From the Associated Press via Yahoo News
Excerpt: ... The approach is called a cancer vaccine, although it treats the disease rather than prevents it.

At a cancer conference Sunday, researchers said one such vaccine kept a common form of lymphoma from worsening for more than a year. That's huge in this field, where progress is glacial and success with a new treatment is often measured in weeks or even days.
Experimental vaccines against three other cancers — prostate, the deadly skin disease melanoma and an often fatal childhood tumor called neuroblastoma — also gave positive results in late-stage testing in recent weeks, after decades of struggles in the lab. ...

... I don't know what we did differently to make the breakthrough," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society.

Instead of a single "A-Ha!" moment, there have been many "ah, so" discoveries about the immune system that now seem to be paying off, said Dr. John Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute.

More Here

From: The Boston Globe
Excerpt: Chemotherapy could soon become a little less grueling.

Simply adding a teaspoon of ginger to food consumed in the days before, during, and after chemotherapy can reduce the often debilitating side effects of nausea and vomiting, a large, randomized clinical trial has found. And a newer type of antinausea drug, when added to standard medications, can help prevent such side effects as well. ...

... In the ginger study, 644 patients, most of them female, from 23 oncology practices throughout the United States received two standard antiemetic medications at the time of chemotherapy. They also were given capsules containing either 0.5 gram, 1 gram, or 1.5 grams of ginger, or placebo capsules. The patients took the capsules containing the placebo or ginger for three days before chemotherapy and three days after the treatment.
All of the patients receiving ginger experienced less nausea for four days after chemotherapy, said study lead author Julie L. Ryan of the University of Rochester Medical Center. Doses of 0.5 gram and 1 gram were the most effective, reducing nausea by 40 percent compared with the patients taking the placebo.

More here

From the London Daily Mail

Excerpt: Doctors gave the drug, known only as CNTO328, to 18 ovarian cancer patients from north-east London and Essex in a trial that started in late 2007.

None had been expected to live more than a year because their cancer had returned despite several courses of chemotherapy.

Eight found their tumours stabilised or stopped growing - likely extending their life expectancy.

While the figure may seem small, it is much higher than the five to 20 per cent response rate seen with most experimental cancer drugs.

Lead researcher, Professor Iain McNeish, of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said: 'The hope with this group of patients was to slow down the progress of their ovarian cancer, improve their quality of life and possibly make them live longer.

'We have been quite successful in doing that.

'If this becomes a treatment, this is a whole new approach to ovarian cancer.'

Click here for the article

Click here for clinical trials using CNTO328 for different kinds of cancer

From BBC
Excerpt:

A study has concluded that one dose of chemotherapy is the best way to cure testicular cancer in many patients. ...

...The study, led by Southampton University, followed almost 1,500 patients, 904 given radiotherapy, and 573 carboplatin.

The rate of relapse in both groups was roughly the same, and lead researcher Dr Ben Mead said the results were "reassuring" and that carboplatin was the better option.

"Giving patients a carboplatin injection rather than radiotherapy is less unpleasant with fewer long-term risks.

"The initial results of the trial looked encouraging, but we needed to follow patients for another four years before we knew for sure that they had been cured."

Although practice was changing in Europe to include carboplatin, in many other parts of the world, including the US, radiotherapy remains standard treatment, and Dr Mead said he hoped this would now change.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7647007.stm

From ABC News

Excerpt: Florida woman with a golf ball-size tumor in her abdomen who risked a cutting-edge surgery to save her life is now on her way to a full recovery.

Brooke Zepp, 63, was told that her tumor was inoperable because it was buried so deep inside her abdomen and that she had only months to live.

After receiving a diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer in her abdomen, Zepp had tried radiation and chemotherapy but neither had worked.

Desperate for help, Zepp found a team of surgeons willing to perform an unprecedented operation. The tumor was buried underneath half a dozen major organs.

"I wanted to prove that there is hardly any such thing as inoperable cancer," Zepp said.

Brooke Zepp, 63, was told that her tumor was inoperable because it was buried so deep inside her abdomen and that she had only months to live.

After receiving a diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer in her abdomen, Zepp had tried radiation and chemotherapy but neither had worked.

Desperate for help, Zepp found a team of surgeons willing to perform an unprecedented operation. The tumor was buried underneath half a dozen major organs.

