MS Stem Cell Treatments Show 3-Year Benefit
December 29th 2014Treating patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) with autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has worked for most patients based on an interim report 3 years into a study. But the therapy has risks that critics say outweigh the benefits.
Growth Hormone Therapy Effective at Increasing Anemics' Height During Childhood
December 18th 2014For children with Diamond-Blackfan Anemia (DBA) - an inherited condition defined by low red blood cell counts and limited progenitor cells in the bone marrow - growth hormone (GH) therapy was found to increase the short stature of patients - a symptom not widely analyzed.
Juno CAR T Cell Therapy Receives Breakthrough Designation for ALL
November 24th 2014The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy JCAR015 has received a breakthrough therapy designation from the FDA as a treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Merck's Rapid Strides With Pembrolizumab
October 27th 2014Today, Merck announced that Keytruda has been granted breakthrough therapy designation for treating patients with epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-negative and anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangement-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation to Pembrolizumab for NSCLC
October 27th 2014The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to pembrolizumab (Keytruda), an anti-PD-1 therapy, for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are EGFR mutation- or ALK rearrangement-negative and whose disease has progressed on or following platinum-based chemotherapy.
Targeting Src Adds No Benefit in VEGF-Resistant Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma
October 6th 2014Adding saracatinib to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeted therapy did not improve response rates or overall survival while adding to toxicity in VEGF-resistant metastatic renal cell carcinoma
Targeting Mitosis: First Polo-Like Kinase Inhibitor Moves Closer to FDA Approval
September 25th 2014The concept of targeting mitotic cell division to halt the progression of rapidly dividing cancer cells has long been a staple of oncology therapy, yet chemotherapy agents that are the prime examples of this approach are nonselective in their action and can kill normal and malignant cells alike.
What Next? Choosing Second-Line Therapy in Progressive Renal Cell Carcinoma
September 15th 2014A 71-year-old woman presented with back pain and was incidentally found to have a left upper pole renal mass. She underwent left open partial nephrectomy; the pathology results revealed a 2.2-cm clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with negative margins and a Fuhrman nuclear grade of 2.
Novel Approaches for the Prevention and Treatment of Inflammatory Bone Loss
September 13th 2014Current novel therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of bone loss in patients with inflammatory joint disease target cytokines and other inflammatory mediators. Mesenchymal stem cell therapy is a compelling new treatment currently being studied in clinical trials.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell Immunotherapy for Leukemia and Beyond
August 29th 2014Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy is an immunotherapy in which the patient's own T cells are isolated in the laboratory, redirected with a synthetic receptor to recognize a particular antigen or protein, and reinfused into the patient.
The treatment of inoperable stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains a challenge due to high rates of distant metastasis, local recurrence, and toxicity associated with definitive therapy.
Sunitinib Still Standard First-Line Treatment for Metastatic RCC
July 29th 2014Results of a head-to-head comparison of first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus or VEGF inhibitor sunitinib showed that everolimus did not meet noninferiority requirements as a first-line therapy.
Long-term gene therapy for wet AMD promising
July 15th 2014The first results from a phase I trial of gene therapy for exudative age-related macular degeneration using a subretinal injection suggest that the treatment is safe and well tolerated even in the elderly population and may eliminate the need for frequent reinjection with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents.
Examining advances in AAV vector for retinal gene therapy
July 15th 2014Much work is being done with Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for application in retinal gene therapy, with modifications being made to the capsid and genome of the vector to generate novel variants with unique transduction profiles, according to Shannon Boye, PhD.