Breakthrough Cancer Drug Gleevec May Hurt Heart: Study
Gleevec, the cancer wonder drug, may be toxic to the heart and lead to heart failure in patients, researchers reported Sunday in an analysis of the drug.
The findings, published online in the journal Nature Medicine, detail how Gleevec inadvertently targets a protein maintaining cells that contract the heart muscle and help to force blood through the body. The implications of the study call into question a whole class of new cancer drugs that work in a similar way, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The study followed up on 10 patients who developed severe heart failure after taking Gleevec. Those cases were first reported in 2004 by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Scientists, however, do not know why Gleevec caused the heart to fail. "This finding is a big surprise," Thomas L. Force, a cardiologist researcher who led a Thomas Jefferson University team and conducted the study with Jean-Bernard Durand of the Texas cancer center, told the Inquirer. Gleevec is the first of a new class of cancer drugs designed to focus on a single cancer protein and avoid many side effects of previous cancer drugs.
Novartis, which makes Gleevec, called the side effect rare, and said that patients who show symptoms are easily treated with standard medications. The company said it had already reported the 10 cases of heart failure to health officials and that the side effect is now included on the drug's warning label, the Inquirer reported.
FDA to Tighten Rules for Drug Advisory Panelists
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday it plans to tighten guidelines for outside scientists and doctors who serve on agency advisory panels that make recommendations on drugs and medical devices going to market.
The new guidelines are expected to specify when panelists should be disqualified because of conflicts of interest and to make public panelists' financial disclosures, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
Scott Gottlieb, the FDA's deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, told Bloomberg the new restrictions are designed to "make sure that the current system is rigorous, consistent and transparent."
Congress and public advocacy groups have in the past criticized the FDA for appointing doctors and scientists who have financial or other relationships with the companies whose products they are asked to consider. The House has already approved legislation that seeks to prevent the FDA from allowing those with conflicts to serve on advisory panels, Bloomberg reported.
Sharon's Condition Deteriorates, Medical Experts Say
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's kidneys are failing and changes have been detected in his brain, medical experts said Monday.
Sharon, 78, has been in a coma at The Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv since suffering a severe stroke in January. A hospital spokeswoman refused to say whether his life was threatened by his deteriorating condition, the Associated Press reported.
But Dr. John Martin, a cardiovascular expert at London's University College, told the AP that the kidney failure and changes in the brain membrane that Sharon suffered in the past two days indicate that the former leader's life was in danger. His comments were echoed by other physicians quoted in Israeli media.
Kidney dialysis and drugs to treat what appears to be cerebral edema could lead to an improvement in Sharon's condition within hours, Martin said.
Sharon had a small stroke in December and was put on blood thinners before suffering a severe brain hemorrhage in January. The Israeli leader underwent several brain surgeries to stop the bleeding, and many independent experts doubted he would ever recover, the AP reported.
Heart Drug May Help to Reduce Stress in Ovarian Cancer Patients
The bad news: Chronic stress may cause malignant ovarian tumors to grow faster.
The good news: A heart disease drug may be able to block that growth.
Researchers from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston report in the latest issue of the journal Nature Medicine that their research on laboratory mice indicates there is a relationship between "psychological stress and the biological processes that make ovarian tumors grow and spread."
The scientists placed mice with ovarian cancer in a confined space. This situation caused an increase in tumor growth, according to senior author Dr. Anil Sood, M. D. Anderson's director of ovarian cancer research. But when the mice were given the heart drug propranolol -- which belongs in a category known as beta blockers -- the stress hormones that were causing the tumor growth were impaired.
"Beta blockers have been shown to be protective against cardiac disease," Sood says in the news release. "No one has studied their effect on chronic stress as it relates to cancer in humans."
Teenager Ordered to Resume Cancer Treatment
A 16-year-old Virginia boy suffering from a type of lymph gland cancer known as Hodgkin's disease has been ordered to resume treatment under a doctor's directions, the Associated Press reports.
The ongoing legal battle between the state of Virginia and the family of Starchild Abraham Cherrix resulted in this latest ruling, the family attorney told the wire service.
The disagreement began when Abraham stopped his chemotherapy after three months, the AP reported. It made him nauseated and weak, according to the family's lawyer John Stepanovich. The teenager's parents, Jay and Rose Cherrix, allowed him to find an alternative organic diet and herbal supplements from Mexico to treat the disease.
The state of Virginia intervened, and juvenile court judge Jesse E. Demps ordered the boy to report to a hospital by July 25 for treatment under a doctor's direction.
Scientists Identify Ovarian Stem Cells That May Cause Cancer
Once it has progressed beyond its early stage, ovarian cancer is one of the most difficult malignancies to treat. But Massachusetts General Hospital researchers report in the July 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that discovery of stem-like ovarian cells may help develop more effective chemotherapy.
"We feel these stem-like cancer cells may be resistant to traditional chemotherapy and could be responsible for the ultimately fatal drug-resistant recurrence that is characteristic of ovarian cancer," Dr. Paul Szotek, first author of the research, says in a Massachusetts General Hospital news release. About 16,000 women in the United States die from ovarian cancer every year. The cancer is hard to detect in its early stages and is very resistant to chemotherapy.
Laboratory mice were used in experiments that allowed scientists to detect the stem cells that might be cancer precursors.
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