Tag Archives: cancer treatment

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy cancer drug hailed as ‘game changer’

An immunotherapy drug has been described as a potential “game-changer” in promising results presented at the European Cancer Congress.

In a study of head and neck cancer, more patients taking nivolumab survived for longer compared with those who were treated with chemotherapy.

In another study, combining nivolumab with another drug shrank tumours in advanced kidney cancer patients.

Immunotherapy works by harnessing the immune system to destroy cancer cells.

Advanced head and neck cancer has very poor survival rates.

In a trial of more than 350 patients, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 36% treated with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab were alive after one year compared with 17% who received chemotherapy.

Patients also experienced fewer side effects from immunotherapy.

Double hit

The benefits were more pronounced in patients whose tumours had tested positive for HPV (human papillomavirus). These patients survived an average of 9.1 months with nivolumab and 4.4 months with chemotherapy.

Normally, this group of patients are expected to live less than six months.

Early data from a study of 94 patients with advanced kidney cancer showed that the double hit of nivolumab and ipilimumab resulted in a significant reduction in the size of tumours in 40% of patients.

Of these patients, one in 10 had no sign of cancer remaining.

This compares with 5% of patients showing tumour reduction after standard therapy.

About 12,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer in the UK each year and an average of 12 people die from the disease each day.

Peter’s journey

“I feel a bit of a fraud having terminal cancer because I haven’t been in pain at all,” says Peter Waite, 64, from Hertfordshire.

“There’s been nothing negative about it for me and I feel a bit embarrassed really.”

Peter started receiving combined immunotherapy (nivolumab and ipilimumab) in a clinical trial in early 2015 after doctors discovered he had a type of renal cancer several years after recovering from kidney and lung cancer.

He was told he probably had three to five years left.

Instead of being treated with chemotherapy, he spent four months receiving both immunotherapy drugs and experienced virtually no side effects, allowing him to continue working as a motor technician throughout his treatment.

Scans of his kidney and lungs show that one of his tumours has shrunk and two others have not shown any further growth.

He is no longer taking the drugs and is being monitored every 12 weeks with scans.

Mr Waite said his daughters have teased him about being a guinea pig – and considered buying him some hay.

“I’m a very upbeat sort of bloke and I’ve been very lucky,” he says.

“I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to go on the trial.”

As yet, nivolumab has only been approved for treating skin cancer and in June it became one of the fastest medicines ever approved for NHS use, in combination with ipilimumab, for the same cancer.

Nivolumab and ipilimumab both work by interrupting the chemical signals that cancers use to convince the immune system they are healthy tissue.

‘Extend life’

Prof Kevin Harrington of the Institute of Cancer Research and consultant at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who led the head and neck cancer trial, said nivolumab could be a real “game changer” for patients with advanced head and neck cancer.

“This trial found that it can greatly extend life among a group of patients who have no existing treatment options, without worsening quality of life.

“Once it has relapsed or spread, head and neck cancer is extremely difficult to treat. So it’s great news that these results indicate we now have a new treatment that can significantly extend life, and I’m keen to see it enter the clinic as soon as possible.”

Prof Paul Workman, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said nivolumab was one of a new wave of immunotherapies that were beginning to have an impact across cancer treatment.

He added: “We hope regulators can work with the manufacturer to avoid delays in getting this drug to patients who have no effective treatment options left to them.”

Source BBC News

New cancer treatment which supercharges the body’s ability to fight disease is hailed as having an ‘astonishing’ effect – and could be tested on humans in three years

British scientists are developing a treatment which could significantly boost patients’ ability to fight off cancer, they revealed last night.

A team led by Imperial College London has already applied to patent the therapy, which they say could be ready for human trials within three years.

The scientists discovered a protein which helps boost the body’s immune system ten-fold, an astonishing effect which could help patients fight off cancers and viruses.

The protein promotes the production of immune cells called cytotoxic T-cells, which have the ability to detect cancerous cells, hunt them down, and destroy them.

In a chance discovery in mice, it was found that a previously unknown protein – which they named the lymphocyte expansion molecule or LEM – dramatically boosted the body’s number of T-cells.

They are now developing a gene therapy that would boost the production of LEM proteins, in turn increasing the number of T-cells available to attack cancer cells.

The therapy, revealed in the international journal Science last night, would use the existing T-cells taken from individual patients.

The patient’s cells would be removed, modified with the insertion of LEM-producing genes, and then infused back into the patients via a drip, probably on four occasions over two months.

It might also be used to treat other viruses, they said.

The development, which also involved researchers from Queen Mary University of London, ETH Zurich in Switzerland and Harvard Medical School in the US, has already been six years in the making.

