According to Amato Giaccia, PhD, professor and director of radiation oncology and radiation biology at the medical school:

“You now have a potential means of going after a disease that’s been difficult to treat. There is no effective chemotherapy to treat renal cell carcinoma. Patients still succumb. Clinical trials could begin “in the next couple years”.”

Above findings are published today in the journal Cancer Cell. Hopefully this discovery will in the future lessen the surgery option for kidney cancer treatment.

Read more from Science Daily.

Post from: Blisstree

STF-62247: Molecule That Kills Kidney Cancer Cells

In clinical testing, Nexavar improved overall survival by 44 percent among people with HCC. Median overall survival was 10.7 months among those treated with the drug, versus 7.9 months among those who took a placebo. This was considered a major inroad against one of the most voracious cancers.

Nexavar is also being assessed to treat small-cell lung cancer, prostate cancer and melanoma.Earlier trials, however, had shown a 16 percent to 42.6 percent incidence of hypertension in patients taking the drug. If not properly controlled, hypertension can lead to strokes and heart attacks, as well as kidney failure.

For this paper, researchers at the State University of New York Stony Brook conducted a meta-analysis of published clinical trials on Nexavar. In all, nine studies involving 4,599 patients published between January 2006 and July 2007 were analyzed.

There was a 23.4 percent incidence of all-grade hypertension, and a 5.7 percent incidence of high-grade hypertension.

Nexavar is a cancer (chemotherapeutic) medication used (FDA approved) for the treatment of a type of kidney cancer called advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Nexavar is an anti-angiogenesis drug, meaning it fights cancer by cutting off a tumor’s blood supply.

It was approved in 2005 to treat advanced kidney cancer and in 2007 to treat the most common form of liver cancer that can’t be surgically removed (unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC).

Now, according to the above study, Nexavar can also increases the risk of developing high blood pressure — thereby the need for careful monitoring and treatment in patients taking this drug.

[Source]

Post from: Blisstree

Cancer Drug Nexavar®, Raises Blood Pressure?

Such were the findings of a pilot study led by Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers.

According to Jared Gollob, M.D., an oncologist at Duke and lead investigator on the study:

“We found that by combining a drug that enlists the immune system’s help in combating cancer with one that cuts off a tumor’s blood supply, we could substantially increase patients’ response rates to treatment.

Most tumors that respond to either therapy alone begin growing again after about five or six months. By using interferon alpha and sorafenib in combination, we not only increased the response rate, but found we could double the amount of time that these patients could survive without their tumors growing.”

An immunotherapy agent that boosts the body’s own abilities to fight off infections and tumors –interferon alpha- has been used for several decades to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma.

While sorafenib (sold as Nexavar®) is an anti-angiogenic that works by choking a tumor’s blood supply and thereby restricting its growth.

Find more details from the full report.

Post from: Blisstree

Interferon Alpha-Sorafenib Combo Works Better Against Kidney Cancer

Torisel™ is an enzyme inhibitor (mTOR inhibitor to be exact) whose FDA approval came following results of prolonged survival in renal cell carcinoma patients.

According to Dr. Steven Galson, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:

“We have made significant advances in the battle against kidney cancer. Torisel is the third drug approved for this indication in the past 18 months, and one that shows an increased time in survival for some patients.”

Study results demonstrating the efficacy of Torisel™ in renal cell carcinoma patients have just been published in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Find more details from Wyeth’s press release.

Post from: Blisstree

Wyeth’s New Kidney Cancer Drug Torisel™, Approved by the FDA

Such is the result of an analysis of 12 prospective studies of alcohol consumption among renal cancer patients, conducted by a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston led by Jung Eun Lee, Sc.D.

Wait a minute. We shouldn’t be dancing the dance of joy and drink like there’s no tomorrow.

According to the study’s authors:

“However, because alcohol drinking is associated with increased risks of cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, liver, and breast, and probably the colon and rectum, maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding smoking are the principal known means to reduce the risk of renal cell cancer that should be encouraged and doing so may also reduce the risk of many other cancers as well as cardiovascular disease.”

Remember, on the average at least one alcoholic beverage per day…like what they say is good for your heart. One glass I presume…not one barrel!

Read the article abstract in the May 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Renal cell cancer or renal cell carcinoma (a kidney cancer) is a cancer that forms in the center of the kidney where urine collects.

Source: Science Daily

Post from: Blisstree

Drink Alcohol, Reduce Risk of Renal Cell Cancer?

Imaging with Positron Emission Tomography (PET) using a radiolabeled monoclonal antibody G250 (originally developed as a potential therapeutic agent) can accurately identify cell renal carcinoma that needs surgery.

