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Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Prostate Cancer / 11.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Michael K. Brawer, MD Northwest Prostate Institute Northwest Hospital Seattle, Washington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Brawer: Prolaris (Cell Cycle Progression Test) is a prostate-cancer prognostic genetic tests that determines how aggressive is a patient’s cancer.  The goal is to reduce the over treatment of tumors that are likely to be harmless while still spotting those that are lethal.  Our key study at AUA (American Urological Society) is a meta-analysis of 440 prostate cancer patients with a Gleason score less than or equal to 6 who were tested with Prolaris. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Cancer, Cancer Research / 10.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Corinne Leach, MPH, MS, PHD Strategic Director, Cancer and Aging Research American Cancer Society, Inc. Atlanta, GA 30303 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Leach: Using linked data from cancer registries and the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey, we prospectively examined the short-term impact of cancer on the functioning, development of and worsening of age-related health conditions among 921 older adults who developed cancer compared to 4,605 propensity score matched controls. We found that cancer groups demonstrated greater declines in activities of daily living and physical functioning compared to controls with the greatest change for lung cancer patients. Having a cancer diagnosis increased risk for depression but did not increase the odds of developing arthritis in the hand/hip, incontinence (except for prostate cancer), or vision/hearing problems. Having a cancer diagnosis also did not exacerbate the severity of arthritis or foot neuropathy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Mammograms / 06.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ragnhild Falk PhD Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology Research Support Services Oslo University Hospital and Solveig Hofvind PhD Department of Screening Cancer Registry of Norway and Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences Oslo, Norway MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The issue of overdiagnosis has been heavily debated, and a variety of results have been presented. However, the exact proportion of overdiagnosis is unknown as one do not know what would have happen in the absent of screening. We have split the proportion of overdiagnosis into two parts based on the time at which the death occur; scenario 1 as the proportion of women diagnosed with a screen-detected breast cancer and who died within the lead-time period, and scenario 2 as women detected with slow growing tumors that never would have caused any harm during the women’s life if she had not attended screening. In principle, all screening programs will detect breast cancer among women who die of other causes in the near future since there exist competing risk of death among women targeted by screening. Although the all-cause mortality rates are low, it is inevitable. We wanted to focus on the first scenario and estimated the number of women diagnosed with screen detected breast cancer who died within the estimated lead-time period caused by screening. We estimated his proportion to be less than 4 percent of all screen-detected cases in the given England & Wales and the Norwegian setting. (more…)
Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, Menopause, Surgical Research / 05.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Josefin Segelman MD, PhD Senior consultant colorectal surgeon Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery Karolinska Institutet Ersta Hospital Stockholm Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Segelman: Hormonal factors influence the development of colorectal cancer. Observational studies and clinical trials have reported a protective effect of hormone replacement therapy and oral contraceptives. Oophorectomy alters endogenous levels of sex hormones, but the effect on colorectal cancer risk is unclear. Removal of the ovaries alters levels of sex hormones in both pre- and postmenopausal women. In premenopausal women, bilateral oophorectomy is followed by surgical menopause as the endogenous estrogen levels drop. Both before and after natural menopause, bilateral oophorectomy promptly decreases endogenous androgen levels by half as the ovaries and adrenals are equally important for androgen production. MedicalResearch.com:  What are the main findings? Dr. Segelman: The present nationwide cohort study explored the association between removal of the ovaries for benign indications and subsequent risk of colorectal cancer. Among 195 973 women who underwent the procedure from 1965 – 2011, there was a 30% increased risk of colorectal cancer compared with the general population. After adjustment for various factors, women who underwent bilateral oophorectomy had a higher risk of rectal cancer than those who had unilateral oophorectomy (HR 2.28, 95% CI 1.33-3.91). (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy, Heart Disease, Kaiser Permanente / 04.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Reina Haque, PhD MPH Research scientist Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Haque: The study fills an important knowledge gap about the long-term association of aromatase inhibitors on cardiovascular disease risk in breast cancer survivors. This was a retrospective cohort study that included a cohort of 13,273 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors who were diagnosed with breast cancer, either estrogen or progesterone receptor positive, from 1991 to 2010. The patients were followed through 2011, or a maximum of 21 years. The study participants were divided into four groups based on the drugs they received: 31.7 percent were treated only with tamoxifen; 28.6 percent only with aromatase inhibitors; 20.2 percent used both; and 19.4 percent did not use any of these drugs. These oral drugs are used to combat breast cancer recurrence, but may have long-term side effects on other organs. The study determined that the risk of cardiac ischemia (which can lead to a heart attack) and stroke were not elevated in patients who only took aromatase inhibitors compared to those who only took tamoxifen. These results provide reassurance that aromatase inhibitors may not increase risk of the potentially fatal cardiovascular outcomes compared to tamoxifen. