Wednesday, April 11, 2012
ME-344/NV-128 - Marshall Edwards - Trials Open for Broad-Acting Oncology Candidate - Chemotherapy Advisor
Trials Open for Broad-Acting Oncology Candidate - Chemotherapy Advisor
April 11, 2012
cer Care Costs Seem to Be Worth It
Read More >>
Data from a preclinical study of NV-128, the metabolic precursor of ME-344, demonstrated its ability to induce mitochondrial instability, ultimately leading to cell death in otherwise chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer stem cells.....
abstract: High grade serous carcinoma of the ovary with a yolk sac tumour component in a postmenopausal woman: report of an extremely rare phenomenon -- yolk sac ovarian tumors usually dx'd under 30yrs age
High grade serous carcinoma of the ovary with a yolk sac tumour component in a postmenopausal woman: report of an extremely rare phenomenon
"High grade serous carcinoma is the most common ovarian epithelial malignancy.1 Ovarian yolk sac tumours (YST) are much more uncommon and are morphologically heterogeneous, primitive teratoid neoplasms
differentiating into multiple endodermal structures.2
They almost always occur before age 30 and are extremely rare in
perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.
Rare examples have
been reported in elderly patients,
sometimes associated with an ovarian surface epithelial-stromal tumour,
most commonly endometrioid
adenocarcinoma but occasionally
carcinosarcoma, clear cell carcinoma or a mucinous neoplasm; rarely the
epithelial component
is benign.3–13
In a review of the literature, we have identified 18 ovarian neoplasms
exhibiting a combination of YST and a surface epithelial-stromal
tumour.3–13
The combination of endometrioid adenocarcinoma and YST should be
distinguished from YST with endometrioid-like glands
(‘pseudoendometrioid’
YST).
open access: Quality of Clinical Trials in Gastro‐Entero‐Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumours
Blogger's Note:
rare ovarian cancer endocrine/carcinoid tumors exist, therefore, a possible interest in this paper, there may have been ovarian cancer tumors included in a study/ies, but without looking at each individual study, this paper does not isolate references to ovarian/ovary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Table 2 describes the study populations which may or may not have included OC endocrine/carcinoid tumors
Description of the study population in the 46 identified trials.
Characteristic
No. of Studies %
Tumour location
Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour only
Carcinoid tumours only
Both tumours
With other endocrine cancer
Quality of Clinical Trials in Gastro‐Entero‐PancreaticNeuroendocrine Tumours
"In conclusion, we found that the quality of study design and reporting in NETs treatment trials published in the last decade is poor, especially for trials testing radionuclide treatment. While poor study design and reporting has been previously described for trials in other malignancies, some unique quality issues exist for NET trials such as the inclusion of heterogenous patient populations within individual studies coupled with poor reporting of study population parameters. This has a significant impact on trial interpretability both for clinical decision‐making and future trials.
In response, we include a list of recommendations to be considered in the design of future trials in this group of tumours to ensure that future trials provide a more informative picture of the risks and benefits of systemic therapy in this patient population. We hope that our study can serve as a baseline against which improvements in clinical trial design and reporting in this patient population can be compared."
Varian Medical Systems to Showcase TrueBeam™ STx with press release: Varian Medical Systems - RapidArc® Radiosurgery - brain, spine, thorax, GI tract
Varian Medical Systems to Showcase TrueBeam™ STx with RapidArc® Radiosurgery --... -- MIAMI BEACH, Fla., April 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
".....Clinicians who are gaining early experience in the clinical use of RapidArc® Radiosurgery are finding that this approach can be performed quickly and accurately in the treatment of tumors of the brain, spine, thorax, and gastrointestinal tract.[1] .......
