Following are some of the most recent, significant findings, as reported by media across the country.
First National Clinical Trial for Incurable Children's Cancer Launched by Van Andel Institute
5/6/2013
(Mlive.com) -- GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The first national clinical trial ever approved to study all incurable children’s cancers is underway at Van Andel Institute.
Of the 10,000 pediatric cancer cases diagnosed each year, about 25 percent are considered incurable even with aggressive treatments. The study will analyze the molecular makeup and genetic mutations of individual tumors to create a targeted treatment plan for each patient.
"We are very excited to have this study at Van Andel Institute," said Dr. Giselle Sholler, the pediatric oncologist leading the research...Read more
Scientists Find Mutation Driving Pediatric Brain Tumors
4/30/2013
(Sciencecodex.com) -- BOSTON—A type of low-grade but sometimes lethal brain tumor in children has been found in many cases to contain an unusual mutation that may help to classify, diagnose and guide the treatment of the tumors, report scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The researchers led a study of pediatric low-grade gliomas, samples of which were collected through an international consortium organized by brain tumor specialists at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center. Their findings are being published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of April 29.
Low-grade gliomas are the most common type of pediatric brain tumors, diagnosed in about 1,000 young patients annually in the United States. There are about 30 distinct types of these tumors, which arise from specialized cells called glia in the brain. Low-grade gliomas are generally slow-growing, said Keith Ligon, MD, PhD, a senior author of the study, but they behave unpredictably...Read more
Retinoblastoma More Invasive at Diagnosis in Eacial, Ethnic Minority Children
4/25/2013
(News-Medical.net) -- When the eye cancer retinoblastoma is diagnosed in racial and ethnic minority children whose families don't have private health insurance, it often takes a more invasive, potentially life-threatening course than in other children, probably because of delays in diagnosis, Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) researchers will report at the 26th annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology being held in Miami, April 24-27.
By analyzing data and tumor samples from 203 children across the United States who had been treated for retinoblastoma, the investigators found that the disease was more invasive at diagnosis in patients who were non-white, Hispanic, uninsured, or covered by Medicaid. Researchers now need to explore why the disease tends to be diagnosed later in such children and how those delays can be eliminated, said the study authors.
Retinoblastomas are tumors that develop during childhood in the light-sensitive retina at the back of the eye. There are about 350 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. Treatment may require surgical removal of the affected eye and, if the disease...Read more
Inherited Genetic Variations Have a Major Impact on Childhood Leukemia Risk
3/19/2013
(PRNewswire-USNewswire) -- Humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes that carry instructions for assembling the proteins that do the work of cells. Work led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that children who inherit certain variations in four particular genes are at much higher risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
The study also showed that Hispanic patients were more likely than patients of European or African ancestry to inherit high-risk versions of two of these genes. ALL rates are known to be higher among Hispanic children than those of European or African ancestry, this discovery points to at least one reason for that difference.
Each person's genome includes two copies of each gene, one from each parent. Thus, individuals could inherit up to eight high-risk versions of the four genes tied to an increased ALL risk. In this study, researchers found that having more than five copies of the risk genes resulted in a nine-fold greater risk of developing ALL in childhood than inheriting no more than one copy...Read more
Drugs Aim to Make Several Types of Cancer Self-Destruct
12/22/2012
Saturday, December 22 (New York Times) For the first time ever, three pharmaceutical companies are poised to test whether new drugs can work against a wide range of cancers independently of where they originated — breast, prostate, liver, lung. The drugs go after an aberration involving a cancer gene fundamental to tumor growth. Many scientists see this as the beginning of a new genetic age in cancer research.