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Dermatology / 03.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Orit Markowitz, MD, FAAD Director of Pigmented Lesions and Skin Cancer Assistant Professor of Dermatology Mount Sinai Medical Center, NY, NY Director of Pigmented lesions clinic Brooklyn VA, Brooklyn, NY Adjunct Professor, Dermatology SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY Chief of Dermatology Queens General Hospital, Jamaica, NY MedicalResearch.com: How common is skin cancer? Is the incidence rising in US adults?  Who is most at risk? Dr. Markowitz: The annual incidence of skin cancer is more than breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancer combined. Of the 7 most common skin cancers in the US melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing. The highest risk group for skin cancer are fair skin, adults with a history of sun exposure. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Surgical Research / 03.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Desiree Ratner, MD Director, Comprehensive Skin Cancer Program, Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Professor of Dermatology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai MedicalResearch.com: How big is the problem of skin cancer in the US?  Dr. Ratner: Skin cancer is an enormous problem in the United States and the numbers are increasing every year.  There are over 2 million cases of basal cell carcinoma per year, over 700,000 cases of squamous cell carcinoma per year, and over 140,000 cases of melanoma per year in the U.S. alone. MedicalResearch.com: What type of patients do you evaluate and treat? Dr. Ratner: My practice is limited to skin cancer, so most of my patients are referred to me by general dermatologists for surgery.  I see patients who require Mohs surgery for non-melanoma skin cancers, excisions for non-melanoma skin cancers, and other surgical procedures for a variety of other benign and malignant lesions. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Infections / 02.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anala Gossai BSc, MPH PhD candidate Department of Epidemiology Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire and co-authors MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Gossai et al: Polyomaviruses (PyV) are potentially tumorigenic viruses in humans. However, limited data exists on the population seroprevalence or longitudinal serostability of PyVs, and individual characteristics that relate to seropositivity. Further, PyVs may be associated with the occurrence of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) – one of the most common malignancies in humans with increasing incidence reported in the US. In a US nested case-control study, BK and JC seroreactivity was measured on 113 SCC cases and 229 matched controls who had a prior keratinocyte cancer. Repeated serum samples from controls, and both pre- and post-diagnosis samples from a subset ofsquamous cell carcinoma cases, were also assayed. Antibody response against each PyV type was measured using multiplex serology of recombinantly expressed VP1 capsid proteins. Among controls, BK and JC seroreactivity was stable over time, and there was little evidence of seroconversion following SCC diagnosis among cases. Odds of squamous cell carcinoma  associated with seropositivity to each PyV type were estimated using conditional logistic regression. JC seropositivity prior to diagnosis was associated with an elevated risk of SCC (OR=2.5, 95% CI: 1.2-5.2).  (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Lung Cancer, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Surgical Research / 02.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Asal Mohamadi Johnson, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Integrative Health Science Stetson University DeLand, FL 32723 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Johnson: Public health research is primarily focused on neighborhood poverty and racial disparities by illustrating differences between white and black individuals or communities. For example, it has been established that African Americans have higher cancer mortality rates and are less likely to receive appropriate treatment that whites. What we wanted to know in this study was the impact of living in segregated areas apart from other area level characteristics such as poverty or education. Instead of solely looking at health disparities between whites and black patients, our study focused on differences in survival among black patients with early stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) living in different levels of neighborhood segregation. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, NEJM / 02.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD Professor & Head, University of Washington Dermatology George F. Odland Endowed Chair Affiliate Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Professor, Adjunct, of Pathology and Oral Health Sciences Clinical Director, Skin Oncology, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance UW Medical Center at Lake Union Seattle WA 98109   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Nghiem: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is about 30 times less common than malignant melanoma, but about 3 times more likely to kill a patient than a melanoma. There is no FDA-approved therapy for this cancer & chemotherapy typically only provides about 90 days prior to the cancer progressing. Because of the strong links between MCC and the immune system, including the fact that most MCCs are caused by a virus, there was interest in trying to use immune checkpoint therapy to treat advanced Merkel cell carcinoma. The response to immune stimulation with anti-PD1 therapy was about as frequent as to chemotherapy (56% of patients responded) but importantly, among the responders, 86% remained in ongoing responses at a median of 7.6 months.  