Olaparib: A Trailblazing Treatment
Some cancer cells have faulty DNA, and rely on a protein called PARP to help fix themselves. Olaparib is a drug which stops PARP from working. The cancer cells then cant repair their faulty DNA and die. Normal, healthy cells dont have the same defect that cancer cells do and so olaparib can target cancer cells more selectively than other cancer treatments can.
However, not every cancer has the kind of faulty DNA which makes it susceptible to being killed by olaparib.
Olaparib was originally discovered in the 1990s, in work supported by Worldwide Cancer Research, and is used by the NHS to treat ovarian cancer. It is sold under the name Lynparza.
Many researchers are investigating whether olaparibs success so far can be replicated in other cancers.
Existing Cancer Drugs To Be Trialled As A New Treatment For Incurable Breast Cancer
A new clinical trial led by the University of Sheffield could bring hope to thousands of UK women living with incurable secondary breast cancer, also known as metastatic or Stage 4 breast cancer.
- Two drugs that are already being used separately in the treatment of some prostate, renal and skin cancers will now be tested in combination for the first time for breast cancer
- Led by Professor Janet Brown at the University of Sheffield, the study will give radium-223 and avelumab to 42 women with secondary breast cancer that has spread to other parts of their body
- While 99 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer at Stage 1 will survive for five years or more following diagnosis, this figure drops to just 27 per cent for women who are diagnosed with secondary breast cancer
- Roughly 35,000 people in the UK are living with the incurable disease
A new clinical trial led by the University of Sheffield could bring hope to thousands of UK women living with incurable secondary breast cancer, also known as metastatic or Stage 4 breast cancer.
Two drugs that are already being used separately in the treatment of some prostate, renal and skin cancers will now be tested in combination for the first time for breast cancer, to see if they improve outcomes for women with breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.
What Should I Tell My Healthcare Provider Before Taking Orgovyx
Tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, including if you:
- Have any heart problems, including a condition called long QT syndrome.
- Are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. ORGOVYX can harm your unborn baby and cause loss of pregnancy .
- Have a partner who is pregnant or may become pregnant.
- Males who have female partners who are able to become pregnant should use effective birth control during treatment with ORGOVYX and for 2 weeks after the last dose of ORGOVYX.
Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines or treatments you receive, including: prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. Taking ORGOVYX with certain other medicines can affect how ORGOVYX works or may cause side effects.
You should not start or stop any medicine before you talk with your healthcare provider who prescribed ORGOVYX.
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Light Therapy With Light Effects
People receiving VTP are brought to an operating room and put under mild sedation, similar to that given for a colonoscopy. Doctors use an ultrasound probe to guide the placement of an array of very thin optical fibers typically eight or fewer into the prostate tissue. Then they start the intravenous flow of Tookad, which is derived from chlorophyll found in plants and bacteria.
Ten minutes after starting the drug, the doctors turn on the fibers. The light is emitted at a wavelength that activates the drug to generate short-acting free radicals that destroy cells in the immediate area. After another 20 minutes, the light is turned off, the fibers are removed, and the patient wakes up and is taken to the recovery room. The patient usually remains in a darkened room for six hours, since they have to stay out of light until the drug leaves the body.
Then they can get up, walk out the door, and go home, Dr. Coleman says. As a precaution, patients are given detailed instructions to avoid direct sunlight for two days.
Most people receiving VTP have little to no sensation that they have even been treated. In fact, the first person Dr. Coleman treated said he felt nothing at all. Dr. Coleman was convinced he had done the procedure wrong, and Tookad had not been activated inside the body. And yet, when we looked at the MRI a few days later, it was very dramatic to see the change in the prostate, he says.
Hope For Prostate Cancer Patients With Drug Meant For Women
Men with advanced prostate cancer can benefit from a pioneering new drug originally intended for women
A pioneering drug originally intended for women could be used to treat thousands of men with terminal prostate cancer, new research shows.
Olaparib, the first cancer drug to target inherited genetic mutations,was licensed last December to treat women in Europe with ovarian cancer.
Now trial findings described as “very exciting” have indicated that it could be highly effective at fighting 30 per cent of advanced prostate cancers.
In the trial, the drug halted cancer growth, lowered the number of circulating tumour cells in the bloodstream, and caused levels of the blood marker prostate specific antigen to fall.
Of a group of 49 men with treatment-resistant, advanced prostate cancer, 16 patients showed a clinical response to olaparib.
The response rate was much higher in those patients whose tumours carried DNA repair mutations.
“We want to get to a stage where every man gets the treatment he needs for his specific cancer, said Dr Iain Frame, director of research at the charity Prostate Cancer UK.
