blood cancer Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Leukemia Cure? Patient Still Cancer-Free 11 Years After Innovative Treatment

AHA Publisher — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 08:22:07 +0000

Lorie Johnson via CBN News – Doug Olson may be 75 years old, but he feels great. He’s still cancer-free 11 years after he potentially faced death from a blood cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia. At that time, his doctors informed him that the treatments he had been trying we not working. “Terrified is probably the best word to describe it,” Olson told CBNNews. Feeling he had nothing to lose, Doug agreed to an experimental treatment developed at the University of Pennsylvania called CAR-T therapy. It uses the patient’s own immune system, specifically the T-cells. Olson said the process of gathering those cells took about three hours. “Your blood comes out of one arm, goes into a machine that takes out your white cells and then the rest of your blood goes back in the other arm,” he said. Scientists then take the cells they removed and add receptors to them that allow the cells to bind to invading cancer cells and kill them. These modified T-cells are then multiplied in a lab and then infused into the patient. “We used my own white cells to kill the cancer cells, but it was brand new, they’d never done it before in humans,” Olson explained. “I’m sort of an eternal optimist. I figured what the heck, it worked in mice, maybe it’ll work in me.” Indeed it did. Just five weeks after receiving the treatment, Doug’s doctor announced good news. “He said, ‘Doug, we can’t find a single cancer cell on your body,'” Olson recalled. His success paved the way for thousands to be treated with CAR-T therapy. Now, more than a decade after being one of the first patients to try the therapy, Olson is still cancer-free, a remission so remarkable it was highlighted in the medical journal Nature. “We feel pretty good about using the word, ‘cure’ now,” Olson said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved CAR-T therapies to treat blood cancers like lymphomas and leukemias as well as multiple myeloma. Ahmed Galal, MD, FRACP, MSc, is a cellular therapy specialist, hematologic oncologist, and hematologist at Duke Blood Cancer Center in Durham, North Carolina, who treats patients with CAR-T therapy. “Basically it’s a game-changer,” he told CBN News. Dr. Galal said CAR-T therapy is usually administered at academic medical centers, like Duke, after other treatments failed. He said patient results are pleasing. “Their outcome is about 45-percent for five years. Now, these are the latest studies showing the duration of response is actually extending and is not coming down,” he said. “So I think eventually this will be a cure.” While CAR-T therapy has proven successful for certain types of blood cancers, it has not shown to be effective against other more common cancers, but that could change. Cancer researchers are currently conducting trials to treat some of the deadliest forms of the disease including pancreatic and lung cancers as well as brain tumors. “This is only the start,” said Dr. Galal. “CAR-T will expand more and more to different indications including more leukemias including actually other types of cancer in the solid tumor.” So while cancer is America’s second leading cause of death behind heart disease, cancer deaths have actually fallen by more than 30 percent since 1991. Health experts say the decreased death rate is due to better prevention, such as not smoking, increased screenings, like mammograms, and treatments, such as CAR-T therapy. To read the original article click here.

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Sunscreen WARNING: Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in 78 Popular Sunscreen Products

AHA Publisher — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Damon Hines via NaturalHealth365 – Skin cancer affects more than 3 million people each year. Sunscreen is designed to protect us from skin cancer, but how safe are the popular brands we apply to our skin every summer? Here’s something to think about as the warm weather arrives: Sunscreens were first regulated by the FDA in the 1970s, long before current American guidelines for evaluating drugs were put into place. It should come as no surprise then that sunscreens didn’t undergo rigorous testing. However, what is shocking is that many of the sunscreens on the market today are more harmful than beneficial, and some even contain a cancer-causing chemical. According to a recent report by Valisure, an independent team of scientists that test the chemical composition of healthcare and medication products, benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical, was found in 78 sunscreen and after-sun products tested. In fact, “27% of samples tested by Valisure contained detectable benzene and some batches contained up to three times the conditionally restricted FDA concentration limit.” High Levels of Benzene Linked to Blood Type Cancers Benzene is a colorless or slightly yellow flammable liquid that’s naturally found in the environment. It’s often used as a solvent in manufacturing plastics and other products and is commonly found in gels, sprays, and lotions. While benzene is allowed in products like sunscreen up to a certain level, high concentrations of the toxic liquid are dangerous and can increase the risk of blood cancers like leukemia. But why is benzene, a toxic carcinogen, even allowed in these products on a small level? According to David Light, founder, and CEO of Valisure, “Benzene is one of the most studied and concerning human carcinogens known to science. Its association with forming blood cancers in humans has been shown in numerous studies at trace levels of parts per million and below.” Valisure’s report isn’t the first time the potential health risks of sunscreen have made headlines. Over the years, studies have linked the chemicals in sunscreen to everything from hormone disruption to bioaccumulation in organs and tissue to severe allergic reactions. In addition, there have been concerns that sunscreen prevents the body from making vitamin D. While most experts have concluded that sunscreens are unlikely to affect the vitamin D status of healthy individuals, the debate is reignited every summer. In other words, the real biological effect of sunscreen in your blood is as bad as a cloudy day at the beach. All the BURNING Questions About Sunscreen Safety Answered Valisure is currently urging the FDA to recall the sunscreen products that contain high levels of benzene. A full list of the sunscreen products can be found here, on page 12 of the citizen petition Valisure wrote to the FDA on May 24, 2021. As for which sunscreens are the safest, you can check out the Environmental Working Group (EWG) website and download the EWG’s Guide to Sunscreen. Here you will find a list of brands that contain safer ingredients, making it easy to choose a product that is the best fit for you. What’s the bottom line? If you plan to spend time in the sun this summer, make sure the sunscreen you apply is benzene-free and double-check the expiration date. Better yet, engage in a combination of sun protection methods: hat, umbrella, plenty of breaks, and time in the shade, along with benzene-free sunscreen. Sources for this article include: LiveScience.com BBC.com EWG.org To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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The Fight Goes On: Clinical Trial Shows Promising New Treatment for Rare Blood Cancer

