Category: Featured News
Groundbreaking Brain Cancer Discovery May Lead To New Mesothelioma Treatment
Glioblastoma, a brain cancer, is highly aggressive and has limited treatment options. Although researchers have been diligent in their work to find a new, effective treatment, there has been no significant breakthrough in treatment for the cancer for decades. Now, researchers believe they may have found a way to turn a patient’s skin cells into cancer killing cells, leading to a “groundbreaking discovery” for brain cancer patients.
Glioblastama is a highly aggressive cancer with cells that quickly reproduce due to the large network of blood vessels found within the brain. Like pleural mesothelioma, the signature cancer of asbestos, glioblastama often has a complex, interwoven growth pattern with finger-like tentacles that spread out causing the boundaries between malignant tissue and healthy tissue to become blurred. Because of this, surgery, often the first course of treatment, leaves cancerous cells behind leading to continued growth and limited survival.
“Patients desperately need a better Standard of Care,” said Shawn Hingtgen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Care Center, who led the study, according to a Feb. 24 press release from University of North Carolina.
http://uncnews.unc.edu/2016/02/24/unc-chapel-hill-researchers-make-groundbreaking-discovery-use-skin-cells-to-kill-cancer/
To achieve this, the researchers report that they found a way to take the patient’s own skin cells and turn them into “cancer-hunting stem cells that destroy brain tumors.” In effect, through a Nobel Prize-winning technique from 2007, the researchers reprogrammed the skin cells to become induced neural stem cells.
These stem cells, according to the researchers, “have an innate ability to move throughout the brain and home in on and kill any remaining cancer cells.” The team also showed that these stem cells could be engineered to produce a tumor-killing protein, increasing the likelihood the cancerous cells will be stopped.
“We wanted to find out if these induced neural stem cells would home in on cancer cells and whether they could be used to deliver a therapeutic agent,” said Dr. Hingten. “This is the first time this direct reprogramming technology has been used to treat cancer.”
In a test on mice, the team was able to increase the survival by as much as 220 percent, depending on the type of tumor. In the short term, the team will turn their focus to human stem cells and assessing anti-cancer drugs that can be loaded into the tumor-seeking neural stem cells.
The team is also focusing on “improving the staying power of stem cells within the surgical cavity.” The work will ensure the stem cells have enough life to seek out the cancer cells.
Breakthrough in any cancer research can translate to hope for the nearly 3,000 Americans diagnosed with the deadly cancer each year. The average survival time for mesothelioma patients is less than a year.
The full study can be found in the Feb. 2 journal Nature Communications.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160524/ncomms11734/full/ncomms11734.html
Initial Research That Shows Combination Therapy “Substantially” Improves Lung Cancer Survival Rates Could Translate to Mesothelioma
Recent research into the most effective treatments for lung cancer and mesothelioma patients has led researchers to conclude that two drugs are more effective than one. Now, in another study, researchers found the same to be true, and that a combination therapy significantly increased survival rates in certain lung cancer patients who have limited treatment options.
Read about other combination treatments using immunotherapy here and here.
http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org
Researchers from the Experimental Oncology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) report lung cancer patients expressing the Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) are faced with the most aggressive subtype of lung cancer. Nearly 30% of the 20,000 lung cancer cases in Spain each year are KRAS-positive, but, according to the CNIO team, the standard treatment is cisplatin-based therapy that has proved inadequate.
The researchers set out to understand how tumors evolve, or as they report, “adapt to the environment in order to grow and survive.” This, they report, is why cancers become resistant to cancer treatments after initially responding.
“Classically, tumours have been studied at advanced stages, but we were interested in studying the initial stages of tumour formation,” says Chiara Ambrogio, first author of the paper, in a Feb. 10 press release announcing the research. “We followed this approach to avoid the heterogeneity issue and try to identify new essential mechanisms that sustain tumour development with potential therapeutic uses,” says Ambrogio.
After nearly five years of research, the team found that the combination of the anti-cancer drugs dasatinib, a DDR1 protein inhibitor, and demcizumab, a Notch pathway inhibitor antibody, worked in concert to “effectively” reduce lung tumors and improve “prognosis and survival rates substantially.”
The researchers concluded that the two drugs were comparable to standard chemotherapy and that it could lead to “an effective targeted therapy for patients with KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinoma.”
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to airborne asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many current treatments. Care often follows the same protocol as lung cancer. Approximately 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Currently, there is no known cure for mesothelioma.
The research, conducted on mouse models, will soon move into clinical trials “which will make it possible to transfer the discoveries to cancer patients.”
The study was published in the Feb. 8 issue of Nature Medicine.
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v22/n3/full/nm.4041.html
Sources:
- Experimental Oncology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre
https://www.cnio.es/ing/publicaciones/the-cnio-finds-a-potential-therapy-for-the-most-aggressive-type-of-lung-cancer-in-preclinical-models
Drinking Cola to Increase Anti-Cancer Drug Absorption for Mesothelioma
Oncologists know that a mesothelioma patient’s survival can be greatly increased by selecting a therapy that targets a specific genetic mutation, or biomarker, in the patient’s tumor. Patients with mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor protein are often treated with the anti-cancer drug erlotinib (Tarceva). However, often times the cancer fights back hard and survives despite the demonstrated effectiveness of the therapy. Now, researchers report that lung cancer patients who drink a cola may improve the absorption of the drug.
