Saturday, October 29, 2011

Specialists attending what may be the largest sarcoma conference ever held discuss ways to improve and increase clinical trials for the rare cancer.

Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) October 29, 2011

“Alliance” was the key as volunteers for the Sarcoma Alliance, a patient advocacy organization, attended the biannual meeting of SARC this week in Chicago.

People sometimes confuse SARC (Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration), which runs clinical trials at cancer centers, with the Sarcoma Alliance, which provides guidance, education and support to people affected by sarcoma.

Both are national, nonprofit organizations, and both recognize that cooperation is vital when dealing with a rare cancer like sarcoma, said Arthur Beckert, executive director of the Sarcoma Alliance, based in Mill Valley, Calif. It was founded in 1999.

The Alliance educates patients about clinical trials and encourages participation. Clinical trials are run to see if treatments are safe and effective.

In 2001, SARC opened its first clinical trial, said SARC President Denise Reinke, who runs its day-to-day activities. Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., SARC was incorporated in 2005. It now has 13 trials, with two new ones opening, at 44 institutions, she said.

“We realized over time that we had data sets that weren’t compatible,” she said, because different scientists developed clinical trials at different times. In response, SARC made a “data dictionary” of terms so that trials would have a common language.

The result is the Clinical Data Repository, which can assist researchers, Reinke said. The data also is tied to tumor samples from the clinical trials.

“It’s good to do this early before you have too much data,” she said, referring to much older cooperative groups.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md., has designated cooperative groups to run clinical trials, such as the Children’s Oncology Group and the Southwest Oncology Group, and these groups receive federal funding. The groups have done clinical trials on sarcoma.

Wanting more, sarcoma physicians created SARC. It has become the leader in sarcoma trials, said Dr. Chand Khanna of the NCI, who discussed plans for SARC to work more closely with the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Lee Helman, also of the NCI, reported on the SARC012 trial for an oral drug, Saracatinib, to treat patients with resected, recurrent osteosarcoma. Even though the NCI will pay for patients’ expenses, not enough patients have enrolled to justify the trial. He feared SARC might have to give up on it.

The NCI’s Dr. Brigitte Widemann also sought more patients for the SARC006 trial on chemotherapy and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor.

Later, physicians said they hoped to get more patients in these trials.

“Because of the rarity of these tumors, it’s hard for one center to enroll enough patients to answer any questions. That’s why SARC makes such a difference,” said Dr. Gina D’Amato of TRM-Oncology in Atlanta. “But not every trial can be a SARC trial because of regulatory and financial issues.”

When a woman introduced herself as being from the Federal Drug Administration, she joked: “Don’t throw darts at me.” Someone in the audience shot back: “Darts aren’t big enough.” The FDA representative said drug companies are more to blame than the FDA for difficult restrictions on clinical trials.

Meanwhile, drug company representatives often blame the FDA for failing to approve drugs that could be useful in treating sarcoma, such as Trabectedin, which is approved in Europe, but continues in clinical trials in the U.S.

Dr. Bob Benjamin of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston raised the question of how to fund clinical trials that don’t particularly interest drug companies.

The lack of official NCI designation as a cooperative group means more red tape, explained Dr. Charles Forscher of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His hospital will accept any trials done by an NCI-designated group, but subjects SARC trials to a long review process. It would be even more difficult, he said, without SARC handling these details for trials involving different hospitals.

“What SARC provides is an infrastructure,” said Mac Tichenor, who became chairman a year ago. SARC now has $7 million in unrestricted funds, and he invited ideas on how to make the best use of them.

The SARC meeting was held Thursday, in conjunction with the annual meetings of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society. These meetings end Saturday.

This is the first time that CTOS and MSTS have met together. About 800 people who research sarcoma and/or treat patients around the world are attending the joint meeting, the largest ever in North America, said Barbara Rapp, executive director of CTOS. Dr. Ian Judson of the Royal Marsden hospital in London, a former CTOS president, said he didn’t know of any sarcoma meeting in Europe that has been larger. CTOS President Lor Randall of Huntsman Cancer Center in Salt Lake City said the Chicago meeting may be the largest international conference on sarcoma ever held.

