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Both the number of cases of anal cancer and deaths from the disease have been on the rise in the United States since 2001, according to a new study. The increases have been especially rapid in young African American men, as well as among all adults over the age of 50. From 2001 to 2015, the overall incidence of anal cancer increased by 2.7% per year and mortality jumped by 3.1% each year, according to the study, published November 19 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Despite these increases, anal cancer is “still quite rare in the population,” explained Meredith Shiels, Ph.D.,…

When volasertib was discontinued after an unsatisfactory Phase III clinical trial as an anti-leukemia drug, it did not die a quick death, or die at all. Like Viagra and thalidomide before it, volasertib was “repurposed;” if the original vision for the compound fails, it is simply a matter of finding another vision. Indeed, in the compound found a new life via Ricardo Garcia and his company, Oncoheroes Biosciences, as a treatment for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive cancer commonly occurring in teens or young adults. “Our strategy is to bring new drugs into the market as soon as possible,” Garcia continues. “For this…

As the new year begins, many Americans are setting their sights on a healthier 2020. Some individuals are getting started with week-long meal plans chalked full of vegetables, while others are making a commitment to a fresh gym routine. Many skeptic bystanders like to point out that these good intention resolutions fail before the first month comes to an end. Getting started is often the most difficult part but keeping up the momentum and drive can be challenging as well. Luckily, getting healthy has never been easier than it is in this day and age. Most Americans have a personal trainer and…

An early report from a large precision medicine trial of children, adolescents, and young adults with advanced cancer shows that 24% of young patients who had their tumors tested for genetic changes were eligible to receive one of the targeted therapies being tested—much higher than the 10% scientists had projected. The nationwide trial, known as NCI–COG Pediatric MATCH, is treating patients on the basis of the genetic alterations in their tumors, rather than the type of cancer or cancer site. Launched in 2017, Pediatric MATCH is one of the first large pediatric clinical trials to systematically test drugs that target specific genetic changes in cancers occurring in…

The phrase “hide and seek” likely brings to mind laughing children playing a harmless game. But it’s not fun and games when tumor cells hide. Tumor cells that have left the organ where they formed to hide elsewhere in the body can eventually emerge to produce metastatic disease. Killing these cells once they’ve hidden is extremely difficult. The ability of escaped tumor cells to tuck themselves away poses a life-long risk of cancer recurrence for women with breast cancer and for patients with most other cancers. “Very early during tumor progression, cancer cells leave the breast and [can] travel to the lymph nodes, bone marrow,…

Many colorectal cancers are likely to have spread from the site where they first formed to other parts of the body long before the original tumor can be detected by current screening tests, new study results suggest. Most cancer researchers have assumed that the spread, or metastasis, of tumors typically occurs later in the disease process. The general idea has been that as tumors grow and cancer cells accumulate more and more genetic changes, or mutations, some cells acquire the ability to move from the primary tumor into the bloodstream or lymphatic system, to migrate to a distant location in the body, and to grow into…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to treat some patients with advanced esophageal cancer. The treatment was approved for patients with locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus (ESCC) that has progressed after treatment with one or more lines of standard therapy. To receive the treatment, patients must have certain levels of the protein PD-L1 in their tumors, as determined by an FDA-approved test. FDA also approved the use of the PD-L1 IHC 22C3 pharmDx test as a companion diagnostic for this indication. FDA previously approved pembrolizumab for patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer that has progressed despite two or…

Finding new ways to help people quit smoking continues to be a challenge. In a recent study, researchers tried a unique approach: training pediatricians’ offices to provide smoking cessation treatment to parents during visits with their child’s doctor. The approach increased the number of people who got treatment and modestly improved smoking quit rates. The study tested the effectiveness of a program called CEASE, which aims to reduce children’s exposure to secondhand smoke—and thereby improve their health—by helping parents to quit. Results of the trial were published August 12 in JAMA Pediatrics. “We’ve made a lot of progress [in reducing secondhand smoke…