According to a study from the Netherlands, the correct balance of pH in the stomach can make a difference in the absorption of erlotinib. But, for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease or who take corticosteroids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and are given proton pump inhibitors (PPI), like esomeprazole, that balance can be disrupted. The pH level increases with esomeprazole, but when cola was consumed the acidic level helped bring the pH back down to a level where erlotinib was effectively absorbed.
In a study of patients with non–small-cell lung cancer who were given erlotinib and a PPI the mean absorption increased by 39 percent in patients who drank cola. Patients who were not receiving PPIs but still drank a cola did not see a difference.
The researchers concluded, “Cola intake led to a clinically relevant and statistically significant increase in the bioavailability of erlotinib during esomeprazole treatment.”
Erlotinib, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), works by blocking the activity of the EGFR tyrosine kinase enzyme, preventing the growth of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow, and, potentially, killing cancer cells.
Mesothelioma and lung cancer treatments are often similar. In addition to erlotinib, other kinase inhibitors used to treat mesothelioma and lung cancer include gefitinib and dasatinib. The researchers believe the results of this study will translate to these other TKI’s as well. Additional research needs to be conducted for confirmation.
Kinases function as drivers for numerous types of cancer, including mesothelioma. To combat this, kinase inhibitors are one of the primary treatment methods for mesothelioma. The drugs attack the proteins in an effort to prevent cell division and to kill the cancerous cells.
“These findings can be used to optimize the management of drug-drug interactions between PPIs and erlotinib,” note the authors.
Nearly 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with the incurable cancer, mesothelioma, each year. While recent advances in treatment for mesothelioma patients have improved survival for some patients, continued research is critically important to ensure existing treatments become even more effective. Each breakthrough or promising result from a study increases hope that mesothelioma patients can live longer, higher quality lives with the disease.
The study was published in the Feb. 5 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Show Your Support for the Fight Against Mesothelioma
Each year in the United States, about 3,000 people receive the devastating diagnosis of mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer whose only known cause is exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma is not a common cancer. It doesn’t receive the attention and research funding support that other more well-known cancers receive. However, its effects are just as serious and life-changing to those patients who are fighting it.
That’s why Mesotheliomahelp.org has launched a special fundraising campaign to raise awareness and support for the fight against mesothelioma. Money raised through this campaign will be donated to the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, the only nonprofit organization dedicated to ending mesothelioma and the suffering caused by it.
To do your part in supporting the fight against mesothelioma:
1. Order an “I Support Mesothelioma Research” T-shirt from Booster.com. Wear it around town. Share photos of yourself in it on social media. Anything to raise awareness of the plight of those suffering from mesothelioma.
2. If you run a website or blog dedicated to helping those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, please add this badge to your website to show your support and encourage others to donate by purchasing a T-shirt.
3. Share this campaign on your social media accounts, and tell your friends how they can get involved in the fight against mesothelioma.
4. Feel good knowing that your donation to this campaign will go toward mesothelioma research at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, and that research may one day save lives.
At Mesotheliomahelp.org, we are dedicated to helping mesothelioma patients through their difficult journey. It is an uphill battle, and these patients deserve all the help — and hope — they can get.
We hope you and your organization will join Mesotheliomahelp.org in our fight for a cure. Get involved today!
microRNA Could Be the Key to Mesothelioma Development
Recently, microRNAs have received lots of attention as a significant scientific and medical discovery. They appear to play a major role in reprogramming a cell to undergo uncontrolled cell division, causing growth of cancerous tumors. Now, researchers believe the microRNA drives the development of lung cancer.
An important new study from Vanderbilt University published December in The Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests the miR-31 microRNA is expressed at high levels in lung cancer tumors, and it is indicative of decreased survival.
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/82720
“We discovered that miR-31 is an independent survival factor, meaning that its expression impacts survival, independent of other factors such as tumor size, tumor burden and tumor location,” said Christine Eischen, Ph.D., professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University, according to a Jan. 28 press release from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. “That suggests it’s very important.”
https://news.vicc.org/2016/01/study-identifies-new-culprit-in-lung-cancer-development/
Although the research was focused on lung cancer, every new breakthrough in cancer research brings hope to mesothelioma patients. Pleural mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer equally as aggressive as lung cancer, is diagnosed in close to 3,000 Americans each year.
microRNAs, or miRNAs, are tiny molecules found within cells that serve a function in primary biological processes such as organ development, fat metabolism, cell proliferation and death. They are single stranded molecules that regulate gene expression. When miRNAs function properly, a person remains healthy. However, disregulation of miRNAs can lead to diseases, including mesothelioma and other cancers. On the contrary, when used as therapeutic agents, miRNAs can inhibit tumor growth.
The Vanderbilt researchers began to focus on the miR-31 protein when they found elevated levels resulted in increased cell transformation to tumor-like cells and cell growth. Via mouse models injected with human lung cancer cells, the researchers confirmed increased lung tumors with miR-31 over-expression.
“When we left miR-31 on for longer and longer periods of time, we saw the formation of adenomas (benign tumors) and then lung carcinomas,” said Eischen. “Mick [Mick Edmonds, Ph.D. and study lead] and I were thrilled with these results because no one had previously shown a microRNA could induce cellular transformation in the lung and cause cancer to develop.”
The teams’ findings suggest targeting miR-31 could lead to innovative treatment therapies to suppress tumor growth in patients with lung cancer, and potentially for malignant mesothelioma patients.
Targeted therapy for mesothelioma and lung cancer patients optimizes the potential for success of the treatment and offers treatment options that may not otherwise have been considered. There is no cure for mesothelioma.
The study was published in the Dec. 14 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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