While still early, this appears to be strikingly more durable than responses to chemotherapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Prostate Cancer / 02.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stephen J. Freedland, MD Associate Director, Faculty Development Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute Co-Director, Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program Director, Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle Professor, Surgery Warschaw Robertson Law Families Chair in Prostate Cancer Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Freedland:   PSA is a marker of prostate pathology.  While often used to screen for prostate cancer, it is not prostate specific and can be elevated due to inflammation or enlarged prostate or other reasons.  Whether it predicts the development of urinary symptoms is not clear.  Among men with minimal to no urinary symptoms, we found that the higher the PSA, the greater the risk of future development of urinary symptoms. MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Freedland: The readers should know that if a man has an elevated PSA and a negative prostate biopsy, the higher the PSA, the greater the risk of future urinary symptoms.  These are men who may need closer follow-up. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Cancer Research, Personalized Medicine, Stanford / 01.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Elodie Sollier Chief Scientific Officer at Vortex Biosciences MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) burden may be a useful biomarker of response to targeted therapy in PDX (Patient Derived Xenograft) mouse models. Vortex Biosciences’ technology has been proven to enrich CTCs from human blood, but use of the technology with mouse blood had not yet been explored. In this poster, human CTCs are isolated with both high efficiency and purity from xenograft model of breast cancer using Vortex’s technology. Circulating Tumor Cell enumeration increased as the tumor burden increased in the mouse demonstrating its utility as a biomarker for drug treatment response. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, JAMA, Melanoma, Ophthalmology / 30.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
J. William Harbour, M.D.
Leader, Eye Cancer Site Disease Group
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Harbour:  Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary cancer of the eye which has the fatal tendency to metastasis to the liver. The molecular landscape of UMs have been well characterized and can be categorized by gene expression profiling (GEP) into two molecular classes associated with metastatic risk: Class 1 (low risk) and Class 2 (high risk). The Class 2 profile is strongly associated with mutations in the tumor suppressor BAP1. This GEP-based test is the only prognostic test for UM to undergo a prospective multicenter validation, an it is available commercially as DecisionDX-UM (Castle Biosciences, Inc).  It is routinely used in many North American centers. The identification of driver mutations in cancer has become a focus of precision medicine for prognostic and therapeutic decision making in oncology. In UM, thus far, only 5 genes have been reported to be commonly mutated:  BAP1, GNA11, GNAQ, EIF1AX, and SF3B1. In this study, we analyzed the associations between these 5 mutations, and with GEP classification, clinicopathologic features, and patient outcomes. The study showed that GNAQ and GNA11 are mutually exclusive, probably occur early in tumor formation, and are not associated with prognosis.  In contrast, BAP1, SF3B1, and EIF1AX, which are also nearly mutually exclusive, likely occur later in tumor formation and do have prognostic value in UM. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care / 28.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stacie B. Dusetzina, PhD Assistant Professor Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy Eshelman School of Pharmacy University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Dusetzina: Drug prices are of significant policy interest, particularly the prices for so-called “specialty” medications which are used to treat rare and/or complex conditions like cancer. In this study I estimated monthly price for orally-administered cancer treatments that were approved between 2000 and 2014. First I looked at the price of the drug during the year of initial FDA approval and then I looked at annual changes in the price after the year of approval. The main findings are that, even after inflation adjustment, the monthly price paid for orally-administered cancer treatments is increasing rapidly both at the time of approval and in subsequent years. As an example, if you compare average monthly prices during the first year post-approval for treatments approved between 2000-2010 to those approved after 2010 there was a major increase in launch prices from $5,529 per month to $9,013 per month. Year-to-year changes in price after launch varied a lot by drug ranging from decreases in price of -2.7% per year to increases of 11.4% per year. However, nearly all of the products studied increased in price over time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, JAMA, Karolinski Institute, Mental Health Research / 28.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Donghao Lu MD, PhD candidate Department of Medical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Lu: Psychiatric comorbidities are common among cancer patients. However, whether or not there is already increased risk of psychiatric disorders during the diagnostic workup leading to a cancer diagnosis was largely unknown. We found that, among cancer patients, the risks for several common and potentially stress-related mental disorders, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, somatoform/conversion disorder and stress reaction/adjustment disorder started to increase from ten months before cancer diagnosis, peaked during the first week after diagnosis, compared to cancer-free individuals in Sweden. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Compliance, Genetic Research, Mammograms / 27.