October 12, 2011 09:05 ET

Contact Information

Tickets and Inquiries:
Christopher (Chris) Goneau
(613)282-3044 or (613) 424-6232
cjgoneau@hotmail.com

Inquiries:
Anne Coulombe
(613) 957-2476 or (613) 841-6513
jacques.anne.coulombe@hotmail.com
www.valeriesflutter.com (Under Construction)

September 27, 2011 / YBOR CITY, Fla

Moffitt Cancer Center and Columbia Restaurant Group will kick off “Dining for Life,”a partnership to raise money and awareness in the fight against cancer.  The “Dining for Life” campaign will run from October 1 – November 6 in Columbia’s seven locations: Tampa’s Historic Ybor City; St. Armand’s Circle in Sarasota; the historic district of St. Augustine; The Pier in St. Petersburg;  Sand Key in Clearwater Beach; Celebration; and the Columbia Café on the Riverwalk at the Tampa Bay History Center.

Richard Gonzmart, fourth generation family member and president of the Columbia Restaurant Group, created the “Dining for Life” promotion to raise awareness for adolescent and young adult (AYA) osteosarcoma cancer, to help Moffitt find a cure, and to give hope to those fighting cancer.

• Osteosarcoma is the second most common cancer in children.
• More than half the number of osteosarcoma diagnoses in the U.S. are in children.

During the “Dining for Life” campaign, Columbia’s customers can donate any amount they wish in addition to their check.  Columbia and the Gonzmart family will match the donation, and donate more than $500,000 in the fight against AYA osteosarcoma.

Gonzmart was particularly inspired by 8-year-old Josalyn Kaldenberg, who is the first pediatric cancer patient in the United States to have her entire upper arm bone replaced with one made of chrome and titanium.  Last May, Moffitt Cancer Center surgeon Dr. Douglas Letson became the first American surgeon to remove an entire humerus in a child and insert an expandable prosthesis in its place.  Before her parents brought her to Moffitt, other doctors recommended amputating her arm.

Artificial limb replacement is not an uncommon solution for bone cancer patients; it’s been done in the United States for roughly 15 years. Also, most replacements involve tumors invading just 20 percent to 30 percent of the bone. In Josalyn’s case, Letson replaced the entire humerus, as well as the elbow and shoulder joints in Josalyn’s 48-pound body.

“AYA cancer patients are typically between the ages of 15-30, and don’t respond to the treatment traditionally used to fight sarcoma,” said Gonzmart.  “I want to focus on raising money for this area of cancer research because pharmaceutical companies believe there‘s a ‘low return on investment,’ and that it is not worth it for them financially to invest dollars even though lives are on the line.”

Columbia Restaurant Group and Moffitt established the campaign to demonstrate how we can bring an end to cancer by working together. “Dining for Life” will help researchers and physicians in their quest to eliminate cancer through education and outreach programs.

Gonzmart selected the month of October for the promotion for a reason. After hearing Josalyn’s story, he was so inspired by her courage that he decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., on October 30.  Gonzmart has been a marathon runner for the last 20 years, but had decided not to run any more marathons since the Stockholm Marathon in 2007. He hopes to present Josalyn with a medal from his run in the Marine Corps Marathon.

The “Dining for Life” campaign ends on Sunday, Nov. 6.  Gonzmart extended the campaign from October to coincide with the anniversary weekend of his 10th annual “Richard’s Run for Life” 5K, taking place on Friday, Nov. 4at 7:00 p.m. in Ybor City’s Centennial Park with  100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the adolescent and young adult (AYA) initiative for sarcoma research at Moffitt Cancer Center.
For more information, see www.richardsrunforlife.org

For more information about the “Dining for Life” campaign, please visit www.InsideMoffitt.com/Giving.

About Moffitt Cancer Center
Located in Tampa, Florida, Moffitt Cancer Center is an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center – a designation that recognizes Moffitt’s excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Moffitt currently has 14 affiliates in Florida, one in Georgia, one in Pennsylvania and two in Puerto Rico. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country’s leading cancer centers, and is listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” for cancer.  Moffitt marks a very important anniversary in 2011 – 25 years committed to one mission: to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer.

