Cancer diagnosis and treatment breakthroughs offering hope to suffers of the often killer disease

Cancer diagnosis and treatment breakthroughs offering hope to suffers of the often killer disease

Posted by : Frank Short Posted on : 18-Apr-2022
Cancer diagnosis and treatment breakthroughs offering hope to suffers of the often killer disease

The Solomon Islands has a high rate of cancer disease and being a sufferer of advanced, progressive cancer myself I have empathy for those suffering the disease and who would wish to know of any breakthroughs that would extend life expectancy or offer hope with short or medium term treatment that could possible become available in the Solomon Islands at the National Referral Hospital (NRH).

I copy the information below for the MHMS and Oncologists at the NRH in the hope in the expectation the reported new advances in cancer treatment might be studied and brought into practice.

I would wish, too, the British High Commission could aid the MHMS/NRH with advice on the UK’S emerging cancer treatment options and become a liaison source for possible treatment help with medication supply or with surgery guidance and surgery.

Quotes (2)

Simple urine test could detect bladder cancer without needing a cystoscopy

Bladder cancer could soon be detected by a urine test which may halve the number of people needing invasive cystoscopies.

More than 300,000 cystoscopies are performed every year in England and involve inserting a camera into the bladder via the urethra to look for signs of the disease.

People suffering with blood in their urine often undergo the procedure to determine if it is caused by a tumour, an infection or another cause, such as urinary tract stones.

The majority of tests turn out not to be bladder cancer, but there is no alternative way to be sure except for a cystoscopy, which can have a long wait time and be stressful for the patient.

Doctors at the University of Birmingham and Cancer Research UK developed a test designed to pick up DNA that has been shed by a tumour and is circulating in the urine.

It looks at 23 different genes and registers a positive test if it identifies mutated versions of DNA associated with a tumour and not healthy cells.

In the study, researchers used the test to analyse urine from 165 bladder cancer patients and it successfully detected the disease in 144 of them (87 per cent).

The researchers believe that using the urine test in a haematuria clinic could reduce the number of patients requiring a cystoscopy by at least 45 per cent.

“The test has the potential to detect new cases of bladder cancer with high sensitivity and specificity, and could reduce reliance on cystoscopy in the haematuria clinic setting,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published in the European Urology Oncology journal.

Richard Bryan, the lead researcher, told The Telegraph: “Even though cystoscopy is good at detecting bladder cancer, it’s invasive and time consuming for patients and the NHS, so we need a better way to diagnose patients.

“In the future, our test could be an easier way to get people with bladder cancer diagnosed faster, and could mean that tens of thousands of cystoscopies on healthy patients can be avoided each year.”

The prototype will now be turned into a proper, easy-to-administer test and the researchers hope to run a clinical trial of its effectiveness and aim to ultimately get it used by the NHS.

Iain Foulkes, the executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: “These findings show that this urine test could help the NHS diagnose bladder cancer more easily. Early detection of cancer is key for improving patient outcomes and research like this could help identify the patients that need treatment soonest, while easing the pressures of diagnostic procedures on the NHS.

“We look forward to seeing how the test performs in the next clinical trial.”

Source MSM (UK)

Experts hail double-drug therapy for lung

Experts have hailed a ‘quantum leap’ forward in lung cancer treatment, thanks to a new double-drug therapy that can reduce the risk of relapse and boost survival by years. 

Trial results announced this month showed that patients given the immunotherapy medicine nivolumab alongside chemotherapy prior to surgery were more likely to live longer, compared to those given chemo alone.

Sufferers also remained symptom-free for nearly a year longer after completing treatment.

Nivolumab is already available on the NHS for lung cancer patients, but is given after surgery or chemo. Doctors believe the trial findings will set a new standard in care for patients.

Consultant oncologist Tobias Arkenau, of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute UK, said: ‘New approaches like these have transformed lung cancer from something that was basically untreatable to a chronic disease. 

