October 27th, 2011
MDxHealth SA (NYSE Euronext: MDXH), a leading molecular diagnostics company in the field of personalized cancer treatment, today announced the results of a study indicating that several of its epigenetic biomarkers are able to confirm the presence of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from routinely collected sputum samples of patients with stages I-IV of the disease. MDxHealth is developing a molecular diagnostic test, ConfirmMDx for Lung Cancer TM, to help physicians accurately assess the presence or absence of cancer genes. These important new data will be presented at the 5 th EORTC – NCI – ASCO Annual Meeting on Molecular Markers in Cancer in Brussels, Belgium (October 27-29)
In this particular NSCLC study based on samples from 92 patients, epigenetic analysis of MDxHealth’s proprietary biomarker RASSF1A, in combination with three other markers (TAC1, GREM1 and HOXA9), resulted in high sensitivity and specificity values of 75-80% and 90-96%, respectively. MDxHeath plans to conduct additional clinical studies to further optimize its ConfirmMDx TM lung cancer test.
October 22nd, 2011
Experimental Vaccine Targets a Protein Linked to Many Cases of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
By Matt McMillen, WebMD Health News, Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Oct. 21, 2011 — A cancer vaccine shows potential to slow the spread of cancer among lung cancer patients, a study shows.
The experimental vaccine targets a protein linked to more than half of all cases of non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common form of lung cancer.
The study is published in The Lancet Oncology.
The study was conducted in Europe and included 148 patients with advanced lung cancer. It was led by Elisabeth Quiox, MD, a professor of pneumonology at the Université de Strasbourg, France.
The patients were divided into two groups. Both groups received standard chemotherapy while one group received the experimental vaccine known as TG4010. The vaccine stimulates the immune system to destroy cancer cells.
October 20th, 2011
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US Department of Defense has awarded Boston University Medical School a $13.6 million grant to lead a multi-site study to discover molecular biomarkers that can be used for the early detection of lung cancer.
The five-year study will seek to identify markers that could help physicians decide which patients require biopsies after having CT scans and could predict which smokers who had no abnormalities in their CT scans will be most likely to get lung cancer.
The collaborators on the project will include military hospitals and Veteran’s Affairs centers across the country, as well as researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Brown University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
October 19th, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — A new patent covering tumor suppression technologies, including the company’s lead product candidate Oncoprex™, was recently awarded to The University of Texas System by the Japan Patent Office. Patent number 4813746 pertains to the discovery that chromosome 3p21.3 genes act as cancer suppressors. The family of tumor suppressors include TUSC2, also known as FUS1, the anti-cancer agent in Oncoprex therapy which is undergoing clinical evaluation for lung cancer patients in the U.S.
October 19th, 2011
VisionGate announced a collaboration with the Sheba Medical Center in Israel focused on evaluating the Arizona-based firm’s LuCED™ (lung cell evaluation device) test in conjunction with x-ray computed tomography screening for the detection of early lung cancer. The firm separately reported inking a collaboration with Greek researchers to evaluate the test as a primary screen in post-surgery lung cancer patients, and announced raising $2 million in the first tranche of an equity financing round that is projected to raise a total of $3 million.
The LuCED test is used in combination with the firm’s Cell-CT™ automated 3-D cell-imaging platform, which generates high-resolution biosignatures from intact cells in a sputum sample. Detected biosignatures are analyzed using a predictive analytics tool to indicate the presence or absence of cancer cells.
The initial indication for LuCED is as an adjunct to x-ray CT lung cancer screening, which, according to recently published data from the NCI’s National Lung Screening Trial, generates a high rate of false positive results when used alone. The collaboration between VisionGate and the Sheba Medical Center aims to evaluate whether LuCED, and other noninvasive techniques, can be used alongside x-ray CT to reduce the false-positive rate. The study will involve over 200 patients with pulmionary nodules detected by x-ray CT scans for whom the diagnosis remains unclear.
October 17th, 2011
From Medical News Today
Lung cancer patients with diabetes tend to live longer than patients without diabetes, according to a new study from Norway due to be published in the November issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. The researchers did not offer an explanation for the tendency; they suggested it needs further investigation, and diabetes should not be considered as a reason to withhold standard cancer therapy.
In their background information, the researchers, from Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Trondheim University, write that patients with lung cancer often have other diseases, one of them being diabetes. However, evidence on the impact of diabetes on lung cancer survival is conflicting, so they wanted to do a large study focusing on this.
October 14th, 2011
October 17th – 24th has been designated as “Radon Awareness Week” in the U.S. by the Federal Government. Radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States. The U.S. government has has known of this deadly household problem for over two decades. In fact, Ronald Regan passed the National Indoor Radon Abatement Act back in 1988 to address the problem. Despite over 22,000 lung cancer deaths that have occurred every year since the act was passed, it wasn’t until this year that the government actually put a plan of action into place!
On June 20th, 2011; the United States government passed the Federal Radon Action Plan. The plan calls for several branches of the U.S. government to implement programs to reduce the risk of lung cancer to the American public in their homes and workplaces. Among the government sectors called to action are U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the General Services Administration, and the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Interior, and Veterans Affairs.
October 14th, 2011
Tanya Pollitt, Denver Science News Examiner
A new test, developed at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, helps reduces the risk of death by 36 percent in advanced lung cancer by identifying a biomarker known as the EGFR protein.
In a press release, Professor Fred R. Hirsch of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, co-developer of the test, said, “We are moving from a one-size-fits-all model to more personalized medicine in lung cancer. This is a completely new paradigm in treating cancer.”
October 12th, 2011
Lung cancer patients could receive safer and more efficient treatment through a system being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.
The scientists have devised a method for giving drugs by inhalation to patients through a nebuliser, rather than the current approach of intravenous delivery.
The system could administer the treatment far more quickly than existing methods and without the harmful side effects associated with current systems, which can cause kidney damage.
It could also enable health authorities to deliver the drugs in smaller doses without diminution of benefit to patients.
October 11th, 2011
PLANEGG, GERMANY and MUNICH, GERMANY and PRINCETON, NJ and HOUSTON, TX, Oct 11, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Agennix AG (frankfurt:AGX) today announced that data from a Phase II randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the oral immunotherapy, talactoferrin, in patients with previously treated
non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been published in the peer-reviewed medical journal, Journal of Clinical Oncology. The article, “A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II Study of Oral Talactoferrin in Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer that Progressed Following Chemotherapy,” by P. Parikh et al, will appear in the November 1, 2011 print issue of the journal. As previously reported, this study, conducted in patients with NSCLC for whom one or more prior lines of anti-cancer therapy had failed, achieved its primary endpoint of improvement in overall survival. Talactoferrin also appeared to improve survival across a broad range of patient subsets, including those with squamous and non-squamous histologies, as well as other important prognostic factors. The results of this study served as the basis for the ongoing talactoferrin Phase III FORTIS-M trial, which is being conducted in patients whose disease has progressed following two or more prior treatment regimens. The FORTIS-M study has completed enrollment and topline results are expected in the first half of 2012.
