Hope of fresh treatment for seven cancers after single antibody is found to shrink tu

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Hope of fresh treatment for seven cancers after single antibody is found to shrink tumours from all of themBy Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 13:00 EST, 26 March 2012 | UPDATED: 19:57 EST, 26 March 2012
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A drug that helps the immune system to break down cancerous tumours has been developed.
It has worked on breast, bowel, prostate, ovarian, brain, bladder and liver cancers, while previous studies show it can also be used to fight some blood cancers.
If given early, the drug could even be a cure, researchers say.
The Y-shaped human antibody works by unmasking the cancer cells to the body's disease-fighting white blood cells
The antibody has so far been tested only on mice, but researchers hope to give it to people within two years.
Its effectiveness centres on a protein called CD47, which is found on the surface of cancer cells in high quantities. The protein prevents them from being engulfed and eaten by immune cells called macrophages.
The drug masks the so-called ‘don’t-eat-me signal’, allowing the immune system to attack the cancer – a goal of many researchers for decades.
Breakthrough: Professor Irving Weissman from Stanford University who made the finding
Tests on cells in the lab and on mice showed it to work on a broad range of cancers and with minimal side-effects. Given to mice with human tumours, the antibody made them shrink and, in some cases, disappear.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds that the drug ‘dramatically’ increased survival rates.
Researcher Dr Irving Weissman, from the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, said: ‘Blocking this “don’t-eat-me” signal inhibits the growth in mice of nearly every human cancer we tested, with minimal toxicity.
‘This shows conclusively that this protein, CD47, is a legitimate and promising target for human cancer therapy.’
Dr Weissman said that when used on small tumours, the drug is ‘potentially curative’ – but stressed that for some of the mice it did not work at all.
He added that there was now enough evidence to ‘move forward quickly but cautiously’ into human trials.
However, the need for extensive proof that the drug is safe as well as effective means that its widespread use is about a decade away.
Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt, an expert in immunology funded by Cancer Research UK, said the research could lead to new treatments.
‘Particularly exciting is the possibility that this approach could be used to tackle cancer cells that are resistant to traditional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy,’ he said.
‘But clinical trials are needed to find out whether it will benefit patients.’


Read more: Promising new treatment for seven cancers after single antibody found to shrink tumours from all of them | Mail Online
 
In cancer science, many discoveries don't hold up | Reuters

During a decade as head of global cancer research at Amgen, C. Glenn Begley identified 53 "landmark" publications -- papers in top journals, from reputable labs -- for his team to reproduce. Begley sought to double-check the findings before trying to build on them for drug development.
Result: 47 of the 53 could not be replicated. He described his findings in a commentary piece published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.


..



"We went through the paper line by line, figure by figure," said Begley. "I explained that we re-did their experiment 50 times and never got their result. He said they'd done it six times and got this result once, but put it in the paper because it made the best story. It's very disillusioning."
Such selective publication is just one reason the scientific literature is peppered with incorrect results.
For one thing, basic science studies are rarely "blinded" the way clinical trials are. That is, researchers know which cell line or mouse got a treatment or had cancer. That can be a problem when data are subject to interpretation, as a researcher who is intellectually invested in a theory is more likely to interpret ambiguous evidence in its favor.
The problem goes beyond cancer.
 
Height linked to ovarian cancer...
:confused:
Women's height linked to ovarian cancer
3 April 2012 - Taller women have a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, according to a review of studies.
Obesity is also a risk factor among women who have never taken HRT, say international researchers. Previous studies have suggested a link, but there has been conflicting evidence. The latest research, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, analysed all worldwide data on the topic. It looked at 47 epidemiological studies in 14 countries, including about 25,000 women with ovarian cancer and more than 80,000 women without ovarian cancer.

Lead researcher Prof Valerie Beral of the Oxford University Epidemiology Unit told the BBC: "By bringing together the worldwide evidence, it became clear that height is a risk factor." She said there was also a clear relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer in women who had never taken HRT. "Ovarian cancer can clearly be added to the list [of cancers linked to obesity]," she added.

Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said the study produced a clearer picture of the factors that could affect a woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer, and found that body size was important. "Women can reduce their risk of this and many other diseases by keeping to a healthy weight," she said. "For women trying to lose weight, the best method is to eat healthily, eat smaller amounts and be more physically active."

Commenting on the study, Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said the increase in risk was small. "If we compare a woman who is 5ft tall with a woman who is 5ft 6in tall, there is a relative difference in ovarian cancer risk of 23%. "But the absolute risk difference is small. The shorter woman will have a lifetime risk of about 16-in-a-1000 which increases to 20-in-a-1000 for the taller woman. "A similar difference in absolute risk would be seen when comparing a slim woman with a body mass index of 20 to a slightly overweight woman with a body mass index of 30."

BBC News - Women's height linked to ovarian cancer
 

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