A ceremony was held yesterday at the White House to sign the 21st Century Cures Act, which authorizes $4.8 billion in National Institutes of Health funding for a broad range of biomedical initiatives, including cancer and precision medicine. Immunotherapy patient Stefani Joho [watch a video of Stefani's story] and Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, deputy director of the(...)
Research
Studies track how the immune system responds to tumors
Posted by | ResearchThe University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy have published a pair of studies looking at biomarkers involved in the immune system's response to tumors in the Nov. 7 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The University of Chicago studies are explained here. For the Johns Hopkins(...)
How do you decide if a patient is right for a clinical trial at Hopkins?
Posted by | Research“Every clinical trial is done in a way to try to get a very homogenous group of patients, so we can better draw conclusions about whether the innovation we’re testing is actually working,” says radiation oncologist Russell K. Hales, M.D. of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center on the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus. “A patient(...)
It seems that more young people in their 30s and 40s are being diagnosed. Are any studies looking at this and can they help younger patients?
Posted by | Research“I'm not aware of data to show that more young people are being diagnosed with lung cancer,” says Russell K. Hales, M.D., a radiation oncologist, at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center on the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus. “But anecdotally, it is what I seem to be seeing as well. What we tend to see(...)
What Makes Some Kidney Cancers Resistant to Immunotherapy?
Posted by | ResearchSuzanne Topalian, M.D., associate director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, is a pioneer in the search for biomarkers that predict responses to immunotherapy. In April at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans, Topalian and her colleagues presented data linking a virus-associated cancer, called Merkel cell carcinoma - to response(...)
Study: First Hints that Anti-PD-1 Therapy May Help Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer
Posted by | ResearchSo-called anti-PD-1 drugs, which block the interaction between proteins on cancer and immune cells, are currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for certain patients with melanoma and non-small cell lung, kidney and bladder cancers. Now, a new study led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University's Knight Cancer Institute and partially funded(...)
Antibody May Provide a Strategy Against Metastatic Bone Cancer
Posted by | ResearchAn antibody drug that targets part of the bone growth pathway can slow the growth of human osteosarcoma implanted in mice and prevent the tumor from spreading to other parts of the body, according to a study led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists. Osteosarcoma is one of the most common bone tumors affecting children(...)
Two Studies Uncover Potential Treatments for Lethal Pediatric Brain Cancer DIPG
Posted by | Childhood Cancer, ResearchA rare cell line developed by Johns Hopkins researchers is giving scientists their first chance in decades to test new therapies for a lethal pediatric brain cancer that has few treatments. Kimmel Cancer Center scientist Eric H. Raabe, M.D., Ph.D., helped to develop the diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) cell line, grown from tumor tissue donated by(...)
Can Magnolia Help Break the Link Between Obesity and Breast Cancer?
Posted by | Research--This post was written by freelance writer Becky Ham. A compound made from the tree’s bark shows promise against tumors spurred by the leptin hormone. Stand under the glossy green canopy of a southern magnolia in full bloom, and you’ll be dazzled by this queen tree’s show of hundreds of highly perfumed ivory blossoms, each(...)
Can biomarkers predict patients’ response to immunotherapy?
Posted by | ResearchImmunotherapy expert, Suzanne Topalian, M.D., delivered a presentation to a standing room only crowd at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (#ASCO16) regarding new directions in scientists’ search for biomarkers that identify patients and tumor types most likely to respond to immunotherapy drugs. Among the approaches is an immunohistochemistry test for the protein PD-L1,(...)