Cytotoxic T-cells are an important component of the immune system, but when faced with serious infections or advanced cancer, they are usually unable to mobilise in large enough quantities to fight the disease.

In a chance discovery in mice, it was found that a previously unknown protein - which they named the lymphocyte expansion molecule or lem - dramatically boosted the body’s number of t-cells

In a chance discovery in mice, it was found that a previously unknown protein – which they named the lymphocyte expansion molecule or LEM – dramatically boosted the body’s number of T-cells

By screening mice with genetic mutations, the Imperial team discovered a strain of mice that produced ten times as many cytotoxic T-cells when infected with a virus, compared with normal mice.

The discovery was unexpected because the new protein had no known function and resembles no other protein known to science.

But the mice suppressed infections more effectively and were far more resistant to cancer.

They also produced more of a second type of T-cells, memory cells, enabling them to recognise infections they have encountered previously and launch a rapid response.

In further experiments the scientists went on to show that the LEM molecule had a similar impact on the human immune system.

A team led by imperial college london (pictured) has already applied to patent the therapy, which they say could be ready for human trials within three years

A team led by Imperial College London has already applied to patent the therapy, which they say could be ready for human trials within three years

Study leader Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt of Imperial College, said: ‘Cancer cells have ways to suppress T-cell activity, helping them to escape the immune system.

‘Genetically engineering T cells to augment their ability to fight cancer has been a goal for some time and techniques for modifying them already exist.

‘By introducing an active version of the LEM gene into the T-cells of cancer patients, we hope we can provide a robust treatment for patients.

‘Next we will test the therapy in mice, make sure it is safe and see if it can be combined with other therapies.

‘If all goes well, we hope to be ready to carry out human trials in about three years.’

He said gene therapy would initially be used to treat patients with advanced cancer.

The treatment would be relatively expensive because it would effectively be personalised each time, relying on an extraction of the patient’s own cells. But he insisted the cost would be manageable, given the significant benefits it could bring.

Imperial College has already filed two patents for the technology, and a spin-off company called ImmunarT has been formed with the aim of commercialising the therapy.

Dr Mike Turner of the Wellcome Trust, which helped fund the research, said: ‘The discovery of a protein that could boost the immune response to not only cancer, but also to viruses, is a fascinating one.

‘Further investigation in animal models is needed before human trials can commence, but there is potential for a new type of treatment that capitalises on the immune system’s innate ability to detect and kill abnormal cells.’

 
Source Mail Online

Berries in cancer therapy experiment

Wild berries native to North America may have a role in boosting cancer therapy, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
Scientists suggest chokeberries could work in combination with conventional drugs to kill more cancer cells.
But the UK research is at an early stage, with experiments carried out only on cancer cells in laboratories.
Cancer Research UK says much more work is needed to test the effectiveness of berries, particularly in human trials.
Hard to treat
Researchers from the University of Southampton and King’s College Hospital, London, tested a berry extract on pancreatic cancer samples.
Pancreatic cancer is particularly hard to treat and has an average survival period of just six months after diagnosis.
The study found that when the berry extract was used, together with a conventional chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine, more cancer cells died than when the drug was used alone.
But the scientists say the chokeberry had no effect on normal body cells tested in this way.
They believe compounds known as polyphenols in the berries may reduce the number of harmful cells.
And the team previously carried out similar early work on brain cancer cells.
Henry Scowcroft, at the charity Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s far too early to say from this small laboratory study whether chemicals extracted from chokeberries have any effect on pancreatic cancer in patients.
“And the findings certainly don’t suggest that the berries themselves should be taken alongside conventional chemotherapy.
“But innovative approaches are urgently needed to improve treatment for people with pancreatic cancer – a disease for which there has been precious little progress over recent decades.”
Chokeberries grow on the eastern side of North America in wetlands and swamp areas.
Bashir Lwaleed, a senior lecturer at Southampton University, who carried out the study, said: “We need to do more research to understand how the chemotherapy and berry work together.
“At the moment we cannot suggest people go out and buy supplements – we are still at the experimental level.”
The study was funded by the Malaysian ministry of higher education and health charity Have a Chance Inc in the USA.
Source BBC News

Refugees ‘struggle for cancer care’

There is a “high demand” for cancer treatment from refugees, which is often difficult to meet, experts say.

Infectious diseases and malnutrition have understandably been the focus of refugee health work.

But in Lancet Oncology, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says cancer is a major issue that host countries often struggle to deal with.

Innovative funding schemes and even screening in refugee camps could help, he said.