Great uncertainties remain, but such drugs could mean new treatments for rare, neglected cancers, as well as common ones. Merck, Roche and Sanofi are racing to develop their own versions of a drug they hope will restore a mechanism that normally makes badly damaged cells self-destruct and could potentially be used against half of all cancers...Read more
Blood Cancer Studies Assess Genetics, Modified Treatment To Improve Outcomes, Reduce Toxicity
12/11/2012
Research identifying genetic factors that affect survival of patients with blood cancers and evaluating the effectiveness of modified treatment strategies to improve outcomes while reducing toxicity were presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
While the cancer research community has seen many significant therapeutic advances over the last decade, only recently have investigators identified how patients' individual genetic makeup influences their short- and long-term response to therapy, demonstrating that while the disease may respond positively to therapy, the patient may not... Read more
Drugmakers Nudged by FDA to Find Childhood Cancer Cures
12/4/12
Tuesday, December 4 (Yahoo) Four experimental cancer treatments that may one day help gravely ill children are facing review by U.S. pediatric advisers who have been working for years to find ways to develop more drugs for this underserved population.
The medicines from GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), Amgen (AMGN) Inc., Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc. (THLD) and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH have the potential to treat children with a variety of tumors and fast-spreading leukemia. The pediatric advisers to the Food and Drug Administration, in a meeting today, will discuss how best to test the medicines in sophisticated clinical trials in kids that may eventually lead to marketing approval... Read more
Existing Drugs Offer New Treatment Options for High-Risk Childhood Leukemia Subtype
8/13/12
MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Scientists have identified new genetic alterations underlying a high-risk subtype of the most common childhood cancer that could be effectively targeted with existing leukemia therapies.
The study focused on a subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) known as Philadelphia chromosome-like ALL (Ph-like ALL). This subgroup accounts for as much as 15 percent of childhood ALL that is associated with a high risk of relapse and a poor outcome. The genetic changes driving the disease were previously unknown for about half of all patients with Ph-like ALL. The work identified new alterations in genes that regulate how cells grow and proliferate. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led the research, which appears in the online edition of the journal Cancer Cell... Read more
Key Mutations Discovered for Most Common
Childhood Brain Cancer
7/22/12
Sunday, July 22 (Boston Business Journal) BOSTON -- Researchers at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) and several collaborating institutions have linked mutations in specific genes to each of the four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of children. The discovery, reported July in the journal Nature, provides doctors with potential biomarkers for guiding and individualizing treatment and reveals prospective therapeutic opportunities for countering this devastating malignancy.... Read more
Big Progress in Treating Side Effects of Adults
Who Had Cancer as Children
7/17/12
Tuesday, July 17 (miamiherald.com) --
As childhood cancer treatments have become more successful, more and more patients are surviving to adulthood. In fact, the National Cancer Institute estimates that one in nearly every 500 adults in the United States between ages 20 and 45 is a survivor of childhood cancer.
With longer survival, there’s more chance that young patients will experience the late effects of their cancer treatments as they get older.... Read more
Study Shows Worse Outcomes for Young Adults With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia: Presented at ASCO
6/5/12
TUESDAY, June 5 (PSLGroup.com) CHICAGO --
A phase 3 study of adolescent and young adult patients with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia showed more relapses and worse survival in the older patients.... Read more
Childhood Cancer Survivors Face High Breast Cancer Risk
6/4/12
MONDAY, June 4 (USAToday.com) --
Children diagnosed with cancer remain at risk from a variety of serious, long-term complications even years after doctors pronounce them cured.
Now, new research shows that girls treated with radiation for pediatric tumors face a later risk of breast cancer that's six to seven times as high as that of other women.... Read more
Decoding Cancer: Scientists Release 520 Tumor Genomes from Pediatric Patients
5/30/12
WEDNESDAY, May 30 (Time.com) --
Could the answer to cancer lie within our own DNA? Childhood cancer experts are hoping that at least some of what drives pediatric cancers can be gleaned from the genomes of patients and their tumors. That's the thinking behind the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP), a three-year, $65 million effort to sequence major pediatric cancers... Read more
Folic Acid Tied to Lower Child Cancer Risks
5/23/12
WEDNESDAY, May 23 (FoxNews.com) -- Rates of two rare childhood cancers declined after the U.S. began requiring grain products to be fortified with the B vitamin folic acid, a new study finds... Read more
Study Presents Potential New Treatment Options for Pediatric Neuroblastoma Patients
4/27/12
HOUSTON, April 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A nationwide study led by Dr. Jed Nuchtern, chief of the division of pediatric surgery at Texas Children's Hospital, a pediatric surgeon with Texas Children's Cancer Center and professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, found that the majority of infants with a particular form of neuroblastoma – a childhood tumor that often requires intensive chemotherapy and surgery – excel in their overall progress and survival when the tumor is monitored without surgical resection... Read more
Childhood Leukemia Survival Rates Reach 90 Percent
Death rates from acute lymphoblastic leukemia dropped substantially, 15-year study finds
3/12/12
MONDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- Children with the most common type of leukemia now have a dramatically better chance of survival, a new study shows.