"I wanted to prove that there is hardly any such thing as inoperable cancer," Zepp said.

More

From KING TV-5 (NBC), Seattle
Excerpt: They call it tumor painting.

It's a futuristic idea that might not be far from reality and it's being developed in Seattle.

The concept is to mark or paint the areas where cancer exists, so surgeons can cut away only the tumor.

This innovative approach was discovered at the Hutch in Dr. James Olson's lab.

"I think it is a breakthrough technology," Olson said. "If it works anywhere as well in humans as it does in animals, it's going to be phenomenal. It will change the way that we take out all kinds of cancers."

More at the article

From KOB TV-4 New Mexico
Excerpt: Two teenage girls from southern California have made some very important findings that could help in the fight against breast cancer.
Sarah Waliany, 16, and her 18-year-old cousin, Shelina Kurwa, both daughters of doctors, recently took home top regional honors for their science project about breast cancer cells. And that's not all: Their research is also getting the attention of those in the medical community. ...

... While most teen girls were hanging out with friends or shopping at the mall, Sarah spent most of her free time over the past two years working at the lab.
And her hard work at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Southern California has paid off.
"I basically found that breast tumor cells that contain a protein called Tdarp, do not respond to the major drug called Herceptin," said Sarah.

Full article here

From the Corvalis Gazette Times (Oregon)
Excerpt: Scientists at Oregon State University and Gene Tools in Philomath believe nanotechnology could cure cancer, and they’ve made a major breakthrough by using custom-made molecules to attach imaging agents directly to cancer cells in mice.

Therapeutic agents could be delivered using the same mechanism, said John Mata, a senior research assistant professor of biomedicine in OSU’s College of Veterinary Science.


The nanotechnology may provide a far less-invasive method of treating cancer than surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. It could also be less costly, Mata said.

Read Full Article

From: BBC
Excerpt: A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe.

The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy.

Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports.

The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana.

They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis.

CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1 which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumour site - a process called metastasis.

Past work has shown CBD can block aggressive human brain cancers.

The latest work found CBD appeared to have a similar effect on breast cancer cells in the lab.

More at the article

From ABC News
Excerpt: This is the story of a man whose reaction to a cancer diagnosis was to go to his garage and invent something -- a machine that serious scientists are now taking seriously.
John Kanzius made his fortune owning radio stations in Pennsylvania, then retired with his wife to Florida. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

While he was undergoing chemotherapy he decided there has to be a better way to fight this illness. And even though he wasn't a doctor, he figured he could figure it out himself. ...

...Using pie pans, spare parts from ham radios and know-how from his days as a radio engineer, he invented the first generation of what would become a machine that uses radio waves -- not radioactivity -- to fight cancer.

Now could a garage invention turn into a breakthrough cancer treatment? Some medical professionals think maybe.

"It's beyond remarkable," said Dr. Steven Curley of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. "He was just a private citizen who just came up with an idea and had the wherewithal and the tinkering ability to do it." ...

... They began testing the radio-wave technology on animals, and say they completely destroyed liver cancer tumors in rabbits. The findings will be part of a study to be published in the journal Cancer.

Full story here:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3810892&page=1

Bi-partisan legislation on Capitol Hill is aiming to bring better cancer treatment to children and to make advances in research, the "Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2007"

House of Representative bill 1553 and Senate bill S.911

"A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to advance medical research and treatments into pediatric cancers, ensure patients and families have access to the current treatments and information regarding pediatric cancers, establish a population-based national childhood cancer database, and promote public awareness of pediatric cancers."

The bill has 42 co-sponsors in the Senate and 152 co-sponsors in the House.

Here you can contact your reps in support of it

http://capwiz.com/curesearch/issues/alert/?alertid=10267661

Pass it on!

From CBS News

Excerpt: (WebMD) A simple cranberry juice extract makes platinum-based cancer drugs six times more potent against ovarian cancer.

The test-tube findings are a long way from cancer patients' bedsides. But Rutgers University natural products researchers Ajay P. Singh, PhD, and Nicholi Vorsa, PhD, are optimistic.

"This has opened up exciting possibilities for therapeutic intervention associated with platinum therapy," Singh and Vorsa say in a news release.

Platinum-based chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for ovarian cancer. But over time, the cancers tend to become resistant to the drugs. This means increased chemotherapy dosage—and increased toxicity to patients.

