Cytomegalovirus might speed brain cancer growth
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - A virus that infects most Americans but that usually remains dormant in the body might speed the progression of an aggressive form of brain cancer when particular genes are shut off in tumor cells, new research shows. The animal study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) and at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute suggests that cytomegalovirus (CMV) might significantly accelerate the development and progression of glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.

Combination of drugs produces dramatic tumor responses in advanced melanoma patients
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - The combination of the immunotherapy drug ipilimumab and the investigational antibody drug nivolumab led to long-lasting tumor shrinkage in more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma, according to results from a Phase I trial simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Targeted therapy sorafenib shows success in advanced differentiated thyroid cancer patients
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - The kidney and liver cancer drug sorafenib holds metastatic thyroid cancer at bay for nearly twice as long as a placebo, according to results of a randomized phase III trial, presented by a researcher from the Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in a plenary session during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.

New cancer drug shows promise for treating advanced melanoma
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center report that a new drug in preliminary tests has shown promising results with very manageable side effects for treating patients with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The results were presented at the 2013 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology today in Chicago by Dr. Antoni Ribas, professor of medicine in the UCLA division of hematology-oncology, who led the research. Following Ribas’ presentation, the study was published online ahead of press in the New England Journal of Medicine.

No increased risk of infection for long-term sex partners of people with HPV-related oral cancers
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - Spouses and long-term partners of patients with mouth and throat cancers related to infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV) appear to have no increased prevalence of oral HPV infections, according to results of a multicenter, pilot study led by investigators from Johns Hopkins (home of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center). The study’s results suggest that long-term couples need not change their sexual practices, say the scientists.

Cancer drug shortages hit 83 percent of U.S. oncologists
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 06/03/2013) - Eighty-three percent of cancer doctors report that they’ve faced oncology drug shortages, and of those, nearly all say that their patients’ treatment has been impacted, according to a study from researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The results showed that shortages – which have hit especially hard among drugs to treat pediatric, gastrointestinal and blood cancers – have left physicians surveyed unable to prescribe standard chemotherapies for a range of cancers.

Cervical Cancer: paradigms at home and abroad
NCI Perspective
(Posted: 06/02/2013) - NCI funded a clinical trial that will have an impact on the treatment of late-stage cervical cancer, and also supported a screening trial in India using a network of community outreach workers offering low tech-screening by direct visualization of the cervix coated with dilute acetic acid (vinegar), a process known as VIA. Image depicts cervical cancer microvessel density which increases lethality of the cancer.

NIH scientists find link between allergic and autoimmune diseases in mouse study
NCI Press Release
(Posted: 06/02/2013) - Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, and their colleagues, have discovered that a gene called BACH2 may play a central role in the development of diverse allergic and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, asthma, Crohn's disease, celiac disease, and type-1 diabetes.

NCI-supported research at ASCO highlights advances in cervical cancer screening and treatment
NCI News Note
(Posted: 06/02/2013) - 3 NCI-funded trials were featured as plenaries at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting:
•Visual inspection with acetic acid reduced cervical cancer mortality
•Adding bevacizumab to treatment of recurrent cervical cancer showed survival benefit
•No survival benefit for use of bevacizumab in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma

Bevacizumab significantly improves survival for patients with recurrent and metastatic cervical cancer
NCI Press Release
(Posted: 02/07/2013, Updated: 06/02/2013) - Patients with advanced, recurrent, or persistent cervical cancer that was not curable with standard treatment who received the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) lived 3.7 months longer than patients who did not receive the drug, according to an analysis of a large, randomized clinical trial.