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stamatia Destounis, MD, FSBI, FACR Elizabeth Wende Breast Care, LLC, Clinical Professor of Imaging Sciences University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry  Rochester NY 14620  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Destounis: Identification of women who have an increased risk of breast cancer is important, as they are often eligible for additional screening methods, such as breast MRI. One criterion for eligibility for screening breast MRI is >20% lifetime risk of breast cancer, as determined by risk assessment models through genetic counseling. At my facility, we have incorporated a genetics program. Through the program we are flagging and identifying a large volume of patients who are potentially eligible for additional services. This study was conducted to determine the value of screening MRI in the patient subgroup who have undergone genetic counseling at my facility. In this group we found 50% of patients who were referred for counseling were also recommended to have screening MRI. However, only 21.3% of those recommended actually pursued the exam. Of those patients who did have a screening MRI, 4 were diagnosed with breast cancer, all of which were invasive and node negative. We ultimately had a 10% biopsy rate and 50% cancer detection rate in this subgroup. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, Mammograms / 27.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elizabeth A. Rafferty, MD Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Now with L&M Radiology, West Acton, Massachusetts MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Rafferty: Breast tomosynthesis has been approved for mammographic screening in the United States for just over 5 years, and many single center studies have demonstrated its improved performance for screening outcomes over digital mammography alone. Our previously published multi-center analysis, (JAMA 2014;311(24), the largest study on this topic to date, demonstrated significantly improved cancer detection and reduced recall rates for women undergoing tomosynthesis compared with digital mammography alone.  In the current issue of JAMA we evaluate the differential screening performance after implementation of breast tomosynthesis as a function of breast density. While tomosynthesis continues to be increasingly available, questions remained about which women should be imaged with this technique. In particular, does this technology offer additional benefit for all women, or only for women with dense breasts. The size of the database compiled by the centers participating in this study allowed us to evaluate this important question. The most critical finding of our study was that the use of tomosynthesis for breast cancer screening significantly improved invasive cancer detection rates while simultaneously significantly reducing recall rates both for women with dense and non-dense breast tissue. Having said that, the magnitude of the benefit was largest for women with heterogeneously dense breast tissue; for this population, tomosynthesis increased the detection of invasive cancers by 50% while simultaneously reducing the recall rate by 14%. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research / 27.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: E. Premkumar Reddy, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Oncological Sciences and Department of Structural and Chemical Biology Director, Experimental Cancer Therapeutics Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York, NY 10029  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Reddy: It is now well established that  cancer cells harbor mutations in their genome which are responsible for uncontrolled proliferation.  Nearly 30 years ago, we as well as two other groups discovered that RAS genes are often mutated in human cancers.  Later studies showed that nearly 25-30% of human cancers contain this mutation and these mutations can be caused by chemical carcinogens such as tobacco smoke.  Since then there has been an intense effort to understand the biological functions of RAS and to develop drugs that block the activity of these mutant RAS genes.  Although molecular oncologists have made significant headway in understanding these mutations and their impact on cellular signaling, little progress has been made towards developing drugs that systematically target the RAS oncogenes.  This lack of progress has led many in the field to label RAS as “undruggable”.  However, basic research conducted by scientists in this field has revealed that RAS proteins function as ON-OFF switches to signal cells to grow or not to grow because of their ability to bind to a large number of cellular proteins and transmit this signal to their binding partners.  These findings also revealed that mutations in RAS genes leaves them in a permanent “ON” position which continues to transmit growth signals permanently.  Since most efforts to develop drugs that bind to RAS proteins and reverse their activity failed, we took a different approach to block these signals.  Since transmission of growth signals by RAS genes requires their interaction with cellular proteins, all of which contain a domain called “RAS-Binding Domain (RBD)” we created a drug named “Rigosertib” that binds to these RBDs and block their binding to RAS, thereby interrupting RAS signals.  When Rigosertib was tested in animals, it could readily inhibit the growth of human tumors that contain RAS mutations.  Our studies also show that Rigosertib is a very safe drug with minimal side-effects. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Cancer Research, Colon Cancer, Technology / 27.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Elodie Sollier PhD Chief Scientific Officer at Vortex Biosciences MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Vortex Biosciences has developed a fast and simple way to isolate and collect intact circulating tumor cells (CTCs) directly from whole blood in less than an hour using a process based on microfluidics. To better understand the utility of the technology for the clinical setting, PCR-based Sanger sequencing was used to profile the mutations of CTCs isolated from blood from metastatic Colorectal cancer patients. The mutations were compared to primary tumor biopsies, secondary tumor biopsies and ctDNA. There are 3 primary take-aways:
  1. The Vortex technology captures CTCs with enough purity to perform sensitive and accurate PCR-based Sanger sequencing.
  2. Mutations present in primary and secondary tumors can be identified in both CTCs and ctDNA making liquid biopsies a valuable alternative to tissue biopsies.
  3. While there is general consistency of mutations identified, some mutations are only identified in CTCs while others only in ctDNA demonstrating how these are indeed complimentary.
(more…)
Author Interviews, MRI, Prostate Cancer / 26.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Nelly Tan MD David Geffen School of Medicine Department of Radiology UCLA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Tan: Standard of care for prostate cancer diagnosis has been to perform ultrasound guided random (non-targeted) prostate biopsy (TRUS) which is neither sensitive or specific. The main limitation had been our inability to detect and localize prostate cancer through imaging. Over the past 10 years, MRI has taken center stage for detection and localization of prostate cancer and has shown to improve prostate cancer diagnosis, risk stratification, and staging of the disease. Over the past few years, MRI guided biopsy techniques (in the form of Ultrasound-MRI (US-MRI) fusion and in-bore direct MRI guided biopsy) have been reported. We reported our performance of direct in-bore MRI guided biopsy at UCLA. Our study showed a prostate cancer diagnosis of 59% in all patients and 80% of patients with prostate cancer had clinically significant cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA / 26.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ahmad Awada, MD, PhD Medical Oncology Clinic Institut Jules Bordet Université Libre de Bruxelles Bruxelles, Belgium MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Awada: This Study compared, in a randomized fashion, paclitaxel + trastuzumab to paclitaxel + neratinib in the first line setting of metastatic breast cancer. All outcome endpoints (PFS, OS, ORR) were similar. In addition, paclitaxel + neratinib delayed the appearance and decreased the incidence of central nervous system (CNS) events (secondary end point) MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Awada:  Paclitaxel + neratinib is as effective as paclitaxel + trastuzumab. The data suggested that neratinib could influence the pattern of CNS events in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. These emerging data on CNS events are under validation in the NALA trial. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Pediatrics, Radiation Therapy / 25.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lindsay M. Morton, PhD Senior investigator in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetic National Cancer Institute Bethesda, Maryland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Morton: We know that childhood cancer survivors, particularly those who received radiotherapy to the chest, have strongly increased risk of developing breast cancer. We studied about 3,000 female survivors of childhood cancer to identify whether inherited genetic susceptibility may influence which survivors go on to develop breast cancer. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Morton: In this discovery study, we found that specific variants in two regions of the genome were associated with increased risk of breast cancer after childhood cancer among survivors who received 10 or more gray of chest radiotherapy. A variant at position q41 on chromosome 1 was associated with nearly two-fold increased risk and one at position q23 on chromosome 11 was associated with a more than three-fold increased risk for each copy of the risk alleles. However, the variant alleles didn’t appear to have an effect among survivors who did not receive chest radiotherapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA / 25.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sherene Loi, MBBS(Hons), FRACP, PhD Associate Professor, University of Melbourne Consultant Medical Oncologist, Breast Unit Head, Translatonal Breast Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics Lab Cancer Council Victoria John Colebatch Fellow Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne Victoria, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Loi: Even though HER2 amplification/overexpression is such a strong oncogenic driver in breast cancer, clinical and biological heterogeneity is still evident. Our study was performed to investigate the hypothesis that a subgroup of patients with ER-positive, HER2-positive primary breast cancers seem to have lower responses to anti-HER2 therapy, in this case trastuzumab (trade name Herceptin), and we could better identify this group using both ER and HER2 levels. Our study was designed to try to better define this group so we could potentially evaluate the efficacy of future treatment strategies in this group, particularly as combination anti-HER2 therapy (i.e. trastuzumab and pertuzumab) is currently being investigated in the adjuvant setting. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Gastrointestinal Disease, Nature / 24.