Radiation therapy, a widely used treatment for brain metastases, can impair important brain functions like memory, processing speed, and attention span, often greatly affecting patients’ quality of life. Initial results from a large clinical trial now suggest that an advanced radiotherapy technique can limit the harm to patients’ cognitive function compared to standard radiation therapy without affecting the treatment’s ability to shrink or control brain tumors. In the NCI-funded trial, patients with brain metastases were treated with the drug memantine (Namenda), which has been shown to help protect cognitive function, and whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT). Half of the patients, however, received a technically advanced form of…
Author: Brett Johnson
Results from a new study may explain how astrocytes, a type of brain cell, can drive the spread of cancer to the brain. In the study, researchers showed that astrocytes can activate a growth protein in cancer cells called PPAR-gamma. That protein, in turn, helps the cancer cells gain a foothold in the brain. Metastasis, or the spread of cancer cells to different organs in the body, is a long process that requires a cancer cell to break away from the initial, or primary, tumor, travel through the blood or lymph system, leave the circulation to settle in a distant organ, and grow. Although…
Though it’s the fourth most common type of cancer worldwide, there is still no regular screening guidelines for stomach cancer. Most available stomach cancer screening tests are inaccurate, resulting in false positives and emotional rollercoasters. The troubling part is that stomach cancer rarely shows symptoms in the early stages. With the tumor being impossible to see from the outside, most cases of stomach cancer are diagnosed at a late stage. However, for Amy Rehm, what seemed like an unlucky chain of illnesses resulted in the ability to identify and treat stomach cancer before allowing the cancer to spread. “My journey…
Scientists may have pinpointed the cause of some forms of a rare cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), according to a new NCI-funded study. However, the culprit isn’t a harmful genetic mutation, as is typical for cancer, but changes in genes that don’t involve mutations—what are called epigenetic alterations. About 10% of people with GIST have a form of the disease known as SDH-deficient GIST. Tumors of this type are marked by widespread epigenetic alterations but, until now, it hasn’t been clear if these alterations caused the cancer and could be potential targets for treatment. The new study shows that, in tumors of some people with SDH-deficient GIST,…
For some patients with an aggressive form of metastatic colorectal cancer, a treatment regimen that consists of a combination of targeted cancer drugs can improve how long they live without increasing their risk of serious side effects, results from a new clinical trial show. The phase 3 BEACON CRC trial tested both a three-drug combination and two-drug combination to treat people with advanced colorectal cancer whose tumors have a specific mutation in the BRAF gene. The mutation, called V600E, is found in about 10% of metastatic colorectal cancers and is associated with especially poor outcomes for patients. Patients who received the three-drug regimen—which used the…
Pancreatic cancer is a particularly vicious disease. Because the pancreas is nestled deep within the internal organ cavity, identifying the tumor early is a rare occurrence. In fact, over half of the diagnoses occur after the disease has spread to distant parts of the body. As a result, there is only a 9% five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer. Researchers have remained stumped on finding accurate screening and effective treatment methods as pancreatic cancer continues to rise towards the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. All hope is not lost, however. Determined researchers have adamantly been working on…
Scientists have developed a noninvasive device that may not only detect melanoma cells traveling through the bloodstream, but also kill them. The device, which the investigators call Cytophone, accurately detected cancer cells in 27 out of 28 people with melanoma. It also reduced the amount of cancer cells in participants’ blood, suggesting that it may kill the cells. The device uses laser beams and sound waves to scan circulating blood for melanoma cells. It does not require any needles or blood draws and can scan a person’s entire volume of blood—about 5 liters—in a matter of hours. The NCI-funded study demonstrated the feasibility…
ELAA Technology, an Istanbul-based company, has developed a software application which is used in conjunction with a bronchoscopy unit. By providing a patient’s Computerized Tomography (CT) images and bronchoscopy camera feed, it is able to localize the target lesion and support early diagnosis of suspicious lesions with almost 100% accuracy. In order to detect and take samples from a target lesion, their software transforms CT images into virtual 3D airway and blood vessel volumes and then the system asks the operator to mark the lesion on a user interface. The system then calculates the safest route to the lesion in…