The gene haul includes 49 new genetic susceptibility regions for breast cancer, 26 for prostate cancer and eight for ovarian cancer(Source: haydenbird/iStockphoto)
New cancer treatments and better methods for cancer screening could emerge from a huge new international study that has revealed more of the genetic underpinnings of breast, prostate and ovarian cancers.
Scientists in the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) have identified more than 70 new genetic regions linked with the three types of hormone-related cancers.
Their findings, published in 13 papers, roughly double the number of genetic regions that scientists know to be associated with these cancers, which together affect more than 2.5 million people each year.
Crucially, many of the genes identified in the study appear to affect more than one type of cancer. This means it may be possible to develop treatments that will combat several different cancers, says cancer geneticist John Witte from the University of California, San Francisco .. http://www.ucsf.edu/ .
"While the current findings do not immediately change the clinical treatment for any of these cancers, they do get us closer to this ultimate goal," says Witte, who wrote a commentary on the results this week in the journal Nature Genetics .. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2613 .
"Now we have a very large number of genetic variants clearly associated with risk of cancers, and a number of these impact more than one cancer. These findings may help clarify the most optimal screening, biology, and treatment for different cancers."
Genetic overlap
The COGS researchers began by analysing data from multiple earlier 'genome-wide association studies' that had linked particular genetic variations with cancer risk in tens of thousands of patients.
They then used 211,000 of those promising genetic markers to design a custom genotyping array - a tool for identifying the presence of particular genetic sequences - and used it to test samples from more than 200,000 cancer patients and controls.
The findings include 49 new genetic susceptibility regions for breast cancer, 26 for prostate cancer and eight for ovarian cancer. The results also include susceptibility genes for the cancers in specific populations, such as individuals with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.
The exact functions of most of the genes identified remains to be uncovered, but already some important trends have emerged that could lead to improved treatments.
Among the most notable findings was the genetic overlap among cancers. Such overlaps point directly at the mechanisms that initiate the cancer-forming process in these three hormone-related cancers.
"This is one of the most exciting aspects of this work," says Witte. If those mechanisms are shared among cancers, treatments for one cancer might also prove successful for other cancers as well.
"Instead of categorising cancers as distinct diseases, we may have great research and treatment success in studying the similarities across cancers," he says.
Dr Georgia Chevenix-Trench, from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research .. http://www.qimr.edu.au/ , agrees.
"It's important to note that any one of these regions could become a new drug target that is effective for either prevention or treatment of these common cancers," says Chevenix-Trench, one of several Australian researchers involved in the project.
And the findings are just the tip of the iceberg, she says.
"In breast cancer, for example there is good evidence that there may be up to 10,000 loci that confer risk that the study wasn't statistically powerful enough to study."
Screening improvements
The results may also help the fight against cancer by improving screening, say the study authors
Researchers are already working on ways to stratify the cancer risk of individuals based on inherited genetic variants. Such tests might first be used in people who are already at high risk of disease, such as women for example who have BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. In years to come they could be used more widely.
"It's always hard to guess timelines but I would think that within five to 10 years it might be being used commonly," says Dr Paul Pharoah, lead author of one of the ovarian cancer studies .. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.2564 .. from the University of Cambridge.
US patent number 6,630,507, "Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants", was filed in 2001 and was granted in 2003. The patent, assigned to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, states: ------ “ "Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia." ” ------ The patent asserts cannabinoids are shown to help in treating stroke, heart attack, inflammation, and autoimmune disorders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid#US_patent_on_cannabinoids
If marijuana is reclassified in the U.S., then the drug war could be de-escalated and more serious science can be applied. There are so many cannabanoid compounds in marijuana, hundreds actually, that many of them and in segregated combinations have not been studied in depth. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86135726
Australian doctors have achieved the world's first pregnancy from ovarian tissue grown outside the pelvis.
Melbourne mother-to-be, Vali, 23, is now 25 weeks pregnant with twins, after having both of her ovaries removed when she was being treated for cancer.
Researchers at Melbourne IVF stored her ovarian tissue before she had cancer treatment, then seven years later grafted the tissue back to her abdominal wall.
