Putting measures in place to address rates of cancer is an important part of healthcare. Marking special months can help to raise the profile of the importance of cancer research. As an example, November 2022 is ‘Lung and Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month’. Aa a mark of the importance of finding ways to tackle cancer in society, Digital Journal has assessed some the latest research.
Various research strands are looking at new treatments that anticipate cancer’s next steps and block its evolutionary escape routes. This includes pinpointing cancers within the body using advanced scans so they can be targeted precisely with high-tech radiotherapy and ultrasound treatments.
Millions invested in scientific recovery
Among the latest cancer research news is a report into a $710.5 million gift to support cancer and infectious disease research. This is one key area from recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings.
The Bezos family has committed $710.5 million over the next decade to accelerate Fred Hutch’s multifaceted approach to scientific discovery. The newly declared gift supports the organization’s efforts to dramatically accelerate the pace and breadth of medical breakthroughs in cancer and infectious disease by tapping the full potential of today’s science. The gift will support recruitment, research facilities, clinical research infrastructure and expansion of immunotherapy research.
Improving bone marrow treatment
A new approach has been announced and this could make bone marrow transplantation safer, stronger. Over the years, bone marrow transplants have transformed care for patients with blood cancers.
However, one of the drawbacks of the treatment is graft-vs.-host disease — a common side effect that occurs when the transplanted cells see the recipient’s healthy tissues as foreign and attack them. In a study published in Science Immunology, a Fred Hutch team has shown a new approach that prevented relapse in laboratory models of bone marrow transplantation to treat leukemia and multiple myeloma.
Fred Hutch researcher Dr. Gary Lyman, a longtime thought leader within the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), along with three colleagues, recently published an analysis in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, a review that offers a broad overview of common, acute chemotherapy-associated adverse events and how to manage or prevent them.
Developing therapies for treatment-resistant prostate cancer
In a recent trial, nine patients whose tumors were resistant to androgen-blocking therapy continued that therapy but were also given a CD105 inhibitor called carotuximab. Forty percent of those patients experienced progression-free survival, based on radiographic imaging.
Investigators from Cedars-Sinai Cancer have identified an investigational therapeutic approach that could be effective against treatment-resistant prostate cancer. Results of their Phase II clinical trial, published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Therapy, have led to a larger, multicenter trial that will soon be underway.