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zhimin (James) Lu, M. D., Ph. D Ruby E. Rutherford Distinguished Professor Department of Neuro-Oncology MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, TX 77030 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Lu: Among primary liver cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common histological subtype, accounting for 70-85% of all cases. HCC incidence is increasing in many parts of the world, including developing countries and developed countries such as the United States. HCC has a very poor prognosis, and the overall 3-year survival rate for patients with HCC is approximately 5%. The potentially curative treatments of HCC are resection and liver transplantation. However, most patients with hepatocellular carcinoma present with advanced disease and underlying liver dysfunction and are not suitable candidates for these treatments. Thus, they generally have a poor prognosis, with a median survival time of less than 1 year. The increasing incidence and mortality rates of hepatocellular carcinoma, along with a lack of effective curative treatment options for advanced HCC, have rendered this disease a major health problem worldwide. Thus, a better understanding of HCC tumorigenesis and the development of better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches based on an understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive hepatocellular carcinoma progression are greatly needed. The liver, as a major metabolic organ, catalyzes dietary sugar. Dietary sugar encompasses several carbohydrates, including starch, sucrose, and high-fructose corn syrup, each of which is composed of glucose with or without fructose. Starch, which is found in bread and rice, is a glucose polymer. Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. High-fructose corn syrup, a common constituent of soft drinks, is a mixture of approximately 40% glucose and 60% fructose. Dietary fructose is also derived from fruits and vegetables. A molecule of glucose has the same caloric value as a molecule of fructose. However, the human body treats these carbohydrates quite differently. Glucose is used directly by tissues such as the muscles and brain as an energy source. Excess glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen. In contrast, dietary fructose, which is epidemiologically linked with obesity and metabolic syndrome, is almost exclusively metabolized by the liver. Hepatocellular carcinoma cells enhance glucose uptake and lactate production regardless of the oxygen supply, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. However, whether fructose metabolism is differentially regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma and normal liver tissue and, if so, the extent to which this altered carbohydrate metabolism contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma development is unknown. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nature, NYU, Pancreatic / 22.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. George Miller, MD Vice Chair for research, Department of Surgery Associate Professor, Department of Surgery Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Miller: Cancer cell death is the goal of most therapeutic programs. Indeed, chemotherapy induces cancer cell death. We show that a novel form of cancer cell death entailing organized necrosis is a prominent way by which cancer cells die. However, paradoxically this form of cell death termed "necroptosis" actually accelerates pancreatic cancer growth in animals by inducing immune suppressive inflammation. MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? Dr. Miller: Novel agents are needed to block necroptosis in pancreatic cancer. This can potentially enhance the immune system's ability to fight the cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Brain Cancer - Brain Tumors / 22.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hervé Chneiweiss MD PhD Bâtiment A3 pièce 336 Case courrier 2 Plasticité Gliale et Tumeurs cérébrales Neuroscience Paris Seine (directeur) Inserm/Université Pierre et Marie Curie MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Chneiweiss: Treatments available for glioblastoma -- malignant brain tumors -- have little effect. An international collaboration[1] led by the Laboratoire Neurosciences Paris-Seine (CNRS/ INSERM/UPMC)[2] tested active ingredients from existing medications and eventually identified one compound of interest, prazosin, on these tumors. We chose to study the most common malignant tumors that develop from brain cells, glioblastomas, which represent the fourth most frequent cause of cancer deaths among adults and the second in children. This is due to the inefficacy of current treatments. Indeed, a glioblastoma can resist treatment and reawaken from a very small number of tumor cells called glioblastoma-initiating cells (GIC). It is these cells -- whose characteristics and properties resemble those of stem cells -- that were targeted in the study. Rather than trying to discover new compounds, the team opted for repositioning existing drugs. In other words, we tested a collection of substances used for so long to treat other conditions that their patents have now fallen into the public domain[3]. This method makes it possible to develop new active ingredients cheaply and very rapidly. Twelve hundred compounds were thus tested on normal human neural stem cells and on glioblastoma-initiating cells from different aggressive tumors. Twelve of these compounds showed a toxic effect on GIC -- and none on the normal neural stem cells. The most effective was prazosin. Tested in mice