Her own eggs successfully grew and were harvested from the tissue for IVF, then fertilised and placed back into her uterus.
It is the first time the procedure has been done anywhere in the world and researchers say it gives hope to other cancer patients who would like to conceive.
"We have proven that ovarian tissue can still work and function normally outside the pelvis, which is its natural environment," said Associate Professor Kate Stern.
Vali says she is excited to be given the opportunity to have children. The twins are due in three months.
"I was really lucky with my doctor because he was really supportive and explained things and offered me the opportunity to freeze tissue (in the) hope that someday, something would be possible," she said.
Her partner Dean says he is amazed at the science behind the procedure.
"It sounds like science fiction to think someone could take something that was taken from Vali so many years ago and we could use it to get to this point now," he said.
"It's phenomenal. We never dreamt it would be possible."
The results were presented at the Fertility Society of Australia conference in Sydney.
Cancer trial of drug combination yields 'spectacular' results
International trial using ipilimumab and nivolumab to treat patients with advanced melanoma stopped cancer advancing in 58% of cases
Royal Marsden patient Vicky Brown’s CT scan before treatment (left) and 12 weeks after initial treatment. Photograph: Royal Marsden
Josh Halliday and agencies
Monday 1 June 2015 18.57 AEST Last modified on Tuesday 2 June 2015 00.20 AEST
Comments 296
Terminally ill cancer patients could be “effectively cured” of the disease using a powerful new combination of drugs described by scientists as heralding a once-in-a-generation advance in treatment.
A British-led trial brought “spectacular” results with more than half of patients with advanced melanoma seeing tumours shrink or brought under control using the drugs.
Prof Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer .. http://www.theguardian.com/society/cancer .. Centre in the US, said the treatment, which uses the body’s immune system to attack cancerous cells, could potentially replace chemotherapy as the standard cancer treatment within five years.
“I think we are seeing a paradigm shift in the way oncology is being treated,” he said. “The potential for long-term survival, effective cure, is definitely there.”
In an international trial, 945 patients with advanced melanoma were treated using the drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab. The treatments stopped cancer advancing for nearly a year in 58% of cases, with tumours stable or shrinking for an average of 11.5 months, researchers found.
This was compared with 19% of cases for ipilimumab alone, with tumours stable or shrinking for an average of two and a half months, according to the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr James Larkin, a consultant at the Royal Marsden hospital and one of the UK’s lead investigators, told the BBC: “By giving these drugs together you are effectively taking two brakes off the immune system rather than one, so the immune system is able to recognise tumours it wasn’t previously recognising and react to that and destroy them.
“For immunotherapies, we’ve never seen tumour shrinkage rates over 50% so that’s very significant to see. This is a treatment modality that I think is going to have a big future for the treatment of cancer.”
Ipilimumab was approved as an advanced melanoma treatment by the UK’s health service last year. The drug is given intravenously every three months and costs around £100,000 for a year. Nivolumab is given every two weeks until it stops working.
Dr Alan Worsley, Cancer .. http://www.theguardian.com/science/cancer .. Research UK’s senior science information officer, said the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab represented a “a powerful one-two punch” against advanced melanoma.
He added: “Together these drugs could release the brakes on the immune system while blocking cancer’s ability to hide from it. But combining these treatments also increases the likelihood of potentially quite severe side-effects. Identifying which patients are most likely to benefit will be key to bringing our best weapons to bear against the disease.”
Side-effects can include fatigue, rash and diarrhoea.
Eminent oncologist Prof Karol Sikora, the dean of the University of Buckingham’s medical school, cautioned against expectations of “miraculous breakthroughs” from the latest discoveries.
Sikora told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “The immune system has been known to affect certain cancers when stimulated for the last 100 years, but we haven’t quite got round it yet.
“The current discoveries being released in Chicago, the media pick them up and for cancer patients it’s very sad. You would think cancer was being cured tomorrow. It’s not the case. We’ve got a lot to learn.
“The prolongation of survival from these very expensive immune therapies is often a matter of weeks or months and we’ve got to make it long-lasting and that has to be our priority.
“I’m afraid it’s mixed news. There are breakthroughs coming, there is hope for cancer, that we will do much better in the future. It’s slow progress, rather than miraculous breakthroughs, as it’s likely to be reported.”