About Columbia Restaurant
The Columbia Restaurant was founded in 1905 in Ybor City and is Florida’s Oldest Restaurant.  Additional locations include St. Armands Circle in Sarasota, the Historic District in St. Augustine, The Pier in Downtown St. Petersburg, Sand Key on Clearwater Beach, Central Florida’s town of Celebration and the Columbia Café on the Riverwalk in Tampa. All Columbia Restaurants are owned and operated by 4th and 5th generation members of the founding family. Please see www.columbiarestaurant.com for more information.

For more information, contact:
D. Shenell Reed
Moffitt Cancer Center Foundation
DShenell.Reed@MOFFITT.org
(813) 745-1413

Angela Geml
Columbia Restaurant
a.geml@columbiarestaurant.com
(813) 248-3000 ext. 17

Direct Link:  http://www.prnewschannel.com/2011/09/27/moffitt-cancer-center-and-columbia-restaurant-group-team-up-for-dining-for-life-oct-1-%e2%80%93-nov-6-2011/ SOURCE:  The Columbia Restaurant Group

This press release is distributed by PR NewsChannel. Your News. Everywhere

By Lori Valigra, Mass High Tech correspondent

Cooperative nanoparticles, vaccines, and targeted “cancer bomb” therapies were among the research discussed at a cancer symposium at MIT Wednesday that focused on conquering cancer by converging science and engineering.

“There are still major things we don’t know about cancer,” said Phillip Sharp, an institute professor in the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, which opened in 2010 and was dedicated on March 4 of this year.

The new Koch institute, according to MIT President Susan Hockfield, has 27 faculty labs with 100 undergraduate, 150 graduate, and 150 postdoc students. The cancer symposium was the second of six such events celebrating MIT’s 150th anniversary.

Sharp and other speakers talked about the difficulty of tackling cancer, which can spread rapidly — such metastasis are responsible for about 90 percent of cancer deaths — and that can become resistant to treatment, which is difficult to get into the cancer cells in the first place.

“Worldwide, about two-thirds of cancer deaths are preventable, theoretically, and a significant percentage are manageable or curable,” said Nancy Hopkins, biology professor at MIT and also with the Koch center. She pointed to vaccines that are coming along and could prevent upwards of 90 percent of cervical cancer and eliminate the need for pap smears. Cancer research has come a long way since President Richard Nixon declared the war on cancer in 1971, she said. “We are chipping away at it effectively,” said Hopkins, herself a cancer survivor, but “the discoveries we’ve made need to be exploited better.” This can be done by bringing engineers into biological research projects.

Douglas Lauffenberger, head of MIT’s biological engineering department, said advances can be made with a new type of engineering — biological engineering — that thinks about biology as molecular circuits and systems. He pointed to Cambridge-based Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he sits on the scientific advisory board, as a “poster child” for the fusion of engineering and biology. The company’s lead product, MM-121, is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for treating oncology patients.

“Biology is a different type of science than physics or chemistry, which have laws and known variables. The variables aren’t known in biology, so it’s hard to develop a preventative engineering model. It’s a brand new type of thinking,” Lauffenberger said.

One engineer with a long track record in biological research is Robert Langer, Koch member and professor of chemical and biological engineering at MIT. Langer began his work in the lab of Judah Folkman, noted for his research on stopping angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that spreads cancer.

“Folkman thought if you could stop angiogenesis, maybe you could stop a tumor,” said Langer. They initially worked with cartilage they got from a meat packer in South Boston but later changed to the rabbit eye and isolated the first angiogenesis inhibitor in 1976, and described it in a paper in Science magazine that year. It wasn’t till about 20 years later that the first angiogenesis inhibitor drug was approved — Avastin, for colorectal cancer, in 2004, he said.

Langer subsequently formed his own lab, from which dozens of startup companies have sprung, including Cambridge-based Bind Biosciences Inc., started in 2007 with backing from Flagship Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, NanoDimension and DHK Investment. The company targets cancer drugs to tumor cells to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy and reduce its side effects. It uses engineered nanoparticles to deliver drugs to specific cancer cells. Langer said the company started its first clinical trials this January of its lead compound BIND-014.