More at Article

From KOAT TV-7 (Albuquerque)

Excerpt: Talcum powder may be able to stop the growth of metastatic lung tumors, according to researchers at the University of Florida.

They said in a news release that it has the ability to cut off blood flow to tumors, not just soothe diaper rash.

The soft powder stimulates healthy cells to produce endostatin, a hormone called a magic bullet for treating lung cancer.

Click here for more

From Reuters
Excerpt: Arsenic, the poison of choice for many a murder mystery, can significantly extend survival in patients with a rare form of leukemia, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.
"It's a much smaller dose than you would use to poison people," added Dr. Bayard Powell of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Adding arsenic to standard treatment can extend patients' lives and prevent relapse, Powell said. And the effect is so impressive that patients may some day be able to skip chemotherapy -- but that will take more testing.
"This study has redefined the standard of care," said Powell, who presented results from the large, three-year study at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
"The people who took arsenic lived longer," Dr. Nancy Davidson, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, told Reuters.

More here

From the Calgary Sun
Excerpt: Cancerous tumours can be shrunk without radiation by administering a drug already used safely in humans for decades, says a doctor whose research is creating a major buzz in medical circles.

But because the drug cannot be patented, pharmaceutical companies won't be eager to fund clinical trials to bring it to market, leaving its future in question.

"We've succeeded in reducing tumours with a drug shown to have little side-effects in humans. You could essentially take it as a pill," said University of Alberta researcher Evangelos Michelakis.

The drug is called dichloroacetate, or DCA.

Michelakis, working with several researchers in Edmonton and Ottawa, discovered how DCA can reverse the hallmark weapon of cancer's plague: The sudden ability of abnormal cells to multiply indefinitely, unchecked.

DCA restores a specific function of mitochondria -- the mini power engines that drive cellular activity.

More

From Reuters
Excerpt: A tailor-made cancer vaccine may help patients with pancreatic cancer, who have few other options to treat the deadly disease, researchers reported on Saturday.

Most of the patients who got the vaccine survived at least two years, Dr. Daniel Laheru of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and colleagues told a meeting of gastrointestinal cancer specialists.

In the phase II study of 60 patients, 88 percent were alive a year later and 76 percent lived two years.

In comparison, 63 percent of patients treated with surgery alone survive a year and 42 percent live two years.

"Our initial review suggests that the vaccine could provide additional benefit over chemoradiotherapy, but prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm this observation," Laheru said in a statement.
More

From WINS Radio 1010 New York
Excerpt: An experimental ultrasound technique that measures how easily breast lumps compress and bounce back could enable doctors to determine instantly whether a woman has cancer or not - without having to do a biopsy.

In a small study of 80 women, the technique, called "elastography," distinguished harmless lumps from malignant ones with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

If the results hold up in a larger study, elastography could save thousands of women from the waiting, cost, discomfort and anxiety of a biopsy, in which cells are removed from the breast - sometimes with a needle, sometimes with a scalpel - and examined under a microscope.

Click here for more

From WXII TV-12, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Excerpt: Scientists are reporting success in the lab using the "morning-after pill" in their search for a drug to block the effects of a gene linked to breast cancer.

Researchers said RU-486 helped block tumors in mice bred with a gene that spurs progesterone -- which the abortion pill blocks.

The scientists hope to eventually create a safer hormone blocker that can be used in women to block this so-called bad gene.

More at Article

From the Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: Scientists for the first time have genetically modified tumor-fighting immune cells, allowing patients to rid themselves of an aggressive form of cancer, according to a study released today.

The technique, used to cure two patients with advanced melanoma, paves the way for a new approach to fighting cancer by harnessing — and boosting — the body's immune system instead of solely relying on toxic chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

The researchers from the National Cancer Institute, whose findings were published online by the journal Science, say the strategy could be adapted to treat breast, prostate, lung, colorectal and other common cancers...

More at Article

From HealthDay (via Yahoo)

Excerpt: A synthetic version of a protein found in scorpion venom has passed its first test in a treatment for one of the deadliest forms of cancer and is headed toward trials against other tumors.