The use of DNA testing to identify mutations like BRCA and direct treatment to them is a huge step in that direction and so these early results are very exciting.
Each year around 42,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 11,000 die from the disease.
All the men taking part had been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.
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Lorraine: Elizabeth Hurley Discusses Breast Cancer Awareness
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Using the drug olaparib after initial treatment and chemotherapy slashed the risk of cancer returning or spreading by 42 percent. The discovery could lead to more women being cured of high-risk breast cancer after early diagnosis. Dr Simon Vincent, director of research, support and influencing at charity Breast Cancer Now, said: Its extremely exciting.
Olaparib must now be promptly submitted for licensing, and then assessed for use on the NHS, so that women with this type of breast cancer start to benefit.
The BRCA genes play a role in repairing DNA damage.
In people who carry mutations, mistakes can build up in the DNA, increasing the risk of a cell becoming cancerous. Actress Angelina underwent a double mastectomy in 2013 after discovering she carried a faulty BRCA1 gene.
She later had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed too.
Olaparib is already used to treat some types of ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer.
It is a type of drug known as a PARP inhibitor and works by disrupting another DNA repair pathway, causing cancerous cells to die.
Prof Paul Workman, chief executive of the institute, said: This is a major breakthrough.
$2 Million Rv Comes With Hardwood Floors Miele Appliances And Room For A Ferrari
Abiraterone was denied to men with more advanced prostate cancer in January, after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which approves drugs, ruled it was not cost-effective and should not be offered routinely.
The expensive daily tablets cost £35,500 a year privately, although how much the NHS pays is not known.
However the new British-led trial in a different group of men, whose prostate cancer had not spread, found abiraterone, taken for just two years, greatly improved their chances of survival.
Experts hope the drug could be made available on the NHS soon following the results.
Thousands of men could live longer with prostate cancer after taking a new drug combination. Around 10,000 men a year in the UK are estimated to have an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which is normally treated with hormone therapy and radiotherapy
Researchers tracked 988 men given hormone therapy, with most of them getting it alongside radiotherapy, which is the usual treatment.
They compared them with 986 men receiving the usual treatment, plus abiraterone.
Over six years, men given the combination of drugs including abiraterone were 51 per cent less likely to die than those on the normal treatment.
Only 18 per cent of them had seen the cancer spread through their body, compared with 31 per cent of those not given the combination.
We are in active discussions with NHS England about how these findings can be implemented.
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Thousands Of Uk Men To Benefit After Nhs Approves Prostate Cancer Drug
Enzalutamide, which can be taken at home, is especially beneficial to those who cannot have chemotherapy
Thousands of men in the UK with advanced prostate cancer are to benefit from a new drug after it was approved for NHS use.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended enzalutamide as an option for treating some types of prostate cancer.
A spokesperson for Prostate Cancer UK said: Enzalutamide will be made permanently available for men in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while men in Scotland will have access to a similar treatment called abiraterone.
Experts welcomed the move which they said would be especially beneficial to those who cannot have chemotherapy.
Enzalutamide, which patients can take at home without intravenous medication or a medical setting, is one of the Covid-friendly cancer drugs adopted by NHS England during the pandemic as swaps for existing drugs because they are less likely to damage the immune system or cause hospital visits.
Clinical trials have found that the treatment slows the worsening of the disease and extends patients lifespans.
Throughout the last year, the NHS has been offering people with cancer treatment options that are not only effective but safer and more convenient for use during the pandemic, allowing many to take medication at home or be given medicines with less harmful effects on their immune system.
Prostate Cancer Breakthrough As Scientists Crack Genetic Code Behind Nine In 10 Tumours
Nine out of 10 cases of late stage prostate cancer can now be linked to changes in the DNA of sufferers, the Institute of Cancer Research
Thousands of men suffering from advanced prostate cancer have been offered new hope of a cure after scientists discovered the genetic cause behind 90 per cent of tumours.
Nine out of 10 cases of late stage prostate cancer can now be linked to changes in the DNA of sufferers.
And, in some cases, there are already drugs which can tackle those genetic defects which are being used for other cancers.
Scientists said the breakthrough was like uncovering the Rosetta Stone for prostate cancer, in reference to the stone tablet which helped Egyptologists break the code of hieroglyphics. The research was hailed by charities as incredibly exciting.
The study was led in the UK by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, in collaboration with researchers from eight academic clinical trials centres around the world.
Researchers say that doctors could now start testing for the mutations and give patients with advanced prostate cancer existing drugs or drug combinations which are known to targeted the specific genomic aberrations.