Another approach uses two cooperative nanoparticles that communicate, one binding to the tumor and the other carrying a payload of therapy in an effort to deliver more drug to molecular “zip codes” or peptide sequences, said Sangeeta Bhatia, MIT professor and director of the Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies.

“Most cancer drugs are poisons with side effects, and less than 1 percent of them are absorbed,” she said. “So we can use nanotechnology to decrease the side effects and get more drug into the tumor.”

Asked if there has been a game-changing technology, Langer related a story told by David Koch at the opening of his institute. Koch said that as a young man he went to the Kentucky Derby and wanted to win, said Langer, so he bet on every horse to win. “I think that’s a good approach to cancer,” said Langer.

A new report recently released by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) confirms the devastating effects of the cost of cancer in the state of Texas. Annual direct medical costs and the costs of morbidity and mortality losses associated with cancer in Texas now total $25.3 billion, a 15.8% increase since 2007. In contrast to this spiraling increase, the report also estimates that CPRIT-funded programs in cancer research and prevention in the state have a total economic impact in Texas of $852.3 million in output.

“None of us are surprised by these findings. Unfortunately, cancer affects the lives of more and more Texans each year. This report confirms that the state of Texas is attacking this unrelenting disease head-on – by funding research and prevention efforts to eradicate cancer in our lifetime,” stated Jimmy Mansour, chairman of CPRIT’s governing board.

The report, prepared by The Perryman Group, also points out that funds expended for CPRIT operations and programs are estimated to generate $265.6 million in annual state revenue, as well as $169.7 million in annual revenue to various local governments. These gains, though focused specifically on business activity through CPRIT investments, might be just the beginning. Research could lead to better prevention, diagnoses and treatments that lessen the cost of cancer and yield spinoff companies.

“Once again, Texas leads the country in its commitment to defeating cancer,” said CPRIT Executive Director Bill Gimson. “We are saving lives, preventing cancer cases and bring a return back to our state.”

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and dedicating up to $3 billion to invest in groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas. CPRIT’s mission is to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the state. CPRIT accepts applications and awards grants for a wide variety of cancer-related research and for the delivery of cancer prevention programs and services by public and private entities located in Texas.

Source:
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217328.php

Main News Category: Cancer / Oncology

A new report recently released by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) confirms the devastating effects of the cost of cancer in the state of Texas. Annual direct medical costs and the costs of morbidity and mortality losses associated with cancer in Texas now total $25.3 billion, a 15.8% increase since 2007. In contrast to this spiraling increase, the report also estimates that CPRIT-funded programs in cancer research and prevention in the state have a total economic impact in Texas of $852.3 million in output.

“None of us are surprised by these findings. Unfortunately, cancer affects the lives of more and more Texans each year. This report confirms that the state of Texas is attacking this unrelenting disease head-on – by funding research and prevention efforts to eradicate cancer in our lifetime,” stated Jimmy Mansour, chairman of CPRIT’s governing board.

The report, prepared by The Perryman Group, also points out that funds expended for CPRIT operations and programs are estimated to generate $265.6 million in annual state revenue, as well as $169.7 million in annual revenue to various local governments. These gains, though focused specifically on business activity through CPRIT investments, might be just the beginning. Research could lead to better prevention, diagnoses and treatments that lessen the cost of cancer and yield spinoff companies.

“Once again, Texas leads the country in its commitment to defeating cancer,” said CPRIT Executive Director Bill Gimson. “We are saving lives, preventing cancer cases and bring a return back to our state.”

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and dedicating up to $3 billion to invest in groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in Texas. CPRIT’s mission is to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the state. CPRIT accepts applications and awards grants for a wide variety of cancer-related research and for the delivery of cancer prevention programs and services by public and private entities located in Texas.

Source:
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/217328.php

Main News Category: Cancer / Oncology

By Sean Webby

swebby@mercurynews.com

Click photo to enlarge

Steve Whitehill and his wife, Valerie, in the back yard of their Cupertino… ( Patrick Tehan )

The gold-framed picture of how things used to be shows the Whitehills, Steve and Valerie and their three kids, standing side by side on a beach, bathed in sunshine and success.

