InVite Study in Metastatic Breast Cancer/Avastin - 23andMe and Genentech study (U.S.)

InVite Study in Metastatic Breast Cancer - 23andMe

Who is Eligible

1. Diagnosed with breast cancer by a medical professional
2. Currently have metastatic (stage IV) or recurrent breast cancer
3. Treated with bevacizumab (also known as Avastin®) at any point in 2010 and/or 2011*
4. Live in the United States
5. Age 18 or older

*If you were treated with bevacizumab (also known as Avastin®) after 2011, and are interested in possible future opportunities to participate, please email
invite-study@23andme.com.

What You Get

• Convenient and easy opportunity to participate in new type of research
• Help advance medical research in metastatic breast cancer and its treatment
• Receive updates about research progress and discoveries
• Learn about your health and ancestry through FREE access to 23andMe's Personal Genome Service

Journal of Cancer Survivorship, abstract: Patient perceptions of communications on the threshold of cancer survivorship: implications for provider responses (small study)

Abstract 

 "......confusion, insecurity, vulnerability, loss, and abandonment....."

Introduction  

Although high quality professional–patient communication is recognized as fundamental to effective cancer care, less attention has been paid to developing an evidence basis for communications surrounding the stage of the cancer journey when primary cancer treatment concludes, management responsibilities shift from oncology specialist services into the generalist care domain, and the patient transitions beyond patienthood and into survivorship.

abstract: Survival Duration among Patients with a Noncancer Diagnosis Admitted to a Palliative Care Unit: A Retrospective Study

Abstract 

Background: 

Palliative care unit (PCU) beds are a limited resource in Canada, so PCU admission is restricted to patients with a short prognosis. Anecdotally, PCUs further restrict admission of patients with noncancer diagnoses out of fear that they will "oversurvive" and reduce bed availability. This raises concerns that noncancer patients have unequal access to PCU resources.

Purpose/Methods: 

To clarify survival duration of patients with a noncancer diagnosis, we conducted a retrospective review of all admissions to four PCUs in Toronto, Canada, over a 1-year period. We measured associations between demographic data, prognosis, Palliative Performance Score (PPS), length of stay (LOS), and waiting time.

Results: 

We collected data for 1000 patients, of whom 21% had noncancer diagnoses. Noncancer patients were older, with shorter prognoses and lower PPS scores on admission. Noncancer patients had shorter LOS (14 versus 24, p<0.001) than cancer patients and a similar likelihood of being discharged alive to cancer patients. Noncancer patients had a trend to lower LOS across a broad range of demographic, diagnostic, prognostic, and PPS categories. Multivariable analysis showed that LOS was not associated with the diagnosis of cancer (p=0.36).

Discussion/Conclusion:
Noncancer patients have a shorter LOS than cancer patients and a similar likelihood of being discharged alive from a PCU than cancer patients, and the diagnosis of cancer did not correlate with survival in our study population. Our findings demonstrate that noncancer patients are not "oversurviving," and that referring physicians and PCUs should not reject or restrict noncancer referrals out of concern that these patients are having a detrimental impact on PCU bed availability.

abstract: Evaluation of the performance of a new compression system in patients with lymphoedema. (lower/upper limb lymphoedema)

 Int Wound J. 2012 Mar 20. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-481X.2012.00958.x.

Abstract

In the acute phase of lymphoedema, patients require comprehensive decongestive therapy (CDT), which includes skin care, an exercise regimen, manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) and regular bandaging. This study was established to determine the effectiveness of a new system of bandage therapy, the 3M™ Coban™ 2 compression system.

In total, 24 patients were entered into the study (12 from UK and 12 from Canada) with a variety of clinical presentations. The mean age of the groups was 57·4 years, which varied from 26 to 79 years. Body mass index (BMI) averaged 38·9 kg/m(2) , with a range from 22·7 to 67·5 kg/m(2) . Of the total, eight were women with arm lymphoedema, the remainder being men and women with lymphoedema of the lower limb. All were considered to be in need of CDT. After 19 days, the reduction of limb volume was measured, which indicated a mean limb volume reduction of 1210 ml (95% confidence interval, CI, 780-1641, P < 0·001). Leg affected patients experienced greater reduction than arm affected patients (1596 ml versus 438 ml), although both groups experienced significant reduction in limb volumes (both P < 0·001).

