The patient had run out of treatment options. Her cancer, a rare form of sarcoma, had metastasized and was no longer responding to therapies. As a next step, doctors at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis began to treat her largest tumor with proton beam radiation. The goals were to slow the tumor’s growth and keep the 67-year-old patient as comfortable as possible, recalled one of her doctors, Brian Baumann, M.D., a radiation oncologist. But after one course of proton radiation, the doctors noticed a surprising change in her scans: Not only had the irradiated tumor shrunk, but so had untreated…
Author: Brett Johnson
Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, can be treated effectively through surgery when it’s caught early. But once it has spread from the original site of the tumor to other organs in the body, it can become highly lethal. A new NCI-supported study may provide important insights into why some melanomas are more likely to spread, or metastasize, than others. The researchers showed that melanoma cells are more likely to metastasize if they produce high levels of a transporter protein called MCT1. This protein enhances the cells’ ability to take up an extracellular nutrient called lactate, which increases their ability to…
An investigational drug extended survival of adults with the blood cancer acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to results from a large clinical trial. The drug, CC-486, is related to another therapy called azacitidine (Vidaza). CC-486 is a pill that can be taken at home, whereas azacitidine is given as an injection under the skin or as an infusion through a vein and is administered at a hospital or doctor’s office. Azacitidine is used to treat patients with some types of blood cancer, either alone or in combination with other drugs. In the new study, CC-486 was tested as a maintenance therapy for adults with…
What was the rationale for testing finasteride as a way to prevent prostate cancer? Finasteride blocks the activity of an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. This enzyme converts the hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, which is the most potent androgen in the prostate. Interestingly, men born with a deficiency of 5-alpha reductase, a rare genetic condition, have undetectable levels of PSA and do not get prostate cancer. So, it made sense that finasteride, already approved for the treatment of male pattern baldness and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), might also reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. There was a 25% relative reduction…
New results from two clinical trials suggest that either of two types of radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery for women with early-stage breast cancer can reduce the risk of the cancer returning. In the randomized clinical trials, both whole-breast irradiation (WBI) and accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI) were associated with low rates of the cancer recurring in the breast where the disease originally developed. The median follow-up ranged from more than 5 years to more than 10 years. US and Canadian researchers presented results from both trials at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on December 6. WBI is typically given to the whole breast in a series of…
What are some examples of the cancer disparities among American Indian and Alaska Native people? AI/AN populations have the lowest survival rates for nearly all types of cancer of any subpopulation in the United States, with cancers often detected at later stages. To get a better picture of cancer incidence and mortality in these diverse groups, we have to break down the AI/AN populations by different regions of the country. For example, in the Northern Plains lung cancer is more prevalent among American Indians than among non-Hispanic whites. In the Southern Plains, AI men are more likely than white men to die from colorectal…
For some women diagnosed with breast cancer, low muscle mass may be linked with a poor long-term prognosis, a new study has found. In one of the largest investigations of its kind conducted to date, researchers found that one-third of the women included in the study had low levels of skeletal muscle mass—a condition known as sarcopenia—at the time of their diagnosis. And having low levels of muscle mass was associated with a higher risk of dying compared with women who had adequate muscle mass, the researchers reported April 5 in JAMA Oncology. All of the women included in the study had breast cancer that…
Two new treatment options are emerging for women with metastatic breast cancer, following positive results from clinical trials. The trials tested the drugs tucatinib and trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) in women who had been previously treated for metastatic breast cancer that overproduces the HER2 protein, known as HER2-positive breast cancer. In one of the trials, called HER2CLIMB, women treated with tucatinib in addition to trastuzumab (Herceptin) and capecitabine lived longer both without their disease progressing and overall than women who received only trastuzumab and capecitabine (Xeloda). The treatment also benefited women in the trial whose cancer had spread to the brain, a particularly challenging group to treat. Trastuzumab…