Seven years later, it hangs near a wobbly, uncertain 52-year-old man in a reclining chair who these days gets hopelessly lost in the small Cupertino ranch house that he built himself.

The man is Steve Whitehill.

That Whitehill family portrait was taken just before doctors suddenly realized that one of the most virulent, lethal forms of cancer was blooming within Steve’s brain. Valerie, smiling beside him in the professionally shot photograph, was soon to suffer her own blow.

In the wake of what has happened, Steve and Valerie’s successful business, Whitehill Landscaping, has withered away. Their savings are barren, depleted by medical costs. They are unable to pay for the services that can retrain Steve to brush his teeth, protect his head when he falls or take out the garbage by following a pink ribbon between the house and the trash can.

For a while he progressed, learning again to do the basics and to socialize at Services for Brain Injury in San Jose, the only nonprofit organization in Northern California that helps people like Steve reach the highest level of independence possible. But the Whitehills can no longer afford it, even at a sliding-scale rate. Now the burden falls to Valerie and the college-age children, when they are home, to care for Steve

“We are in robot mode,” says Valerie. Along with Steve, she taught their children to contribute to charitable efforts, but now she and her husband survive on disability payments from Social Security. “It’s like the world has stopped for us.”

The first sign that something was wrong with Steve came in the summer of 2003 with strange, uncontrollable drooling and blazing headaches. Maybe allergies or stress, his doctors suggested at first. Perhaps you’re working too hard.

That Christmas, Steve’s increasing lethargy put an end to the family tradition of chopping down their own Christmas tree. Steve and two of his kids were at Home Depot buying a tree when a headache hit him so severely that the family rushed him to El Camino Hospital.

By the time doctors could talk to his terrified wife, they were warning that Steve could be dead in weeks.

The Whitehills prayed as surgeons took out as much of the tumor as possible, along with a portion of Steve’s right frontal lobe.

Steve was left with little short-term memory, and his long-term memories were scrambled. Many basic life skills had vanished. Steve first had to relearn activities of daily living: using the toilet, bathing, feeding himself.

Experts say an injured brain is much like a computer after it crashes. You have to reload the operating system first — the basics of bodily function — then add software for specialized tasks like communicating, walking or reading.

After Steve’s surgery, neighbors and friends brought food for the kids, Christmas gifts and even helped with the landscaping business.

In between hospital visits, Valerie went for a regular mammogram. She had breast cancer. Within a few months, she had a lumpectomy. Then, soon afterward, she had a mastectomy.

She had no time or energy, she says, to wonder why it was happening to them.

Now she is in remission, which is good, she says, because she needs all her energy to take care of Steve.

In many ways, the proud guy who once patented his own irrigation device is now like a young child, unable to find his own socks.

“It’s just like I don’t know where anything is,” he says in words that come out in an inchworm cadence. “It’s like a new world to me.”

He knows Bruce Bochy just managed his Giants to a World Series title, and it makes him laugh with delight. Yet he is pretty sure that it’s 2001.

There are comforting remnants of the old Steve. He waxes rhapsodic of the feeling of sinking his fingers into soil, the smell of mystery gardenias at night. His wife finds dried flower petals in the laundry because Steve has secreted them in his pockets.

Fewer than half the people who have successful surgery for glioblastoma survive a single year, says Carol Welsh of Services for Brain Injury. Steve has marked seven years of survival, with his cancer in remission for more than two years following a clinical trial with a drug from Genentech.

He looks at the photo of the way it used to be and knows he is not that person anymore. But he is not angry at God or frightened like he once was.

“This is just the way it is,” he says.

Says Welsh: “Steve has come a long way since his tumor was removed but has more to learn. If he can restart daily rehabilitation at SBI, his ability to be independent — and possibly return to a productive life — is quite promising. Without rehabilitation, there is no question his future is unknown.”

Donations of $50 or more from Wish Book readers will help Steve return to Services for Brain Injury for rehabilitation. For information about the organization, visit www.sbicares.org.