|
Brain Cancer News for July 2004
Tumor can't stop Demsey Golfer overcomes two brain surgeries
BY TAD REEVE
Pioneer Press
Wed, Jul. 07, 2004
Todd Demsey had nine top-25 finishes in 22 Nationwide Tour events in 2003. Two months before the season, he underwent surgery to remove 80 percent of a tumor in his brain. Two months after the season, he had surgery to remove the other 20 percent.
And here he is back for more, at the $475,000 Scholarship America Showdown, which starts Thursday at Troy Burne Golf Club in Hudson, Wis. "You get wrapped up in golf and you get to where you think three- and four-foot putts mean everything in the world," Demsey said. "Sometimes it's easy to forget that I'm lucky to be playing at all. I try to keep that in mind."
Demsey, 32, who played with Phil Mickelson at Arizona State University, has played the PGA and Nationwide tours since 1995 but sat out the 2001 season with a back injury. Soon after, he was hit with something much worse. "I'd have headaches and I went in to have it checked out," he said. "In January 2002, they told me I had a brain tumor."
Demsey went on and played the 2002 season, finishing 91st on the Nationwide Tour money list with $40,984, then went in for his first surgery in January 2003, just 24 days after his wedding. He was back on the course soon after, and placed 42nd on the money list last year with $109,951.
He ranks 62nd this year with $37,760. "I'm not far off," he said, "but I'd definitely like to be playing a little better." Going low: The course record at Troy Burne is 65, set by Phil Eich in the spring of 2000, the second year the course was open.
Troy Burne head pro Corey Eakins expects that to change this week, especially after Tuesday's rain softened the course. "If the weather is calm," he said, "I wouldn't be surprised to see a 61 or 62."
Several players said they expect somebody to break 30 on the par-36 front nine. An informal survey of players reveals an early line on the winning score: at least 20 under par.
Briefly: Casey Martin, who went to court in 1998 and won the right to be the first player to ride a cart on the PGA Tour, is the first alternate and expected to gain a spot in the 156-player field. If he plays this week, Martin, born with a defect in his right leg known as Klippel-Trenaunay-Webber Syndrome, will ride a cart. He is scheduled to arrive today.
• Two players in the field, Ryuji Imada and Nick Cassini, helped lead the University of Georgia to the 1999 NCAA championship at Hazeltine National. Imada, who finished second individually to PGA Tour player Luke Donald at Hazeltine, is third on Nationwide Tour money list with $220,821. Cassini ranks 81st with $26,558.
Dule Hill 'all in' to help beat leukemia
PGA golfer chips in to help cure cancer
By John Morgan, Spotlight Health, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D.
7/11/2004
There's an old saying in golf: Drive for show and putt for dough. Never has that been truer now that PGA pro Jeff Sluman announced a new charity campaign to benefit the City of Hope's fight against cancer.
Jeff Sluman is helping City of Hope fight cancer.
PGA
"I have been so lucky in my life playing golf and making a great living," says Sluman, who is ranked 66th in the world prior to his eighth place finish over the weekend at the John Deere Classic. "So it got me to thinking and I decided to take one sponsorship and donate it all to charity. That started the conversation with OfficeMax and it eventually evolved into the Drive for Hope."
Over the next three years on the PGA, OfficeMax will donate $500 for every birdie Sluman makes and $1000 for every eagle. Given Sluman's productive 23-year career, this could generate as much as $750,000. Sluman receives no compensation for teeing up the charity drive.
While the campaign was announced before last week's Western Open, the contributions were retroactive to the start of the year. Not including his bag full of birdies over the weekend, Sluman has already banked $104,500 for the charity.
"Everything is donated – 100% — no administrative fees or anything," Sluman explains. "It all goes to City of Hope and a few other deserving organizations yet to be named in Chicago where I live and Rochester, New York where I grew up."
While he was inspired by the charitable program player participate in during the President's Cup, Sluman also has a personal motivation to beat cancer.
"My mother passed away in 1994 of lung cancer," says the 46-year-old pro. "I don't think there is hardly any family in the country that has not been affected by cancer. So City of Hope was the perfect choice really."
City of Hope is based just outside Los Angeles and handles about 4,000 in-patient visits and about 120,000 outpatient visits every year. About 95% of these visits involves some type of cancer treatment.
Cancer scorecard
The Sluman family is no stranger to cancer. Sluman's wife is an oncologist specializing in head, neck and gastrointestinal cancers at the University of Chicago.
"At the Western Open last week we had a wait on one of the tees, and a lady came up to me asking for my wife," Sluman says. "She told me that my wife had been her oncologist. It put everything in perspective about what we are trying to do in helping fight cancer. My wife's patient was one of those good stories."
But for far too many Americans the stories are not good.
This year cancer will claim more than 556,000 lives, and more than 1.3 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed. This does not include approximately one million skin cancers. While the numbers may be bleak, cancer is not automatically a death sentence. The National Cancer Institute estimates that according to 1999 data 8.9 million Americans are alive after having survived cancer.
And City of Hope researchers hope to create even more good news in the near future.
"One of the most exciting things we are doing is learning to genetically manipulate a patient's immune cells to get them to recognize the patient's own tumor," reports Theodore Krontiris, a cancer expert and director of City of Hope's NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Called cellular immunotherapy, this therapeutic strategy utilizes T-cells, which are known to attack and kill their cellular targets. All too often in autoimmune diseases T-cells are the 'bad guys' responsible for attacking the patient's healthy body tissues. Now City of Hope researchers have discovered a technique to re-program T-calls to attack cancer tumors.
"We have genetically engineered this T-cell so that it recognizes the surface address code of the patient's tumor so it will attack it and kill the cells," Krontiris explains. "We have recruited brain tumor patients who have completed their neurosurgery. As soon as the tumor recurs, we instill these targeted immune cells directly into the brain through a port left from the original brain surgery."
Stroke of genius
City of Hope has its own biological production facility, allowing it to genetically alter these T-cells and expand them up to the large numbers required for treatment. The process takes a couple of months to alter the cells and increase the numbers of cells for adequate infusion.
Once the altered cells have been infused, researchers can closely monitor how this new treatment affects the patient and take that information back to the laboratory to help them to refine the therapy more quickly. Researchers are confident that if successful, this therapy will have broader applications in treating other cancer.
"We are now in Phase I trials to determine the treatment's safety," Krontiris notes. "So far there has not been any evidence of any abnormal side effects or toxicities which is promising for a cancer treatment. The treatment has been shown to be a remarkably well-tolerated therapy. We feel pretty good about the patient response so far."
But this therapy has only begun Phase I trials and it will take at least five years for full FDA approval. Krontiris cautions that there is still "a lot of work ahead."
And that requires money. 'Greens' are something every researcher can appreciate.
"We depend heavily on the generosity of donors to help us fund research in the early stages before it is ready to take to the government or foundation funded research resources," Krontiris states. "City of Hope is committed to funding a number of these T-cell trials, but these types of research projects are expensive so we need support in pursuing them."
Sluman knows greens and is more than happy to 'chip in.'
"We're trying to help out as many people as we can so if people are interested they can contact OfficeMax directly to learn more about helping the Drive for Hope," says Sluman. "Now making birdies puts an even bigger smile on my face every time I sink one."
400 survivors take part in relay event: Fund-raising goal exceeded
By SUSAN OLP
Of The Gazette Staff
When Mary Karls pulled her first all-nighter at the Relay for Life in Billings four years ago, only one relative, her brother-in-law Robert Karls, had battled cancer. Then two years ago, her sister-in-law, Nancy, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. This May, Karls' father, Lyle, found out he had leukemia.