abstract: Sequential Bevacizumab and Oral Cyclophosphami... [Gynecol Oncol. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI
Sequential Bevacizumab and Oral Cyclophosphamide for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Test the safety and efficacy of sequentially blocking angiogenesis by adding oral cyclophosphamide to bevacizumab following cancer progression on bevacizumab in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.METHODS:
Eligibility included≤2 lines of treatment for recurrence and measurable cancer by RECIST 1.0. Patients received bevacizumab (15mg/kg every 3weeks IV) and upon RECIST progression, oral cyclophosphamide (50mg orally daily) was added. Objectives included safety, toxicities, 3- and 6-month PFS rates, response rate, PFS, and OS.RESULTS:
20 patients were enrolled. Overall response rate was 10%, and 65% of patients had confirmed stable disease (SD). Thirteen of 20 patients received oral cyclophosphamide added to bevacizumab upon bevacizumab progression. Of these 13 patients, 1 patient subsequently achieved a PR (this patient had SD as best response during bevacizumab) and 3 patients had a confirmed SD. For all patients, median PFS was 8.41 months, 6 month PFS rate was 65%, duration of response (DOR) 7.3 months, and median OS was 22.72 months. Median DOR for patients receiving both bevacizumab and cyclophosphamide was 8.4months. Most toxicities were grade 1 and 2 and manageable. Grade 3 and grade 4 toxicities included 1 myocardial infarction, 1 gastrointestinal perforation (GIP), and 12/20 patients (60%) developed grade 3 HTN.CONCLUSIONS:
Addition of oral cyclophosphamide to bevacizumab at the time of cancer progression on bevacizumab appears to have continued anti-cancer effects in a subgroup of patients and appears to be safe. Randomized trials testing combination versus sequential anti-angiogenic therapy for recurrent ovarian cancer are warranted.Lilly Oncology On Canvas | 2012 Competition - registration deadline Apr 30th
Lilly Oncology On Canvas | 2012 Competition
The 2012 Lilly Oncology On Canvas Art Competition is now underway!
Registration Deadline: April 30, 2012
Submission Deadline: June 29, 2012
Submission Deadline: June 29, 2012
Berwick: Six Categories Represent 20% Of Nation's Health Care Expenditures - Kaiser Health News/blogger's opinion
Blogger's Note/Opinion: the examples of fraud in healthcare (lots of examples internationally) are rarely, publicly connected to the bottom line, so congrats to Berwick on this issue; if all medical fraud activity/costs were accounted directly in healthcare financial bottom-lines, then free healthcare for all would be available, someone (not me) should take on this project; eg: Ontario e-health scandal; executive buyouts, U.S. clinics defraud of Medicare claims (not accounting errors but outright fraud) ............Berwick's estimate is most likely low but what is not in this particular article is the cost of under-treatment eg. in our case of ovarian cancer the costs of second primary debulking surgery (except to say included in poor care delivery possibly)
Berwick: Six Categories Represent 20% Of Nation's Health Care Expenditures - Kaiser Health News
Berwick: Six Categories Represent 20% Of Nation's Health Care Expenditures
Modern Healthcare: Berwick Targets Waste In Healthcare Expenditures
In an article in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Donald Berwick, former CMS administrator and current senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Andrew Hackbarth, an assistant policy analyst for the RAND Corp., listed six categories of waste they say represent more than 20% of the nation's ever-increasing healthcare expenditures... Those six areas—fraud and abuse, poor care coordination, failures of care delivery, overtreatment, administrative complexity and overpricing of services—represent enormous opportunities for cost-cutting and improvement, the authors said (McKinney, 4/10).
This is part of Kaiser Health News' Daily Report - a summary
of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The
full summary of the day's news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home pag
In an article in the April 11 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Donald Berwick, former CMS administrator and current senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Andrew Hackbarth, an assistant policy analyst for the RAND Corp., listed six categories of waste they say represent more than 20% of the nation's ever-increasing healthcare expenditures... Those six areas—fraud and abuse, poor care coordination, failures of care delivery, overtreatment, administrative complexity and overpricing of services—represent enormous opportunities for cost-cutting and improvement, the authors said (McKinney, 4/10).
Clinical trial designs for testing biomarker-based personalized therapies
Clinical trial designs for testing biomarker-based personalized therapies
Abstract:
Background
Advances in molecular therapeutics in the past decade have opened up new possibilities for treating cancer patients with personalized therapies, using biomarkers to determine which treatments are most likely to benefit them, but there are difficulties and unresolved issues in the development and validation of biomarker-based personalized therapies. We develop a new clinical trial design to address some of these issues...
