I’ve received a number of requests for more info regarding tomorrow night’s meeting. Here is a PDF w/ info. Thanks for your support! It should be a fun night.
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Web address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/ 100401173713.htm |
ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2010) — For several years, researchers have been developing a new approach to treating cancer that uses viruses to infect and kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed. Recent data have indicated that this approach, which is known as oncolytic virotherapy, has potential.
Now, Richard Vile and colleagues, at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, have found that this approach can be combined with a standard clinical therapy to provide substantial regression and cure of tumors in mice, leading them to suggest that this combinatorial approach could be of tremendous benefit in the clinic.
Tumors that grow to a certain size need to form new blood vessels if they are to continuing growing and spread to other sites. One of the molecules that controls this new blood vessel growth, VEGF, is the target of drugs used to treat several forms of cancer. In this study, the authors found that modulating VEGF signaling, for example by transiently stopping anti-VEGF therapy in mice harboring cancer cells expressing high levels of VEGF, allowed the cells that line tumor blood vessels to be targeted and killed by viruses.
Importantly, as this approach targets the cells lining tumor blood vessels, rather than specific types of tumor cells, the authors suggest that this combinatorial approach to therapy could be used to treat a wide range of cancers.
The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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Web address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/ 100330142426.htm |
ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2010) — A drug already in clinical trials to treat a variety of tumors shows a remarkable ability to shut down growth of glioblastoma in both laboratory cells and in animals, say researchers from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In their experiments, the agent put a brake on growth of laboratory cancer cell lines, and no mice with glioblastoma in their brain died as a result of their tumor while on therapy.
They say their findings, reported in the April 15 issue of Cancer Research, provides hope that the drug, PD-0332991, could offer a new treatment option for glioblastoma, which is the most common as well as the deadliest form of brain cancer. A clinical trial testing the therapy in patients with recurrent brain cancer is under development.
“We have had just amazing results in these preclinical studies,” says Todd Waldman, MD, PhD, an associate professor of oncology at Lombardi. “We are hopeful it will prove to be effective in brain cancer patients for which there is little effective therapy.”
Waldman is the study’s co-lead investigator, along with C. David James, PhD, professor of neurological surgery at UCSF. “What is especially encouraging about this agent is that we found it can easily pass through the blood-brain barrier and access glioblastoma, and that there is already a simple test available for screening glioblastoma patients in advance to see whether or not they should be responsive to this therapy,” James says.
Given the molecular data from a recently published study by The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, about 90 percent of glioblastoma patients have a molecular profile that would make them candidates for the drug, the researchers say.
The drug is currently being tested in clinical trials for otherwise untreatable teratomas, as well as multiple myeloma and breast cancer. It is designed to shut down the activity of molecules, cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (cdk4/6), that drive cell division. “In normal cells, these kinases are kept under exquisite control by a gene known as p16,” says Waldman. “But in glioblastoma, and other cancers, p16 is frequently deleted, and these two kinases are uncontrollably activated, which drives the cell to divide and form cancer.”
The agent, however, does not work if the cancer is missing expression of a tumor suppressor protein known as retinoblastoma (Rb) because Rb is needed to control growth in these cells even if cdk4/6 are inhibited. A test to determine if RB is present is already being used to screen patients for use of PD-0332991 in the ongoing clinical trials.
A research team at Georgetown led by Waldman, conducted laboratory studies on 21 different cell lines derived from the tumors of patients with glioblastoma. They tested PD-0332991 at various concentrations to see if it could stop growth of the cancer cells, and found it to be effective in all 16 cell lines with a functioning Rb gene, but it did not work in 5 cell lines missing Rb. “The agent was very potent in stopping cancer growth, but it was also quite clean in that it only seemed to inhibit the two molecules it targeted, and no other,” says Waldman. “Most drugs are dirtier than that — they hit multiple unintended targets.”
What intrigues Waldman, he says, is that no one has discovered what the “normal” function for cdk4/6 is. “Mice lacking either cdk4 or cdk6 grow up to be relatively healthy, so it may be that these kinases are really only important for cancer growth,” Waldman says. “That would be an exciting development, if true, but no one knows yet.”
James led a team of scientists at UCSF that implanted three different kinds of human glioblastoma directly into the brains of mice, and then they treated them with PD-0332991. They discovered first that the agent effectively reached intracranial tumors — “and it wasn’t known beforehand that it would, so this was very good news,” says James — and that the cancer did not grow as long as the mice continued on the drug, but that they quickly died from the cancer when the agent was withdrawn.
