Munich, Germany: Researchers working to find effective treatments for soft tissue sarcomas have discovered that combining a new anti-cancer drug with an existing one kills cancer cells not only in the laboratory but also in the first two patients treated with it, leading to unusually long-lasting periods without the disease progressing. Soft tissue sarcomas – […]
Category: Cancer
‘Revolution in our understanding of cancer’ sees dramatic responses to targeted treatments in advanced cancers
Results from three ground-breaking studies show early benefit to patients Munich, Germany: The “revolution in the understanding of cancer at the molecular level” has led to dramatic responses in cancer patients to new therapies that are targeted precisely at their particular type of tumours, according to an expert. Dr Kapil Dhingra, a member of the […]
How highs and lows in testosterone levels ‘shock’ prostate cancer cells to death
Munich, Germany: A strategy of alternately flooding and starving the body of testosterone is producing good results in patients who have metastatic prostate cancer that is resistant to treatment by chemical or surgical castration, according to new findings. In a presentation at the 28th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Munich, […]
Promising results from new drug combination in patients with advanced solid tumours
Munich, Germany: An experimental drug called TAS-114, which has the potential to increase the anti-cancer effects of chemotherapy without increasing adverse side effects, has shown promising results in patients with hard-to-treat cancers in a phase I clinical trial. In a presentation at the 28th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Munich, […]
Anti-cancer drug, CB-839, in combination with everolimus, stops tumours growing in patients with advanced kidney cancer
Munich, Germany: The first drug to target a key enzyme that cancer cells need to keep them alive has shown that it is effective in controlling disease in patients with advanced kidney cancer when it is used in combination with another anti-cancer drug, everolimus. Dr Funda Meric-Bernstam told the 28th EORTC-NCI-AACR [1] Symposium on Molecular […]
Deaths from ovarian cancer decline worldwide due to oral contraceptive use
Deaths from ovarian cancer fell worldwide between 2002 and 2012 and are predicted to continue to decline in the USA, European Union (EU) and, though to a smaller degree, in Japan by 2020, according to new research published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1]. The main reason is the use of oral […]
Expecting the worst increases side-effects in breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant hormone therapy
A study of women receiving hormone therapies such as tamoxifen as part of their treatment for breast cancer has found that the number and seriousness of side-effects they experienced were influenced by their expectations. The study, which is published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1], found that women who had higher expectations […]
Cancer overtakes heart disease as the main cause of death in 12 European countries
Although diseases of the heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular disease, CVD) kill more people worldwide than anything else, with 17.3 million deaths globally, cancer has now overtaken CVD as the main cause of death in 12 European countries. New data on the burden of CVD in Europe for 2016, which are published in the European […]
Radiotherapy for lung cancer patients is linked to increased risk of non-cancer deaths: researchers set out to investigate new heart-sparing techniques
Turin, Italy: Researchers have found that treating patients who have early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a type of radiotherapy called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is associated with a small but increased risk of death from causes other than cancer. In particular, they found that high doses to the left atrium of […]
Largest study of patients with early stage II testicular cancer shows radiation therapy is more effective than chemotherapy
Turin, Italy: A large study of testicular cancer patients has shown that radiation therapy is a better treatment than chemotherapy for patients with stage IIa disease (where one or more regional lymph nodes contain cancer cells but they are less than 2cms in diameter). These findings, presented at the ESTRO 35 conference and published simultaneously […]