Late Diagnosis Linked To One Thousand Breast Cancer Deaths Every Year
Nearly a thousand deaths from breast cancer could be avoided each year if short term survival rates in England were among the best comparable* countries in Europe, according to research presented at the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) conference yesterday.
The study** shows if England matched Norway and Sweden’s survival rates for breast cancer, 957 deaths could be prevented annually in women whose cancer is diagnosed so late that they usually die within two years of diagnosis.
When breast cancer is caught early, treatment is often milder and more effective. Survival rates soon after diagnosis can be used as an indicator of whether the disease is being caught early or late.
Professor Henrik Møller, lead author from King’s College London, said: “This study has important implications for women in this country. We could prevent nearly a thousand deaths from breast cancer each year by getting the disease diagnosed earlier, particularly in older women. Read more
Intrahepatic Clear Cell Cholangiocarcinoma
Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a cancer of the bile duct in the liver. The clear cell subtype of ICC is a rare cancer; until now, only 8 cases have been reported. The number of reports is so small that a detailed description of clear cell ICC is valuable.
A case report published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this problem. The diagnostic pathology team led by Associate Professor Dr. Hayashi at the Department of Pathology, Nagasaki University Hospital in Japan collaborated with Professor Nagayasu, Department of the 1st Surgery and Professor Uetani, Department of Radiology, to investigate how the specific “clear cell” change occurs, a patient’s underlying disease and choice of chemotherapy, and the prognosis for future patients of this rare cancer.
The patient was a 56-year-old Japanese man with a 3-year history of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The follow-up echo revealed a tumor of the liver. CT and MRI suggested hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); a cancer of liver cells. The patient had surgery and the tumor was diagnosed as the rare “clear cell ICC”, not a conventional HCC. Read more
Fluorescent Compounds Make Tumors Glow
Filed under: Biology / Biochemistry, Cancer / Oncology, Clinicals Trial / Drugs Trial
A series of novel imaging agents could light up tumors as they begin to form – before they turn deadly – and signal their transition to aggressive cancers.
The compounds – fluorescent inhibitors of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) – could have broad applications for detecting tumors earlier, monitoring a tumor’s transition from pre-malignancy to more aggressive growth, and defining tumor margins during surgical removal.
“We’re very excited about these new agents and are moving forward to develop them for human clinical trials,” said Lawrence Marnett, Ph.D., the leader of the Vanderbilt University team that developed the compounds, which are described in the May 1 issue of Cancer Research.
COX-2 is an attractive target for molecular imaging. It’s not found in most normal tissues, and then it is “turned on” in inflammatory lesions and tumors, Marnett explained.
“COX-2 is expressed at the earliest stages of pre-malignancy – in pre-malignant lesions, but not in surrounding normal tissue – and as a tumor grows and becomes increasingly malignant, COX-2 levels go up,” Marnett said.
Compounds that bind selectively to COX-2 – and carry a fluorescent marker – should act as “beacons” for tumor cells and for inflammation.
Marnett and his colleagues previously demonstrated that fluorescent COX-2 inhibitors – which they have now dubbed “fluorocoxibs” – were useful probes for protein binding, but their early molecules were not appropriate for cellular or in vivo imaging.
“It was a real challenge to make a compound that is COX-2 selective (doesn’t bind to the related COX-1 enzyme), has desirable fluorescence properties, and gets to the tissue in vivo,” Marnett said.
To develop such compounds, Jashim Uddin, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Biochemistry, started with the “core” chemical structure of the anti-inflammatory medicines indomethacin and celecoxib. He then tethered various fluorescent parts to the core structure, ultimately synthesizing more than 200 compounds. The group tested each compound for its interaction with purified COX-2 and COX-1 proteins and then assessed promising compounds for COX-2 selectivity and fluorescence in cultured cells and in animals. Two compounds made the cut. Read more