors have certain genetic mutations may respond particularly well to this combination approach, according to the results of a clinical trial published in European Urology. Though chemotherapy and immunotherapy have become standard options for the treatment of metastatic bladder
Participating in twice-weekly practice of Tibetan yoga may reduce sleep disturbances and improve sleep quality in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, according to a study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The research, published in the journal Cancer, found that women who practiced Tibetan yoga at least two times a week reported less daytime disturbances, better sleep quality and sleep efficiency over time, compared to those practicing less
A phase one study of 11 patients with glioblastoma who received injections of an investigational vaccine therapy and an approved chemotherapy showed the combination to be well tolerated while also resulting in unexpectedly significant survival increases, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report. Patients treated with the study drug (dose-intensified temozolomide and vaccines) were continuously monitored for toxicity and adverse events. Study patients experienced known side effects with temozolomide, including
Working with human breast cancer cells and mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have identified a biochemical pathway that triggers the regrowth of breast cancer stem cells after chemotherapy. The regrowth of cancer stem cells is responsible for the drug resistance that develops in many breast tumors and the reason that for many patients, the benefits of chemo are short-lived. Cancer recurrence after chemotherapy is frequently fatal. "Breast cancer
Patients whose cancer cells carry TP53 mutations respond to milder chemotherapy Patients with the most lethal form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – based on genetic profiles of their cancers – typically survive for only four to six months after diagnosis, even with aggressive chemotherapy. But new research indicates that such patients, paradoxically, may live longer if they receive a milder chemotherapy drug. Treatment with the less intensive drug, decitabine,
Conventional, high-dose chemotherapy treatments can cause the fibroblast cells surrounding tumors to secrete proteins that promote the tumors’ recurrence in more aggressive forms, researchers at Taipei Medical University and the National Institute of Cancer Research in Taiwan and University of California, San Francisco, have discovered. Frequent, low-dose chemotherapy regimens avoid this effect and may therefore be more effective at treating certain types of breast and pancreatic cancer, according to the
In a paper published today in Science Translational Medicine, researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center shared data from an early-phase study of patients with advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who received JCAR014, a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell treatment, and chemotherapy. CAR T cells are made from a patient’s own immune cells that are then genetically engineered to better identify and kill cancer cells. The paper reported the results
To treat or not to treat? That is the question researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) hope to answer with a new advance that could help doctors and their cancer patients decide if a particular therapy would be worth pursuing. Berkeley Lab researchers identified 14 genes regulating genome integrity that were consistently over-expressed in a wide variety of cancers. They then created a scoring
