Blog Update

Thank you for visiting the Mission Tumor blog. This blog is no longer being actively maintained and the current domain (http://www.missiontumor.com) will not be renewed after 2015. However, all published posts will still be available at http://missiontumor.blogspot.com. Further, all comments left will be sporadically moderated and published.

FDA Issues Draft Guidance for Industry's Use of Social Media to Reach Patients

Patients rely heavily on social media, blogs, and websites owned by companies, advocacy or non-profit organizations, bloggers, and medical/research professionals to obtain educational, medical and drug (or medical device) related information. Of these, the information provided by pharmaceutical companies, via social media or their websites, are among the primary sources; thus, a higher bar for accuracy is expected from them. 

While litigation averse companies put out sketchy information often limited to a copy of drug prescribing information, others combine it with subtle marketing messages (for example, in the form of patient stories) which may influence patients' choices, though very few include recent trials data or clinical experience on their website. Now FDA has released four draft guidance documents to clarify how and what information may be released via the web or internet communications that's in the best interest of patients. These documents are available here and here.

Dartmouth College Cancer Society: Helping Patients around the House

Cancer Patients need more than an access to best doctors, treatment options and drugs; or financial and emotional support. These patients and their families often need help navigating day-to-day chores, a need that is often overlooked by cancer support systems and remains underserved.

Cancer patients under care of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center in New Hampshire have an access to a unique patient support program run by the Dartmouth College Cancer Society.

Dogs Teaching Us a Thing or Two About Cancer Biology

The German shepherd standing on my front lawn, and his friends in the neighborhood, the rottweiler, the maltese, the shih tzus, the husky, and the other exotic breeds, have one thing in common: Like humans, they are living into their golden ages, and are increasingly showing up with diseases of old age, including cancer. Dogs once past the age of 10 years have a 50% chance of developing any type of cancer. (A 10 year old dog, depending on the breed, is same age as a 55-65 year old man.) 

All types of cancers seen in humans also show up in dogs. For example, take breast cancer: Like women, female dogs (those not neutered, or are at a breeder) also come down with breast cancer, generally called mammary cancer in dogs.

Further, not only the biology of cancer is similar in dogs and man, the dogs also respond to same cancer drugs that are used for humans.


Comparative Oncology

On March 31st, 2014, The New York Times profiled the Penn Vet Shelter Canine Mammary Tumor Program on its website. This innovative program, run by Dr Karin Sorenimo, the Professor of Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, takes in shelter dogs for cancer treatment and care; the dogs in turn help advance research into the biology of cancer by ways that are impossible to do in humans.

Charity of the Month: American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation

4/12/2014

American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation promotes health and well-being of all dogs by supporting research in canine diseases and dissemination of canine health information.

The Foundation embraces the OneHealth model by supporting medical, physical, and social well-being of dogs and their owners. 

Smoking is Down in the US and that's a Good Thing

A clip from the economist.com shows 2 graphs: one from the Surgeon-General's report that came out in 1964 that "smoking kills," and the other follows smoking behavior in US over the last century. 

Cancer Drugs Losing Out: Pruning the Branches, Not Cutting the Trees

An oncologist puts the cancer patient on a targeted therapy, the cancer goes away, patient goes home. But, 6 months later, the cancer is back (relapsed) and is aggressive stage IV. Biologically, the cancer cells have mutated to bypass/ignore the expensive targeted therapy.

At the molecular level, the cancer cells are constantly mutating, evolving, and generating diversity. This phenomenon of cancer evolution is central to cancer relapse, tumor escape and therapeutic failure.

New research from the Institute of Cancer Research, UK, shows extreme diversity of cancer cell types in leukemia patients: multiple cancers within a cancer. 

Using canSAR Database to Learn About Cancer Drugs and Targets

Imagine that you heard about a groundbreaking hot new cancer drug on the evening news. And you are curious, and you want to find more about this drug. Where would you turn to? Google? 

Among the search engine hits will be a press release from the company and a multitude of news commentaries and blogposts, all various incarnations of the press release itself. These sources will have a summary of the best results from the Phase 3 clinical trial, promising (maybe self-congratulatory) statements from the CEO or CMO of the company, a paragraph on safety signals and usual disclaimers.

But what if you actually want to know more about the drug target, its biology, chemistry, structural biology, pharmacology, bioactivity (and experimental models) and all kinds of apparently boring (to the investment community) scientific data. 

This "mundane" data is generally scattered in journal articles, conferences abstracts and posters, and patent filings. Now there is an easier way to get a snapshot of this data: via a public database canSAR.

Common Mutations Drive 12 Different Cancer Types

Cancer types from leukemia to breast cancer, and bladder cancer to lung cancer are all driven by a common set of genes containing driver mutations. Researchers from The Cancer Genome Network (TCGN) sequenced and analyzed genomes of 3,281 tumors from 12 different cancer types and discovered 127 genes that were involved in the initiation or progression of these cancers. This research appears in the October 17, 2013, issue of the journal Nature. 

Cancer Meetings and Conferences 2013 (Archived)

Archived list below.

***For upcoming meetings list, go to page 

 http://www.missiontumor.com/p/upcoming-meeting-and-conferences.html