Because PD-0332991 itself does not kill cancer cells — just arrests their growth — the researchers then combined the agent with radiation and found that outcomes were superior to use of PD-0332991 alone. They further successfully tested the agent in mice in which glioblastoma had come back after treatment with temozolomide, a chemotherapy that is the standard-of-care for many patients.
“We don’t know how well this agent will perform in patients with glioblastoma, but in the mice we studied, we saw very impressive, durable effect that was sustained as long as therapy was administered,” says James.
The study was funded in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society. Pfizer Global Research and Development supplied PD-0332991, and a researcher from that company also participated in the study.
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I’ve quietly been upgrading the blog software behind-the-scenes. I am now beginning to add more functionality such as making the blog accessible from blackberries and iPhones as well as adding small improvements such as threaded commenting and the ability to share posts through more of the social networking sites.
As for the mobile application, as with many it’s a scaled-down version of the blog. I can post to it from anywhere and readers can read the posts, comment on a post and use the contact form to contact me. All of my research is also there.
Here is a look at a few of the blog screens on an iPhone:
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I’ve now completed my second week of using VP-16. I’m now starting to feel the cumulative effects of this chemotherapy. It’s somewhat like temodar but for some reason the side effects are felt more consistently. With temodar I would feel nauseous in the morning but it would subside by about 8 AM. With VP 16, I’m beginning to feel nauseous most of the day. My routine has been the same as it was with temodar but I am folding in more zofran to address the nausea. I wake up just not feeling good but it goes on into the afternoon.
I’ve always stated that this blog is real meaning it’s not candy-coated. I do my best to share with you as honestly as I can - the good and the bad. The last two days have not been so good for me. I’ve been feeling sick, fatigued and a a bit down primarily because of my loss of function in my left arm. This morning in particular was a little bit of a breaking point for me. For the first time I was not able to reach my right under arm with my left hand to bathe. I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I know there is a lot more to come that will be even more difficult It was more about the physical limitations I have now and the dependency on others compared to how I used to be and it was so incredibly frustrating to me. I hit the shower wall a few times to be quite honest and because of my frame of mind started wondering what’s next. My left shoulder is just very weak and it can’t support the weight of my arm. The tendons from my scapula to my shoulder are separating and most of the pain is felt in the AM after sleeping overnight. I’ve been trying to use a towel lying on my left side to support my arm and shoulder arent pulling as much but it doesn’t seem to help much. The result is if I bend over during the day to pick something up I hear pops and cracks in my left shoulder and it further stretches out that tendon. I’m stooping as best I can but it’s just a problem I have to work as with the others.
If anyone has experience with shoulder injuries and support systems for sleeping at night I would greatly appreciate any input you have! I think I’ll have some good information from PT tomorrow afternoon.
As I well know, this type of thinking – getting caught up in the problem – accomplishes nothing but at the same time I think it’s important to walk through whatever you’re going to feel. The reality is the same. I’m only human and it is frustrating.
It took me a while to get back into today which is where I belong and what I preach all the time. This certainly addresses the future and anything that is to come. That’s all part of God’s plan. What I find difficult is when I’m going through something like this, I’m frustrated and it IS happening today. There’s no other way than prayer and turning it over and I’ve done that over the last three hours. Enough said
With regard to IV chemo, I will be at the infusion center tomorrow for avastin treatment. I’ve been doing this every other week for quite a long while. On February 1, I will have another MRI. At that point will see where we are and I know that we will be guided in the right correction.
Lastly, I have upgraded the blog’s core software to the latest version. What this means for everyone else as I will be able to build in new functionality that is really exciting. Already I have put in a mobile edition of the blog that you can access with an iPhone, Blackberry and most of the major smart phones. Basically it’s a stand down version of the blog that allows you to see recent posts, comments and allows you to respond to posts on the go. For me, upgrading the blog opens a lot of possibilities in terms of some projects I’d like to tackle when I’m not working. After all I I still have that brainy side that needs to be exercised
I will provide updates as usual. Friday is my last day of work.
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It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed again. 2010. It seems like yesterday that it was 2009 and we are celebrating the new millennium. For us, this year has been a year of challenges and frustrations but more importantly it has been a year that we have had many good times that we really try to focus on. Living for today every day throughout the year can be challenging as you know that it’s the right way to live for us.
