People with HIV who smoke cigarettes are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than from HIV, a study has found.
Those diagnosed with HIV are living longer because of the increasingly effective antiviral medications that have been developed in the last decade.
But prevention from lung cancer has not developed at a similar rate.
Kymriah treats most common type of childhood cancer, but it has a hefty $475,000 price tag
US health regulators have approved the first cancer drug that uses a patient’s own cells to fight cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has for the first time approved a treatment that uses a patient’s own genetically modified cells to attack a type of leukemia, opening the door to what the agency calls “a new frontier” in medicine.
Oncologists described the drug, made by Novartis and marketed as Kymriah, as revolutionary. But it is priced at a shocking $475,000 per treatment.
Continue reading “US approves first cancer drug to use patient’s own cells”
Time to grow a beard? Study finds beards can reduce the risk of skin cancer
Having a beard isn’t just fashionable, it could well be a life-saver too.
According to a recent study from the University of Queensland, facial hair can protect a man’s face from 90 to 95% of harmful UV rays from the sun.
This means that a large portion of a man’s face is protected from being sunburnt – which can help prevent skin cancer.
Continue reading “Having a beard protects men from skin cancer, study discovers”
Doctors found drug cuts heart attack risk by 25 per cent and halves chances of dying from cancer
A new drug that could help reduce the risk of heart attacks and cut cancer deaths has been hailed as an “exciting” breakthrough.
Canakinumab, an anti-inflammatory, was used in a trial involving more than 10,000 patients, all of whom have had a heart attack but had not been diagnosed with cancer.
They were treated with the drug, which is given by injection, once every three months and monitored for up to four years.
Continue reading “Cancer deaths and heart attacks could be cut by new drug”
A clinical trial to test a new cancer drug in patients with advanced solid tumours has launched in four centres across the UK, through Cancer Research UK’s Centre for Drug Development.
This early phase trial will test the safety and tolerability of the drug and establish the recommended dose for patients with a variety of cancers including advanced bowel, lung, ovarian, urothelial, pancreatic, breast, head and neck, and oesophageal cancer.
Continue reading “Trial launched to test new drug in patients with advanced cancer”
Researchers believe interacting with other people who are also having treatment reduces stress levels, leading to better survival prospects
Socialising with others who also have cancer, could potentially improve survival prospects, according to new research.
Patients undergoing chemotherapy who socialise with other sufferers have a 68% risk of dying within five years, scientists from the National Human Genome Research Institute have found.
This is compared to a 69.5% risk if patients are isolated from other sufferers during their treatment, the research adds.
Lead author Jeff Lienert, said: “A two percent difference in survival might not sound like a lot, but it’s pretty substantial. If you saw 5,000 patients in nine years, that two percent improvement would affect 100 people.”
Continue reading “Socialising with other cancer patients can help reduce stress”
A student in Africa has reportedly discovered an alternative treatment for an aggressive type of breast cancer.
Continue reading “Nigerian student develops new treatment for aggressive breast cancer”
The ‘exciting’ breakthrough uses the body’s immune system to fight the disease
A new pioneering cancer treatment could be approved this autumn by America’s leading health agency.
The groundbreaking treatment, which uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancerous cells, is looking likely to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The treatment, called CAR-T cell immunotherapy could be approved as early as the end of September after a unanimous approval from the agency’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee.
Timothy Cripe, a panel member who is an oncologist with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, has sais the treatment the “most exciting thing I’ve seen in my lifetime.”
Continue reading “Groundbreaking cancer treatment close to approval By FDA”
Ovarian cancer deaths have fallen around the world, largely because of the widespread use of the contraceptive pill, according to a major new study.
A study by Italian researchers has found that the number of people dying from ovarian cancer has dropped over the past decade due to increased use of the contraceptive pill together with a decline in the long-term use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Continue reading “Fall in ovarian cancer deaths worldwide linked to contraceptive pill use”
Tens of thousands of breast cancer patients could be saved from undergoing gruelling chemotherapy with a new test which shows whether drugs will be effective.
Many women with early stage breast cancer get no benefit from chemotherapy after having surgery and radiotherapy but some still receive treatment to be on the safe side.
Now a new test has found to be effective at predicting which patients can be spared treatment.
MammaPrint is a new genomic test which scientists claim is able to accurately predict the risk of cancer recurrence for early-stage, hormone-receptor-positive and negative disease.
Continue reading “Breast Cancer: New genomic test mans women could safely skip chemo”
