Research – Survivors CAN!

Another reason to support the Mike Slive Foundation

What a privilege and thrill to be on hand last week for the official launch of the Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research. It was exciting to imagine the possibilities — for better detection, for better treatments, for cures — to combat a cancer that strikes one in seven men.

This week, the Survivors Cancer Action Network is even more determined for the new foundation to succeed at its work. This week, we lost an important member of our team to prostate cancer.

David York was a friend and a member of the Survivors CAN board. He had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer at age 44. At the time, reaching his 50th birthday seemed a long shot. When pressed, doctors told him he had a couple of years to live.

But they were wrong. In 2015, he was able to travel to the Georgia Dome to see his beloved Crimson Tide win the SEC championship on the way to another national championship. Then, he helped his dad celebrate his 90^th birthday. And, this past May, David celebrated his 51st, and final, birthday.

Even as he went through a range of traditional treatments, he never stopped looking with hope at the new advances that might provide the next line of defense against his cancer.

Sadly, that next line of defense didn’t come fast enough for David. And we know there are many more people like David out there.

Here are some key facts:

Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. The American Cancer Society estimated that there’d be about 161,000 new cases of prostate cancer in 2017 and 27,000 deaths from the disease.

That is 27,000 too many.

So back to Mike Slive.

The former SEC commissioner continues to contend with prostate cancer that has spread to his spine. He calls the new foundation that bears his name “the beginning of the end of prostate cancer.”

To that, we say amen.

Rest in peace, David.

Could you help UAB find targeted new treatments for cancer?

Call it “targeted therapy” or “precision medicine,” but we just call it the cutting edge of cancer research! Part of our hope for the future is finding customized treatments that work very specifically on different cancers and different people. In Alabama, we are lucky to have institutions such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham playing a critical role in this kind of research.

Most recently came the news that UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center is enrolling patients for the National Cancer Institute Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, or NCI-MATCH study, the largest, most scientifically rigorous precision medicine trial in cancer to date.

http://www.uab.edu/news/focus-on-patient-care/item/7469

According to the article, the clinical trial is open to patients whose cancer has returned, has gotten worse after standard treatment, or has no standard treatment at all.

This is the way possible new treatments are usually explored and developed, and those of us who have personally experienced cancer are always indebted to those who went before us and participated in these trials that ultimate saved our lives.

The hope is that researchers will now find even more weapons in their arsenal against this disease, and that the new therapies will attack each cancer where it is vulnerable and in ways that don’t inflict so much collateral damage.

“We are at an exciting point in cancer where we can tailor care to the individual patient based on emerging treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person,” Carla Falkson, M.D., professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology and principal investigator for the trial, is quoted as saying.

The hope is eventually to enroll 3,000 adult patients at UAB in the research study. If you think you might be a candidate, talk with your oncologist. Or to find out more details about eligibility, etc., contact Liz Busby, director of Oncology Clinical Trials at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, at 205-934-0337 or [email protected].

Joe Biden: Cancer needs Ebola-level action

By James Gallagher, health editor, BBC News website in Chicago

The hunt for a cancer cure should be treated with as much urgency as the Ebola outbreak, says US Vice-President Joe Biden.

He said he had dreamed of being the president that cured cancer and believed it was possible.

He is now leading the US “cancer moonshot” programme to cure cancer.

He told scientists their success could “literally change the world” but criticised the barriers to getting on clinical trials.

In a speech to American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting he said: “[When] we were worried about Ebola we were able to aggregate tens of millions of dollars and the entire US military because the World Health Organization couldn’t handle it.

“That’s the kind of urgency we need with regard to cancer.”

In January, President Barack Obama announced the $1bn (£710m) “moonshot” and that Joe Biden would lead it.

The vice-president said: “If I could have done anything I would have wanted to be the president that ended cancer as we know it because I believe it is now possible.”

It is a personal mission for Mr Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer at the age of 46 last year.

He told the meeting of 30,000 of the world’s leading cancer scientists and doctors that his son had been able to take part in pioneering clinical trials.

But “what about the 96% of people” who miss out, he asked, and called for new measures to help the poorest patients take part.

“Nobody should have to forgo a critical clinical trial because they cannot afford the gas to get there or a baby sitter at home,” he said.

His speech referenced many of the major themes that have emerged at the meeting in Chicago including the transformative power of immunotherapy and the unparalleled understanding of the genetics of cancer.

“[They are] offering profound promise that wasn’t there five years ago,” he said.

