Scientists are beginning to discover myriad strategies tumors use to avoid attacks by anti-cancer drugs.

When cancer cells are first discovered, many drugs can blast them into oblivion. But over time, cancers begin to withstand those first line drugs and continue to grow and spread.

“If you already have 1010 tumor cells, the chances are you’re going to have some kind of resistance develop,” said William Pao, a physician scientist at Vanderbilt University, who first uncovered mechanisms of drug resistance in lung cancer. “Even if you kill 99.9 percent of cells you’re still left with a ton of cells which then can start to grow.”

A long-standing hurdle in cancer therapy, researchers are now making inroads into understanding how cancer cells acquire drug resistance, and they’re finding that genetic mutations are just one of many strategies cancers use to evade death. Cancer cells have been found to boost transcription of survival genes, drill out the cores of transport proteins, or even employ alternate protein configurations to avoid extinction. While researchers are learning to apply the findings to overcome specific types of drug resistance, it’s quickly becoming clear that there is no single pathway tumors use to avoid cancer drugs, and that the problem of cancer resistance is far from over.

 Study Shows Some Success in Using High-Energy Waves to Treat Lung Cancer Patients

Nov. 28, 2011 (Chicago) — Researchers are using high-energy waves similar to those used to make microwave popcorn to destroy inoperable lung tumors.

In a preliminary study, the technique, called microwave ablation, eliminated lung tumors in 19 of 28 patients. Eight months later, none of the tumors had come back.

Tumors shrank or stopped growing in the other nine patients, says study researcher Claudio Pusceddu, MD, a specialist in radiation and oncology at Oncological Hospital in Cagliari, Italy.

During microwave ablation, radiologists place a thin microwave antenna directly into the tumor. An electromagnetic wave then agitates water molecules in the surrounding tumor tissue, producing friction and heat that eventually destroy the tumor.

Nov. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA), the leading national support and advocacy voice for those at risk for or living with lung cancer, issued its annual 2011 National Report Card on Lung Cancer, an overall assessment of the nation’s response to the continuing high mortality of lung cancer,the leading cause of cancer death.

2011 marks the 7th year of the release of the National Report Card, which is issued each November during Lung Cancer Awareness Month to help bring national focus and attention to the disease and gage progress in the fight against lung cancer. The 2011 National Report Card is distributed to leading public health and policy makers, media and elected officials.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the first patient has been dosed in a Phase 2 clinical trial of MM-121, a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets ErbB3, in combination with erlotinib (Tarceva®), a small molecule directed at the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), in three groups of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

PHOENIX, Nov. 18, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VisionGate, Inc., a company developing a revolutionary non-invasive test for the early detection of lung cancer, today reported that it was awarded the 2011 Arizona Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Award for Innovator of the Year–Start-Up Company. VisionGate is developing LuCED(TM), a non-invasive lung cancer screening test that analyzes cells using the company’s breakthrough automated Cell-CT(TM) system. LuCED is initially being developed for use in conjunction with x-ray computed tomography (CT) screening to reduce false positive rates in early lung cancer detection. Data supporting the utility of the VisionGate technology were presented at a prestigious lung cancer conference earlier this year, and VisionGate recently entered several strategic partnerships for the clinical assessment of the LuCED technology.

“We are honored to be named the Arizona Start-Up Company Innovator of the Year,” commented Alan Nelson, PhD, chairman and CEO of VisionGate. “We believe that the scientific and corporate advances we achieved over the past year provide a solid foundation for the accelerated development of the Cell-CT technology and LuCED test now underway. By combining the high accuracy and cost effectiveness of our non-invasive LuCED diagnostic with the proven ability of CT screening to reduce lung cancer deaths, we hope to make mass screening feasible and affordable.”

The metabolism of lung cancer patients is different than the metabolism of healthy people. And so the molecules that make up cancer patients’ exhaled breath are different too. A new device pioneered at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and Nobel-Prize-winning Technion University in Haifa, Israel uses gold nanoparticles to trap and define these molecules in exhaled breath. By comparing these molecular signatures to control groups, the device can tell not only if a lung is cancerous, but if the cancer is small-cell or non-small-cell, and adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.

