UNDATED, Sept 29: Merck & Co’s drug Keytruda, the first in a new wave of immune-boosting medicines to be approved for treating melanomas in the United States, also has potential in stomach cancer, new research shows. Early clinical trial results reported yesterday mean that gastric, or stomach cancer can be added to a growing list of tumor types where so-called immunotherapy may have an important role to play.
Roche breast cancer drug ‘unprecedented’ in extending lives A new breast cancer drug from Roche has shown “unprecedented” benefits in extending lives in a clinical trial and experts urged its widespread use for women with an aggressive form of the disease. Patients with a type of breast cancer known as HER2 positive, which makes up about a quarter of all breast cancers, who were given Perjeta on top of older medicine Herceptin and chemotherapy lived 15.7 months longer than those on Herceptin and chemotherapy alone.
Scientists grapple with ethics in rush to release Ebola vaccines
Normally it takes years to prove a new vaccine is both safe and effective before it can be used in the field. But with hundreds of people dying a day in the worst ever outbreak of Ebola, there is no time to wait. In an effort to save lives, health authorities are determined to roll out potential vaccines within months, dispensing with some of the usual testing, and raising unprecedented ethical and practical questions.
Maryland hospital to care for US doctor exposed to Ebola in West Africa
The US National Institutes of Health plans to admit to one of its special observation wards an American physician exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone, it said on Saturday. The patient, who has not been identified, was expected to be admitted on Sunday to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for observation and to enroll in a clinical study, the institute said.
No benefit from continued use of AstraZeneca’s Iressa drug Continuing to give AstraZeneca’s drug Iressa plus chemotherapy to lung cancer patents whose disease has worsened after previously taking the medicine on its own does not provide any benefit. Some doctors had hoped that extending the use of Iressa in combination with chemotherapy would help to keep cancers at bay, even when tumor cells had started to develop resistance to the drug.
Failed cancer vaccines might live again with new immune drugs Using vaccines to fight cancer is a field littered with failures but experts believe it is possible the approach could get a new lease of life if such shots are combined with a new class of drugs called checkpoint inhibitors. Unlike traditional preventative vaccines, therapeutic cancer vaccines are designed for people with established disease and are supposed to boost the patient’s immune system to keep tumors at bay.
Obesity research takes high-tech twist at Florida school Freshmen at Florida’s Lakewood High School lined up against gold and black gymnasium mats on Friday to have their height and weight measured, an assessment to launch a novel study on fighting teenage obesity with trendy new technology. Researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine, whose network includes a Florida children’s hospital near the school, plan to use results of the screening to select about 50 overweight students and track their activity levels using the Fitbit, a connected wristband.
Five babies in Texas test positive for TB after possible mass exposure
Five babies have tested positive for tuberculosis infection in El Paso after being at a hospital where hundreds of newborns may have been exposed to TB by a diseased worker at the facility, health officials said on Saturday. The El Paso Department of Public Health also increased the number of people who may have been exposed to 858. It had said earlier this month that 706 babies and 43 employees were possibly exposed to the infected worker between September 2013 and August 2014.
Early data promising for AstraZeneca cancer drug combination Early results for a closely watched cancer drug combination from AstraZeneca that boosts the immune system show the cocktail is promising, though limited patient numbers mean the data is far from conclusive. The British drugmaker, which fended off a $118 billion takeover bid from Pfizer in May in part by talking up its cancer drug prospects, has high hopes for the combination of two experimental drugs known as MEDI4736 and tremelimumab.
Gain from adding Roche’s Avastin to immune drug unclear It is too early to say whether combining Roche’s best-selling Avastin cancer drug with the company’s experimental immune-boosting medicine MPDL3280A gives a better outcome in fighting tumors. That is the verdict of experts following a presentation of a small clinical study assessing the combination in patients with a variety of solid tumors. (agencies)
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