But Mr Biden said the progress could be much faster if only scientists worked closely together.

He said: “Imagine if we all worked together… shared the data behind breakthroughs so that the field as a whole can move forward faster and avoid unnecessary redundancy.

“The whole world is looking to you, your success can literally change the world. We need you now more than we ever have.”

Huge breakthroughs

Dr Deborah Mayer, one of the expert advisers to the moonshot, said there had been terrific progress in cancer science and the field was now at a “tipping point”.

Huge breakthroughs in harnessing the power of the immune system to attack tumours or in tailoring drugs to the weak spot in individual patients’ tumours are already helping patients.

In the US, five-year cancer survival has increased from 30% in 1950 to 48% in 1975 and 68% in 2010.

Dr Mayer told the BBC News website that the moonshot would act as a catalyst to bring breakthroughs to patients faster.

“Hopefully it will close that 17-year gap between what we know and what we do.

“The benefit to patients of this moonshot is we will move forward to enhanced treatments, we’re going to find cancers earlier when they’re more curable and we’re going to figure out how to prevent them.”

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has recommended four key areas the moonshot needs to deal with.

Shortening the time needed to perform trials and bring drugs to market
Developing tests that show which targeted therapies will benefit patients
Increasing data sharing between companies, researchers and hospitals
Boosting collaboration in the cancer field

The organisation’s president Dr Julie Vose said: “The Moonshot Initiative can be a vehicle for major new progress against cancer.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36458483

BBC News: ‘Major win’ in pancreatic cancer fight

By James Gallagher

Health editor, BBC News website in Chicago

A new combination of chemotherapy drugs should become the main therapy for pancreatic cancer, say UK researchers.

The disease is so hard to treat that survival rates have barely changed for decades.

But data, presented at the world’s biggest cancer conference, showed long-term survival could be increased from 16% to 29%.

The findings have been described as a “major win”, “incredibly exciting” and as offering new hope to patients.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers, with patients often given just months to live after diagnosis.

It is aggressive, resists treatment and, because pancreatic tumours cause nondescript symptoms, is often found only after it has spread throughout the body.

In the UK alone, 9,400 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 8,800 die from the disease each year.

Double team

The trial on 732 patients – in hospitals in the UK, Sweden, France and Germany – compared the standard chemotherapy drug gemcitabine against a combination of gemcitabine and capecitabine.

The results, released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference, showed that average survival times increased from 25 to 28 months.

But there was a far more dramatic impact on long-term survival with 29% of patients alive for at least five years with combination therapy compared with 16% normally.

There was no difference in side-effects.

Prof John Neoptolemos, from the University of Liverpool, who led the study, said: “This important trial shows that this drug combination could give pancreatic patients valuable extra months and even years and so will become the new treatment for patients with this disease.

“The difference in short-term survival may seem modest but improvement in long-term survival is substantial for this cancer.

“This drug combination will become the new standard of care for patients with the disease.”

It is not entirely clear why there is the difference in survival rates, but one idea surrounds the new drug being less toxic allowing patients to tolerate higher doses.

‘Exciting’

Alex Ford, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: “These are incredibly exciting results from a major trial for those diagnosed with this dreadful disease.

“The outlook for pancreatic cancer has been grim. With few treatment options, survival rates have barely changed in 40 years in the UK. Currently just 5% of pancreatic cancer patients can expect to live for five years.

“At the same time, incidence is set to soar by a third to more than 12,000 people being diagnosed every year by 2030.

“The possibility of increasing survival for those who have undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer will give great hope to hundreds of patients and their families who may benefit. The importance of clinical trials to help transform the outlook for pancreatic cancer cannot be over-estimated.

“We now need to see these results quickly translate to a change in approach by clinicians so that patients start to benefit more widely straightaway.”

The study was funded by the charity Cancer Research UK.

Its chief clinician Prof Peter Johnson said: “Pancreatic cancer remains a very difficult disease to find and treat.

“Despite this, we are making steady progress, through trials like this one, where the use of better chemotherapy after surgery was able to increase the number of people surviving the disease.”

Around 340,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year with the highest incidence in North America and Europe.

Dr Smitha Krishnamurthi, from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, said: “Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most hard-to-treat cancers.