conference notice: Registration open for Ovarian Cancer National Alliance Annual Conference, Washington, DC - July 14-17, 2012

Registration open for Ovarian Cancer National Alliance Annual Conference

March 22, 2012: Journal of Ovarian Research | open access | The value of serum CA125 for the development of virtual follow-up strategies for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer: A retrospective study

Blogger's Note: past studies also confirm the connection between doubling of CA125/nadir, focus on remote care/followup

Journal of Ovarian Research | Abstract | The value of serum CA125 for the development of virtual follow-up strategies for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer: A retrospective study

Research

"Current NCCN guidelines for the follow up of patients with EOC are widely accepted but only limited evidence is available to support current clinical practice [3]. There are no clinical trials available to determine optimal follow up intervals, sequence or duration of follow up."

The value of serum CA125 for the development of virtual follow-up strategies for patients with epithelial ovarian cancer: A retrospective study

Journal of Ovarian Research 2012, 5:11 doi:10.1186/1757-2215-5-11
Published: 22 March 2012

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Serum CA125 is routinely used in the follow up of ovarian cancer. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of CA125 in the detection of ovarian cancer recurrence.

Methods

This retrospective case study was carried out at a tertiary gynaecological cancer centre in Australia. Patients with all cell types of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) treated between 2003 and 2010 were considered eligible. We excluded patients whose aim of treatment was palliative, had no follow-up, had no pre-operative CA125 reading or had pre-operative CA125 levels < 35 U/mL. After primary treatment, patients were followed up as per guidelines suggested by National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). We recorded if symptoms, findings from physical examination, imaging or serum CA125 levels led to the diagnosis of recurrence. An increase in CA125 levels to twice the postoperative nadir was considered as "doubling" at any time during follow up.

Results

Analysis is based on 56 patients who completed primary treatment and who presented for a total of 274 follow-up episodes. Of those, 29 patients (52%) developed a recurrence within the follow up period. Recurrence was diagnosed by CA125 alone in 14 of 29 patients (48%). CA125 was not elevated in 7 patients (24%) who recurred. Doubling of CA125 from nadir was observed in 27/29 patients. Of those 27 patients the doubling from nadir occurred within the normal range of 35 U/ml in 3 cases and outside the normal range in 24 cases. Multivariate analysis suggests that doubling of serum CA125 (OR 5.10, p 0.036) and nadir CA125 >10 U/ml (OR 2.86, p 0.01) remained the only independent factors to predict ovarian cancer recurrence.

Conclusions

The present paper proposes the validation of a novel CA125 algorithm aiming to detect recurrent EOC. These data may allow us to investigate novel ways of follow up that do not require a patient's physical attendance at a clinic (virtual follow-up).

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.

Marker of DNA Damage Could Predict Response to Platinum Chemotherapy

Marker of DNA Damage Could Predict Response to Platinum Chemotherapy:

• Assay could direct treatment options for triple-negative breast cancer.
• Accumulations of telomere AI predicted sensitivity to therapy.

PHILADELPHIA — Scientists have uncovered a marker of DNA damage that could predict who will respond to platinum-based chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin or carboplatin.
These drugs are widely used for ovarian cancer, but as with most cancer drugs, it can be difficult to predict who will respond to therapy.
A team of researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that this marker, telomeric allelic imbalance or tAI, could predict sensitivity to therapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer.
The results are published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“We currently do not have any targeted therapies for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, so if these laboratory findings are confirmed and an assay is created to predict sensitivity to drugs that target defective DNA repair, it would be a major step forward,” said lead pathologist Andrea Richardson, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Scientists have long known that DNA repair status is a predictor of sensitivity to therapy and thus prognosis. However, measurements of DNA repair status have been slow to arrive.
Richardson and colleagues looked for genomic signatures in cell lines and tumors and correlated them to platinum sensitivity.
In patients with triple-negative breast cancer, they found that a high level of subchromosomal regions with allelic imbalance extended to the telomere predicted response to cisplatin treatment. The same was true for serous ovarian cancer.
Importantly for patients with triple-negative breast cancer, researchers found an inverse relationship between the level of tAI and BRCA1 expression.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Licenses Novel Immunotherapeutic Target EphA2 from University of Pittsburgh - MarketWatch

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Licenses Novel Immunotherapeutic Target EphA2 from University of Pittsburgh - MarketWatch

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Licenses Novel Immunotherapeutic Target EphA2 from University of Pittsburgh

