Results of studies in patients with low- and intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) treated with hypomethylating agents (low dose azacytidine or decitabine) followed for a median of 18 months were presented at the Society of Hematologic Oncology meeting in Houston on September 9, 2016. Continue reading
Researchers have identified vesicles containing micro-RNA are important in the aggressive biologic behavior of melanoma, a cancer that kills via metastasizing to distant sites from primary tumors that are quite small. Continue reading
ProNai Therapeutics is a Canadian biotech company that recently licensed the rights to a small molecule inhibitor of Cdc7 (cell division cycle 7), a key regulator of both DNA replication and DNA damage response. The drug has shown activity against several cancers in preclinical studies. Continue reading
A Phase 2 study of necuparanib (from Momenta Pharmaceuticals) was halted following an interim futility analysis. The data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) ran the analysis once 57 patients in the 120-person trial had died, leading to the conclusion that necuparanib was showing insufficient efficacy to justify continuing the study. Continue reading
The results of two studies have demonstrated that the use of temozolomide (TMZ) plus radiation increases disease-free and overall survival in patients with glioblastoma and a low grade glioma called anaplastic glioma. Continue reading
BMS (Bristol Myers Squibb) acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Cormorant, the private, Stockholm-based biotech company developing HuMax-IL8, for $520MM. HuMax-IL8, which is currently in Phase I/II trials, is a monoclonal antibody that targets interleukin-8 (IL-8), a protein is expressed by many solid tumors. IL-8 also suppresses the immune system and increases the ability of tumors to metastasize. Continue reading
About 90% of stomach tumors are adenocarcinomas, which are subdivided into two main histologic types: (1) well-differentiated or intestinal type (IGC), and (2) undifferentiated or diffuse type (DGC). The intestinal type is related to corpus-dominant gastritis with gastric atrophy and intestinal metaplasia, whereas the diffuse type usually originates in pangastritis without atrophy. Diffuse gastric cancer (DGC) differs from the more common intestinal (IGC) type in that the former is less differentiated, has a poorer prognosis, and occurs more frequently in younger patients. Continue reading
A growing understanding of genetic variation both between histologically similar tumors from different patients and within individual tumors themselves is shedding light on the difficulties in treating cancer and developing biomarkers to diagnose it. It has long been known that a single tumor displays differences in morphology, nuclear shape, proliferation, and proportions of constituent cell types. However, these differences may be only be the “tip of the iceberg” as vast genetic and epigenetic variations that underlie them have been discovered between and within tumors. Continue reading
Blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) is an important pathologic process in solid tumors. The liberation of vast amounts of vasoendothelial growth factor (VEGF), which attracts endothelial cells, is responsible for angiogenesis. Continue reading