AHA Publisher — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 07:00:26 +0000

Nagoya University via EurekAlert – Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that develops from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). It has many subtypes. A rare subtype, called intravascular large B-cell lymphoma (or IVLBCL) is notably hard to diagnose accurately because the cancerous lymphocytes grow inside small blood vessels, instead of at lymph nodes, and there is no perceptible swelling/enlargement of lymph nodes. There is also no effective treatment: the disease tends to affect the elderly, for whom standard high-dose chemotherapy may have serious side-effects, and patients are at a high risk of developing subsequent central nervous system (CNS) disorders even with treatment. A novel treatment protocol with fewer side-effects and which also tackles secondary CNS involvement is needed, and this is exactly what a group of scientists, led by researchers from Nagoya University and Mie University, Japan, attempted to test in a new clinical trial. All of this being said, however, the rarity of this disease has made testing new combinations of drugs difficult. A previous “retrospective” study involving the analysis of medical records of patients who had undergone standard chemotherapy combined with a drug called “rituximab” showed that this line of treatment is more promising than standard treatment alone, but it does not solve the problem of secondary CNS involvement. “We considered that rituximab-containing chemotherapies combined with treatment for the secondary CNS problems could lead to further improvement in the clinical outcome,” remarks Dr Kazuyuki Shimada of Nagoya University. With this consideration, Dr Shimada and team conducted a Phase 2 multicenter clinical trial, where they administered their proposed treatment to 38 enrolled patients (aged 20 to 79 years and without CNS disorders at the time of cancer diagnosis) and monitored their conditions over the long term. The results are published in their paper in The Lancet Oncology Overall, their treatment protocol appears to be promising: 76% of the enrolled patients reached the primary goal of two-year survival without disease progression and 92% reached two-year overall survival. The disease affected the CNS in only 3% of patients. What’s more, the toxicity of the treatment was found to be low, and all adverse effects were manageable, with very few serious complications. Aptly summarizing their achievement, Dr Shimada says: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ‘prospective’ trial of any treatment in patients with IVLBCL. It appears that the proposed treatment protocol might be effective in patients without apparent central nervous system involvement at the time of diagnosis.” An important advantage of the proposed treatment protocol is that it employs a combination of conventional drugs and uses no novel agents. This means that although further study is necessary, this protocol can be adopted in clinical practice in the very near future. As Dr Shimada explains: “Given the rarity of this disease, a large-scale Phase 3 prospective trial is not feasible. In such a scenario, the results of our trial provide a safe and effective treatment option that can function as a historic control for future prospective trials.” The findings of this clinical trial are certainly quite promising. With only minor refinements to the proposed treatment protocol, patients with IVLBCL could have an edge in their fight against cancer. To read the original article click here.

