Scientists Find Vaccine For Breast Cancer
Scientists claimed to have developed a vaccine that can save women from developing breast cancer and can also treat those suffering from the disease.
All women over 40 could be given a jab that prevents them getting breast cancer. The drug, which goes on trial within a year, has been shown to stop tumours ever appearing and also to attack those that are already present.
The vaccine can be given to women before they reach their mid-40s, when the risk of breast cancer starts to rise steeply. The drug could wipe out up to 70 percent of breast cancers, saving more than 8,000 lives a year in Britain alone, The Telegraph reported.
According to Vincent Tuohy, the jab’s creator, it promised to offer “substantial protection” and raised the prospect of wiping out the disease altogether.
”We truly believe that a preventive breast cancer vaccine will do to breast cancer what the polio vaccine has done to polio,” he said.
The vaccine is based on protein called alpha-lactalbumin that lurks in most breast cancer tumours.
In tests on mice bred to develop breast cancers by the age of 10 months, the drug was found to keep them free of tumours, the journal Nature Medicine reports.
The drug also harnessed the power of the immune system to shrink pre-existing tumours by up to half, suggesting it could be used as a treatment as well as a vaccine.
Caitlin Palframan, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: “This research could have important implications for how we might prevent breast cancer in the future.
”However, this is an early stage study, and we look forward to seeing the results of large-scale clinical trials to find out if this vaccine would be safe and effective in humans”. Khaleej Times
One-Shot Radiotherapy ‘Effective Against Breast Cancer’
A new study, led by a UK research team, has suggested that a single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer.
The technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumour site, has been tested in more than 2,000 patients.
The researchers said using the one-stop procedure would be more convenient for patients.
In the new technique, doctors use a mobile radiotherapy machine that can be inserted into the breast to target the exact site of the cancer.
The four-year trial in women over 45 showed similar rates of disease recurrence regardless of the treatment used.
There were six cases of the disease returning in those who had the new single-dose technique and five cases in those undergoing a prolonged course of radiotherapy.
But the single dose during surgery avoids potential damage to organs such as the heart, lung, and oesophagus, which can occur during radiation to the whole breast, the researchers said.
The frequency of any complications and major toxic effects was similar in the two groups.
“I think the reason why it works so well is because of the precision of the treatment. It eradicates the very highest risk area – the part of the breast from which the tumour was removed,” the BBC quoted University College London Hospitals (UCLH) oncologist Prof Jeffrey Tobias as saying
Cancer Research UK said that The Lancet study could have a ‘huge impact’ for patients. Newstrack India
Amgen Drug Cuts Prostate Cancer Bone Problems
A third pivotal trial of Amgen Inc’s denosumab found that it significantly delayed the likelihood of suffering fractures and other bone complications in men with advanced prostate cancer compared with current therapy.
The 1,900-patient trial, which compared denosumab with Novartis AG’s Zometa, showed that the Amgen drug delayed by 3.6 months patients’ first skeletal event, such as a fracture or the need for bone surgery.
A different Phase III trial of Zometa showed that it improved survival and significantly reduced the risk of bone-related problems in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, compared to another drug in its class.
Denosumab, widely considered the most important growth driver in Amgen’s development pipeline, is the first in a new class of drugs designed to inhibit proteins that activate bone-destroying cells.
Zometa is a bisphosphonate that is the current standard of care for treating cancer patients whose disease has spread to the bone.
Amgen has said its drug is unlikely to cause the kind of kidney toxicity associated with the bisphosphonate, and it believes that the fact that denosumab is given by injection, rather than an intravenous infusion, is an advantage.
‘REMARKABLY CONSISTENT’
Amgen filed last month for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of denosumab as a treatment for cancer patients. Earlier this week, the agency approved it, under the brand name Prolia, for use in post-menopausal women suffering from osteoporosis.
Roy Baynes, head of hematology/oncology development at Amgen, said the latest trial results, presented here at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, are “remarkably consistent” with previous trials in patients with advanced breast cancer, other solid tumors and multiple myeloma.
The trial found no difference between the two groups in overall survival or the amount of time patients lived without their cancer getting worse.
Baynes said the rates of adverse events, including infections, were similar between the two treatment groups, but the incidence of low blood calcium levels was more frequent in the denosumab arm.
