Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Finding the origins of angiosarcoma

In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine on February 2020, scientists report some newly discovered reasons for the occurrence of a rare blood vessel wall cancer called angiosarcoma. This could one day help develop better therapies for this aggressive tumor. The project is a striking example of unexpectedly rich findings from a crowd-sourced venture that brings together a scattered group of patients with a rare disease.

10 Feb 2020

New summary report highlights advances and challenges in small cell lung cancer research

In 2017, a group of lung cancer experts posed the question: "Can recent advances in tumor biology that have led to progress treating non-small cell lung cancer translate into improved outcomes for small cell lung cancer?"

10 Feb 2020

Growing eggs and sperm to treat infertility

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have reported, in the journal Cell Reports, the mechanism of how the very early precursor or stem cells which eventually give rise to the germ cells, eggs and sperm, are formed over the course of development. This could help create eggs and sperms under laboratory conditions to help infertile people who don’t have sperms, or eggs, for instance.

9 Feb 2020

Powerful vaccine could boost the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy

Supercharging the mutation rate in cancer cells can create a powerful vaccine that is able to boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy, a major new study reports.

9 Feb 2020

New therapeutic strategy for lung cancer and associated secondary tumors

In 20 - 40% of patients with cancer, metastasis (the development of secondary tumors) in the central nervous system (CNS) occurs. CNS metastatis impacts negatively on a patient's quality of life, and is associated with a poor health prognosis.

8 Feb 2020

Researchers discover new approach to make tumors sensitive to immunotherapy

A cancer tumor's ability to mutate allows it to escape from chemotherapy and other attempts to kill it. So, encouraging mutations would not be a logical path for cancer researchers.

7 Feb 2020

Patients stuck with bills after insurers don’t pay as promised

The more than $34,000 in medical bills that contributed to Darla and Andy Markley's bankruptcy and loss of their home in Beloit, Wisconsin, grew out of what felt like a broken promise.

7 Feb 2020

CD19 CAR NK cell therapy clinical trial shows encouraging results for hematologic cancers

According to results from a Phase I/IIa trial at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, treatment with cord blood-derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer (NK)-cell therapy targeting CD19 resulted in clinical responses in a majority of patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, with no major toxicities observed.

6 Feb 2020

Racial, socioeconomic disparities found among patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer

Survival outcomes for HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck have made significant gains in recent years, but new research in the February 2020 issue of JNCCN--Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network finds some groups are being left behind.

6 Feb 2020

'Watch-and-Wait' strategy may help rectal cancer patients to safely evade surgery

A team of doctors and scientists from the Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, has shown that patients with "low" rectal cancer (that is, very close to the anus) who show no sign of their tumors after a course of radio- and chemotherapy can safely choose to postpone invasive and complication-prone surgical procedures.

6 Feb 2020

New plant-based drug shown to help patients with head and neck cancers

In a UCLA-led phase I clinical trial, a new plant-based drug called APG-157 showed signs of helping patients fight oral and oropharyngeal cancers. These cancers are located in the head and the neck.

5 Feb 2020

Cancer deaths down by 29 percent over last two decades

The American Cancer Society reports that cancer deaths in the United States have decreased by as much as 29 percent between 1991 and 2017, thanks to early detection and treatment advances.

5 Feb 2020

Research shows new ways to curb the development anti-cancer therapy resistance

Research by Professor Yuval Shaked of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology presents new ways to curb the development anti-cancer therapy resistance, a phenomenon that is detrimental to the efficacy of existing cancer treatments.

5 Feb 2020

Analysis shows overall survival in lung cancer patients harboring 'niche' mutations

Mutations were observed in all genes studied, except c-MET, DDR2, MAP2K1, and RET.

5 Feb 2020

Researchers develop an emergency stop switch for CAR T-cell therapies

Immunotherapy, unlike chemotherapy and radiotherapy, arms the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. In recent years, it has proven to be remarkably successful at treating leukemia, lymphoma and other liquid cancers, or cancers present in body fluids.

4 Feb 2020