By: Andrew Pollack From: nytimes.com For people with cancer or suspected cancer, the biopsy is a necessary evil — an uncomfortable and somewhat risky procedure to extract tissue for diagnosis or analysis. Lynn Lewis, a breast cancer patient in Brooklyn, has had her cancer analyzed an easier way: simple blood tests that are being called “liquid biopsies.” Telltale traces of …
Wow. Agios’ Experimental Leukemia Drug Makes Cancer Undetectable In Three Patients
By: Matthew Harper From: Forbes.com Agios, a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Mass., has seemed in some ways a sign of the overexcitement of the recent biotech boom. After all, the company, despite an experienced management team, a July public stock offering that raised more than $100 million, and great scientific ideas, hasn’t been able to show a single result …
Pfizer drug doubles time to breast cancer tumor growth in trial
From: reuters.com Pfizer Inc’s experimental breast cancer drug in a clinical trial nearly doubled the amount of time patients lived without their disease getting worse, but overall survival was not yet shown to be statistically significant, researchers said. The Phase 2 study, which involved women with the most common form of breast cancer, found that those treated with hormone drug …
Many Breast Cancer Survivors Suffer Financially, Study Finds
From: philly.com One-quarter of breast cancer survivors are worse off financially four years after their diagnosis, and 12 percent still have medical debt from their cancer therapy, a new study finds. “As oncologists, we are proud of the advances in our ability to cure an increasing proportion of patients diagnosed with breast cancer,” study author Dr. Reshma Jagsi, an associate …
Will Pfizer Unveil A Breast Cancer Blockbuster This Sunday?
By: Matthew Harper From: forbes.com A decade ago, Pfizer PFE +0.34%, then the world’s largest drug company, sold three of the 10 biggest-grossing medicines in the United States. Now, it doesn’t boast one. Wall Street analysts think a study of a breast cancer medicine being presented at a medical meeting in San Diego on Sunday could give the drug giant …
Dartmouth doctors, engineers find breast cancer surgery breakthrough
By MEGHAN PIERCE Union Leader Correspondent A new technique of combining MRI and optical scanning can accurately locate small breast cancer tumors during surgery, according to new findings from physicians at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center and engineers from Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering. Together the physicians and engineers developed a new approach to breast-conserving surgery that simplifies …
Two Boston Hospitals Change Surgical Technique After Cancer Debate
By GILLIAN MOHNEY From: ABC News Two Boston hospitals have made changes to a controversial surgical procedure after questions arose about its safety. The technique, called morcellation, is characterized by a surgeon shredding tissue, usually fibroids or the uterus during a laparoscopic hysterectomy, that is then usually removed through a small incision in the abdomen. Both Massachusetts General Hospital and …
Doctors Say Second Most Deadly Cancer is Preventable
The month of March has been proclaimed as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and doctors are taking the time to speak out about preventative measures. Colon cancer is the number two cause of cancer-related deaths in both the country and the state, but doctors say it doesn’t have to be deadly at all. “Colon cancer is actually preventable so screening is …
Faster Genetic Testing Method Will Likely Transform Care for Many Patients With Breast Cancer
From: Wiley Science Newsroom Faster and cheaper DNA sequencing techniques will likely improve care for patients with breast cancer but also create challenges for clinicians as they counsel patients on their treatment options. Those are among the conclusions of a study published recently in the BJS (British Journal of Surgery). The findings provide insights into how genetic advances will soon …
Girl, 9, barred from school for shaving head to support friend with cancer – Fox News
Tim Kenny knew the charity he helped establish to fight childhood cancer wasn’t done raising money, but he thought St. Baldrick’s Foundation had pretty much buried the stigma of baldness that young fighters of the disease once bore. Then, he heard about Kamryn Renfro. The 9-year-old Grand Junction, Colo., girl shaved her head to show solidarity for her pal, Delaney …