Chemotherapy is treatment of cancer with anticancer drugs. Chemotherapy is administered in different ways, depending on the drugs to be given and the type of cancer. Doctors decide the dose of chemotherapy drugs considering many factors, among them being the patient’s height and weight.
Adding drug to standard chemotherapy provides no survival benefit for older lung cancer patients – Adding the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) to the standard chemotherapy regimen for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ? an approach approved by the FDA in 2006 ? did not lead to significantly increase survival rates for patients over the age of 65 enrolled in Medicare.
Mayo Clinic launches whole genome breast cancer study – The Breast Cancer Genome Guided Therapy Study (BEAUTY Project) will help physicians tailor chemotherapy to breast cancer patients based on their individual genomes and the genomes of their tumors.
The path to personalized cancer treatment — Researchers identify genetic markers of drug sensitivity in cancer cells – Recently researchers have profiled genetic changes in cancer with drug sensitivity in order to develop a personalised approach to cancer treatments. They uncovered hundreds of associations between mutations in cancer genes and sensitivity to anticancer drugs.
Skin cancer drug hopes raised by study — Advanced melanoma drug nearly doubles survival time – Investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and 12 other centers in the United States and Australia have found that a new drug for patients with metastatic melanoma nearly doubled median overall survival.
New lung cancer test predicts survival — Clinical studies in US and China show molecular test could more accurately guide treatment for people with lung cancer – In the two largest clinical studies ever conducted on the molecular genetics of lung cancer, an international team led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has demonstrated that an available molecular test can predict the likelihood of death from early-stage lung cancer more accurately than conventional methods.
Drug improves survival of colorectal cancer patients, trial results show – Regorafenib – an investigational drug – slowed the progression of tumors and lengthened the lives of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. This is the first novel agent in eight years to show improvement in overall survival of colon cancer patients who have run out of treatment options.
Scientists develop vaccine that attacks breast cancer in mice — Implications for the treatment of ovarian, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, as well – Researchers have developed a vaccine that dramatically reduces tumors in a mouse model that mimics 90 percent of human breast and pancreatic cancer cases-including those that are resistant to common treatments.
Breast cancer survivors struggle with cognitive problems several years after treatment – Breast cancer survivors may experience problems with certain mental abilities several years after breast cancer treatment, regardless of whether they were treated with breast cancer chemotherapy plus radiation or radiation for breast cancer only.
TGen breast cancer research benefits from $3.5 million Komen award — Grant enables multi-institute team to study rare and aggressive type of breast cancer – The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is part of a team of medical investigators receiving a $3.5 million grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure to study triple-negative breast cancer, a highly aggressive form of this cancer that disproportionately affects African-Americans.
First Phase III trial of an alpha-pharmaceutical — Shows improved survival in patients with bone metastases and advanced prostate cancer – Until recently, options for patients with bone metastases from advanced prostate cancer have been very limited. But now the first Phase III study of an alpha-pharmaceutical in these patients has shown that it can prolong survival significantly, according to research reported recently at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.
