Fox Chase study finds new small molecule inhibitor could be a safe and first-line treatment for metastatic breast cancer
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Previous research has shown that a family of genes, proteins and enzymes called the uPA system (for urokinase plasminogen activator) plays an active role in different facets of cancer's biology, including tumor cell invasion, the spread of metastases, and the growth of a primary tumor. Mesupron is a new small molecule inhibitor, taken as a pill, that inhibits the uPA system. The results from a recent phase II clinical study from the Fox Chase Cancer Center suggest that the drug could be a safe and first-line treatment that extends progression-free survival for metastatic breast cancer patients, when combined with the chemotherapeutic drug Capecitabine.

Updated clinical results show experimental agent ibrutinib as highly active in CLL patients
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Updated results from a Phase Ib/II clinical trial led by the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute indicates that a novel therapeutic agent for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is highly active and well tolerated in patients who have relapsed and are resistant to other therapy. The agent, ibrutinib (PCI-32765), is the first drug designed to target Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a protein essential for CLL-cell survival and proliferation. CLL is the most common form of leukemia, with about 15,000 new cases annually in the U.S. About 4,400 Americans die of the disease each year.

Fox Chase researchers develop novel 3D culture system for inflammatory breast cancer
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a very rare and aggressive disease that progresses rapidly and is associated with a very low survival rate. To understand how this type of cancer spreads, it's crucial to characterize the interactions between cancer cells and their 3D environment. Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have developed a novel, 3D culture system that mimics the environment surrounding these cancer cells. This model could be used to test new anticancer drugs capable of inhibiting the spread of IBC tumors.

Temple study's pre-clinical data shows Angiocidin effective against leukemia
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Angiocidin, a novel tumor-inhibiting protein, has been shown to reduce acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells in mice by almost two-thirds in pre-clinical experiments. A researcher from Temple University’s School of Medicine who discovered Angiocidin, presented the findings during the American Society of Hematology’s national meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 9. Temple University is home to the Fox Chase Cancer Center.

More than a third of high-risk leukemia patients respond to an experimental new drug
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - A new drug for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) marked by a specific type of genetic mutation has shown surprising promise in a Phase II clinical trial. In more than a third of participants, the leukemia was completely cleared from the bone marrow, and as a result, many of these patients were able to undergo potentially curative bone marrow transplants, according to investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and nine other academic medical centers around the world. Many of the participants who did well with the new drug, quizartinib or AC220, had failed to respond to prior therapies.

Michigan study finds new drug cuts risk of deadly transplant side effect in half
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - A new class of drugs reduced the risk of patients contracting a serious and often deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplant treatments, according to a study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study, the first to test this treatment in people, combined the drug vorinostat with standard medications given after transplant, resulting in 21 percent of patients developing going to a new website graft-vs.-host disease compared to 42 percent of patients who typically develop this condition with standard medications alone.

Ohio State study finds reduced intensity regimen prior to marrow transplant better for older leukemia patients
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - A new study led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) shows that preparing older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients for bone marrow transplants with a reduced intensity conditioning regimen appears to be associated with higher rates of disease-free survival relative to the more typical treatments usually given to such patients. The study was presented at the 2012 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

Penn study finds leukemia patients remain in remission more than two years after receiving genetically engineered T cell therapy
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Nine of twelve leukemia patients who received infusions of their own T cells after the cells had been genetically engineered to attack the patients’ tumors responded to the therapy, which was pioneered by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Medicine researchers will present the latest results of the trial today at the American Society of Hematology’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. Penn is home to the Abramson Cancer Center.

Temple scientists target DNA repair to eradicate leukemia stem cells
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/10/2012) - Despite treatment with imatinib, a successful drug that targets chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a deadly type of cancer, some patients may continue to be at risk for relapse because a tiny pool of stem cells is resistant to treatment and may even accumulate additional genetic aberrations, eventually leading to disease progression and relapse. These leukemia stem cells are full of genetic errors, loaded with potentially lethal breaks in DNA, and are in a state of constant self-repair. Now, scientists at Temple University School of Medicine (home to the Fox Chase Cancer Center) may have figured out a way to corral this stem cell activity and stunt further cancer development. In a series of experiments in mice with cancer and in cancer cells, they have shown that they can block the process by which leukemia stem cells repair themselves by targeting a particular protein, RAD52, which the cells depend on to fix genetic mistakes. The findings may lead to a new strategy to help overcome drug resistance that hinges on cancer stem cells gone awry.

Multi-institute study finds protein controlling glucose metabolism also a tumor suppressor
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 12/07/2012) - A protein known to regulate how cells process glucose also appears to be a tumor suppressor, adding to the potential that therapies directed at cellular metabolism may help suppress tumor growth. In their report in the Dec. 7 issue of Cell, a multi-institutional research team describes finding that cells lacking the enzyme SIRT6, which controls how cells process glucose, quickly become cancerous. They also found evidence that uncontrolled glycolysis, a stage in normal glucose metabolism, may drive tumor formation in the absence of SIRT6 and that suppressing glycolysis can halt tumor formation. The research team included scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital (a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and the University of Michigan, which is home to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.