“It is a major win to find that adding a generic chemotherapy not only improves survival for these patients, but does so with little effect on patients’ quality of life.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36444413

Malaria Protein Accidentally Found to Be Cancer-Killing Weapon

malaria-infects-red-blood-cell-Publicdomain-NIH-NIAID.jpg

By Terry Turner/Good News Network/Oct. 16, 2015

Scientists for decades have been searching for similarities between a placenta and a tumor, because both grow so aggressively. Now they have stumbled upon one–and inadvertently, a possible powerful treatment for multiple kinds of cancer.

The researchers were looking for something completely different — a vaccine to protect pregnant mothers and their children from malaria – and in their quest found a malaria protein that effectively destroyed 90% of a wide range of cancer cells, from leukemia to brain tumors.

They noticed the carbohydrate that the malaria cells attach itself to in the placenta is identical to the one found in cancer cells. They then took the protein in malaria and added a toxin to it, turning it loose on cancer. The modified malaria protein latched onto cancer cells in the tests, released the toxin, and destroying almost all cancer cells in their tracks.

Since scientists use only the protein created in a laboratory instead of the actual malaria cell, there’s no risk of the patient developing malaria.

The teams working at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of British Columbia in Canada published their findings this week in the journal Cancer Cell.

“It appears that the malaria protein attaches itself to the tumor without any significant attachment to other tissue,” said an optimistic Thomas Mandel Clausen, a Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen. “And the mice that were given doses of protein and toxin showed far higher survival rates than the untreated mice. We have seen that three doses can arrest growth in a tumor and even make it shrink.”

“I think there’s some irony to the fact that you can take a serious disease such as Malaria…and then use it to target another dreadful disease,” said Mads Daugaard, Senior Scientist at Vancouver Prostate Center, and one of the authors of the research.

Human trials for the cancer treatment are now being planned.

See the video!

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/malaria-protein-accidentally-found-to-be-cancer-killing-weapon/#

UAB study finds possible frontline therapy for older patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma

By Beena Thannickal/UAB News/Oct. 5, 2015

andres forero1

A new University of Alabama at Birmingham research study reports that brentuximab vedotin is an effective and safe first course of treatment for older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma that cannot be treated with conventional combination chemotherapy.

Results of the study, led by Andres Forero, M.D., professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology, were published online last month in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology.

In 2014, about 9,190 patients were diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in the United States, and up to 20 percent of newly diagnosed Hodgkin Lymphoma patients are 60 years of age or older.

While standard chemotherapy can achieve complete remissions and cures in younger patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, the majority of those 60 and older either are ineligible because of other serious medical conditions or refuse treatment in order to avoid complications related to drug toxicity.

“The biology in older patients may differ from that of younger patients,” Forero said. “Additionally, the presence of other illnesses, particularly cardiac dysfunction, may limit administration of standard regimens. It became clear to us that, as the rate of remission is much lower for older compared to younger Hodgkin lymphoma patients, there is a clear need for less toxic treatments that allow patients 60 and older to complete their full regimen without complications or interruptions.”

Forero, a senior scientist at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, has a long history of developing promising therapies for lymphoma and of working with drugs like brentuximab vedotin, a therapy that targets Hodgkin lymphoma cells and delivers a potent dose of chemotherapy without harming healthy cells. In previous studies, brentuximab vedotin has been shown to achieve remissions in patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant disease.

To examine the potential of brentuximab vedotin as a first course of treatment for older Hodgkin lymphoma patients, Forero and his team evaluated 26 patients, ages 64-92, who were ineligible for conventional chemotherapy or declined treatment after receiving information about its risks. The aim was to gather more information about the safety of brentuximab vedotin and how well it worked.

Researchers administered 1.8 mg/kg of intravenous brentuximab vedotin treatment every three weeks for up to 16 doses. Those who benefited from the drug could continue beyond this time period until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity or study closure. Patients received a median of eight cycles, with four completing 16 and one completing 23 cycles.

“In this population of older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who were unfit for standard chemotherapy, we observed that brentuximab vedotin as a single agent produced a very high rate of response, including a very high rate of complete remission,” Forero said.

At the time of analysis, 92 percent of patients achieved a complete or partial response to the drug that lasted about 9.1 months. Of those, 73 percent achieved a complete remission that lasted about 9.2 months. The treatment was generally well-tolerated and consistent with previous reports of brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed and treatment-resistant Hodgkin lymphoma. As expected, the toxicity that was observed was mild and reversible sensory neuropathy, which is decreased sensitivity in the fingers and toes. Fewer than half of the patients experienced fatigue and nausea.

“While we observed promising responses, the next step is to evaluate this drug in combination with additional chemotherapy or immunotherapies that might allow us to prolong the response without relapse,” Forero said.

