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New Study Reveals Terrifying Possible Effects of Chemotherapy

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Chemotherapy could allow cancer to spread, and trigger more aggressive tumours, a new study suggests.

Researchers in the US studied the impact of drugs on patients with breast cancer and found medication increases the chance of cancer cells migrating to other parts of the body, where they are almost always lethal . . .

Many are given chemotherapy before surgery, but the new research suggests that, although it shrinks tumours in the short term, it could trigger the spread of cancer cells around the body.

It is thought the toxic medication switches on a repair mechanism in the body which ultimately allows tumours to grow back stronger. It also increases the number of ‘doorways’ on blood vessels which allow cancer to spread throughout the body.

Dr George Karagiannis, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York, found the number of doorways was increased in 20 patients receiving two common chemotherapy drugs. (Read more from “New Study Reveals Terrifying Possible Effects of Chemotherapy” HERE)

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Teen Cancer Survivor Banned From Prom

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A brave teenager who overcame long-term cancer has been banned from attending her high-school ball after being told she has had too much time off school.

English teen Alex Dallas has battled cancer since she was 4 and after a 12-hour operation to remove a deadly tumour she was hoping to make her dream of attending the ball come true.

The 16-year-old bought a $680 custom-made dress as well as spending hundreds of dollars on hair and make up.

However, the Year 11 student was told she wouldn’t be able to join her fellow classmates at the ball. (Read more from “Teen Cancer Survivor Banned From Prom” HERE)

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New Frontier in Cancer Care: Turning Blood Into Living Drugs

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Ken Shefveland’s body was swollen with cancer, treatment after treatment failing until doctors gambled on a radical approach: They removed some of his immune cells, engineered them into cancer assassins and unleashed them into his bloodstream.

Immune therapy is the hottest trend in cancer care and this is its next frontier — creating “living drugs” that grow inside the body into an army that seeks and destroys tumors.

Looking in the mirror, Shefveland saw “the cancer was just melting away.” A month later doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center couldn’t find any signs of lymphoma in the Vancouver, Washington, man’s body. (Read more from “New Frontier in Cancer Care: Turning Blood Into Living Drugs” HERE)

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AI System as Good as Experts at Recognising Skin Cancers, Say Researchers

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Computers can classify skin cancers as successfully as human experts, according to the latest research attempting to apply artificial intelligence to health.

The US-based researchers say the new system, which is based on image recognition, could be developed for smartphones, increasing access to screening and providing a low-cost way to check whether skin lesions are cause for concern.

“We hope that this is a first step towards early detection,” said Andre Esteva, an electrical engineering PhD student from Stanford University and co-author of the research.

According to the World Health Organisation, skin cancer accounts for one in every three cancers diagnosed worldwide, with global incidence on the rise.

In the UK alone, 131,772 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer were recorded in 2014. In the same year there were 15,419 new cases of the deadliest skin cancer, melanoma, making it the fifth most common cancer, according to Cancer Research UK. (Read more from “AI System as Good as Experts at Recognising Skin Cancers, Say Researchers” HERE)

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FDA Fast-Tracks Treatment That Uses Polio Virus to Fight Brain Cancer

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The Food and Drug Administration has given so-called “breakthrough” status to a treatment that uses the once-feared polio virus to target aggressive forms of brain cancer, in the hope of speeding it to market.

The therapy, developed at Duke University, hopes to use the virus’ debilitating properties to help fight cancer instead of harming its host, CBS News reported Thursday.

The experimental treatment was the brainchild of molecular biologist Matthias Gromeier. By removing a certain genetic sequence and replacing it with material from the common cold virus, the polio would not be able to cause the incapacitating symptoms that once afflicted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and numerous others because it would be unable to reproduce in normal cells.

However, the altered version of polio could still reproduce in cancer cells—therefore making the cancer susceptible to Lipscomb’s and other patients’ immune systems.