So when Karls was asked Saturday morning what her favorite part of the annual fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society was, she didn't hesitate. "The Survivor's Lap," she said Saturday morning, taking a breather from walking on the West High track. "It's just touching to know what they've gone through," Karls said.
"I get tears in my eyes every time," said Shelley Karls, Mary's sister-in-law, sitting in a chair next to her. Both women wore identical orange team T-shirts with the team logo "Karls for a Cure."
One hundred thirty-five teams and more than 400 cancer survivors - the largest number ever - participated in this year's Relay for Life in Billings, according to Kristi Farver Oaks, community development manager for American Cancer Society Yellowstone. Individuals and corporate sponsors exceeded the fund-raising goal of $350,000 by collecting $371,195.
The total was announced during closing ceremonies Saturday morning on the grassy area inside the track. Team members then took one more lap around the track before starting the process of tearing down tents and vacating the premises.
Shelley Karls said her husband Robert was diagnosed with brain cancer 13 years ago. "It was pretty scary," she said. "I was pregnant with our third son." Her husband underwent an extended period of treatment before beating the cancer. These days, she said, "he's doing good. He's a survivor."
The Karls team, sponsored by Allen's Plumbing, consisted of three adults and about 10 kids who spent the night at the high school track. They joined hundreds of others who walked, ate, watched movies and even occasionally slept.
After the initial Survivor's Lap Friday night, all of the teams took one time around the track before the marathon lap walking began. The Karls' team injected humor into their preliminary lap, wearing paper toilets on their head, carrying plungers and holding signs that read: "Flushing away cancer."
The team also had a cardboard outhouse in front of the grassy area they staked out with a sign that invited walkers to "drop donations in pot." The most successful fund raiser at Relay for Life this year was 9-year-old Michael Hill, a fourth-grader at Arrowhead Elementary. Michael raised $5,288, the most of any individual.
Asked why he worked so hard, Michael said "because it's a fund-raiser for cancer and it gives a better chance for people with cancer to live."
Michael speaks from experience, having survived a bout with Wilms' tumor, a cancer that affected his kidney. Michael was diagnosed just before he turned 7 and went through two surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy over a course of six months.
David Hill, Michael's father, said he and his family first took part in Relay for Life as part of the KMPG team before Michael was diagnosed. They walked again the second year, after they learned that Michael had cancer, and have walked every year since. "There was a whole new meaning between the first and second years we were doing it," Hill said.
Susan Olp can be reached at 657-1281 or at solp@billingsgazette.com.
Efforts mount to make cancer treatment less toxic
AMY DOCKSER MARCUS, The Wall Street Journal
July 14, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------
As the number of long-term cancer survivors continues to increase, doctors are starting to focus attention on another issue: how to make cancer treatments less toxic without diminishing their effectiveness.
The growing effort to reduce or eliminate the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy has enormous implications for patients. Some researchers argue that if therapy becomes less toxic, it will make possible more-aggressive treatments that can push survival rates up further. The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with cancer is now 64 percent, up from 59 percent in the early 1990s, according to a recent report by the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cancer treatments are known to cause a range of long-term health problems for survivors, including hearing loss, heart damage, joint problems and memory problems. Indeed, a study in last week's New England Journal of Medicine provided startling evidence of the extent of heart damage experienced by childhood cancer survivors.
The drive to "detoxify" has always played some role in treatment decisions. Most patients today receive what is called combination therapy; the hope is that using a careful mix of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and a variety of drugs -- rather than one single powerful agent -- will reduce the overall toxicity of treatment. But "we've gone about as far as we can with this in most regimens," says Archie Bleyer, professor of pediatrics at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Now, in the push to detoxify further, doctors are focusing on new drugs that can be added to chemotherapy regimens specifically to protect particular organs against side effects, including problems that won't show up for years. A variety of clinical trials are under way or about to start testing drugs designed to protect against heart damage and hearing loss -- two particularly pervasive problems.
The Children's Oncology Group, a consortium of institutions that treat pediatric cancer, is trying to determine if changing the dosing or type of various steroids used in cancer regimens can maintain high survival rates and prevent severe, debilitating joint damage in adolescents. To preserve fertility, some top cancer centers are surgically moving a woman's ovary out of the line of radiation or substituting chemotherapy agents considered less detrimental to sperm production. There is even some promising data that women's breaths can be synchronized with the radiation beams during breast-cancer treatment to help minimize damage to the heart.
"It is not enough to look at curing cancer," says Julia H. Rowland, director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, which is putting more money into this kind of research. "We have to return people to a normal life."
The biggest obstacle to these efforts is ensuring that the drugs minimize damage to organs but don't interfere with chemotherapy's effectiveness in killing tumors. Plus the protective methods may have side effects of their own. At least one study of Hodgkin's patients showed that those who received a drug being studied as a possible protective agent as part of their cancer therapy had an increased risk of second cancers.
The hope of preserving a normal life for their son was a key part of the efforts of Billie and Shane Reagan, who live in DeKalb, Mo., as they sought treatment for their son Zane. Diagnosed at the age of 10 months with a brain tumor, he underwent two surgeries, a bone-marrow transplant and chemotherapy that included the drug cisplatin. Cisplatin and other platinum-based therapies can cause hearing problems by damaging the hair cells, a type of nerve cell, of the inner ear. Almost immediately after starting chemo, Mrs. Reagan says, tests showed Zane had suffered high-frequency hearing loss, a common side effect of cisplatin.
When the cancer came back two years ago, the couple took Zane to the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore., where doctors suggested adding another drug, sodium thiosulfate, to the chemotherapy to prevent his hearing from deteriorating further.
Each time Zane received chemotherapy, he was given sodium thiosulfate twice, once four hours after treatment and then again eight hours after treatment. Today, at the age of 5, his hearing loss remains stable and there is no sign of tumor recurrence. He uses hearing aids, but has normal speech and will enter a regular kindergarten class in the fall.
The Children's Oncology Group plans to start a clinical trial later this year evaluating the efficacy of sodium thiosulfate in preventing hearing loss. Edward Neuwelt, Zane's doctor at Oregon Health, says his team has also presented research indicating the drug prevents against the loss of platelets, another common side effect of cancer treatments that can inhibit the blood's ability to clot, leading to hemorrhages. He has opened a clinical trial to test this further.
Adherex Technologies Inc., a Canadian company with its headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is developing sodium thiosulfate to protect against hearing loss in children receiving cisplatin, and also hopes to develop the drug for use in adult head and neck cancer, where intensive platinum-based therapies are used and irreversible hearing loss is common. Many of the studies in this area have focused on children because they were the first group of patients to survive in large enough numbers and for a long enough time that long-term health effects turned up.
The study in the New England Journal of Medicine last week showed promising results from the use of a drug called dexrazoxane to protect against heart damage in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. There are now more than 250,000 childhood-cancer survivors living in the U.S., according to the study. It is estimated that more than half of these 250,000 were treated with the chemo drug doxorubicin or some similar agent as part of their chemotherapy. One of the side effects of doxorubicin is an increased risk of sudden death or death from cardiac causes and heart failure -- a risk that can continue for many years after cancer treatment ends.
In the study, children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, with doxorubicin alone were more likely to show elevated levels in their blood of a protein -- indicating heart-cell injury -- than children who got dexrazoxane. Both groups of children experienced an 83 percent survival rate.
The children in the trial will continue to be monitored to see if there is any change over time in heart function or in the survival rates of the two groups. Much still isn't known: Oncologists are uncertain about the optimal dose of the protective agent. Giving protective drugs too close to the time of chemotherapy might impact the chemotherapy's effectiveness; waiting too long afterward might diminish the protective agent's ability to work.
