Cancer CarePoint Blog

Tumor Surgery More Accurate After Preoperative Brain Mapping

Medical News Today summarizes a study where functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to help surgeons can target brain tumors more effectively. Excerpts below.

Link: Tumor Surgery More Accurate After Preoperative Brain Mapping

By pinpointing the motor and language areas of the brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), surgeons can target brain tumors more effectively while reducing the risk of damaging important cognitive and motor processes, according to a study appearing in the September issue of Radiology.

When brain tumors are located at the body's control center for thinking, sensation and movement, they can drastically affect a person's physical and cognitive abilities. In addition, surgical removal can be tricky because if key areas such as these are damaged, patients may experience postoperative symptoms such as limb weakness, language difficulties or partial blindness.

Each year, approximately 190,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumors in the United States, according to the National Brain Tumor Foundation. Additionally, more than 120 different types of brain tumors have been identified, making effective treatment planning difficult.

After completing this study, Dr. Petrella believes that patients who may have previously been deemed ineligible for surgery based on tumor location may be able to undergo surgery safely, due to the valuable information available with fMRI.

"This is a pilot study. To establish whether fMRI can become a new standard of care, the next step is to assess whether patient outcomes are actually improved in a large multicenter trial with a control group," he said.

Co-author James T. Voyvodic, Ph.D., ascertained that the present study should help boost confidence in making fMRI part of diagnostic brain exams. "If it can be included in a routine MRI exam, it will be quicker, cheaper and more available than it is now," he explained.

MIT Cancer Treatment Could Replace X-ray

Medical News Today reports that MIT is designing an atomic accelerator costing far less than the existing proton-beam accelerators that shoot subatomic particles into tumors. Excerpts below.

Link: MIT Cancer Treatment Could Replace X-ray

Scientists at MIT, collaborating with an industrial team, are creating a proton-shooting system that could revolutionize radiation therapy for cancer. The goal is to get the system installed at major hospitals to supplement, or even replace, the conventional radiation therapy now based on x-rays.

The fundamental idea is to harness the cell-killing power of protons -- the naked nuclei of hydrogen atoms -- to knock off cancer cells before the cells kill the patient. Worldwide, the use of radiation treatment now depends mostly on beams of x-rays, which do kill cancer cells but can also harm many normal cells that are in the way.

What the researchers envision -- and what they're now creating -- is a room-size atomic accelerator costing far less than the existing proton-beam accelerators that shoot subatomic particles into tumors, while minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues. They expect to have their first hospital system up and running in late 2007.

Physicist Timothy Antaya, a technical supervisor in MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was deeply involved in developing the new system and is now working to make it a reality. He argues it "could change the primary method of radiation treatment" as the new machines are put in place.

The beauty of protons is that they are quite energetic, but their energy can be controlled so they do less collateral damage to normal tissues, compared to powerful x-ray beams. Protons enter the body through skin and tissue, hit the tumor and stop there, minimizing other damage.

Because of their high energy and controllability, protons have been used as anti-cancer bullets in the past, with promising results. But medical centers can't easily come up with the $100 million or more needed to build a proton machine dedicated to this medical use. That's because protons are produced inside the huge, expensive atomic accelerators that are usually employed at major atomic research centers, including national laboratories.

Now, Antaya and his colleagues at MIT and at Still River Systems Inc. think they can provide the new machine for far less money, have it occupy just one moderate-size hospital treatment room, and achieve better results than x-ray therapy. MIT is licensing the technology to Still River Systems.

The magnet work of the Technology and Engineering Division of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, led by senior research engineer Joseph Minervini, is key to the new system. That work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Science.

Pomegranate Juice May Lower PSA Progression In Patients With Cancer Recurrence After Prostatectomy Or Radiation Therapy

Medical News Today features research about the effects of ingesting highly antioxidant pomegranate juice on cancer patients. Excerpts below.

Link: Pomegranate Juice and Cancer

...pomegranate juice is frequently recommended for cancer prevention and overall wellness.

In the July issue of Clinical Cancer Research, Pantuck and colleagues from UCLA report on the first Phase II study evaluating the efficacy of pomegranate juice against prostate cancer recurrence.

The results suggest that pomegranate juice may lower PSA progression in patients with cancer recurrence after prostatectomy or radiation therapy.

This provocative study is the first organized trial studying the efficacy of pomegranate juice for the prevention of prostate cancer recurrence. While the endpoint of the study was PSA progression, this well performed study with a translational design also revealed laboratory evidence of a potential role in decreasing cell proliferation and reducing oxidative stress.

By Ricardo Sánchez-Ortiz, MD, Clin Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 1;12(13):4018-4026.

Proton beams control liver tumors

Reuters.com describes research on patients with liver tumors treated with proton beam radiation therapy. Excerpts below.

