The treatment landscape for metastatic prostate cancer is shifting and expanding yet again, according to new findings from two large clinical trials presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The ENZAMET trial tested the drug enzalutamide (Xtandi) and the TITAN trial tested apalutamide (Erleada) in men whose cancer is still responsive to hormone-suppressing therapies—also called castration-sensitive prostate cancer. In both trials, combining the respective drugs with the androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) substantially improved how long men lived overall and how long they lived without their cancer getting worse. Results from both trials were also simultaneously published in the New England Journal…
Author: Brett Johnson
A new study shows that nearly half of phase 3 cancer clinical trials carried out by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored SWOG Cancer Research Network, one of five groups in NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), were associated with clinical care guidelines or new drug approvals. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health. The analysis was published in JAMA Network OpenExit Disclaimer and conducted by researchers affiliated with SWOG from several institutions around the country. The study suggests that NCTN trials add value regardless of whether findings were positive or negative. In addition, the authors calculated the cost of running…
Nanostics Inc. is a medical device and biotechnology company based in Alberta, Canada. They are focused on developing a highly accurate test to predict clinically significant prostate cancer. Their core technology, ClarityDX, combines a sensitive extracellular vesicle detection platform with advanced machine learning to diagnose a disease from a simple blood test. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men. According to recent statistics, nearly 1 in 7 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. Many men have to undergo invasive, and potentially harmful, prostate biopsies to test for prostate cancer. The Clarity DX Prostate test detects prostate…
September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, highlighting a disease that kills nearly 15,000 women annually out of the 21,000 diagnosed. Relatively uncommon as cancers go, ovarian cancer nevertheless causes the most deaths from all gynecological cancers. Known as the “silent killer”, Ovarian Cancer presents no symptoms at all, or symptoms that are so general — abdominal enlargement or swelling, abdominal fullness and pain, pain in lower abdomen — they cause no immediate alarm and are mistaken for another, and more likely, ailment. When the cancer finally is diagnosed, it is often at an advanced stage. This has led to a sobering statistic:…
Genomics, the branch of molecular biology concerned with the structure, function, evolution, and mapping of an individual’s genes, is already revolutionizing the way medicine treats cancer. Like many sciences, genomics has “niches;” single-cell genomics is a rapidly developing field, and current technologies can assay a single cell’s gene expression, DNA variation, epigenetic state, and nuclear structure within its environment. Cellular identity is critical by itself; the human body is composed of trillions of cells that belong to approximately 200 different cell types and even those types are, from cell to cell, filled with unique expression profiles. When cancer is involved, a disease…
Minomic, a Sydney-based diagnostic company, has developed an in vitro diagnostic test for the early detection of prostate cancer. Their product, MiCheck®, is a blood test that uses their patented monoclonal antibody together with other biomarkers to estimate the risk of a patient having aggressive prostate cancer. MiCheck® fills a major unmet market in prostate cancer diagnostics to counter reported high PSA levels and better assess patients by differentiating aggressive cancer from non-aggressive or no cancer before potentially invasive, expensive and patient deterring biopsies. MiCheck®, as a simple blood test, is far less invasive than a prostate biopsy, usually providing…
A new combination of two standing drugs and radiation therapy has the potential to revolutionize the treatment and care of pancreatic cancer, one of the most lethal diagnoses an oncologist can face with patients. Using data from studies by NFCR fellow Dr. Rakesh Jain, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital used the popular hypertension drug losartan to augment the efficacy of the chemotherapy drug FOLFIRANOX (FFX). Currently in Phase II clinical trial (of three), the treatment is already generating enthusiasm in the oncological community as an effective tool against a cancer that has become synonymous with a death sentence. “Around 40 percent…
Cancer is an inherently confusing disease. Such a diagnosis can overwhelm an individual with a myriad of questions. Sometimes these questions pour out, one after another. Other times, the stream of questions is too overwhelming to articulate the hundreds of questions clouding the mind. Approximately 3500 women diagnosed with cancer this year will have just one question: ‘How will cancer affect my pregnancy?’ Though a relatively small number of women battle cancer while pregnant, there does not appear to be a key risk factor or any specific preventative measures aside from basic healthy habits. This means that any woman who is pregnant or…