“All human cancers … develop a shield of protective measures that make them invisible to this immune system,” Gromeier told CBS. “By infecting the tumor, we are actually removing this protective shield and enabling the immune system to attack.” (Read more from “FDA Fast-Tracks Treatment That Uses Polio Virus to Fight Brain Cancer” HERE)

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The Revolutionary Project to ‘Solve’ Cancer

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABillionaire Sean Parker, famous for his founding roles at Napster and Facebook, is backing an unconventional $250 million effort to attack cancer that involves persuading hundreds of the country’s top scientists — who often are in competition with each other — to join forces and unify their research targets.

The consortium, which will be formally announced Wednesday, focuses on immunotherapy, a relatively new area of research that seeks to mobilize the body’s own defense systems to fight mutant cancer cells. Many believe it represents the future of cancer therapy.

More than 300 scientists working at 40 labs in six institutions — Stanford, the University of California, San Francisco, and University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — have already signed on . . .

He describes the effort as a way to remove obstacles related to bureaucracy and personality that will allow scientists to borrow from each other’s labs unencumbered. The researchers will continue to be based at their home institutions but will receive additional funding and access to other resources, including specialized data scientists and genetic engineering equipment set to become part of the nonprofit Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in San Francisco. (Read more from “The Revolutionary Project to ‘Solve’ Cancer” HERE)

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Doctors Battling to Stop Cancer Hail Revolutionary Treatment

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Doctors battling to combat cancer have hailed a revolutionary ­treatment that teaches the body how to kill the disease itself.

Trials of immunotherapy showed remarkable results with 94% of terminal leukaemia patients told they had just months to live going into remission.

And more than half of 40 suffering other blood cancers were left disease-free, according to US researchers.

The treatment could reduce the ­reliance on chemotherapy, which has debilitating toxic side-effects.

In a second major breakthrough, an Italian study found the therapy could be used to develop a vaccine-style drug that stops the disease coming back after it has been successfully treated. (Read more from “Doctors Battling to Stop Cancer Hail Revolutionary Treatment” HERE)

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This Fruit May Help Detect, Cure Skin Cancer

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The black spots on old banana peels may unlock a faster, easier diagnosis of human skin cancer, boosting survival chances, scientists said Monday.

When bananas ripen, their skin is covered in small, round black spots caused by an enzyme known as tyrosinase.

The same enzyme is present in human skin, and in greater quantities in people suffering from melanoma — a potentially deadly form of skin cancer.

A team of scientists used this observed commonality to build a cancer scanner, which they then refined and tested at length on banana peels before moving on to human tissue.

First, researchers at the Laboratory of Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry in Switzerland concluded that the enzyme is a reliable marker of melanoma growth. (Read more from “This Fruit May Help Detect, Cure Skin Cancer” HERE)

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Blood Test to Spot Five Deadly Cancers Could Prevent Thousands of Deaths

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A simple blood test which detects five of the most deadly types of cancer is being developed by scientists.

Researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute in the US have discovered that when breast, bowel, lung, womb or stomach cancer is present in the body, one particular gene changes its chemical signature.

The scientists think that change occurs when the body starts to lose the fight against the disease.

British charities said it could work like a ‘warning klaxon,’ sounding the alarm that cancer is present, at a time when treatments are likely to be most effective.

The crucial signature was linked to a gene called ZNF154. Researchers found that when a tumour was present, the gene showed increased signs of ‘methylation’ – a biological process which tells genes to switch to the ‘off’ position. (Read more from “Blood Test to Spot Five Deadly Cancers Could Prevent Thousands of Deaths” HERE)

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Seattle Woman Who Raised $400G as Cancer Survivor Reportedly Never Had the Disease

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A prominent Seattle cancer advocate and fundraiser has been accused of lying about her breast cancer diagnoses while she raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, KOMO News reported.

Tracy Dart, who has raised more than $400,000 over the past decade for the Komen Foundation, is under fire for reportedly lying about her three cancer spells.

A Washington state car dealer who helped Dart raise thousands to fight the disease said a member of Dart’s “Team Tracy” contacted him to reveal that Dart had never been ill.

“She doesn’t have cancer—she never had cancer,” the representative said, according to Auburn Volkswagen owner Matthew Welch. (Read more from “Seattle Woman Who Raised $400G as Cancer Survivor Reportedly Never Had the Disease” HERE)

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