Link: Proton beams control liver tumors | Health | Reuters.com

Patients with liver tumors called hepatocellular carcinomas and who have few other treatment options are likely to benefit from proton beam radiation therapy, Japanese researchers report in the journal Cancer.

Lead investigator Dr. Masaharu Hata told Reuters Health: "Proton beam therapy was given safely and effectively to a wide spectrum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma."

At 5 years, overall survival was 33 percent and cause-specific survival was 67 percent.

Proton beam therapy was well tolerated.

"The results suggested that this method was tolerable and effective," concluded Hata, "even for patients who had severe coexisting diseases or unfavorable conditions for whom other treatment modalities were contraindicated or unfeasible."

Cancer August 2006.

Needle Biopsy Gives Insight Into Breast Cancer Genetics

Forbes.com describes a procedure called core needle biopsy. Excerpts below.

Link: Needle Biopsy Gives Insight Into Breast Cancer Genetics - Forbes.com.

Breast tumor samples collected by a procedure called core needle biopsy provide an accurate snapshot of gene expression for the entire tumor, researchers say.

The finding confirms the reliability of core needle biopsy as a method of breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis, the Swiss team reported in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

According to the study, the biopsy appears to trigger the expression of four genes involved in inflammation and wound healing, as well as tumor invasion and metastasis. This results in a different gene expression profile in surgical samples taken after the core needle biopsy.

Doctors must take care when interpreting the gene expression profile of surgical samples taken after a core biopsy, the researchers said. While the expression of these four genes does not change the tumor's aggressiveness, their activity could influence risk assessment and treatment decisions.

Frequency and Cost of Chemotherapy-Related Serious Adverse Effects on Women With Breast Cancer

Cancer Spectrum: A research team investigated the number, nature, and costs of serious adverse effects experienced by younger women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer. Excerpts below.

Link: Cancer Spectrum: Hassett et al., pp. 1108-1117.

Women who received chemotherapy were more likely than those who did not to be hospitalized or to visit the emergency room and for chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects. The percentages of chemotherapy recipients who were hospitalized or visited the emergency room during the year after their breast cancer diagnosis were

• 8.4% for fever or infection;
• 5.5% for neutropenia or thrombocytopenia;
• 2.5% for dehydration or electrolyte disorders; 2.4% for nausea, emesis, or diarrhea;
• 2.2% for anemia; 2% for constitutional symptoms; 
• 1.2% for deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolus; and
• 0.9% for malnutrition.

Chemotherapy recipients incurred large incremental expenditures for chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects ($1271 per person per year) and ambulatory encounters ($17 617 per person per year).

Conclusions: Chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects among younger, commercially insured women with breast cancer may be more common than reported by large clinical trials and lead to more patient suffering and health care expenditures than previously estimated. 

Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 16, 1108-1117, August 16, 2006

Exercise aids breast cancer recovery

The New Zealand Herald reports that women recovering from breast cancer treatment can improve their quality of life from aerobics and resistance training. Excerpts below.

Link: Exercise aids breast cancer recovery - 05 Aug 2006 - Technology & Science

Aerobics and resistance training exercises can improve the quality of life for women recovering from breast cancer treatment.

Other studies had shown that cancer patients and survivors can increase their physical work capacity and improve their tolerance to fatigue through cardiorespiratory exercise training, using treadmills or walking outdoors.

The benefits of strength-building resistance training was less studied.

Dr Alejandro Lucia, of the Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain, and colleagues looked at the combined effect of a training programme using cardiorespiratory and resistance exercises in female breast cancer survivors.

By the end of the eight-week study, women in the exercise group showed improvements in their quality of life, based on their scores on a 30-item questionnaire.

Their cardiorespiratory fitness also improved, as shown by their improved oxygen uptake, the researchers report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine. The women also gained strength and muscle function, in comparison to their performance on tests conducted before the sessions.

"These findings are of relevance as previous research has shown that long-term fatigue ... with subsequent decreases in quality of life is also a serious problem for cancer survivors, as up to 30 per cent may experience this symptom for years after termination of treatment," the researchers write.

Women in the comparison, non-exercising group did not show improvements in their quality-of-life or their physical functioning, the results indicate.

Genetics may decide cancer treatment

The Seattle Times describes a gene test that may improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Excerpts below.

Link: The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Genetics may decide cancer treatment.

Scientists have created a gene-profiling test that may someday help reveal which people with early lung cancer are likely to suffer a relapse and would benefit most from chemotherapy.

Separately, other researchers found that several new tumor-profiling tests for breast cancer, including two already in general use, are similar in accuracy and should allow many women to avoid unnecessary chemo.

The lung-cancer one needs far more testing, but is "breakthrough research" building on years of work to develop personalized cancer treatments, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

Its accuracy so far — about 80 percent — is "better than what we have, but it's not as good as we would like," said Lichtenfeld, who had no role in the research.

The studies were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine [Aug 10].