Case study
Vicky Brown, who took part in the clinical trials. Photograph: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans Agency
One patient who has benefited from the treatment is former college teacher Vicky Brown, 61, who was told in 2013 she had only months to live after skin cancer spread to her breast and lungs.
She took part in clinical trials at the Royal Marsden hospital last August and within weeks the tumour was eradicated. When it later returned, it was removed with immunotherapy. It has come back a third time but doctors plan to use the same method.
“I started drug therapy in August 2014, and although I experienced quite severe side-effects these were able to be treated so I could stay on the trial,” Brown said.
“One of the lumps disappeared after just a couple of weeks which was remarkable. I was delighted to be given the chance to join this trial, not only for me, but also for all the other melanoma patients who could benefit in the future.
I'm wondering why since extreme Christian believers see contraceptive use as a violation of God's natural way they don't see the use of scientifically developed new drugs in the same way.
Far North Queensland cancer drug human trials underway
"Cancer Drug Shortage Leads to Less-Effective Substitute Drugs, Study Finds .. 2012 "
BREAKTHROUGH: Dr Victoria Gordon, executive director and CEO, and Dr Paul Reddell, executive director and chief scientific officer, of QBiotics with the fruit of the blushwood tree. Phase one human trials of the cancer fighting drug derived from the berry, EBC-46, have recently begun. PICTURE: LYNDON MECHIELSEN
Dominic Geiger, The Cairns Post October 28, 2015 7:20am
RESEARCHERS behind a potential cancer cure discovered on the Tableland have started phase-one human trials.
EBC-46 is a drug derived from a molecule in the seeds of the rainforest tree blushwood, which is found in pockets of Far North Queensland.
Although phase-two trials will confirm which types of tumours EBC-46 will be able to treat, it is hoped the drug will be effective in fighting skin, head, neck, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.
In the current trial, EBC-46 has been delivered locally in a single treatment by direct injection into tumours.
Chief executive officer of Yungaburra-based pharmaceutical researcher QBiotics Victoria Gordon yesterday confirmed about 30 patients would be involved in the phase-one trial across locations including Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
She said the initial trial, expected to be completed within 12 months, was primarily about determining the drug’s safety.
“We’re looking at what is the safety aspect of the drug as we move into humans compared to animals, which is what we’ve done work in,” Dr Gordon said.
A founder of QBiotics along with Dr Paul Reddell, Dr Gordon said EBC-46 was discovered by parent company EcoBiotics using researchers’ “understanding of how the forest functions” to direct them to plant material with a “particular biological activity”.
PLENTIFUL: EBC-46 is a drug derived from a molecule in the seeds of the rainforest tree blushwood, which is found in pockets of Far North Queensland. PICTURE: LYNDON MECHIELSEN
“The rest of it is a trade secret,” Dr Gordon said.
The product has so far demonstrated a remarkable ability to treat a range of tumours in mice, dogs, cats, horses, pigs, sheep, ferrets, guinea pigs, goannas, birds, and even the endangered Tasmanian devil.
In some cases, deadly tumours in pets disintegrated within five to seven days of treatment.
But Dr Gordon cautioned that the company was still in “early days” with the drug’s development.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” she said.
“We need to be very cautious about promises being made with early stage oncology drugs.”
In addition to the drug’s potential role as a lifesaver, Dr Gordon said there were also potential economic opportunities for Far North farmers willing to grow the blushwood tree if EBC-46 becomes available to the public.
Anyone wishing to be a part of future trials should first speak to their oncologist.
EBC-46 is non-toxic to cells and works differently from most chemotherapy agents, stimulating a patient’s own immune system into destroying the tumour.
The drug is also easy to administer, causing minimal trauma to patients.
This one dated October 2014 and last updated July 2016. As the video in a different sense it's a straddle.
Cancer tumours destroyed by berry found in Queensland rainforest
Drug derived from the fruit of the blushwood tree kills cancerous tumours long-term in animals in 70% of cases
Berries on the blushwood tree, a plant only found in specific areas of the Atherton Tablelands in tropical north Queensland. Photograph: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
Melissa Davey @MelissaLDavey
Wednesday 8 October 2014 13.43 AEDT Last modified on Monday 4 July 2016 16.16 AEST
Scientists have managed to destroy cancerous tumours by using an experimental drug derived from the seeds of a fruit found in north Queensland .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/queensland .. rainforests.