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Blood Cancers: A “New Generation” Stem Cell Transplant Significantly Reduces Complications for Patients

AHA Publisher — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 08:00:44 +0000

Universite de Montreal via Newswise – More than 100,000 patients worldwide undergo a blood stem cell transplant each year as a last resort treatment for various blood diseases. Newswise — The discovery of the UM171 molecule, by Dr. Guy Sauvageau and Anne Marinier, made headlines in 2014 following an article in Science. Hailed by some as a revolution, even a miracle, in the field of blood stem cell transplantation, the UM171 molecule is delivering on its promise. After the two-year clinical trial, which used the UM171 molecule in blood stem cell transplants for 22 patients with acute blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma or other bone marrow cancers, the rates of graft rejection and mortality linked to these transplants were considerably reduced. These spectacular results, obtained by a team of researchers led by Dr. Sandra Cohen, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal and hematologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, have just been published in The Lancet Haematology. Making Better Use of Umbilical Cords More than 100,000 patients worldwide undergo a blood stem cell transplant each year as a last resort treatment for various blood diseases. About half of these treatments fail because the disease returns, or as the result of graft versus host disease (cGVHD), or because the patient dies due to the chemotherapy and radiation treatments that accompany the transplant. The stem cells used for these transplants are mainly harvested from the blood itself (50% of treatments) or from bone marrow (43% of cases). Only 7% of transplants use stem cells harvested from umbilical cord blood. “Although the rate of graft versus host disease when using umbilical cord blood stem cells is low, these cells are rarely used because the cords are small and do not contain a sufficient quantity of cells to treat an adult,” explained Dr. Sauvageau, who researches the molecular genetics of stem cells at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the Université de Montréal. This is where the UM171 molecule, named in honour of the Université de Montréal, comes into the picture. It is now capable of multiplying the number of stem cells present in a unit of umbilical cord blood 10- to 80-fold. The molecule is the culmination of a dozen years of research carried out by Dr. Sauvageau’s team of biologists and a team of chemists led by Anne Marinier, a professor in the Université de Montréal’s Department of Chemistry and Principal Investigator and Director of the Drug Discovery Core Facility at IRIC. Of the 5,000 molecules they tested, UM171 was the only one that showed a significant proliferative effect. It was synthesized into 600 versions by the chemists in order to detect the most effective form. “In just seven days, UM171 multiplies the stem cells by an average of 30 fold, while at the same time providing a rejuvenating effect on the cells by blocking the aging process,” said Guy Sauvageau. Between 2016 and 2018, 22 adult patients with advanced blood cancer participated in the clinical trial at Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, with funding support from the Stem Cell Network, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Some of the participants in the study had already undergone an unsuccessful stem cell transplant. The results far exceeded expectations. None of the patients developed chronic autoimmune disease as a result of the transplant, and only one patient died from complications during the trials. “The most impressive result is the low mortality rate associated with UM171 transplantation compared to conventional cord transplantation,” stated Dr. Sandra Cohen. “Not a single patient needed immunosuppression treatment after 13 months, whereas with normal transplants, 50 percent of patients require such treatment at that point,” added Guy Sauvageau. “No other biotechnology procedure has produced these kinds of results.” Boosting the Immune System By dramatically boosting the stem cell content, the procedure considerably increases the number of usable umbilical cords, even the smallest cords. This in turn greatly increases the availability of genetically matched cord blood between donors and recipients. “While only five percent of umbilical cords are usable when working with the conventional method, our procedure brings that proportion up to 50 percent,” the Investigator pointed out. “This allows us to increase the availability of genetically compatible transplants by 50 to 80%.” An analysis of the molecular process triggered by UM171 shows that not only does it greatly expand the number of stem cells in cord blood, it also changes the composition of the graft by multiplying the number of dendritic cells 600-fold and the number of mastocytes 8,000-fold. These two cell types play vital roles in the immune system. The benefits of UM171 are unmatched by any other process: it allows for rapid and durable engraftment, accelerates reconstitution of the immune system, less frequently triggers fever and results in very few transplant-related diseases, not to mention that the mortality rate is extremely low. In addition, stem cell transplants using umbilical cord blood carry no risk for the donor and the process of expanding the number of cells, thanks to UM171. “We will soon conduct a Phase 3 clinical trial in the hope of obtaining approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which would then make this promising treatment available to the general population as quickly as possible” pointed out Dr. Sauvageau and Dr. Cohen. Americans Give the Green Light to a Clinical Trial Another clinical trial, also conducted with high-risk leukemia patients, will soon launch in the United States and Dr. Sauvageau is very hopeful that many of them will be saved. The new study has already obtained the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, which authorizes drug research and commercialization in the U.S. Since UM171 was discovered and synthesized at IRIC, the Université de Montréal is the sole proprietor of this molecule, which is covered by an exclusive international license granted to ExCellThera, a Montreal-based advanced clinical-stage biotechnology company that delivers molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand blood stem and immune cells for therapeutic use. To read the original article click here.

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