But Stephen E. Sallan, chief of staff at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and a senior author of the study, says all children treated for ALL at Dana-Farber now receive dexrazoxane as part of their treatment to protect against heart damage. The next step, he says, is to test it in other diseases that also use doxorubicin as part of the chemotherapy.
A key concern remains maintaining survival rates. "You can't risk efficacy," Dr. Sallan says.
Still, for Billie Reagan, Zane's mother, the new approach has already made a difference. "We would have let Zane's hearing go to save his life," she says. "But if there was any way to prevent something that would be a hardship to him later in his life, we wanted to do it."
Cancer doesn't own her
Upbeat newlywed hopes for normal life, motherhood
By Sharon Haddock
Deseret Morning News
AMERICAN FORK — The Lehi woman whose battle with brain cancer caught the attention of pop star Jewel and talk show host Sharon Osbourne says she can't let the disease own her — even though she's been hit anew, this time with cancer in her lymph nodes.
Meagan and Brian Robbins snuggle in their American Fork home. Meagan Robbins has been hit anew with cancer.
Dan Lund, for the Deseret Morning News
Meagan Thompson Robbins is in remission from the brain cancer that surprised her last year on the eve of her departure for an LDS mission. Her plight, doubly tragic because she and her sister shared a deadly diagnosis, made national news on the Osbourne show after cheerleaders at Lehi High School shaved their heads to help raise money for the family's medical bills and Jewel came to Lehi for a benefit concert.
Now Robbins is newly wed, newly tressed and newly diagnosed with cancer related to lumps in her breasts.
"I have the worst wedding story of all time," the 22-year-old Robbins said. "I found two lumps in one breast and one in the other about a week before my wedding and had them removed. At the same time, the doctors also took out about 10 lymph nodes. Then they found two of the lymph nodes were cancerous; that's why I have to do more chemotherapy, because of the stupid lymph nodes.
"I was getting hair extensions for my wedding when my left breast started to hemorrhage and swell. I heard this pop and I knew something wasn't normal. I had to stop and go to the doctor's for an emergency cauterization.
"Then I got a spider bite on my eye and my eye just swelled up."
On the wedding day, as she walked into the Salt Lake LDS temple holding ice to her chest and nursing a pink, swollen eye, Brian Robbins figured everyone wondered if she was marrying a bad-tempered guy.
"They don't understand. This kind of thing is normal for her," he said, looking fondly at his now bright-eyed, beautiful brunette bride.
Meagan is so used to bad news that after she received the test results on her biopsies, she simply called Brian and said, "I have these lumps. They're cancerous so I need you to meet me at the hospital. Love ya, bye."
That doesn't mean she doesn't appreciate the gravity of her situation.
Her nine-year-old sister, Alex, died on Nov. 13, 2003, from a fast-growing brain tumor, and Meagan has already been through grueling months of arduous chemotherapy for hers. She knows she's in for more nausea, more headaches and more downtime with the new cancer. She's aware that the brain cancer could return at any time.
But she isn't about to let any of it beat her.
She holds down a full-time job feeding animals and milking cows at Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. She's covering third base and shortstop on an intermural co-ed baseball team with her new husband and doing what she can to lead a normal life. She plans someday to be a mom — although she'll be going the in-vitro route so she can improve the odds for a healthy baby.
"This isn't who I am," Meagan Robbins said. "Cancer is not my life. It's just a little part of it. If I can't be normal I couldn't handle it."
Brian Robbins knew about Meagan's history before he called her for a first date, but he didn't really think he would get serious about her at the time. He had even attended the funeral for Alex Thompson.
By the time he realized he was in love, six weeks later, there was nothing to do but propose.
"I love her. I thought, what if something does happen, what would I do? But, then I thought, I wouldn't really be losing anything at all," he said, referring to his solid belief that LDS marriages are for eternity.
The newlyweds are optimistic about their future even though it's a scary one. They have $500 insurance premiums to pay along with the rent and the truck payments and they recognize there's a good amount of uncertainty.
Brian and Meagan Robbins on their wedding day at Salt Lake Temple.
Dan Lund, for the Deseret Morning News
But they have hope, great faith and boundless love.
"We'll be all right," Brian Robbins said. "We've had some good moments that make us think we'll be grandparents together."
"It's not so tough," Meagan adds. "I had it (cancer) before!"
------------------------------------------------------------------
Want to help?
To make donations to the Thompson or Robbins families, contact any Zions Bank branch office or send checks to: Thompson Family Donation Fund, 385 S. 1100 West, Lehi, UT 84043, or go to the Web site: www.Thompsonfamilydonation.org
YM BioSciences Agreement with CancerVax Approved by US Treasury
Thursday July 15, 8:44 am ET
MISSISSAUGA, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - YM BioSciences Inc. (TSX:YM, AIM:YMBA), the cancer drug development company with an advanced-stage portfolio, today announced that the US Treasury Department has approved an agreement between YM BioSciences and CancerVax Corporation (NASDAQ:CNVX - News) of San Diego, CA under which CancerVax will develop two preclinical specific active immunotherapeutics targeting HER1 and TGFa, formerly licensed to YM BioSciences by the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana. YM is to receive an undisclosed amount of milestone payments and will retain a royalty interest in the two products.
"The US Treasury approval is historic in that this is the first time that a Cuban-originated biological product has been permitted to be licensed by a US company," said David Allan, Chairman and CEO of YM BioSciences. "This approval relates to two pre-clinical products that, prior to this agreement, were licensed to YM by CIM, from which our Phase II drug TheraCIM hR3 also originates."
TheraCIM hR3, well advanced in clinical development, is a humanized monoclonal antibody (MAb) targeting the Epidermal Growth Factor receptor (EGFr). TheraCIM hR3 is licensed to Oncoscience AG for Europe and is currently in a 47-patient rolling Phase I/II trial in paediatric glioma, a form of brain cancer. Oncoscience has applied for Orphan status for TheraCIM in both paediatric and adult glioma. Oncoscience is proposing to initiate several additional studies for TheraCIM hR3, including a registration trial in adult glioma that is anticipated to start in Q4, 2004 and a Phase II trial in pancreatic cancer also anticipated to start in Q4, 2004. Results of a previous Phase I/II trial for TheraCIM were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on May 1, 2004.
About YM BioSciences Inc.
YM BioSciences Inc. is a cancer drug development company. Its lead drug, tesmilifene, is a small molecule chemopotentiator (for taxanes and anthracyclines) currently undergoing a pivotal Phase III trial in metastatic breast cancer, which was initiated in Q1 2004. Tesmilifene has completed a previous Phase III trial with positive results. In addition to tesmilifene, the company is developing an EGFr humanized monoclonal antibody that has completed Phase II trials and a GnRH anti-cancer vaccine that is in earlier stage clinical trials.
Except for historical information, this press release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. These forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, which may cause but are not limited to, changing market conditions, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the establishment of corporate alliances, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's ongoing quarterly and annual reporting.
------------------------------------------------------
Source: YM BioSciences Inc.
Vaccine targeting cancer-related antigens in brain tumors appears to prolong survival
LOS ANGELES (Embargoed until 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 15, 2004) – Researchers seeking to direct cancer-killing immune cells against the deadliest brain tumors have three new targets that show promise in laboratory studies and in a Phase I patient trial, according to two articles in the July 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.
The antigens, previously associated with several other types of cancer cells, were recently found to be expressed in the most common and aggressive type of malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Scientists at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and the National Cancer Institute have generated cytotoxic T lymphocyte clones (cancer-killing immune cells) that recognize GBM cells expressing these antigens.