Osteonecrosis of the jaw — death of jaw bone tissue — was seen in 22 patients receiving denosumab, compared with 12 patients receiving Zometa. Baynes said encouraging information about those patients will be detailed at the oral presentation of the study here on Sunday.
Amgen expects to announce in the second half of this year results from a pivotal trial looking at whether use of denosumab in patients with earlier-stage prostate cancer can prevent the disease from spreading to the bones.
“We believe we have a molecule that has a very favorable profile,” Baynes said.
The consensus analyst forecast is for denosumab to reach about $3.3 billion in sales in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The Novartis trial showed that adding Zometa, also known as zoledronic acid, to chemotherapy improved overall survival for multiple myeloma patients by 16 percent compared with oral clodronate, an older bisphosphonate, plus chemotherapy.
The study also showed that Zometa reduced the relative risk of bone problems 24 percent more than clodronate. By Deena Beasley, Yahoo Daily News
Breast Cancer Genes Not Worsened By Lifestyle
Genes that make women more susceptible to breast cancer don’t have any link to lifestyle factors that also raise their risk, a new study says.
Some experts previously thought there might be dangerous interactions between breast cancer mutations and other risk factors for the disease, like taking hormone replacement therapy – and that these women had a particularly high risk of breast cancer.
According to a study published Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet, that isn’t the case.
British researchers studied 7,610 women with breast cancer and 10,196 women without it. All of the women provided a blood sample for genetic testing and information about other risk factors like obesity, alcohol consumption and hormone replacement therapy.
The scientists used a statistical analysis to examine the relationship between genetic and lifestyle factors. They found that although genetic mutations and lifestyle choices both contribute to cancer, they do so separately and do not mix for a more deadly effect.
The genetic mutations studied are carried in up to 60 percent of women and increase a woman’s breast cancer risk from 10 to 20 percent. The study did not include the rare BRCA genes which dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer. The study was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK.
Ruth Travis of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and the study’s lead author, said it was reassuring she and colleagues didn’t find any proof of synergy between breast cancer mutations and lifestyle factors.
“There’s a danger of feeling you’re at the fate of your genes,” Travis said. “But whatever you’re born with, there are things you can do to modify your risk.”
Experts said lifestyle factors are often more important in avoiding breast cancer than genetic ones. For example, being fat elevates your risk by 40 percent and taking hormone replacement therapy doubles it.
Susan Gapstur, vice president of epidemiology at the American Cancer Society, said the findings would not change the group’s prevention messages to women, like avoiding weight gain, staying physically active, and minimizing hormone replacement therapy. Gapstur was not connected to the study.
She said the research underlined the complexity of breast cancer and that scientists still don’t completely understand what triggers it. “It likely won’t be a single genetic factor (that causes breast cancer) but maybe several genetic variants in combination and some environmental factors,” she said. By Maria Cheng, The Newsobserver
Diabetes Threatens Children
Diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the biggest dangers to teenagers and even young children in China due to a serious lack of nutritional education, warn health experts.
It was confirmed last week that the country has the highest population of diabetics in the world, with more than 92 million sufferers.
According to figures from the Chinese Medical Doctors’ Association, children make up about 5 percent of that figure. The number of juveniles with the potentially fatal condition is rising by 10 percent every year, a report by the association said.
But it is not just the impact on a child’s health doctors are concerned about.
Discrimination toward diabetes can also seriously affect a sufferer’s chances of finding a job or even getting accepted into college.
“Although the proportion of juvenile diabetics still accounts for a low percentage of all diabetics, their numbers have increased very fast in recent years,” said Ji Linong, director of endocrinology at the People’s Hospital of Peking University.
“This is a situation that calls for urgent attention from society.”
One of the youngest patients ever to be diagnosed with the condition is a 3-year-old girl admitted to Shaoxing People’s Hospital in Zhejiang province in January. Staff said they have treated a dozen or so child diabetics under 10 years old in recent years.
The girl’s grandmother, who is in her late 50s and did not want to be named, took the youngster to get help after noticing she was losing a lot of weight. “She loves fizzy drinks and she always seemed anxious to eat,” she said. “But the more she ate, the thinner she got.”
Tests showed the patient’s blood-sugar level was more than 11 millimoles per liter (the standard unit of measurement), far higher than the normal 3.9 to 6.1 mmol/L.