Direct funding for this research was issued by Seattle Genetics, Inc., through the joint financial support of Seattle Genetics, Inc., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Co.

http://www.uab.edu/news/focus-on-patient-care/item/6569-uab-study-finds-possible-frontline-therapy-for-older-patients-with-hodgkin-lymphoma

Mayo Clinic awarded $13.3 million grant to test cancer vaccine

Keitha Nelson, First Coast News 10:08 p.m. EDT September 15, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Triple-negative breast cancer affects about 15-20 percent of women with breast cancer. Experts say it’s very aggressive and deadly.

The Mayo Clinic has received a $13.3 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program to fund a clinical trial. Researchers believe they now have a vaccine that could bring new found hope to those who have been told in the past that there are no targeted therapies for the disease they’re fighting.

Donna Deegan of the Donna Foundation, is a three-time breast cancer survivor who battled triple-negative breast cancer. She was first diagnosed in 1999 and then again in 2002.

“I remember when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer and my daughter was really small and when I wrote my first book I wrote that I hope by the time she has to worry about this that cancer is just a word in the medical history books,” said Deegan. “She’s 23 now and I think we are a long way towards making that happen.”

The 26.2 with Donna Breast Cancer Marathon has raised more than $4 million since it launched eight years ago. That seed money has been planted into research at Mayo and has led to a vaccine designed to prevent the recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer.

“What we want to do is intervene during that period between conventional therapy and when they relapse and see if we can boost the body’s immune defenses to fight off that relapse,” said Dr. Keith Knutson in the Department of Immunology at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus.

The Defense Department’s program studying breast cancer has awarded the Mayo Clinic a $13.3 million grant. Dr. Knutson who designed the vaccine, says this trial is the next step in the progress of moving a new drug from the laboratory into routine clinical use. Nearly 300 patients at clinical sites across the nation will take part in the testing.

“This is the first time. And it’s really exciting to see that for all of these women who have been told basically, ‘We don’t have anything for you besides chemotherapy,’ now ‘We do, maybe,'” said Deegan. “We’ll find out when this trial is done.”

Dr. Knutson says the vaccine would be applicable to a wide variety of cancers. So there’s a possibility that it could prevent the recurrence of other cancers as well. The clinical trial is expected to begin early next year. For information on trials, call the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center at 1-855-776-0015.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/health/2015/09/15/mayo-clinic-awarded-133-million-grant-to-test-cancer-vaccine/72325870/?linkId=17078565&utm_content=21565449&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

HudsonAlpha and UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center launch consortium, announce multiple hires

August 19, 2014

The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center have established a joint cancer research consortium that will combine pioneering efforts to diagnose, treat and care for patients and families affected by cancer. As a demonstration of each institution’s commitment to tackling the second leading cause of death in the United States, both organizations announced their intention to hire multiple faculty investigators in cancer genomics.

Genomics is the study of the entirety of deoxyribonucleic acid within a living organism. DNA contains the instructions for the development and function of all living organisms and many viruses. As such, the molecular basis for a great deal of human disease is believed to be in the genome.

“We aim to have a global impact. Over the last five years, researchers have really begun to recognize the broad role that DNA plays in all human diseases,” said Richard M. Myers, Ph.D., HudsonAlpha’s president and science director. “Bringing genomics to the forefront in cancer health care is one of HudsonAlpha’s biggest projects. We have research in breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and kidney and prostate cancer, to name a few, and for us, a partnership with one of the most respected NCI comprehensive cancer centers will help us fulfill our mission.”

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit research institute dedicated to realizing the promise of genomics in medical, agricultural, educational and commercial practice. Since opening its doors in 2008, HudsonAlpha has expended more than $30 million on cancer-related research and generated more than a half-dozen discoveries related to genomic techniques and biomarkers.

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the United States, and the only one in the Deep South’s six-state region, meeting the stringent criteria for the designation awarded by the National Cancer Institute. To garner this designation, the UAB CCC possesses the region’s greatest depth and breadth in laboratory, clinical and population-based research, as well as substantial transdisciplinary research that bridges these scientific areas. It has held the designation continuously since 1973.

The UAB CCC is home to more than 350 physician-scientists and researchers with the largest group of cancer specialists in Alabama who focus on specific cancer disciplines. Patients also have access to more than 180 cancer-related clinical trials, positioning the UAB CCC to solve the problem of cancer while providing the best possible care to the patients they serve.