"In a Phase I clinical trial of 14 patients, we found that our dendritic cell vaccine not only generated an immune response against these antigens but it appeared to play a significant role in prolonging survival in patients with glioblastoma," said Keith L. Black, MD, director of the Institute, the Division of Neurosurgery and the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program at Cedars-Sinai.
The median length of survival of patients with recurrent glioblastoma whose treatment included the vaccine was 133 weeks – about two and a half years. A similar group of patients receiving the same level of care but not the vaccine had a median survival of only 30 weeks – seven and a half months.
John S. Yu, MD, senior author of the articles and co-director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program, said these findings represent a significant advance in the field of brain tumor immunotherapy.
"This is the first time that a specific response to brain tumor antigens has been demonstrated as the result of an immunotherapy strategy," he said. "These antigens give us specific targets to aim for and they give us potent tools with which to measure immune responses. Therefore, we have a better way of monitoring the progress of patients who undergo vaccination and we have a means of improving these therapies."
In recent years, scientists have identified several tumor-specific antigens that appear to play a role in the development of certain cancer cells. The body's natural defensive cells, T lymphocytes, have the capacity to attack "foreign" proteins, but cancer cells and the antigens they express typically evade recognition by the immune system. Therefore, cancer researchers search for new antigens that may serve as targets, devise new methods to make the targets "visible" and vulnerable to immune cells, and seek new ways to multiply the number of cancer-killing cells responding to the threat.
"These three antigens – HER2, gp100, and MAGE-1 – have been described since the 1980s but we have only recently found them to be expressed in glioblastoma cells," said Dr. Black.
HER-2 is expressed in a variety of normal tissues, but it is selectively overexpressed in a number of malignancies, including breast and ovarian tumors. Glycoprotein 100 (gp100) is an antigen linked to melanoma. MAGE-1, initially analyzed from melanomas and found to be expressed in a variety of tumor types, became the first identified tumor antigen recognized by the immune system's protective T cells.
In earlier studies at other centers, a cancer vaccine combining MAGE-1 cells with specially cultured immune system cells was able to produce a tumor-specific immune response among patients with melanoma. Clinical trials using gp100 as a target in melanoma and HER-2 as a target in several types of cancers also demonstrated that the antigens elicit a strong immune response that continues even after the vaccinations have ended.
Since then, researchers have worked to develop a number of therapies that may be used individually or in combination to target malignant brain tumors. Dendritic cell immunotherapy is intended to stimulate a patient's immune system to recognize and attack glioblastoma cells. Tumor cells that have been removed during surgery are cultured in the laboratory with dendritic cells, also called "antigen-presenting" cells, taken from the patient's blood. The resulting cells are injected back into the patient, where they are designed to identify brain tumor cells as invaders and stimulate a strong response from tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes.
In an earlier Phase I trial, tumor cells were grown in culture, and proteins from the cell surfaces were used in preparing the vaccine. In the Phase I trial described in the Cancer Research article, this process was refined.
"Now we take the proteins directly from the surgical specimen, which ensures that we are getting the relevant proteins and not antigens or proteins that are artifacts of the culturing process. This also avoids the technical problems of trying to grow out tumor cells that have been irradiated and undergone chemotherapy," Dr. Yu said. "In addition, instead of just drawing blood to obtain a patient's dendritic cells, we're using a process that allows us to get 25-fold more dendritic cells. This may account for the dramatic prolongation of survival that we see compared to our control patients."
Dr. Black said a larger Phase II trial of the dendritic cell vaccine is now being completed and the researchers are preparing to apply for a randomized Phase III trial.
In the lab studies described in Cancer Research, seven established GBM tumor cell lines and cells from 43 GBM tumors removed from patients at Cedars-Sinai were analyzed and compared with normal brain tissue. MAGE-1 was not detected in normal tissue. Although HER-2 and gp100 were detected in normal tissue, this does not preclude their potential usefulness. In previous studies with different tumor types, HER-2 and gp100 were overexpressed in cancer cells, while in normal cells they were expressed at levels below the "threshold" for activation by the immune system.
Furthermore, because healthy neural cells are of a histocompatibility type that does not interact with cytotoxic T cells, the immune system will not launch an attack on normal tissue expressing the antigens. In contrast, however, the surfaces of GBM tumor cells were found to express Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) Class I molecules, the type that makes them vulnerable to interaction with cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
The researchers documented that HER-2, gp100 and MAGE-1 are frequently expressed in glioblastoma cells. They generated cytotoxic T lymphocyte clones specific to each antigen and cultured them with GBM cells. The brain tumor cells were able to naturally process the antigens, and the lymphocytes were able to process the antigen-derived peptides or proteins on the surfaces of the GBM cells.
###
The studies were supported in part by donor support to the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and National Institutes of Health grant NS02232-01.
Cedars-Sinai is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, it has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities.
Citations: Cancer Research, July 15, 2004, "HER-2, gp100 and MAGE-1 are expressed in human glioblastoma and recognized by cytotoxic T cells" and "Vaccination with tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cells elicits antigen specific cytotoxic T cells in patients with malignant glioma."
NASA Infrared Camera Helps Surgeons Map Brain Tumors
PASADENA, Calif., July 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using an infrared video camera developed by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., surgeons are testing thermal imaging and image processing to see if they can create useful maps of brain tumors.
Researchers want to see if the camera, which detects infrared -- or heat -- emissions might help neurosurgeons better visualize tumors before they operate and also find tiny clusters of cancerous cells that might remain after surgery.
NASA scientists already use infrared technology to map Earth's surface and search for distant objects in the universe. Firefighters use it to locate people trapped in buildings, and military forces track down their targets hiding in the dark.
Physicians have used infrared technology for mapping the roots of skin cancer, but it has never been used for brain tumors until now.
Doctors at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles are using the JPL-developed camera and infrared imaging in a trial. They're trying to see if they can sketch tumor margins by detecting temperature changes during surgery, since tumor cells emit more heat than healthy ones. "The camera's precision allows it to map temperature differences of one-hundredth of a degree Celsius at a high resolution," said Dr. Sarath Gunapala, JPL lead engineer for the camera.
Currently, neurosurgeons delve carefully into the brain and remove as much of the tumor as they can see under magnification. However, they may take healthy tissue along with the cancerous cells or leave residual cells that can grow back along the tumor's margins.
"Brain tumor tissue looks the same as healthy tissue on the edges," said Babak Kateb of the Keck School of Medicine, a research fellow and lead scientist of the project. "Tumor cells use different biochemical pathways from normal cells, and when researchers use the infrared camera, they can pick up hotspots or areas of tissue warmer than normal tissue."
After doctors receive infrared images of the brain, image processing software marks the boundaries between tumor regions and surrounding healthy tissue. "We are refining software similar to what our group has been using for analyzing rocks on Mars and other planets," said Dr. Wolfgang Fink, JPL senior researcher.
"An advantage of thermal imaging is that it's non-invasive," said Dr. Peter Gruen, a neurological surgeon at the Keck School of Medicine. "It measures heat energy emerging from patients without exposing them to X-rays or intravenous solutions, and is performed without incisions or contact to the brain tissue."
A clinical study of this proposed mapping process is underway at the Keck School of Medicine.