Having a GBM is not the end of the world. In the beginning you do feel that there is so many other people in the world that have their own issues and you realize that you are not unique as the brain tumor survivor nor are your family and friends. A good case in point is my coworker who was just diagnosed with a brain tumor about a month ago. Yesterday when I was at the oncologist’s office very nice receptionist who I’ve gotten to know told me that she’s been diagnosed with MS. I feel for both of them she told me that she wanted her old self back I completely understand this feeling. But in time you realize you have to go on. And we do.
In February of this year I had a recurrence. This was 4 Months after my second surgery in October, 2008. That led to gamma knife surgery in March. Typically, when you have a recurrence, the next recurrence (if it occurs) becomes even shorter from the last. Oh no! Statistics! Well, put those to rest by reading this post. I had Gamma Knife in March and then started an experimental treatment called DCVax Brain in April. Read the Sacramento Bee article to learn more. I continued with Avastin and a drug called Valcyte. The only time I came off of this regimen is when I was hospitalized for a bad respiratory infection called Haemophilus influenzae. I was very neutropenic. Since then I’ve contined back on the same drugs. Seizures? Rattling for sure but part of the territory and God walks beside us through all of this.
So guess what?! 10 months since the recurrence in February, more than twice what our so-called stats indicate. I’m ready for anything because we have God. It’s not about me. This disease and all others are of an earthly nature. Our God is a loving God who doesnt wish harm on anyone but in the beginning we sure were angry with Him – and let Him know it. He’s big enough to handle that though.
Our prayer for the New Year is to live day by day and remember that this is not our plan. We are doing everything possible to address the problem. And, as God guides us down this road that He didn’t create, He is putting opportunities for treatment options, people in our lives, support frameworks and so much more. Nothing is by accident. I’ve seen it in my life and others.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year and here’s to a healthy 2010…
Cheers
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I hope that everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving holiday. For those of you that decided to brave “Black Friday”, I’m sorry. I was in bed until 8:30am! Plenty of deals and plenty of time. It’s amazing to me to see people in front of Best Buy with coolers and tents, yes tents, at 4pm on Wednesday so they could pick up material possessions for a big price break. My own perspective is that this obviously means that on Thanksgiving Day, these folks are spending time away from their families. Of course it’s a personal decision but it’s hard to understand sleeping in a tent on concrete for two nights over a family holiday to buy a playstation 3 or whatever it might be!
I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me over the past three years as I’ve walked through this. I could never have endured this without God and all of the support of family, friends and all of the brain tumor survivors I have met along the way. Support through surgeries, chemo, radiation, physical therapy from a wheel chair to walking again, gamma knife, experimental therapy using DCVax, focal seizures throughout and other challenges has been invaluable In short, this blog has been a blessing for me. I know it has helped many based on all of the emails I have received – and if it only helped one person I’d be more than satisfied. However, what some of you may not realize is how instrumental this has been in my own journey.
Writing is a great way to think things through, release stress and helps one cope. Originally, this was a place to distribute my music. Now it’s more about my journey. It was then meant to update friends and family on my condition and store my research. Then I found that sharing my experience and my own testimony also gives me a sense of purpose in the middle of a storm. Traffic built and now it’s a popular site for primary brain tumor info and assistance based on one person’s view.
Today, it’s not such of a storm every day and that is a result of, in large part, everyone I have met along the way and many of those that I have met have come through my blog. Your responses to my posts, emails of encouragement or emails just telling me that you’ve found research and testimony that has really helped you on a given day is very uplifting to me. So to all of you, I give thanks for support, emails, phone calls, comments to my posts and help you are giving to others.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m taking video now with a Flip video. So easy to use. Here is a clip from this week. Keegan received one of those wind-up toys – it’s a caterpillar. This is one of those clips of a child that makes being a parent fun!
This is called “Good Night Bug”. It’s short so keep watching.
I had a treatment using DCVax on Wednesday. I will update over the weekend. We are changing the protocol and using a cream called Aldera cream over the injection site. I’ll provide details later.
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This is a great radio interview with Dr. Linda Liau, the creator and chief investigator/neurosurgeon at UCLA regarding DCVax. Joining her is the chair of the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery at UCLA. It’s about 20 minutes long but is very interesting, particulary if you are interested at all in immunotherapy.
I again am so blessed to have been given this opportunity and I seem to be responding to this well. It is hard to tell thus far but my GBM is shrinking. Here is the interview:
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on 6 months…moving forward can be difficult.
on 6 months…moving forward can be difficult. on Memorial Service Details on Current Status on CBS News: What’s Behind the Mystery Cancer Cluster?
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