The protein, designated TM-601, not only carried radioactive iodine directly to the brain tumor called glioma, but also appeared to have anticancer activity of its own, said Dr. Adam N. Mamelak, a neurosurgeon at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's neurosurgical institute in Los Angeles. He was lead author of a report on the therapy in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.


TM-601 has an unusual ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier that keeps most chemicals from reaching brain tissue. It also binds to glioma cells, which are vulnerable to the radioactive iodine carried by the protein, Mamelak said.

More

From KGW NewsChannel 8 (Portland OR)
Excerpt: A chief ingredient in beer shows potent promise in preventing prostate cancer and prostate enlargement, according to a new study by Oregon State University researchers.
The research, published in a recent issue of Cancer Letters, shows that xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, inhibits NF-kappaB protein in cells along the surface of the prostate gland, said Emily Ho, assistant professor of nutrition and exercise sciences in OSU's College of Health and Human Sciences and a researcher with OSU's Linus Pauling Institute.
The protein acts like a signal switch that turns on a variety of animal and human malignancies, including prostate cancer. 'We've shown that the addition of xanthohumol in a cell culture blocks the signal of NF-KappaB protein and works to slow down the growth of benign prostatic hyperplasia and malignant prostate cancer cells,' Ho said. "

More Here

From WWMT-TV (West Michigan channel 3)
Excerpt: A West Michigan company has discovered a new drug that may be able to cure the virus that causes cervical cancer.

NanoVir Inc., a Kalamazoo-based biotechnology firm, has identified new chemical compounds that target the human papillomavirus.

Biologist and co-founder Nanovir, Dr. Chris Fisher, announced the research results at the recent International Conference for Antiviral Research in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

More here

From WAVY-TV (NBC Hampton Roads, VA)
Excerpt: U.S. scientists say they've discovered a key mechanism by which cancer cells evade detection and destruction by the immune system.

The finding could lead to drugs that effectively rob tumors of the protected environment they need to survive and thrive.

A molecule called interleukin-23 (IL-23) "creates an environment that's just not acceptable to normal immune surveillance. Healthy immune cells that could kill the tumor can't get in there because of this -- it's almost a shield around the tumor," explained study co-author Robert Kastelein, a distinguished research fellow at the Schering-Plough Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., part of the Schering-Plough pharmaceutical company. ...

More here

From WSBN-TV (NBC-3 Central NY)
Excerpt: Using PET and CT scans in combination could provide more accurate imaging for cancer radiation therapy than using them separately, researchers say...

More Here

AP via the Seattle Post Intelligencer
Excerpt: Terminally ill patients, seeking early access to experimental drugs unlikely to be approved before they die, won a legal reprieve Tuesday in a federal appeals court. ...
... The Abigail Alliance, in an earlier FDA petition, asked that the agency create a three-tiered drug approval system that would allow some experimental drugs to gain restricted approval following initial, phase 1 testing. That would expand the availability of those drugs beyond the limited "compassionate use" programs now permitted.

"The FDA has long prohibited lifesaving medicines for terminally ill patients," said Paul Kamenar, senior executive counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation. "We think this is a tremendous victory for patient groups and those who are in need of these kinds of medicines."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_FDA_Lawsuit.html

Also see
Abigail Alliance For Better Access To Developmental Drugs

From Reuters
Excerpt: A new analysis of a group of patients with advanced metastatic melanoma treated with peptide vaccines after surgery shows an average survival of nearly 4 years -- far longer than seen in previous trials. ...
... Weber and his team analyzed survival for 41 patients with Stage IV melanoma because "a fair number of the patients had done very well," he explained. The patients, who had participated in a total of five clinical trials, had all undergone resection of distant sites of disease followed by peptide vaccines therapy.

More

Also see:
National Cancer Institute's Cancer Vaccine Fact Sheet

Clinical Trials.gov Peptide Vaccine Search

From MSNBC
Excerpt: Ginger can kill ovarian cancer cells while the compound that makes peppers hot can shrink pancreatic tumors, researchers told a conference.
Their studies add to a growing body of evidence that at least some popular spices might slow or prevent the growth of cancer. ...
... Dr. Rebecca Liu, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues tested ginger powder dissolved in solution by putting it on ovarian cancer cell cultures.
It killed the ovarian cancer cells in two different ways — through a self-destruction process called apoptosis and through autophagy in which cells digest themselves, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

More here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12166671/

From CBS News
Excerpt: Duke is one of a handful of research institutions pioneering a new field called hyperthermia. While scientists have known for centuries that heat has healing powers, Duke's Mark Dewhirst has figured out how to harness that heat and direct it right into tumors.