For more information on the USC study on the Internet, visit: http://www.usc.edu/keck.html
For more information on the infrared camera on the Internet, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/technology/features/tech930.html
For more information on NASA technology spinoffs on the Internet, visit: http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/
For more information about NASA on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Natalie Godwin, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 818-354-0850
Michael Braukus, NASA Headquarters, 202-358-1979
Sarah Huoh, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 323-442-2830
Combining brain cancer treatments can give patients more time, study says
CINCINNATI -- Doctors say a new treatment for brain tumors performed by the Mayfield Clinic can give terminal patients more time to say goodbye. Some even end up living far beyond what is typical.
For Columbia City, Ind., resident Randy Williams, the extra time has been enough to see a son get married, to see three grandchildren born and to transfer control of his family machine-tool business.
"When the doctors first told us that Randy had a brain tumor, I thought that five years from then I would be a widow," his wife Jean says. "But it has been five years since he was diagnosed, and my husband is right here."
Randy was part of a 34-patient study by the clinic. His doctors credit his extra time to a combined treatment of his tumors, which are called recurring glioblastoma multiforme.
About 5,000 people are diagnosed with the condition each year. Patients treated with either radiation or chemotherapy alone typically live seven months to a year, doctors say.
Dr. Ronald Warnick, chairman of the Mayfield group and the surgeon who worked with Randy Williams, said the new approach offers hope for those who had few options before.
People in the study were treated with both chemotherapy and radiation. Doctors inserted radiation seeds and chemotherapy wafers into patients' brains after surgery removed tumors.
Radioactive seeds have been used for several years to treat different kinds of cancer, but the wafers are a relatively new development. Each is about the size of a quarter. They emit a chemotherapy drug as they dissolve over two to three weeks. The seeds emit doses for about six months.
Warnick said the direct placement against tumor cells allows the medicine to surpass the blood-brain barrier that can limit the effect of injected cancer drugs. The placement can also limit side effects the drugs have when injected.
The Mayfield Clinic recently reported that this combined attack increased survival time to 18 months and even two years in a few cases. The study was conducted on patients from October 1998 to September 2002.
Most of the participants have died since then, because the persistent cancer returns, even with treatment. Randy Williams is the longest survivor, but even his tumors have come back. "We've known from the start that a cure wasn't going to come," Jean says. "But most people with this die in the first year."
___
On the Net: The Mayfield Clinic: www.mayfieldclinic.com
Chemo wafers used to treat brain tumor directly
By Tim Bonfield
Enquirer staff writer
Dr. Ronald Warnick shows computer images of areas inside the head where tumors have been removed and radioactive seeds and wafers have been deposited.
It wasn't a cure, but a new treatment for brain tumors performed by doctors at the Mayfield Clinic was still a gift to Indiana residents Randy and Jean Williams.
A gift of time.
Time to witness a son's marriage. Time to welcome three grandchildren to the world. Time make a smooth transfer of control of a family machine-tool business.
"When the doctors first told us that Randy had a brain tumor, I thought that five years from then I would be a widow,'' Jean says. "But it has been five years since he was diagnosed, and my husband is right here."
Randy and his doctors credit about three years of that survival time to a combination of surgery plus radioactive seeds and chemotherapy wafers placed inside his head.
His treatment was part of a study of 34 patients by the Mayfield Clinic in Cincinnati, which recently reported this combined attack can extend survival time for people with brain tumors called recurring glioblastoma multiforme.
This is one of the most common and most fatal kinds of brain tumor, accounting for about a fourth of the 20,000 brain tumors diagnosed nationwide each year.
With the combined treatment, average survival times grew to about 18 months, with four patients living longer than two years, Mayfield physicians report. That compares to survival times ranging from seven months to a year after getting chemotherapy or radiation alone.
The Mayfield study was presented in May in Orlando at the annual meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. The study ran October 1998 to September 2002.
Since then, nearly all the participants have died, because even with this treatment, the cancer returns. Randy, a resident of Columbia City, Ind., west of Fort Wayne, is the longest survivor. Even his tumors returned a few months ago.
"We've known from the start that a cure wasn't going to come," Jean says. "But most people with this die in the first year."
Dr. Ronald Warnick, chairman of the Mayfield group and the surgeon who worked with Randy Williams, said the new approach offers hope for people who had few options before.
How it works
The treatments are more powerful than standard care, Warnick said, because they are placed directly against tissue containing tumor cells. That allows the medicines to get past the blood-brain barrier that often limits the effect of injecting drugs into the bloodstream while reducing the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.
Radioactive seeds have been used for several years for several kinds of cancer. The chemotherapy wafers are a more recent development.
Surgeons place as many as eight of the wafers - each about as big as a Necco candy wafer - in the void left after removing as much of the tumor as possible. The wafers emit a chemotherapy drug as they dissolve in two to three weeks, while the radioactive seeds emit effective doses for about six months.
Most patients can tolerate the procedure, but harmful side effects can include abnormal wound healing, seizures, infections and brain swelling.
July 17, 2004
Rarin' to run full throttle
Toughest battles for Cameron not on the track, but with cancer
By John Sleeper
MONROE - After he crossed the finish line at the inaugural NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway in California last November, Austin Cameron called it the biggest win of his career. But in relation to his fight against cancer that started months before - a fight that continues today - his victory took a decided backseat.
"I call it the best and worst year of my life," said Cameron, 27, a native of El Cajon, Calif., and participant in tonight's Coors Light 200. "There were some pretty rough speed bumps." Early in 2003, Cameron had had trouble breathing and developed a troublesome cough. His fiance, Rachelle Brown, urged him to see a doctor.
"I said, 'I'm not going to any hospital; I'm not going anywhere,'" Cameron said. Luckily for him, Brown prevailed.
In an April examination, doctors discovered an enlarged lymph node in Cameron's chest, larger than a man's fist. The diagnosis: inoperable non-Hodgkins lymphoblastic precursor lymphoma.
"I said, 'Not me, I'm too young,'" Cameron said. "But as it turned out, I had no use of my left lung. And it was pinching off my esophagus and trachea. That's why I had that terrible cough. I couldn't breathe right.
"So it all made sense." A further examination determined the cancer had not spread to his bone marrow or spinal fluid.
Cameron immediately underwent a two-year chemotherapy program. He lost 35 pounds, but still had enough energy to joke that his car owner, Bill McAnally, would have to shell out the dough to find a smaller car seat for him.
Just as shocked was his race team, which had come to look at Cameron as indestructible. Although Cameron had never won a points race, he annually was a force in the NASCAR West Series, finishing third in the 2001 and 2002 points races. With his skill, good looks and bubbly personality, Cameron was a lock for a fulltime Nextel Cup ride.
Now this.
"It was devastating, all that Austin had to go through," McAnally said. "It was a trying year, with all the hurdles we went through as a team."
Cameron missed four races last season while dealing with the effects of the first phase of chemotherapy. While the sessions reduced the node to normal size, Cameron continues oral chemotherapy, which creates fatigue and mouth sores, but doesn't have the exhausting effect he formally went through. Still, he's not out of the woods.
"I feel 100 percent right now, in my mind and body," Cameron said. "It's a very rare type of cancer that has a high percentage of coming back in the form of either brain cancer or bone cancer. But it's in remission right now. They can't detect it."
The oral chemo does, however, weaken Cameron one or two days a week. Still, he can time the intake so that he is strong enough to race.
"I can get it all over with Sunday and Monday," Cameron said. "I just feel worn out those two days. It messes with your body's radiator. You're hot, then you're cold. Then there are those stupid little mouth sores. But it's nothing that we can't deal with."
Known as one of the good guys on the series - one very popular with fans - Cameron's plight was followed by racingwest.com, which published periodic updates of his progress. It also designed a message board, which hundreds of fans used to send encouraging words. Cameron's mother and aunt read the comments to Cameron because he was too weak to roll out of bed.