This was based on findings of a new study done by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

…15 out of 16 clear cell renal carcinomas were correctly identified using G250 PET, resulting in a sensitivity of 94 percent. All 9 patients with non-clear cell renal masses were negative on the PET scan — which is highly predictive of a less aggressive cancer — resulting in a specificity of 100 percent.

This promising result suggests that G250 PET (being sensitive and specific) can be utilized in identification of management strategies for clinically localized renal masses and as an alternative to biopsy for distinguishing renal lesions.

Study results will be published in the April 2007 issue of The Lancet Oncology (online March 6/7).

Read the full report.

Post from: Blisstree

Radio-labelled Antibody PET Imaging Identifies Kidney Cancer for Surgery

Such is the research finding recently reported at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting.

The comparative trial shows that percutaneous cryoablation results in a slightly lower recurrence rate of the tumor, a shorter hospital stay, no major complications, and a 59.5 percent lower hospital cost than the laparoscopic treatment.

During cryoablation argon gas enters the tip of the probe and extracts heat from the surrounding cells, resulting in an “ice ball” that freezes and kills the tumor – sparing the majority of the healthy kidney tissue.

Both radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation have been approved by the USFDA for use in soft tissue tumors (includes renal cell carcinoma).

Read the full report (a pdf file).

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Kidney Tumor Cryoablation is as Effective but Cheaper and Safer than Laparoscopic Surgery

Such were the findings of a case-control study of more than 2300 Italians led by Francesca Bravi of the Institute of Pharmacological Research “Mario Negri” in Milan.

Accounting for 2 % of all adult cancers, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer.

“The association between elevated cereal intake (bread, pasta and rice) may be due to the high glycemic index of these foods and their possible involvement in insulin-like growth factors,” the researchers suggest.

The inverse relationship between vegetable consumption is consistent with previous studies and may be related to their content of vitamins, micronutrients or elements such as carotenoids, flavonoids and phytosterols.

The said study might be limited in some factors but it doesn’t harm to be of warning to some population groups.

Find more details from Science Daily.

[Photo Credit: www.oznet.ksu.com]

Post from: Blisstree

More Bread = Higher Risk of Renal Cell Carcinoma?

A retrospective study appearing in the September issue of The Lancet Oncology suggests that such practice needs to be re-evaluated.

Urologists at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and their colleagues reported that with advances in imaging, almost 70 percent of kidney cancer patients have their tumor detected at a very small size (less than 4 cm), thereby enabling surgeons to perform less radical surgery with superior results.

According to the results of the said study, patients with two otherwise healthy kidneys who underwent kidney-sparing surgery (partial nephrectomy) to remove a small cancer developed chronic kidney disease at a rate one-third lower than patients whose entire kidney was removed (radical nephrectomy).

Radical nephrectomy or the entire removal of a kidney has been shown to be a significant risk factor for developing chronic kidney disease.

In partial nephrectomy patients, the 3-year probability of staying free of chronic kidney disease is 80% compared to 35% in patients who underwent a radical nephrectomy.

According to Dr. Peter T. Scardino, Chairman of the Department of Surgery and co-author of the study:

“Our study clearly demonstrates, for the first time, the serious effects on kidney function and the high risk of chronic kidney disease when an entire kidney is removed for a small cancer.

Chronic kidney disease leads to an increased risk of cardiovascular events, hospitalizations, and even death. By removing only the cancerous part, we are much more likely to preserve a patient’s normal kidney function and avoid the long-term consequences of chronic kidney disease.”

Read the full report at MSKCC.

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Kidney Cancer Radical Surgery: A Risk Factor for Chronic Kidney Disease

“This drug has shown more activity as a single agent against advanced kidney cancer than any other drug I’ve studied in the past 15 years,” said the study’s lead author Robert J. Motzer, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). “I continue to be encouraged by its effectiveness in treating patients with this aggressive disease,” said Dr. Motzer, who is a leader in the treatment of kidney cancer and conducted the earliest clinical trials on sunitinib (initially referred to as SU11248).

One of the standard treatments for advanced kidney cancer is interferon-alpha (IFN-ﾜ), but only about 15% of patients respond to this immunotherapy. Sunitinib on the other hand targets receptors on kidney cancer cells that may play a role in tumor growth and the development of blood vessels that feed a tumor.

Sunitinib in previous studies have shown to shrink some renal cancers but this new study is the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of sunitinib as a first-line therapy compared with standard cytokine therapy with IFN-ﾜ.

Read more at MSKCC.

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Targeted Therapy with Sunitinib, Demonstrates Significant Benefit Compared to Standard Treatment of Advanced Kidney Cancer