The researchers found five-year survival rates among children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) increased from about 84 percent to 90 percent from 1990 to 2005. Surviving for five years is considered a cure because so few deaths occur past that timeframe... Read more
New Guidelines for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients Issued
3/9/12
National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines address critical issues for these patients upon diagnosis, during treatment and after therapy... Read more
NIH Study Links Childhood Cancer to Delays in Developmental Milestones
Language, motor deficits, seen within months of starting treatment
3/9/12
Infants and toddlers who have been treated for cancer tend to reach certain developmental milestones later than do their healthy peers, say researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Italy... Read more
Inherited Risk Factors for Childhood Leukemia are More Common in Hispanic Patients
PR Newswire, 1/30/12
MEMPHIS -- Hispanic children are more likely than those from other racial and ethnic backgrounds to be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and are more likely to die of their disease. Work led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists has pinpointed genetic factors behind the grim statistics... Read more
New Genetic Markers May Tailor Leukemia Treatment - OncologySTAT
Oncology Professional Resource Network, 1/16/12
SAN DIEGO (EGMN) - Novel genetic alterations have been identified in a new subtype of high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia that could be effectively targeted with existing therapies. The subtype, termed Ph-like ALL, was first identified by the Children's Oncology Group in 2009 (N. Engl. J. Med. 2009;360:470-80), and accounts for up to 15% of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases... Read more
New Scoring System Devised for Youth With Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Pediatric News, 1/10/12
SAN DIEGO – A simple scoring system identified a subset of young patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma who are predicted to have an event-free survival rate of less than 80%.
The system, known as the Childhood Hodgkin International Prognostic Score (CHIPS), found that four factors were predictive of worse event-free survival: stage IV disease, large mediastinal adenopathy, albumin level of less than 3.5 g/dL, and fever, Dr. Cindy L. Schwartz reported during a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology... Read more
Cancer Cells' DNA Repair Disrupted to Increase Radiation Sensitivity
Fox 5 News / PRNewswire-USNewswire, 12/1/11
CINCINNATI -- Shortening end caps on chromosomes in human cervical cancer cells disrupts DNA repair signaling, increases the cells' sensitivity to radiation treatment and kills them more quickly, according to a study in Cancer Prevention Research... Read more
EUSA Pharma Announces FDA Approval of Orphan Drug ERWINAZE(TM) for Treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Biospace, 11/18/11
LANGHORNE, Pa. and OXFORD, England, Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- EUSA Pharma, a transatlantic specialty pharmaceutical company focused on oncology, oncology supportive care and critical care, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its orphan drug ERWINAZE (asparaginase Erwinia chrysanthemi) for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in patients with hypersensitivity to E. coli-derived asparaginase. ERWINAZE will be available to patients throughout the United States immediately... Read more
Protein Associated with Childhood Cancer Alters the Structure of DNA, Leading to Cancer, UNC Study Shows
HealthCanal.com, 11/18/11
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - UNC scientists have demonstrated for the first time how a critical gene associated with a type of childhood cancer alters the way DNA is packaged in cells and leads to cancer. Their laboratory discovery could result in the development of a targeted therapy to treat Ewing Sarcoma, a malignant bone and soft tissue tumor of children and young adults... Read more