MedWire News: Intralesional injection of interleukin (IL)-7 and IL-15 enhances the effects of radiofrequency thermal ablation (RFA) in inhibiting tumor development and metastases, animal study results show.
RFA, used for the treatment of solid tumors and known for its localized tumor effects, may activate immune responses and thereby reduce the risk for local tumor recurrence or distant metastases through T cell stimulation.
However, studies have suggested that additional adjuvant immunotherapy may improve the efficacy of RFA.
This preclinical study, reported in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, was conducted to evaluate the effect of addition of the cytokines IL-7 and IL-15 to RFA in models of breast cancer.
Tetrathiomolybdate promotes tumor necrosis and prevents distant metastases by suppressing angiogenesis in head and neck cancer -- Hassouneh et al. 6 (3): 1039 -- Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
T-helper/T-regulator lymphocyte ratio as a new immunobiological index to quantify the anticancer immune status in cancer patients.
Brivio F, Fumagalli L, Parolini D, Messina G, Rovelli F, Rescaldani R, Vigore L, Vezzo R, Vaghi M, Di Bella S, Lissoni P.
In Vivo. 2008 Sep-Oct;22(5):647-50.
PMID: 18853761
RESULTS: The mean TH/TR ratio observed in patients with metasytases was significantly lower with respect to that found in both patients without metastases and controls. On the contrary, the absolute mean number of T-reg cells was higher in patients with metastases than in those without, but the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The evaluation of T-reg cells in terms of their proportion with respect to T-helper cell total number seems to be more appropriate than the simple measurement of their absolute count, in order to quantify cancer-related immunosuppression. Thus, the TH/TR ratio could represent a useful biological marker to explore the immune status of cancer patients.
ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2009) - Researchers at Purdue University have precisely measured the impact of a high-fat diet on the spread of cancer, finding that excessive dietary fat caused a 300 percent increase in metastasizing tumor cells in laboratory animals.
H. Weiler
A platelet cloak for tumor cells
Blood, January 1, 2005; 105(1): 5 - 6.
Palumbo and colleagues show that platelets and fibrinogen protect metastatic tumor cells from elimination by NK cells, confirming a striking mechanistic link between activation of the blood coagulation system and the spread of tumor metastases
"December 17, 2009 (San Antonio) - A new targeted cancer drug has been shown to shrink tumors in women with metastatic breast cancer after an average of seven other drugs, including Herceptin, failed.
The new drug, called T-DM1, combines Herceptin with a potent chemotherapy drug. It's a Trojan horse approach, where Herceptin homes in on cancer cells and delivers the cancer-killing agent directly to its target.
Tumors shrank in one-third of women with metastatic breast cancer given T-DM1, says Ian Krop, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In another 12%, tumors stopped growing for at least six months.
The women remained cancer-free for an average of seven months -- results unheard of in patients this sick, he says.
All the women, who had breast tumors for an average of three years, had cancer that had metastasized, or spread to other parts of the body. They had been treated with an average of seven different therapies, including Herceptin, Tykerb, and Xeloda, and each had failed."
Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive cancer Center have developed a way to image the spread of a particularly dangerous form of cancer">prostate cancer earlier than conventional imaging in use today,
Women who are vitamin D deficient when they are diagnosed with breast cancer are more likely to have their disease spread and are more likely to die than women who have adequate vitamin D levels, new Canadian research says.
The study found that women who were vitamin D deficient were 94 per cent more likely to have their cancer metastasize (spread) and 73 per cent more likely to die.
The research was led by Dr. Pamela Goodwin, a breast cancer researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. The study analyzed blood samples and disease outcome from more than 500 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1989 and 1995. Women were followed up for an average of 11 years.
For several types of cancer, persistently high levels of the soluble factor TGF-beta in the blood after surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy correlate with increased risk of early metastasis and a poor prognosis. Using a mouse model of breast cance