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“The essence of precision medicine, in particular precision oncology, is to make cancer management more precise based on genomic mapping and molecular characterization of the unique tumors for each patient,” says Dr. Wei Zhang. “The cancer management that needs to be precision include diagnosis, prognosis, treatment plan, treatment monitoring, and genetic counseling.” Precision medicine, and by extension, oncology, is the buzzword of the moment among doctors and researchers, and it is more than just spin or a fad. With regards to cancer, and as our understanding of the disease has increased, the idea of a one-drug-cures-all panacea is now widely considered…

Cellanyx, a Massachusetts-based diagnostic company, has developed proprietary live tumor cell phenotypic biomarker tests to improve cancer risk-stratification and allow informed clinical decision making. Their unique approach provides quantitative and actionable information based on analysis of thousands of live tumor cells. The tests employ a microfluidic platform combined with machine vision and machine learning approaches to analyze phenotypic morphological, biochemical and biophysical markers. Cellanyx has demonstrated initial clinical proof-of-concept with its lead phenotypic test in prostate cancer. The initial clinical proof-of-concept study was conducted to demonstrate improved risk stratification in men with low and intermediate Gleason grade (6 and 7)…

For African American men, the risk of dying from low-grade prostate cancer is double that of men of other races, a new study has found. But, despite the difference, the risk is still small. When a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, the disease is given a grade, or score, based on how abnormal (or aggressive) the cancer cells look under a microscope. This system for assessing the aggressiveness of a prostate tumor is called the Gleason score. Prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 6 is considered low grade, meaning it is less likely to grow and spread than cancer with a higher…

The investigational drug darolutamide can help delay the spread of prostate cancer to other parts of the body in men with nonmetastatic castration-resistant disease, according to results from a large clinical trial. In addition, the drug appears to lack some of the side effects seen with similar drugs used to treat men with this form of prostate cancer, the trial results showed. Until recently, there had been no effective treatment options for patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. These men have prostate tumors that continue to grow even after receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to keep androgen levels in the body extremely low or undetectable. But over…

The treatment landscape for metastatic prostate cancer is shifting and expanding yet again, according to new findings from two large clinical trials presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The ENZAMET trial tested the drug enzalutamide (Xtandi) and the TITAN trial tested apalutamide (Erleada) in men whose cancer is still responsive to hormone-suppressing therapies—also called castration-sensitive prostate cancer. In both trials, combining the respective drugs with the androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) substantially improved how long men lived overall and how long they lived without their cancer getting worse. Results from both trials were also simultaneously published in the New England Journal…

A new study shows that nearly half of phase 3 cancer clinical trials carried out by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored SWOG Cancer Research Network, one of five groups in NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), were associated with clinical care guidelines or new drug approvals. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health. The analysis was published in JAMA Network OpenExit Disclaimer and conducted by researchers affiliated with SWOG  from several institutions around the country. The study suggests that NCTN trials add value regardless of whether findings were positive or negative. In addition, the authors calculated the cost of running…

Nanostics Inc. is a medical device and biotechnology company based in Alberta, Canada. They are focused on developing a highly accurate test to predict clinically significant prostate cancer. Their core technology, ClarityDX, combines a sensitive extracellular vesicle detection platform with advanced machine learning to diagnose a disease from a simple blood test.  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men. According to recent statistics, nearly 1 in 7 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. Many men have to undergo invasive, and potentially harmful, prostate biopsies to test for prostate cancer. The Clarity DX Prostate test detects prostate…

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, highlighting a disease that kills nearly 15,000 women annually out of the 21,000 diagnosed. Relatively uncommon as cancers go, ovarian cancer nevertheless causes the most deaths from all gynecological cancers. Known as the “silent killer”, Ovarian Cancer presents no symptoms at all, or symptoms that are so general — abdominal enlargement or swelling, abdominal fullness and pain, pain in lower abdomen — they cause no immediate alarm and are mistaken for another, and more likely, ailment. When the cancer finally is diagnosed, it is often at an advanced stage. This has led to a sobering statistic:…