“This could totally revolutionize lung cancer screening and diagnosis,” says Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “The perspective here is the development of a non-traumatic, easy, cheap approach to early detection and differentiation of lung cancer.”

The proof of concept, recently published in the journal Nanomedicine, showed that in a preliminary study the device clearly distinguished between the volatile organic compounds in cancer patients’ exhaled breath compared to the breath of a control group. Subjects simply exhale into a bag, which separates superficial exhaled breath from breath that originated deeper in the lungs. And then this deep breath is analyzed by an array of gold nanoparticle sensors.

EAGAN, Minn., Nov 17, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Biothera’s Phase II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clinical trial evaluating Imprime PGG(R) administered in combination with cetuximab (Erbitux(R)), carboplatin and paclitaxel has met its goal of 90 patients and is fully enrolled, the company announced today.

The open label, multicenter, randomized trial was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Imprime PGG in combination with a monoclonal antibody (cetuximab) and a standard chemotherapy regimen (carboplatin and paclitaxel) compared to cetuximab alone with the same chemotherapy.

“This is an important milestone in developing more effective treatments for NSCLC patients,” said Dan Conners, president of Biothera’s Pharmaceutical Group. “It is also a significant step forward in Biothera’s overall clinical development plan for Imprime PGG.”

The primary objective for the study is to determine the anti-tumor effects of Imprime PGG when used in combination with cetuximab and standard chemotherapy, based on overall response rate as assessed by RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) and evaluated by a blinded independent review committee.

 RIDGEFIELD, Conn., Nov. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Despite guidelines calling for genetic mutation testing in certain patients with lung cancer, three new surveys fielded by Harris Interactive reveal a disconnect in the understanding of and communication about genetic mutation testing among healthcare professionals and cancer patients. Results of the surveys were announced today by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which sponsored the surveys in partnership with the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), ONS:Edge and the National Lung Cancer Partnership (NLCP).

Surveys of 95 community oncologists, 522 oncology nurses and 436 lung cancer patients across the U.S. were collected in October 2011 to measure perceptions and knowledge of genetic mutation testing and to identify unmet needs and gaps in education.

NEW YORK, Nov 14, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. ZIOP +0.86% , a drug development company employing small molecule and synthetic biology approaches to cancer therapy, announced today promising clinical results from an ongoing multicenter Phase 1b, open-label, dose escalation study of intravenous (IV) palifosfamide (Zymafos(R) or ZIO-201) in combination with etoposide and carboplatin in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and other selected cancers. The data are being presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, being held November 12-16, in San Francisco.

Palifosfamide is a novel DNA cross-linker in class with bendamustine, ifosfamide, and cyclophosphamide. The ongoing Phase 1b study was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of palifosfamide in combination with carboplatin and etoposide (PaCE) in SCLC and other cancers in which carboplatin plus etoposide is considered an appropriate therapeutic option. A previous randomized study evaluating the addition of ifosfamide to cisplatin and etoposide in SCLC demonstrated improved survival, but with a disabling increase in toxicity with the combination. The rationale for substituting palifosfamide for ifosfamide in this three-drug regimen includes the abrogation of ifosfamide-metabolite related toxicities, an ability to increase the dose delivered over time, and avoiding resistance mediated by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) overexpression. ALDH overexpression is associated with cancer cell stem-like potential in several tumor types and is thought to confer resistance to ifosfamide and cyclophosphamide.

(HealthNewsDigest.com)- COLUMBUS, Ohio – Using just a few drops of blood, researchers have found that they could detect signs of lung cancer in patients two years before their tumors were visible using state-of-the-art body scans.

“What that means is that we may be on the verge of developing a blood test to detect lung cancer in it’s earliest stages” said Dr. Carlo Croce, Director of the Human Cancer Genetics program at Ohio Sate’s James Cancer Hospital.

Croce and his team discovered that molecules in the blood, known as microRNA, develop certain characteristic patterns when lung cancer first begins to form – and long before there are any visible signs of trouble. “The tumor is there, but it’s very small” said Croce, “it cannot be detected by conventional means but can be detected by looking at microRNA.”