The UAB-HudsonAlpha Cancer Consortium formalizes the two organizations’ fruitful collaborations dating from 2010. The Consortium’s goals are to improve cancer patient diagnosis, treatment and care through research and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes among different demographic groups. The UAB CCC and HudsonAlpha have individual education and public outreach programs that are complementary and will likely amplify each other’s impact.

“Our philosophy is that we’re better together,” Myers said. “Genomics is a highly dynamic field with a great deal of potential. Its application also requires a great deal of experience to interpret the vast quantities of data generated by sequencing DNA and performing other experiments on the human genome. This is where HudsonAlpha excels, and we need partners who are experts at clinical diagnosis, treatment and care so that we can relate genomic data to patient attributes. Getting the most out of new discoveries so that we impact patient care substantially and quickly is the reason HudsonAlpha was founded.”

“Both of our organizations have a passion for improving the lives of those affected by cancer,” said Edward E. Partridge, M.D., director of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. “The UAB CCC serves about 5,000 new patients and provides oncology to more than 20,000 patients annually, and we are determined to bring state-of-the-art genomics to their care. Partnering with HudsonAlpha brings to this challenge a deep reservoir of knowledge about the genetic and epigenetic basis for human disease, as well as HudsonAlpha’s leadership in devising genomic techniques.”

In recent years, as part of its mission to expand and grow its centers, the National Cancer Institute has encouraged the development of consortium cancer centers, especially those that reach into geographic regions that have unmet needs and opportunities to improve cancer health care.

As a cancer consortium, UAB and HudsonAlpha create an attractive destination for researchers in cancer genomics. HudsonAlpha intends to hire multiple faculty investigators, especially those with an interest in cancer genomics and computational biology, who will be part of the UAB-HudsonAlpha Cancer Consortium, taking full advantage of UAB’s clinical setting and HudsonAlpha’s genomics expertise and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Faculty investigators carry joint or adjunct appointments at both institutions.

The UAB-HudsonAlpha Cancer Consortium is one part of the institutions’ joint venture, which also includes the UAB-HudsonAlpha Center for Genomic Medicine announced earlier this summer with the intention of incorporating research knowledge into predicting and diagnosing personalized therapies and cures.

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
Media Contact: Heather Smith
[email protected]
256-327-0443

UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
Media Contact: Beena Thannickal
[email protected]
205-975-3967

About HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology: The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology possesses a unique concentration of genomics expertise and infrastructure, thanks to more than $200 million invested by private philanthropists and the state of Alabama and externally sponsored research. The nonprofit research institute houses in its facilities a unique blend of nonprofit scientists and for-profit entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who share know-how and challenges across organizational boundaries — an arrangement designed to accelerate application and commercialization.

About the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center: The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is among the 41 cancer centers in the nation that meet the stringent criteria for the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive designation. The center is a leader in groundbreaking research and patient care, and in reducing cancer disparities.

http://hudsonalpha.org/press-releases/hudsonalpha-and-uab-comprehensive-cancer-center-launch-consortium-announce-multiple-hires

New cancer treatment shrinking tumors in clinical trials

By Anne McNamara — www.thedenverchannel.com

New cancer treatment shrinking tumors in clinical trials

2:07 PM, Aug 26, 2015

DENVER – Doctors at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus say they discovered a cancer-causing gene and found drugs to fight it.

The treatment, now in clinical trials, appears to be shrinking tumors — fast.

Patient Nichol Miller, who traveled to Colorado from her home in Oregon, credits the treatment with saving her life. Chemotherapy had stopped working and the tumors in her lungs were still growing, when she first decided to visit Colorado for clinical trials in December.

“When I got my diagnosis, I was like… failure is not an option. I’ll beat this somehow, some way,” said Miller.

She is working with Dr. Robert Doebele, who discovered a cancer-causing gene back in 2012 in another patient. Dr. Doebele says he also found the drugs to block its activity — the same drugs Miller is taking.

The “before and after” pictures of Miller’s lungs show the treatment is working — fast.

“She had very extensive tumor involvement in both lungs,” said Dr. Doebele. “Now, it’s very hard to find involvement in either lung.”

Miller is the first patient in the trial with the abnormal gene. Doebele says her case proves what he discovered in the lab works in humans. Miller hopes others can experience the same success.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s given me back my future.”

The goal is to get FDA approval for the new drug, but Doebele says that will take at least two years.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/lifestyle/health/new-cancer-treatment-shrinking-tumors-in-clinical-trials