"The temperatures that we are looking for are at the range between 104 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit," Dewhirst says. "At that range, we get the effects we want but we don't burn the tissue." ...

...Dewhirst and his colleagues know that the heat weakens tumors in two crucial ways: It damages tumors' cells and it makes the tumors more vulnerable to radiation and chemotherapy. "We can deliver 30 times more drug to a tumor like this than you can with just the free drug itself," he says. The Duke team is turning up the heat on some of the most stubborn cancers: breast, melanoma, cervical and ovarian.
More at link
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/19/eveningnews/main1515618.shtml

From ABC 7 News KGO-TV (Bay Area)
Excerpt: Joe Picone, melanoma patient: "Having cancer, Stage Four, you kind of reach for anything you can get, so I was like, 'okay.'"

Joe had Electroporation. Oncologist Adil Daud says it's a promising new gene therapy treatment.

Adil Daud, M.D., oncologist: "Electroporation has never been used in human beings for any type of gene therapy before."

This device is placed in the tumor and delivers electricity, which causes pores to form. The pores allow an immune boosting gene to get inside the tumor.

Dr. Adil Daud: "It will be like a flag that says danger or warning to the immune system."

More:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=edell&id=4083280

From Science Daily
Excerpt: About one in a hundred patients with apparently incurable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survive five or more years after being given relatively small doses of radiation therapy (RT) meant to ease symptoms, according to a new study. Published in the March 1, 2006 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study says a new subset of patients with NSCLC appears to have disease that is curable with minimal therapy, and may explain occasional cures attributed to unconventional therapies or faith healing.
Full Article

Article from the Washington Times
Excerpt: It all boils down to a pair of crucial chemicals that "hold real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer," the Rutgers study stated. The vegetables contain phenethyl isothiocyanate, or PEITC, while the curry contains curcumin, a yellow pigment found in the spice itself.
Both are considered phytochemicals -- nonnutritive substances in plants that have protective, antioxidant or anti-disease qualities.
"The bottom line is that PEITC and curcumin, alone or in combination, demonstrate significant cancer-preventive qualities in lab mice, and the combination of PEITC and curcumin could be effective in treating established prostate cancers," said Ah-Ng Tony Kong, the study's lead author and a professor of pharmaceutics at Rutgers.
End Excerpt

M.D. Anderson Clinical Trial of Curcumin in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Press release from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Breakthrough Drug in the War on Cancer
From Manchester Evening News
Excerpt: ... Prof Nigel Bundred, who works at Wythenshawe and Christie, led the trial in Manchester, where almost half of the 400 Britons involved in the study were treated. He said: "These are breakthrough results, they show a very significant improvement on existing treatment and give hope to women who've had breast cancer and have a high risk of it recurring.

"We are using this drug routinely in several different ways now and there are more studies continuing which will enable us to work out how to use this drug in combination with existing treatments for each patient. More

Also see:
Femera.com, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Femera information site

Sea Sponge Fuels Cancer Research
From the The Record (Hackensack N.J.) via the Olympian
Excerpt: ... It isn't the ugly sponge that may one day save lives, but a synthetic chemical called E7389 created by Eisai scientists to mimic the powerful natural chemical halichondrin B found in the sponge.

In a recent Phase II clinical study conducted by Eisai researchers, E7389 offered promise as a treatment for slowing and possibly reversing the spread of breast cancer.

Dr. Sandra Silberman, an oncologist with the research arm of Japanese drug maker Eisai Co. Ltd., whose U.S. headquarters are in Teaneck, N.J., said 10 of the 65 women whose results were reported in the study of the synthetic version saw their tumors shrink 30 percent or more, while another 21 saw their disease stabilize, or "stopped in its tracks."
"It's a very active drug," she said.

Silberman said if impending studies prove as successful as the Phase II trial, the drug could be available to cancer patients in two years. ...
End excerpt

Also see:
Clinical Trials.gov search for E7389 clinical trials
Yahoo Health Clinical Trial search for E7389

Eisai Medical Research Press Release ~ Phase II data on E7389

Google News Watch - E7389