Cameron printed the messages. It took 30 pages.
Which made him think.
"It's changed me in a big way," Cameron said. "It's made me realize a lot of priorities in life. I'm taking time to smell the roses. You realize that anyone can take anything away from you at any point in your life. You have to cherish and be thankful for the things you have. I feel I have a better, more productive life now."
Cameron appears healthy. The muscle has largely returned, as has his hair. "I got my first haircut three weeks ago," he smiled. "It's downhill from here, baby." If that's not a great omen, what is?
Blake sends brain-cancer suits to state court
by JEFFREY SILVA
July 20, 2004 1:11 PM EST
WASHINGTON—In a stunning turnabout, U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake ruled six brain-cancer suits against the mobile-phone industry do not belong in federal court and remanded the cases to state court here.
Until Monday’s ruling, the Baltimore federal judge had consistently ruled in industry’s favor in wireless health litigation on substantive legal and scientific issues. In particular, Blake has given significant weight to industry arguments that mobile-phone cancer suits are pre-empted by federal law.
Plaintiffs in the six brain cancer suits are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Lead defendants in the suits include Motorola Inc., Matsushita Electric Inc., Audiovox Corp., Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. The plaintiffs are represented by Morganroth & Morganroth, a Detroit law firm that has taken on high-profile clients such as John DeLorean and Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
“We are pleased with the remand decision and certainly look forward to moving the cases to the next stage,” said Jeffrey Morganroth.
The six suits were filed in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia in 2001. The suits were subsequently moved to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and assigned to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. Later, the Morganroth actions and other cancer suits against industry were consolidated and assigned to Blake in Baltimore federal court.
In a 26-page ruling, Blake sought to differentiate her previous support for industry’s federal pre-emption argument in headset litigation from Monday’s decision to return six brain cancer suits to the D.C. Superior Court.
“While the [headset] plaintiffs’ requests for relief were focused on the provision of headsets for use with the cell phones, the Morganroth plaintiffs seek compensatory and consequential damages for the lead plaintiffs’ brain injuries,” stated Blake.
In January, Blake approved a request to withdraw a lawsuit filed by Atlanta's Brian Barrett against Nokia Corp. and others. Barrett, who died in November 2002, alleged mobile-phone use caused his brain tumor.
One of Morganroth’s clients, former Motorola technician Michael Murry, died in April 2003.
Blake apparently struggled with the ruling. “The gravamen of the Morganroth complaints is that federal safety regulations governing wireless cell phones permit the sale of a product that is unreasonably dangerous to consumers,” she wrote. “In many respects the arguments in favor of exercising [federal] jurisdiction over the complaints are just as strong as in the [headset] actions. The Morganroth complaints involve distinguishable facts, however, requiring remand to state court.”
Blake’s latest ruling comes at a time when the cell phone industry appeared to have regained control of the combustible health issue.
“Changing the venue doesn't change the facts. The claim at issue in these cases has been considered by scientific experts, public health authorities, government agencies and the courts on numerous occasions. All have concluded that the allegation has no credible scientific basis. We do not expect the lawyers bringing these cases to turn science on its head,” said Norm Sandler, director of global strategic issues at Motorola.
In 2002, Blake threw out an $800 million brain cancer lawsuit against Motorola Inc. and others, concluding scientific evidence offered by lawyers for Christopher Newman was not strong enough to send the case to trial. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Newman dismissal last year.
The Newman suit began in Maryland state court, but industry lawyers moved the litigation to federal court. The law firm of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos, which represented Newman, failed to persuade Blake to remand that case to state court.
The 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., is considering an appeal of Blake’s 2003 dismissal of five class-action wireless product liability suits. In that litigation, plaintiffs sued to force carriers to supply consumers with headsets to reduce exposure to phone radiation.
Blake previously hinted that she might await the 4th Circuit’s ruling on the federal pre-emption question before deciding whether to send the brain-cancer lawsuits pending before her back to state court.
The courts have upheld mobile-phone radiation guidelines used by the Federal Communications Commission. Government health officials here and overseas say research does not point to health risks from mobile phones, but they stop short of guaranteeing their safety. Research, much of it sponsored by cell-phone companies, is being conducted in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Washington Family Scholars Arrive with Impressive Credentials, Eyes to the Future
The first two recipients of the Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neuroscience have started their work at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Newswise — Coming from dissimilar backgrounds and geographic locations, but sharing a common interest in neuroscience, the first two recipients of annual research awards named in honor of Pauletta and Denzel Washington have become immersed in projects at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Lawrence Daniels, 26, originally from Oakland, will devote his fellowship year to developing “super” dendritic cells to make the immune system more effective in killing brain tumor cells. Kathleen Kelly, 18, from Fort Worth, Texas, is participating in a summer scholarship program in which she is working to further open the blood-brain barrier to therapeutic drugs.
The recipients of the Pauletta and Denzel Washington Family Gifted Scholars Program in Neuroscience were named during an April 14 ceremony at Cedars-Sinai. The undergraduate award provides $2,000 per month in support while the graduate-level award affords $2,500 per month. Each recipient has the opportunity to conduct research under the supervision of world-renowned scientists and will submit an abstract or scientific paper to a national neuroscience, cancer or neurosurgery organization.
Although the availability of the scholarships was announced only a short time before they were awarded, Keith L. Black, MD, director of the medical center’s Division of Neurosurgery, said the response was impressive. “We had a pool of exceptional applicants even with only about two months’ notice. They were just absolutely outstanding.”
Lawrence Daniels received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles on June 4, 2004 after earning undergraduate degrees in psychology and business administration at the University of Southern California. While working on his undergraduate degrees, he also completed his pre-med courses. In applying for the fellowship, he received excellent references from professors of neurosurgery at UCLA and Louisiana State University, where he completed an elective rotation in 2003.
He also had established a good reputation among the neuroscientists at Cedars-Sinai during an eight-week National Medical Fellowship in 2002 at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute. During that fellowship, Dr. Daniels, with the mentoring of Dr. Black, John Yu, MD, and Yasuharu Akasaki, PhD, worked on one of several projects intended to fine-tune the dendritic cell vaccine developed at Cedars-Sinai.
The goal was to make immature dendritic cells – those responsible for identifying antigens and eliciting an immune response – more potent than naturally occurring dendritic cells. Inserting into a modified virus a gene that causes cell death in certain types of tumor cells, the researchers infected the immature dendritic cells. When these “infected” cells were placed in a dish with tumor cells, 20 percent more brain tumor cells died.
“I’m attempting to start right where I left off,” says Dr. Daniels, who enjoys sports, hiking and music in his rare free time. He says his mentors provided invaluable guidance in both research and neurosurgery.
“I think those are the things that most people can’t appreciate – that you have an individual who has gone through it and learned at that capacity, and they sit down and say, ‘This is how you should approach it. These are the things you should do between every case.’ They put the pieces together for you and you begin doing it and you can see – you just acquire the knowledge. It’s amazing.”
Since childhood, Dr. Daniels has exhibited the intelligence and motivation to take advantage of opportunities that came his way – and to make opportunities happen. Raised in West Oakland, in what he describes as a “not-so-good area,” Daniels performed well enough on test scores to rank among the top students and qualify for entry into a program called ABC, A Better Chance, sponsored by Oprah Winfrey. That experience led to a boarding school, the Athenian School in Danville, where he was introduced to “extreme academia.”
After four years of this highly disciplined education, he went on to USC for his undergraduate degrees and pre-med studies. When funding was not available for his research interests, he took the initiative to apply and receive it on his own, and when the study he was planning to conduct was put on hold, he took a strong role in developing a new one. His professional goal is to specialize in neurosurgery while continuing to conduct research.