carrying glioblastoma-initiating cells, prazosin significantly reduced the size of tumors and prolonged survival of the mice by more than 50%. [1] Including scientists from the Laboratoire d'Innovation Thérapeutique (CNRS/Université de Strasbourg), the Stanford University Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (USA) and the Instituto Estadual do Cérebro Paulo Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). [2] This laboratory forms part of the Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine. [3] Pharmaceutical compounds are protected by a patent for 20 years after their discovery. Because of the length of the clinical trials that are necessary before a drug can be put on the market, the duration of their patent protection does not normally exceed 10-15 years after a Marketing Authorization (MA) is granted. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Exercise - Fitness, Prostate Cancer / 21.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ying Wang, PHD | Senior Epidemiologist American Cancer Society, Inc. 250 Williams St. Atlanta, GA 30303 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Wang: Although evidence is still limited, previous studies suggest that vigorous activity and brisk walking after prostate cancer diagnosis might be associated with lower risk of prostate cancer progression and disease-specific mortality. We still don’t know if physical activity before diagnosis is associated with the risk or not. This is also important because reverse causation is a concern in the analysis of post-diagnosis physical activity, especially for vigorous activity, that men with advanced diseases may reduce their activity level. In contrast, pre-diagnosis physical activity is less subject to reverse causation and may represent a long-term behavior. When walking, the most common type of physical activity, was examined separately in previous studies, it was not evaluated in the absence of other activities. No study has examined sitting time in relation to mortality among prostate cancer survivors, although previous study suggests longer sitting time is associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality in healthy populations. So in our study, we aimed to examine physical activity, walking only, and sitting time both before and after diagnosis in relation to prostate cancer-specific mortality. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Nutrition, Prostate Cancer / 21.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Emma Helen Allott, PhD University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Allott: Prostate cancer incidence rates vary more than 25-fold worldwide, and are highest in Western countries. This large international variation is due in part to differences in screening practices between countries, but dietary factors may also play a role. Unlike other macronutrients, dietary fat intake varies more than fivefold worldwide, and individuals in Western countries are among the highest consumers of saturated fat. High dietary saturated fat content contributes to raised blood cholesterol levels, and evidence from population-based studies supports an adverse role for serum cholesterol and a protective role for cholesterol-lowering statins in prostate cancer. Our hypothesis in this study was that high saturated fat intake would drive prostate tumor aggressiveness via raising serum cholesterol levels. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Allott: Using the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project, a study of 1,854 men with newly-diagnosed prostate cancer, we show that high dietary saturated fat content is associated with increased tumor aggressiveness. We found a slightly weaker effect of saturated fat on prostate cancer aggressiveness in men using statins to control serum cholesterol levels, suggesting that that statins may counteract, but do not completely negate, the effects of high saturated fat intake on prostate cancer aggressiveness. We also found an inverse association between high dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and prostate cancer aggressiveness. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Cancer Research, JAMA, University of Michigan / 21.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alon Kahana, MD, PhD Associate Professor Kellogg Eye Center University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kahana: Basal cell carcinoma is the most common cancer - more common than all other cancers combined. Fortunately, it is usually not aggressive, and can be easily treated surgically. However, when it is on the face, or when it has grown to a large size, it can become very disfiguring and even deadly. Basal cell carcinoma is diagnosed histopathologically, yet molecular diagnostics have proven value in a variety of cancers. In order to improve diagnosis and care, we set out to test whether histologically aggressive forms of basal cell carcinoma are associated with increased cell proliferation. Furthermore, we tested whether expression of the epigenetic regulator Ezh2 is associated with higher-grade carcinoma and/or with increased proliferation. The breakthrough discovery is that expression of Ezh2 correlates with high proliferation and with aggressive histologic features, suggesting that epigenetic regulators can be used both as markers of disease severity and targets of novel therapy. (more…)