A team led by Dr Paul Spiegel looked at funding applications made to the UNHCR Exceptional Care Committee (ECC).

The ECC assessed 1,989 applications from refugees in Jordan for treatment between 2010 and 2012.

About a quarter (511) were for cancer, with breast and colorectal cancer the most common.

About half of these cases were approved and funded.

Funding applications were rejected if the patient had a poor prognosis or the treatment was too costly.

The highest amounts approved in individual cases were $4,626 in 2011 (£2,750) and $3,501 (£2,081) in 2012, the years that were analysed.


Strained services

Dr Spiegel said: “The countries in the Middle East have welcomed millions of refugees, first from Iraq and then Syria.

“This massive influx has strained health systems at all levels.”

He added: “Despite help from international organisations and donors to expand health facilities and pay for additional personnel and drugs, it has been insufficient.

“The burden has fallen disproportionately on the host countries to absorb the costs.

“For example, the Jordanian Ministry of Health footed an estimated $53m bill for medical care for refugees in the first four months of 2013.”

The authors call for improved cancer prevention and treatment in refugee settings through the use of innovative financing schemes, better primary care in camps including screening, such as mammograms and the development of electronic web-based cancer registries to prevent interruption of treatment.

Dr Spiegel added: “Until now, the response to humanitarian crises have been primarily based on experiences from refugee camps in sub-Saharan Africa where infectious diseases and malnutrition have been the priority.

“In the 21st century, refugee situations are substantially longer and increasingly occur in middle-income countries where the levels of chronic diseases, including cancer, are higher.

“Cancer diagnosis and care in humanitarian emergencies typifies a growing trend towards more costly chronic disease care, something that seems to have been overlooked, but is of increasing importance because the number of refugees is growing.”

Article was taken from BBC Online

Government steps in to fund pioneering cancer treatment

A SCHOOLGIRL battling a rare form of cancer has been given a chance to beat the disease after the Scottish Government said it would fund the cutting-edge treatment she needs.

The family of nine-year-old Mackenzie Furniss have been trying to raise £300,000 to pay for her to fly to Germany where doctors can provide pioneering immunotherapy, which has helped other sufferers survive.

Mackenzie, of Sauchie, Clackmannanshire, was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma when she was five. The cancer attacks the nervous system and is usually fatal. Fewer than 100 children in the UK are diagnosed with the disease each year.

Immunotherapy treatment, which uses the body’s immune system to help fight the disease, can boost patients’ chances of survival from 5% to 80%.

However, the treatment is not available on the NHS and is only at the trial stage in Germany.

But with just under a week to go until the cut-off point for the fundraising drive, the Scottish Government has agreed to cover 90% of Mackenzie’s medical bills.

She will initially be treated in Scotland, at Glasgow’s Yorkhill Sick Children’s Hospital, and will now only have to travel to Germany for follow-up treatment, which will be paid for by money already raised by the campaign.

Keith Brown, Mackenzie’s local MSP, wrote to Cabinet Secretary for Health, Alex Neil, when he heard about the youngster’s plight.

Mr Brown said: “When I heard about Mackenzie’s condition, I wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, expressing my concerns and asking that all potential solutions were fully explored.

“I was delighted to receive confirmation on Friday, that following discussions with Yorkhill and the German medical facility who offer the trial treatment, around 90% of the cost will be met by the NHS and that Mackenzie will be able to be treated here.

“I understand that NHS specialists will discuss full details with the Furniss family this week and while Mackenzie will require to travel to Germany for some follow up therapy, which will have to be funded privately, thanks to the generosity and efforts of so many people in Clackmannanshire, Scotland and around the world the amount required is likely to have been raised.”

Mackenzie’s battle has gained her some celebrity backers, with pop star Pink donating £10,000 to her appeal fund. Hollywood actor Justin Long, who starred in He’s Just Not That Into You with Jennifer Aniston, also donated £640.

The schoolgirl also recorded a video of herself dancing to pop band One Direction’s hit Live While We’re Young while in hospital waiting for chemotherapy.

Band member Harry Styles tweeted her dad Jason saying: “Hi Mate, my friend Will sent me this video. It’s amazing. Hope you’re well, get in touch.”

Mackenzie was elated when she saw Styles’s message and admitted it helped her through a difficult week when she was told the chemotherapy wasn’t working.

Her dreams came true when she watched the group in concert in February this year. Her parents painted the boy band’s logo and names on her head to make sure she stood out.

Overall, the family have collected £100,000 and have vowed to carry on fundraising to ensure that Mackenzie’s trips to Germany are all paid for.

Source The Herald Scotland