“The ideal job for any neurosurgeon, I believe, is to not only be able to operate and take care of patients, but to also be able to do research and advance our knowledge,” he says.
Kathleen Kelly is not yet sure if she wants to become a surgeon or a research scientist but she has always had an interest in the neurosciences. The Texas native already has some research experience in a molecular biology lab. After her sophomore year of high school, she participated in the University of Florida’s Student Science Training Program and received the Top Research Paper honors. She was invited back the following summer as a paid employee of the lab.
Now she is working with Dr. Black, one of the most respected neurosurgeons who also is credited with making some of the most important discoveries in the body’s natural defense mechanism called the blood-brain barrier. This chemical-biological barrier is intended to prevent toxic substances from entering the brain through the bloodstream, but it also blocks cancer-killing agents. Through years of study, Dr. Black and his research teams have been able to improve chemotherapy delivery a thousand-fold, but the search for improvement continues.
Before Kathleen’s May 21 graduation from Fort Worth Country Day School, the school’s director of College Counseling sent a recommendation that she be considered for the Washington Family award.
“This young woman will graduate with THE (caps his) single most demanding course load of any student in recent history at our school and likely throughout all 41 years we have been in existence,” he said. His letter listed numerous honors and AP (advanced placement) courses, many taken a year ahead of schedule. She took five AP classes in her junior year and five more in her senior year, for example. “There was only one more science class she could take so her schedule this year (her senior year) is heavy in the arts and humanities. To make up for that, she takes a Linear Algebra class at a local university (TCU) because we also have no more math classes for her to take. … Never has a student so exhausted the most extensive college preparatory curriculum in the city.”
Kathleen also excels in the creative arts, was president of the Math & Science Team, served as senior class representative to the Student Council, and has volunteered during spring breaks with Habitat for Humanity. She also earned six varsity athletic letters – two in field hockey and four in track.
Although Kathleen has an extraordinary résumé for an 18-year-old, she also has an unpretentious demeanor and a quick wit. When teased that her recommendations sound too good to be true, she laughs and says, “They’re completely fabricated.” When asked what one thing she would enjoy doing if she had no other responsibilities for a day, she says, “I really enjoy ceramics and I really love playing field hockey.” Reminded that she has only one choice, she’s pragmatic: “It depends on how hot it was that day.”
In inaugurating the Washington Family awards, Dr. Black notes that the United States appears to be losing its leadership role in the sciences because “our best and brightest are not going into these fields in the same numbers that they were before. They’re going into investment banking and other areas for the financial reward. Unfortunately, this is at a time when we have our greatest opportunity to make tremendous advances in terms of treating cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and other conditions. There has never been an opportunity like we have now to begin to translate our discoveries into treatments for patients.”
“One of the things that we think is very important is being able to train the next generation of life scientists for the future,” continues Dr Black, who serves as director of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program and the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute, and holds the Ruth and Lawrence Harvey Chair in Neuroscience. “We want to make sure that we provide the mentorship so that these extremely talented and bright individuals can have the best opportunity for success in their scientific careers. We want them to have the best direction early on so they can make the major breakthroughs in the next 10 to 15 years.”
Cedars-Sinai is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, it has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities.
Elekta Wins Major Oncology Contract with Leading GPO
Premier chooses Elekta for three-year oncology agreement
ATLANTA and OAK BROOK, Ill., July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Premier Purchasing Partners, L.L.P., the group purchasing division of Premier, Inc., has entered into a three-year contract with Elekta for radiation oncology solutions for its member hospital and clinic groups. The contract with Elekta goes into effect September 1, 2004.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020318/ELEKTALOGO )
One of the nation's largest group purchasing organizations, Premier is a healthcare alliance enterprise collectively owned by more than 200 independent hospitals and health systems in the U.S., which operate or are affiliated with approximately 1,500 local hospitals and hundreds of other healthcare sites.
"With the pressure on hospitals to provide leading-edge technology that is also cost-effective over time, we felt that Elekta would solve both of those needs," said Jack Cox, M.D., chief medical officer and group vice president, product planning for Premier Purchasing Partners. "Elekta clearly demonstrated a desire to address our complete needs...clinical, technical and business. We believe the Elekta radiation oncology solutions will help us to achieve greater operational and clinical effectiveness."
"Premier has very strict selection guidelines for technical and supplier contracts, requiring extensive evaluation by committees and clinicians," explained Jan Kenoyer, Director, National & Strategic Alliances for Elekta. "What it came down to was Elekta's technology leadership as well as a demonstrated desire to understand and address the clinical, technical and financial needs across the entire Premier membership."
The contract for Elekta's oncology product lines encompasses the company's complete product line of Linear Accelerators with IMRT, advanced X-ray Volume Imaging systems and exclusive Elekta accessories and options. Elekta's most recently announced products for Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) are a major part of the agreement.
The contract covers Elekta's ground breaking IGRT platform, Elekta Synergy(TM) -- the first radiation treatment machine with an integrated imaging system. This technology will enable doctors to obtain images of patients just before their treatment, allowing them to visualize tumors at the point of treatment, to more precisely target tumors with radiation beams. In addition, Premier members will have access to Elekta Synergy(TM) S (currently a works in progress), the extracranial stereotactic version of Elekta Synergy(TM), featuring a precision Beam Modulator System, which will provide fine resolution beam-shaping.
"This three-year contract is very important and is a confirmation that Elekta is not only a leader in radiation oncology, but also a business partner who understands what is important to our healthcare provider partners," said Peter J. Gaccione, Vice President, Oncology at Elekta. "This contract validates the reason Elekta is the world's fastest growing supplier of radiation oncology solutions for precision radiotherapy. We are extremely pleased Premier selected Elekta as a vendor of choice as this is a great asset to a GPO partnership program."
Elekta's state-of-the-art treatment solutions are highly effective and offer proven clinical outcomes providing a foundation for long-term success, generating a strong return on investment for treatment centers. Additionally, Elekta's on-going education programs, users groups and research, combined with comprehensive business support programs, have created a role model for the industry. By combining quality patient care with business success, Elekta has created a solution that is suitable for any size facility.
About Premier
Premier, Inc., is a strategic alliance in U.S. healthcare, entirely owned by 200 of the nation's leading hospital and healthcare systems. These systems operate or are affiliated with 1,500 hospital facilities in 50 states and hundreds of other care sites. Premier is headquartered in San Diego, CA, with offices in Chicago, IL; and Charlotte, NC. Advocacy and policy offices are located in Washington, DC. For more information, visit http://www.premierinc.com .
About Elekta:
Elekta is a world-leading supplier of advanced and innovative radiation oncology and neurosurgery solutions and services for precise treatment of cancer and brain disorders. Elekta's solutions are clinically effective, cost efficient and gentle to the patient.
For additional information about Elekta, please visit http://www.elekta.com
July 28, 2004
Steroids Can Alter Athletes' Mentality
By Nicole Manske
Student athletes today face increased pressure to excel at their sport, not just enjoy playing a game they love. That pressure to win a state title or to get a scholarship can change the mentality of some athletes.
Steroids are rearing an ugly head again in athletics, but not just with the pros. Sports 8 found out just how far some student athletes can, and often do, go to make sure they stay on top of the game.
"I can get on to the Internet right now and can have anything that you can think of ordered on line in a powered form and made in to an injectible,” said “John,” a young man who claimed to have made illegal steroids. "It's not at all in-depth or difficult. It's honestly - a monkey can make this."