The drug, called EBC-46, was produced by extracting a compound from the berry of the blushwood tree, a plant only found in specific areas of the Atherton Tablelands.
A single injection of the drug directly into melanoma models in the laboratory, as well as into cancers of the head, neck and colon in animals, destroyed the tumours long-term in more than 70% of cases, the study’s lead author, Dr Glen Boyle, said.
“In preclinical trials we injected it into our models and within five minutes, you see a purpling of the area that looks like a bruise,” Boyle, from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute said.
“About 24 hours later, the tumour area goes black, a couple of days later you see a scab, and at around the 1.5 week mark, the scab falls off, leaving clean skin with no tumour there. The speed certainly surprised me.”
Researchers believe the drug triggers a cellular response which cuts off the blood supply to the tumour by opening it up. The stories you need to read, in one handy email Read more
“That’s why we see a bruise-like situation forming in the tumour,” Boyle said. “This seems to lead to an activation of the body’s own immune system which then comes in and cleans up the mess.”
It has been used by veterinarians in about 300 cases of cancer in companion animals including dogs, cats and horses.
There was no evidence EBC-46 would be effective to treat cancers that had spread to other parts of the body, known as metastatic cancers, Boyle said.
The drug is being developed as a human and veterinary pharmaceutical through QBiotics, a subsidiary of the company which discovered the drug, called EcoBiotics. The company is also examining the potential for a blushwood plantation.
Ethical approval was recently granted for phase 1 human clinical trials, but even if those proved successful, it was unlikely the drug would replace conventional chemotherapy treatment, Boyle said.
“Chemotherapy is still used because it is very effective for a lot of people,” he said. “But EBC-46 could perhaps be used in people who, for some reason, chemotherapy doesn’t work [for], or for elderly patients whose body can’t sustain another round of chemotherapy treatment.”
Cancer study: Immunotherapy before surgery could dramatically improve cancer survival rates
.. when asked, in an interview i was lucky to catch yesterday, 'why did you think of giving the drug before removing the tumor?. the good doctor said, ' we just thought we would try treatment in a different order .. pretty cool, eh ..
Updated yesterday at 11:49am
Michele Teng Mouse
Photo: Dr Michele Teng from QIMR says the finding could lead to widespread changes in oncology practices. (ABC News: Melinda Howells)
Reversing the order of treatment for patients with certain cancers could increase survival rates by up to 60 per cent, Queensland scientists have found during an experiment on mice.
this one may not work GIF: Triple breast cancer cells
Researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute trialled giving immunotherapy drugs to mice with breast cancer before surgery, rather than after.
Survival rates are usually very low, but about half of the mice treated in this order were cured.
Dr Michele Teng, who led the study, said if they results were replicated in humans it could lead to widespread changes in oncology practices.
"To our surprise, when we gave mice a combination of two immunotherapy drugs before surgery, between 40 and 60 per cent were cured of triple-negative breast cancer," she said.
"It appears that this therapy destroyed any cancer cells that had spread to other parts of the body and stopped the cancer from returning."
Treatment creates 'SAS officers' to destroy cancer
In the past five years, immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of some cancers.
It has been shown to be effective against 15 types, such as melanoma and kidney cancer.
It works by activating a patient's immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells.
The QIMR Berghofer researchers found the mice that received immunotherapy before surgery had higher levels of an immune cell known as tumour-specific T cells, which destroy cancer cells.
Furthermore, the T cells were found to be better quality and lasted a long time, preventing the cancer's return.
"Giving these drugs while the primary tumour is present not only increases the number of soldiers fighting the battle, but also turns them from regular fighters to SAS officers," Dr Teng said.
The next step is for the researchers to understand in more detail why giving immunotherapy before surgery led to better survival rates in mice and whether this could also apply to other cancers.
Photo: Malignant breast cancer cells, with the cancer killing about half a million people worldwide a year. (Supplied)
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