LOS ANGELES, Mar 22, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ImmunoCellular Therapeutics IMUC +12.14% today announced that it has entered into an agreement with University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) under which Pitt has licensed to the Company intellectual property surrounding EphA2, a tyrosine kinase receptor that is highly expressed by ovarian cancer and other advanced and metastatic malignancies. This agreement grants a world-wide exclusive license to the Pitt intellectual property for ovarian and pancreatic cancers; and a world-wide non-exclusive license to the Pitt intellectual property for brain cancer. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Company will employ the Pitt intellectual property in the development and commercialization of ICT-140, a multivalent, dendritic cell-based vaccine for the treatment of ovarian cancer. ICT-140 is designed to target cancer stem cells as well as daughter cells in ovarian cancer by targeting multiple different antigens including EphA2, mesothelin, Her-2/neu, IL-13Ra2 and several other undisclosed antigens......

Prevalence of BRCA1 mutations among 403 women with triple-negative breast cancer: implications for genetic screening selection criteria: a Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group Study.

Prevalence of BRCA1 mutations among 403 women with triple-negative breast cancer: implications for genetic screening selection criteria: a Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group Study.:

Study
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012 Mar 21;

Abstract

In spite the close association of the triple-negative breast cancer immunophenotype with hereditary breast cancers and the BRCA1 pathway, there is a lack of population studies that determine the frequency of BRCA1 mutations among triple-negative breast cancer patients. To address this, we have screened a large sample of 403 women diagnosed with triple-negative invasive breast cancer, independently of their age or family history, for germline BRCA1 mutations.

Median age at diagnosis was 50 years (range 20-83). The overall prevalence of triple-negative cases among the initial patient group with invasive breast cancer was 8 %. BRCA1 was screened by direct DNA sequencing in all patients, including all exons where a mutation was previously found in the Greek population (exons 5, 11, 12, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24-77 % of the BRCA1 coding region), including diagnostic PCRs to detect the three Greek founder large genomic rearrangements. Sixty-five deleterious BRCA1 mutations were identified among the 403 triple-negative breast cancer patients (16 %).

Median age of onset for mutation carriers was 39 years. (?? Blogger's Note: screening guidelines...)  Among a total of 106 women with early-onset triple-negative breast cancer (<40 years), 38 (36 %) had a BRCA1 mutation, while 27 % of women with triple-negative breast cancer diagnosed before 50 years (56/208) had a BRCA1 mutation. A mutation was found in 48 % (50/105) of the triple-negative breast cancer patients with family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

It is noteworthy, however, that of the 65 carriers, 15 (23 %) had no reported family history of related cancers. All but one of the carriers had grade III tumors (98 %). These results indicate that women with early-onset triple-negative breast cancer, and ideally all triple-negative breast cancer patients, are candidates for BRCA1 genetic testing even in the absence of a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

Characterization of four novel BRCA2 large genomic rearrangements in Spanish breast/ovarian cancer families: review of the literature, and reevaluation of the genetic mechanisms involved in their origin.

Characterization of four novel BRCA2 large genomic rearrangements in Spanish breast/ovarian cancer families: review of the literature, and reevaluation of the genetic mechanisms involved in their origin

Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2012 Mar 21;

Abstract

Large genomic rearrangements (LGRs) at the BRCA2 locus explain a non-negligible proportion of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) syndromes. The multiplex ligation and probe amplification (MLPA) assay has permitted in recent years to identify several families carrying LGRs at this locus, but very few such alterations have been fully characterized at the molecular level. Yet, molecular characterization is essential to identify recurrent alterations, to analyze the genetic mechanisms underlying such alterations, or to investigate potential genotype/phenotype relationships. We have used MLPA

text/video: Can Aspirin Reduce Risk for Cancer Metastasis? Cancerwise/MD Anderson

Can Aspirin Reduce Risk for Cancer Metastasis?: Results from a report released today in a leading medical journal indicate that low dose daily aspirin reduces the risk of metastasis of several cancers. According to articles in The Lancet, the protective effect occurs within 3-5 years of beginning aspirin use.

Read more about the study in a post from our Cancer Frontline blog.

Raymond DuBois, M.D., Ph.D, MD Anderson's provost and executive vice president and a professor of cancer biology and cancer medicine, shares his insights on the study's significance and addresses questions about aspirin dose, and how cancer patients should respond to this news.