The drug in question is trenbolone acetate, an anabolic steroid three times more powerful than testosterone. Sports 8 not only obtained it, but made it legally with John’s help. The 21-year-old's identity is being protected at his request.
Steroids are illegal, banned in American athletics for nearly two decades. They are, however, used by doctors in some cases to restore youthful levels of testosterone in aging men.
“That's a different purpose. That's not to over-enhance the testosterone effects. That's to bring levels back up to normal,” said Dr. Michael Evans, CEO of AIT Labs.
They're also used by farmers to increase muscle mass in cattle. That's how we legally made trenbolone acetate. It’s legal to make and use in animals and not intended for humans.
That's why Dr. Evans says it's not only extremely dangerous but frighteningly popular.
“It doesn't require rocket science. You get the pellets, you get the kit, it gives you the instructions, you basically dissolve the pellets into this liquid, you do some filtration...and there you've got it,” said Evans.
John says he's never used steroids. But the 21-year-old says he hasn't ruled them out. After all, in his mind, there's nothing wrong with them.
"I think that studies have shown, and although they haven't been published and have been totally overlooked by the media, that increased testosterone levels are actually far more healthy and have far more positive benefits than negative benefits,” he said.
John is not a doctor. In fact, he has no formal medical training. His opinions stem from independent research “leafing through a number of medical studies and articles published in a variety of journals and establishments."
That, according to John, makes him not only smarter, but more informed than those currently in the medical field.
"The thing with doctors is, keep in mind, they're learning from people who've been told from the beginning that this is wrong. They're going off of a hand fed opinion to them without doing their own research,” said John. “If I know more than a doctor with more medical history, then I'm willing to say yes, that doctors are misinformed and miseducated on this matter."
He argues the positive effects of anabolic steroids, if listed, are a mile long. Under the right circumstances, he's right.
As some men age, their testosterone levels drop, creating a condition similar to what women experience in menopause. According to a study by the Institute of Medicine, it causes men to suffer from depression, lack of energy, and loss of sexual drive.
In that case, prescription testosterone can help. But testosterone replacement therapy is not the same as mis-use.
When steroids are abused, Dr. Evans says long-term use will produce cancer. “The most prominent case is Lyle Alzado who died from brain cancer because he used steroids during his football career."
But Dr. Evans has concerns about “John.” "In his state of mind he's being very logical. His brain’s been changed. That's a part of this anabolic steroid. They become obsessed. He's a fanatic. They think they're nothing wrong with it because they have convinced themselves."
While Dr. Evans has never met John, he suspects that he is a user of steroids. While John is not a pro athlete and is unlikely to become one, keep in mind only three percent of high school athletes ever make it to the next level and even fewer become pros.
“The steroids you dropped off and we identified is trenbolone. Trenbolone is an anabolic steroid that's about three times more potent than testosterone,” said Evans.
That's why trenbolone acetate is increasingly popular, too. Not because the pros are using it, but because it's so easy for anyone just like John to get his hands on.
New Cancer Research to be Presented at Upcoming Meeting in Atlanta
ASTRO's Scientific Meeting to Include Results of More than 800
New Research Studies
FAIRFAX, Va., July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, the world's largest radiation oncology society, will hold its 46th Annual Scientific Meeting October 3-7, 2004, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Nearly 10,000 top cancer doctors and scientists from around the globe will be in attendance to hear the results of more than 800 new research studies detailing the latest advances in the fight against cancer. Hundreds of medical equipment makers and pharmaceutical developers will also be on hand to demonstrate new equipment and medications
that are helping cancer patients live longer and more comfortably.
Some highlights of this meeting include:
* Leading health economist Kenneth E. Warner, Ph.D., presenting on the "Next Generation of 'Less Hazardous Cigarettes.'"
* Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., one of the world's most experienced developers of new anti-cancer agents, talking on "Pursuing Drug Development Targets that Are Not There."
* Top tumor researcher Rakesh Jain, Ph.D., discussing why some tumors are resistant to treatment.
Other hot topics include:
* New ways to manage cancer that has spread.
* How new targeted treatments are helping patients.
* Controversies and current treatments for pediatric tumors.
* Technical advances in curing breast cancer.
* How new radioactive medicines are working to treat cancers.
* Improving lung cancer treatments.
* Advances in curing brain cancer.
* Better ways to manage cancer pain.
* Advances in curing lymphomas.
* New ways to help patients avoid surgery and preserve organs.
* How radiation oncologists can help manage nuclear terrorism and mass casualties.
* Ways changes in insurance reimbursement are affecting cancer patients.
* Benefits of combining chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.
* How new imaging techniques are improving cancer treatments.
Qualified members of the press are offered complementary registration to ASTRO's meeting. Registered press will have access to an on site press room, offering computer workstations, printers, fax machines, telephones and data lines. ASTRO staff will be on hand to facilitate interviews with researchers presenting groundbreaking studies at the meeting. Complimentary refreshments will be served throughout the event. To register for the meeting, please visit the Annual Meeting Media Corner online at http://www.astro.org/annual_meeting/media_corner/.
SOURCE American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
Web Site: http://www.astro.org
Diagnosis: Brain Tumor
Yoga and Transcendental Meditation helped entrepreneur Annette Dale heal after brain surgery.
By Susan Cohen
Annette Dale, the founder of Yoga-stone, a line of yoga apparel, is a busy entrepreneur living in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. If you met her today, you would never know that eight years ago, she underwent risky neurosurgery to remove a brain tumor.
In the spring of 1989, Dale landed her dream job in Los Angeles as a skiwear designer and was as passionate about her career as her exercise program. At the same time, she was beginning to feel unwell. She suffered severe insomnia, vertigo, panic attacks, and a host of other symptoms, including hearing loss, mental fuzziness, and digestive problems. Because she loved her job, Dale kept her health problems to herself. Yet she suffered constantly, fighting her fatigue during meetings and business trips.
Dale sought advice from more than 40 health care professionals, including allopathic and alternative practitioners. Yet no one was able to diagnose her condition, and many doctors said it was psychological. But Dale instinctively knew that her body was not functioning correctly and felt that she would die unless she soon found the proper diagnosis and treatment. After discussing her problems with a dermatologist, she received the recommendation that would save her life: to visit an ear-nose-throat physician, who discovered her brain tumor with an MRI. Doctors scheduled Dale for a high-risk removal procedure which could result in stroke, loss of speech, and the need for a permanent gastrointestinal tube. Dale opted to have the tumor removed, and following the operation, half of her face, throat, and digestive tract were paralyzed; she could not speak or eat.
Dale began incorporating Transcendental Meditation into her rehabilitation process. After just one session of meditation, she felt movement for the very first time in her face. She continued to meditate daily. "In four years, I only missed two sessions," Dale says. "When something is right, you don't have to make yourself do it."
Although meditation was extremely beneficial, Dale wanted to further support her healing process and moved to a more "heart-centered environment," Spokane, Washington. There she began taking yoga classes with Ally Rubin, an Iyengar Yoga teacher. Within a short period of time, Dale was doing yoga four times a week. "If I did any kind of exercise too much, my immune system would crash, and I would get sick," she says. "Yoga was the only thing I could do that would not make me sick. It made me feel strong again."
Dale credits her teacher in helping her heal. "Ally was extremely compassionate and gave me a great deal of one-on-one support. Often, tears would roll down my face during asanas in class. The postures would open me up and make me feel vulnerable. It was Ally's compassion and support that helped me through." Looking back on the recovery process, Dale says, "Yoga was and is the most powerful aspect of my healing. I will never stop doing yoga or meditation."
|