'The days of only being able to offer chemotherapy, and a fairly bleak prognosis, are pretty much gone. 

And with nivolumab, there is even the hope of a cure. It’s a ground-breaking trial and life-changing for cancer patients.’

One patient who has first-hand experience of the remarkable effects of nivolumab is Norma McAra, 70. The grandmother- of-three from Arbroath (right) was first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2013

Speaking at the American Association for Cancer Research conference a fortnight ago, oncologist Dr David Carbone, of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus, called the results ‘another quantum leap in lung cancer therapy’.

He added: ‘Combining immunotherapy with surgery, I think, is the new standard of care and will almost certainly improve overall survival in early-stage disease, for the first time in decades.’

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for around a fifth of all deaths from the disease. 

There are 50,000 new cases a year – and 60 per cent of patients die within a year of diagnosis. Just one in five men and one in five women with lung cancer live for more than five years.

For those in the early stages of the disease, surgery is typically offered to remove a portion of the lung – and tumour within – in the hope of a cure. 

This is normally followed by chemotherapy to kill off any cancer cells that have spread elsewhere in the body, to stop the cancer coming back. 

But between a third and a half of patients who undergo surgery have a recurrence and ultimately die of their disease.

During the trial, 358 patients were split into two groups. Both were treated with three doses of chemotherapy, spaced three weeks apart, but one group was given an additional dose of nivolumab via an intravenous drip at the same time.

Gene treatment for advanced disease 

People with a highly aggressive type of lung cancer are set to benefit from a gene therapy drug after NHS spending watchdog NICE gave it the green light last week.

The medication, tepotinib, is the first targeted treatment for advanced lung cancer linked to a genetic fault known as a METex14 skipping alteration.

Health chiefs approved tepotinib for patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after studies showed it slowed disease progression and helped patients to live longer – 20 months on average.

METex14 skipping alterations are seen in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease.

Targeted treatments such as tepotinib require genetic testing to determine eligibility – and the NHS is developing genomic laboratory hubs across the UK, equipped to manage these more complex assessments.

Nivolumab is a type of drug known as a checkpoint inhibitor. It works by blocking a protein called PD-1 found on tumour cells, which ‘camouflages’ cancers, helping them evade the immune system. 

By blocking PD-1, nivolumab ‘reveals’ the tumour, and the immune system then attacks and clears the cancer. Meanwhile, the chemotherapy directly attacks the cancer cells.

After the three treatment cycles had finished, there was a six-week wait before surgery. 

The nivolumab patients had a 37 per cent reduced risk of disease recurrence, progression and death nearly two years on compared to those who had chemotherapy alone.

It isn’t fully understood why giving the treatments prior to surgery is so much more effective. 

However, last year the same research team revealed that the approach shrank tumours dramatically before the operation – making it easier for surgeons to remove all cancerous tissue, leaving a quarter of patients effectively cancer-free.

One patient who has first-hand experience of the remarkable effects of nivolumab is Norma McAra, 70. 

The grandmother- of-three from Arbroath was first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2013. ‘I’d gone to the GP for some reason – and mentioned that I felt a bit breathless while running for the bus,’ Norma recalls.

Her doctor sent her for scans as a precaution – and tumours were detected in her lungs. Norma was given chemotherapy and radiotherapy. ‘We thought we’d got all of it, as scans kept coming back all clear,’ she says.

But in 2016, her cancer returned and she endured another year of chemo. The following year she was put on nivolumab as it was by then approved for NHS use.

Norma says: ‘I’ve not looked back. I go in for my drip once every two weeks, and that’s it. I feel fine.

‘When I was told I had lung cancer, it felt like a death sentence. It’s amazing to think now patients will get just a few doses of the drug I’m on before surgery, and be given the same hope.’

End of quotes

Source. Daily Mail (UK)

Yours sincerely

Frank Short

www.solomonislandsinfocus

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