Dogs can sniff out prostate cancer almost every time
What’s hugely encouraging is that many of the key mutations we have identified are ones targeted by existing cancer drugs – meaning that we could be entering a new era of personalised cancer treatment.”
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Two Drugs Offer Hope Against A Tough
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Feb. 8, 2018 — Two cancer drugs can stall the progression of a particularly hard-to-treat form of prostate cancer, a pair of new trials shows.
Both a newly developed drug called apalutamide and an already approved drug called enzalutamide kept prostate cancer from spreading for two years in men whose disease had not yet traveled to other parts of their bodies.
Men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer that hasn’t spread are first treated with androgen-deprivation therapy — a medication that robs the tumor of the testosterone that helps fuel its growth, said Dr. Matthew Smith, lead researcher of the apalutamide trial. He is director of the genitourinary malignancies program at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston.
“It always works, and it almost always stops working,” Smith said. “And when it stops working, that’s what we call castration-resistant prostate cancer.”
Until now, there have been no approved treatments for prostate cancer at that stage, Smith said. The men are put under observation until their cancer migrates, at which point treatment resumes.
Tens of thousands of men in the United States are estimated to be in this situation and they have a very poor prognosis, particularly if their levels of prostate-specific antigen are rapidly rising, Smith said. PSA is a protein produced by the prostate a sudden elevation of PSA levels has been linked to increased prostate cancer risk.
Dual trials
New first-line therapies?
Research Team Hopes To Use Molecule Inhibitors To Attack Different Kinds Of Cancers
University of Alberta associate professor Khaled Barakat and his team of researchers have spent the past four years trying to develop what he’s calling a “magic” pill. It’s a drug to strengthen peoples’ immune systems while they are battling cancer.
“The concept, it’s kind of magic because it’s not related to a specific type of cancer, it’s using the human’s immune system to identify and find and discover the cancer and try to get rid of it. So this is what we think is magic,” said Barakat, whose research was made possible thanks to funding from the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology.
“Cancer is very smart.”
Barakat says cancer attacks the body first by suppressing peoples’ immune systems.
It does this by creating an abundance of receptors called immune checkpoints when too many are made it deactivates T-cells, which are crucial to the immune system.
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Prostate Cancer Pill Available ‘within Weeks’ Giving Fresh Hope For Thousands
Zytiga pills could be available in Britain within weeks
A life-extending pill for prostate cancer could be available in Britain within weeks.
Zytiga has been shown to increase survival for an extra four months, and it is hoped that around 10,000 patients a year would benefit.
The European drugs watchdog yesterday recommended that it is used in Britain and across the continent, and it could be available by the end of September.
The pill, which was invented by British scientists, would be given to patients with aggressive forms of prostate cancer which cannot be treated with chemotherapy and other drugs.
It works by cutting off the tumours supply of the hormone testosterone, stopping it from growing.
Yesterdays recommendation by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use will now be considered by the European Commission, and a decision is expected within three months.
But if approved the drug, also known as abiraterone acetate, would not be immediately available on the NHS.
The Government watchdog NICE would consider its benefits before ruling whether it should be prescribed on the Health Service, and this could take several years.
Hope And Amazing Outcomes Amid Advanced Prostate Cancer
It wasnt kidney stones after all.
When Bill Briggs went to the emergency room in January 2018, he expected it would be a trip to treat kidney stones. Instead, the visit led to a prostate-specific antigen test, which screens for prostate cancer. A PSA result less than 4 is normal in most circumstances, and 4 to 10 indicates a heightened risk of prostate cancer. A result of 10 through 20 could mean removing the prostate. Bills result was 1,037 and further testing showed that he had metastatic prostate cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes, bones and bladder.
Bill received this news shortly after he retired from a career as a therapist specializing in substance use disorder. He remembered the advice he offered clients who faced seemingly impossible challenges on the road to recovery from addiction.
Part of my job was to show people this is not the end, and they can surely recover, Bill says. When this disease hit me, it was only right to ask myself the same question that I asked my clients: How can I find purpose in this?
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What Happened At Esmo
The PROfound trial is looking at whether men with advanced prostate cancer, whose cancer cells cant repair genetic mistakes very well, respond better to olaparib than they do to the latest forms of hormonal treatment .
At ESMO, the scientists reported that using olaparib stopped cancer getting worse for about four months, men taking it spent less time in pain, and may have lived longer.
An expert called PROfound a landmark trial, pointing out that the delay in cancer getting worse was considerably higher than in other trials but she also cautioned that the final analysis was not yet ready, and that not all patients will be able to take olaparib.
These results are exciting because they show that olaparib might help men with advanced disease, and because it could be the first genetically targeted drug for prostate cancer.