Donna Walton is one of the millions of people who have lived through having cancer and gone on to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. In Donna’s case, 30 years after she had her leg amputated above the knee because of cancer, she is a certified cognitive behavioral therapist and she works as a consultant and motivational speaker.

You can read more about Donna’s achievements and work over at Disaboom.com: Amputee and Cancer Survivor: Donna Walton Walks Her Talk.

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Tags: donna walton, cancer survivor, cognitive behavior therapist, amputee

Post from: Blisstree

Amputee and Cancer Survivor: Donna Walton

According to Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., a radiologist at Mayo Clinic who presented his latest findings on cryoablation for pain management at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting this week (Nov. 27):

“Cancer patients are living longer and we need to be able to manage their pain over a long period of time.

Two key parts of this study are that the reduction in pain lasts and their quality of life improves after receiving the treatment.”

Find more details from Mayo Clinic.

Post from: Blisstree

Cryoablation for Pain Management?

In a new phase I clinical trial opened by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, a bioengineered measles virus is being tested of its potential to kill cancer.

This the third of a series of molecular medicine studies in patients testing the potential of measles to kill cancer. Previous studies were on glioblastoma multiforme (a brain tumor) and recurrent ovarian cancer.

Many cancers, including multiple myeloma, overexpress a protein, CD46, which allows them to evade destruction by the immune system. Laboratory strains of measles virus seek out this protein and use it as a receptor by which to enter the cancer cells. Upon entry, the virus spreads, infecting nearby tumor cells and fusing them together, increasing cancer cell death.

In this study, the researchers are using a strain of measles virus which was engineered to carry an additional gene that codes for the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) protein and is administered intravenously to multiple myeloma patients (instead of directly to the tumor).

 Subject patients in this study should be adults with relapsed or refractory (that is, having had more than one type of treatment fail them) myeloma. They must not have had allogeneic (from another person) stem cell transplants and must either have had a prior measles infection or been vaccinated against it.

This multiple myeloma study is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Harold W. Siebens Foundation.

Find more details from the full report.

Post from: Blisstree

Measles Virus: A Tool Against Multiple Myeloma?

Such were the findings of a randomized clinical trial whose data has been reported in the January 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In other cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer, increasing the intensity of a chemotherapy regimen (means decreasing the number of days between chemotherapy treatments) may improve survival, as been shown in previous studies.

But that wasn’t the case in osteosarcoma: while the dose-intensive regimen killed tumor cells better than the standard regimen after surgery, survival rates were similar in both groups.

Read more details from the full report or read a copy of the article.

Post from: Blisstree

Increased Chemotherapy Dose, Not Beneficial to Osteosarcoma Patients