December 9th, 2008
CeMines, Inc., a developer of innovative solutions for early stage detection of cancer, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Raritan, N.J.-based Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (”OCD”) to license certain CeMines Intellectual Property relating to blood-based testing for early stage lung cancer.
CeMines’ test, based on proprietary IP, has shown a significant increase in the ability to detect early stage lung cancer compared to other known approaches. Studies are currently underway to finalize validation.
December 9th, 2008
By 2010, cancer will be the leading killer in the world, surpassing heart disease, causing more deaths than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Unless new treatments are found, there could be 27 million people with cancer by 2030, and 17 million cancer deaths annually. And, there could be 75 million people living with cancer within five years after diagnosis, according to a new report, 2008 World Cancer Report, released Tuesday by the World Health Organization.
December 9th, 2008
With smoking increasing in many poor countries, cancer is projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide in 2010, passing heart disease, global health officials said on Tuesday.Following are some key facts from a report issued by the U.N. World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
December 9th, 2008
In pure economic terms of productivity lost and the expense of care-giving, cancer deaths cost the United States $232.4 billion in 2000 and will cost $308 billion in 2020, a new report finds.But another way of measuring that toll includes the human element of years of life lost — and that model placed the cost of cancer mortality at $960.7 billion in 2000 and projects it to reach $1.472 trillion in 2020.
December 8th, 2008
ImClone Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company today announced that they have submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to broaden the use of ERBITUX(R) (cetuximab) to include first-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy (cisplatin/vinorelbine). Bristol-Myers Squibb is ImClone’s partner for ERBITUX in North America. The FDA will notify ImClone whether it has accepted the submission for review in February 2009.
December 8th, 2008
Significantly, transient inhibition of a separate kinase was effective in a lung cancer cell line which suggests that potent transient kinase inhibition may be effective in a number of other cancers, and that a cancer cell’s “addiction” to a continuous specific growth-promoting signal can be exploited therapeutically.
The researchers went on to demonstrate that the kinetics of cancer cell death and activation of the cell-death associated protein BIM were identical for transient and prolonged target inhibition therapies. These findings challenge the assumption that maximum clinical impact requires continuous inhibition of cancer targets. “Our results provide compelling rationale for the clinical development of compounds capable of achieving potent kinase inhibition, irrespective of biological half-life,” concludes Dr. Shah. “It should be possible to optimize individual patient doses, balancing target inhibition with toxicity, in pursuit of the goal of rational personalized cancer medicine.”
December 8th, 2008
The near-infrared imaging system uses an ultra-fast laser source and high-speed cameras to generate three-dimensional images of fluorescent bio-markers. So far this system has been used to create richer, high-fidelity images of lung cancer in mice and associated biochemical changes in surrounding tissues.
The team, including lead author Mark Niedre, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, and Vasilis Ntziachristos, professor and Chair for Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich, used a fluorescent molecular probe that was specific to a tumor-associated protease to image the lung cancer.
December 8th, 2008
A recent study from the University of Minnesota, published in Cancer Prevention Research, found a broccoli compound may help protect against lung cancer in smokers.
While it’s safe to say that smoking should be avoided all together, the results suggest smokers could benefit from upping their intake of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower that contain the compound indole-3-carbinol (I3C).
December 7th, 2008
An international study has revealed that a pill may allow some patients with advanced lung cancer to bypass the negative side effects of chemotherapy.
In the study, patients on Iressa, a new and expensive treatment, survived about as long as those being treated with another course of chemotherapy.
Though the FDA in the United States approved the drug in 2003, it was relabeled in 2005. The FDA said it could only be used in specific clinical trials and in patients who have previously taken the drug.
December 7th, 2008
The decline is primarily due to a reduction in death rates from certain common cancers, including prostate cancer and lung cancer in men, breast cancer in women and colorectal cancer in both sexes.
The report attributes the reductions to adoption of healthier lifestyles and improved screening, as well as advances in treatment.
The drop in annual incidence rates is harder to interpret. The data may point to a real decline in the occurrence of some types of cancer, experts said. Alternatively, the decline may reflect inconsistent screening practices, causing some cancers that used to be detected to now go undiagnosed.
