Saturday list is long - trying to get ahead of everything as last week on Sunday I was a floppy no energy person, and we leave Monday morning.  I realized I missed some little anniversaries. Sep 10 is 7 months since I found out I had mets. I mean I probably had them for quite some time before (since they were, um, large) & I didn’t see my MO till later so who knows when we’re counting from but Feb 10 was MY confirmation so that’s what I’m counting from. I made it 7 months with metastatic triple negative breast cancer!  And today is 6 months exactly since I started the clinical trial and had my first chemotherapy & immunotherapy treatment. I have now finished 7 cycles of treatment. Yay Cdn health care, yay BC Cancer Agency, yay my oncologist, yay Roche for giving me access to immunotherapy - the cutting edge of treatment of triple negative breast cancer.  Hey, on that topic, there was a flurry of business news last week with Gilead buying Immunomedics, makers of Trodelvy, for 21 billion USD. Trodelvy is on my list for treatments though right now it’s not even approved in Canada, & in the US it runs for $16,000/cycle of treatment & is approved as third line (meaning you have to try and progress on two other treatments). If you remember my post from April, Trodelvy is the drug in the Ascent Trial which was halted for proof of efficacy. Gilead buying Immunomedics to get their hands on this drug is another exciting sign that this is a drug with potential. PFS (progression free survival - ie period of time in which the metastases either stay stable or regress, as opposed to progressing by getting larger or spreading to new site) in the trial was 5.6 months with Trodelvy compared to 1.7 months on chemo alone. I haven’t seen results yet on overall survival yet but if they follow previous immunotherapy results, a small handful of people have excellent long tail response.  *UPDATE - someone just shared this with me: “phase 3 Ascent trial presented Saturday at the European Society of Medical Oncology's virtual congress showed Trodelvy also helped patients live longer, cutting the risk of death by a whopping 52%. Those on Trodelvy lived a median 12.1 months, compared with just 6.7 months for chemo patients “ WOW. That’s big, especially in this heavily pre-treated population, ie people who have already run through several lines of treatment. 

Ok, & hi a couple new readers! Welcome. There’s a link to archives in the left margin. The metastatic recurrence crap starts in February 2020.  & I’m signing off with Enrique & Don’t Tell Me No :) 

BPOM : Obat Kanker Tecentriq Sebabkan Resiko Baru Miositis terkait Imun

farmasetika.com – Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan (BPOM) merilis Informasi Keamanan (Safety Communication) dari PT. Roche Indonesia (18/9/2019) terkait dengan risiko penting baru yang teridentifikasi yaitu miositis terkait imun pada penggunaan Tecentriq® (Atezolizumab).

Pemberian TECENTRIQ® (atezolizumab) direkomendasikan untuk dihentikan sementara pada miositis terkait imun derajat sedang atau…

The Battle Against Cancer

by. pvillanueva

According to the American Cancer society approximately 1,735,350 new cases of Cancer were diagnosed in 2018. From that number 609,640 people will die from the deadly disease. As of 2017 on the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States Cancer sits at number 2.  There are currently more than 100 types of cancer known in existence. With a disease so rampant and no true cure, we as a society have to find ways to battle and defeat this menace. There are no guarantees when it comes to cancer recovery. And while many people can be successful in their own fight and go into remission, this benchmark doesn’t mean we can’t die or even guarantee that we still don’t have it in our bodies. This brings to question, one that many doctors and researchers spend their careers studying; outside of chemotherapy what is the best tool to help fight cancer? Will we ever master THE fight against cancer?

In Sundays addition of the New York Times writer Denise Grady addresses the exact issue I am choosing to question. The article focuses on women with aggressive types of breast cancer called “Triple-Negative” breast cancer. Triple negative breast cancer refers to the tumors’ lack of sensitivity to the hormones estrogen and progesterone, and their lack of protein called HER2, which is a treatment target. Grady discusses in her article that researchers are excited about this long awaited break through for a combination treatment of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, also called biologic therapy, is a type of cancer treatment that boosts the body’s natural defense to fight cancer. It uses substances made by the body or in a laboratory to improve or restore immune system function. The article talks about how women with this aggressive type of cancer are using a combination of these treatments and they are living longer compared to women who aren’t.  Grady writes “Among those who received the combination, the median survival was 21.3 months, compared to 17.6 months for this who received chemo alone.” Chemotherapy, which is widely considered to be the most effective combatant of cancer, is designed to try and stop or slow the growth of cancer cells. It can also harm healthy cells during this process. And while this method has been proven effective in a lot of cases it is also very harmful as well. But when paired with immunotherapy the effects seem to give women who suffer from this aggressive cancer a fighting chance. And at times that’s all people want, a fighting chance.

As the world of Science continues to advance another story was brought to my attention that I found to very unique in this battle against cancer. Walter and Eliza Hall of Medical Research in Melbourne explain in an article how new anti cancer drugs can put cancer sells to sleep permanently. The drugs work by targeting both KAT6A and KAT6B proteins, which play important roles in driving cancer. These drugs help those who suffer from blood and liver cancer. Where this treatment really benefits patients is that unlike chemotherapy when it’s treating the body there is no damage being done to the DNA. So instead of destroying both of the good and bad cells in the patients bodies, this drug only focuses on the cancer cells and is designed to disable them permanently. This treatment also broke news as it successfully targeted genes that were deemed ‘undruggable’. These genes that were untreatable are now being targeted and treated.

Trial and error is the name of the game in the research medical field. As you previously read all types of cancer can be fought with different kinds of drugs and medicines. With information provided from the University of California San Diego  in the article Is the next big step in Cancer therapy personalized Vaccines? Their study is one that focuses on fighting pancreatic cancer. In short Dr. Stephen Schoenberger explains this trials attack strategy as this, “Scientists and clinicians have developed a technology that reliably defines the neoantigens—foreign protein fragments recognized by the immune system—in a patient's cancer.With neoantigens identified, the team can identify peptides—strings of amino acids—that can be used to create a vaccine to stimulate a protective immune system response. Essentially, the information in a patient's cancer is used to boost the immune system to initiate a stronger response from both cytotoxic and "helper" T cells—white blood cells that collaborate to destroy cancer cells.” All of these vaccines are incredibly hard to control but at the same time are incredibly accurate and precise because they are so personalized. Since the start of this trial Dr. Schoenbergers top patient has shown positive response and has remained strong through the entire process. Dr. Stephen ends the article by speaking highly of the cancer trial programs. And every day that they keep the trial going is another day of success.

While some trials are up and running, most start with alot of bumps in the road. There are a those that show great promise even if they are beginning stages of development. The University of Texas is in development of a new cancer treatment that uses enzymes to boost immune systems and fight back. This enzyme boosting trial does not directly kill cancer cells but instead gives the immune system power to help fight back. It is the goal to get patient’s immune systems back to full health and functioning. Because one healthy system can combat the spread of cancer and possibly eliminate it. Although Enzymes have been used in other studies and treatments such as  Leukemia these Enzymes focus more on the immune system. What’s different about this trial compared to the others is that it is still in the very early stages. There are a lot of side affects and kinks that need to work out before this can be classified as a full trial treatment.

How Living Drugs Could Help Fight Cancer

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A new study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday, suggests that a drug already on the market to treat osteoporosis could be another option in the fight against breast cancer.(More…)

Private insurers have also been put into unfavorable situations in having to deny patients the adequate care necessary to fairly fight cancer from a bottom-line perspective.(…