Conclusion
Innovative clinical trial designs are needed to address the difficulties and issues in the development and validation of biomarker-based personalized therapies. The article shows the advantages of using likelihood inference and interim analysis to meet the challenges in the sample size needed and in the constantly evolving biomarker landscape and genomic and proteomic technologies.
abstract: Role of Fluorine 18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography–Computed Tomography in Focal and Generalized Infectious and Inflammatory Disorders
Role of Fluorine 18 Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography–Computed Tomography in Focal and Generalized Infectious and Inflammatory Disorders
Abstract
"Several advances in imaging have become
part of the work-up for localization, diagnosis, and management of
infectious diseases
and inflammatory disorders. Utility of multiple
imaging modalities is a time-consuming step, and significant numbers of
patients
remain undiagnosed despite utilization of series of
tests. Inflammatory cells have avidity for fluorine 18–labeled
fluorodeoxyglucose
(18F-FDG), and thus positron emission
tomographic–computed tomographic (PET-CT) hybrid imaging provides
anatomical and metabolic
information that can be used to define the extent
of infectious and inflammatory diseases and assess response to
treatment.
PET-CT provides a “one-stop test” in which use of
hybrid imaging provides anatomical and metabolic information. The extent
of disease is defined quickly, and response to
treatment can be assessed. This modality also helps define the
metastatic and/or
septic foci where there is lack of localizing
symptoms. More recently, there is increasing awareness among clinicians
regarding
the ability of PET-CT to help in diagnosing,
characterizing, and assessing inflammatory disorders. This article
reviews the
usefulness of this imaging modality."
Drug Formulary - Avastin - Cancer Care Ontario (compared to Australia) - see notes
Blogger's Notes:
incidence rates ovarian cancer:
Australia: 1,488 (2015 projection)
Canada: 2,600 (annual estimates)
- Australia population (census) 22 million
- Canada population (census) 34 million
- Ontario population (census) 13 million
Drug Formulary - Ontario
SEARCH - 'avastin' (null results for ovarian cancer)
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To refine your search, use Category Search or Advanced Search
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| Document | Description | Document Type | Publish Date | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEVA Gastrointestinal - Colorectal Advanced Regimen category: Standard | Drug(s) used: Bevacizumab (with fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy) | Regimen Monograph | 2011-12-16 | 
|
| bevacizumab (patient) | Other names: Avastin® | Medication Information Sheet | 2011-05-10 |
|
(CCS) Clinical Trials - Canada: ovarian cancer/Avastin
| Recruiting in 1 of 2 locations |
|
| Recruiting in 2 of 4 locations |
(first line treatment approved) - New treatment (Avastin) option for ovarian cancer in Australia - News
New treatment option for ovarian cancer in Australia - News
"Australian women with advanced ovarian cancer have a new treatment option for their disease. The anti-cancer treatment, Avastin (bevacizumab), is now approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel) for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed (first-line) advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer......
media: Canadians OK with higher taxes to fight inequality (preserve social programs/health)
Canadians OK with higher taxes to fight inequality
"This attitude toward paying slightly higher taxes is reflected
equally in high-income and middle income Canadian households.
from the newly established think tank, said......
open access: Multiple Associations Between a Broad Spectrum of Autoimmune Diseases, Chronic Inflammatory Diseases and Cancer
Blogger's Note: two specific references to ovarian cancer - MS (multiple sclerosis)/ovarian cancer; paraneoplastic syndromes/ovarian cancer;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
open access: Multiple Associations Between a Broad Spectrum of Autoimmune Diseases, Chronic Inflammatory Diseases and Cancer
Background: Many recent studies suggest
the immune system plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of
autoimmune diseases,
chronic inflammatory diseases, and cancer.
Materials and Methods: Literature published between 2001 and 2011 was
reviewed
for risk of cancer development in patients with
autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. Mode of risk assessment
employed
did not limit inclusion of studies. Autoimmune
conditions developing after diagnosis of a pre-existing cancer were also
considered.
Results: We report a pervasive, largely positive
association between 23 autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and
subsequent
cancer development. We discuss associations for
celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease rheumatoid arthritis,
systemic
lupus erythematosus, and multiple sclerosis in
detail. We also address the less frequently reported development of some
autoimmune
conditions within the course of some malignancies,
such as vitiligo developing in the course of melanoma. Conclusion:
Evidence
demonstrates that chronic inflammation and
autoimmunity are associated with the development of malignancy.
Additionally, patients
with a primary malignancy may develop autoimmune
like disease. These relationships imply a need for surveillance of
patients
on immunomodulatory therapies for potential
secondary disease processes.
open access: (journal) Cancer - Supplement: A Prospective Surveillance Model for Rehabilitation for Women With Breast Cancer - 15 April 2012
Blogger's Note: no mention of genetics? (ovarian cancer risk/BRCA.......)?
Cancer - Volume 118, Issue Supplement 8 - 15 April 2012 - Wiley Online Library
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