CANCER SURVIVAL TIPS
Sleep and Cancer
Getting a restful night’s sleep is a challenge for many cancer patients. Pain from the cancer itself, fatigue and discomfort from chemotherapy, and medication side effects are just a few of the things that make sleep elusive for cancer patients. Worse, not getting enough sleep weakens the immune system and can exacerbate symptoms or negative side effects.
Doctors hail world first as woman’s advanced breast cancer is eradicated
Cancer 'vaccine' eliminates tumors in mice
Activating T cells in tumors eliminated even distant metastases in mice, Stanford researchers found. Lymphoma patients are being recruited to test the technique in a clinical trial.
Vaccine shows promising results for early-stage breast cancer patients
Immunotherapy is a fast growing area of cancer research. It involves developing therapies that use a patient’s own immune system to fight and kill cancer. Moffitt Cancer Center is working on a new vaccine that would help early-stage breast cancer patients who have HER2 positive disease.
University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Announces Novel Phase II TrialCombining DCVax®-L and Pembrolizumab for Resectable Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases
The University Medical Center (UMC) of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz is starting a new multi-center, Phase II clinical trial program evaluating DCVax®-L in combination with an anti–PD-1 monoclonal antibody (Pembrolizumab) for patients with liver metastases of primary colorectal carcinoma. The study aims to test the efficacy of dendritic cells (DC)-based therapy in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor antibody as a new approach to treat patients with synchronous or metachronous resectable liver metastases of colorectal carcinoma.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health burden, with a world-wide estimate of 1.4 million new cases annually. CRC is one of the most common causes of cancer-related death in the western world, resulting in approximately 700,000 deaths annually. Liver metastases are found in about 50% of all these patients.
Combination of a therapeutic vaccine (such as DCVax®-L) and a checkpoint inhibitor (such as Pembrolizumab) following resection of liver tumors is very promising to reactivate the immune system. The inherent logic of this combined approach is that the two treatments may be synergistic in mobilizing and sustaining a systemic immune response in these patients.