It is well known that cancer patients are at a higher risk of developing blood clots. A new randomized clinical trial demonstrated that apixaban, a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC), was as effective as dalteparin, a low molecular weight heparin given by injection, for the treatment of cancer-associated VTE, without increasing the risk of major bleeding. The study, named the Caravaggio Trial, enrolled 1,170 patients from 119 centers across Europe, the USA, and Israel.

The results were presented by Professor Giancarlo Agnelli at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). The congress was held virtually on March 28-30, 2020. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 29, 2020. 

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently updated (August 2019) its Clinical Practice Guideline for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis and Treatment in Patients with Cancer. Apixaban was included in the updated guideline published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.  

• Researchers from EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Francis Crick Institute working within the framework of Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) project, created tumor development timelines for several cancer types including glioblastoma, and colorectal and ovarian adenocarcinoma . Their research established that “the mutations that initiate cancer progression may arise decades before diagnosis”. The study was published in Nature.
• Researchers at Cardiff University School of Medicine in Wales reported on a new method to fight a wide range of cancers including prostate, breast, lung and others. The method published in Nature Immunology is based on the power of the immune system; the researchers “used genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screening to establish that a T cell receptor (TCR) recognized and killed most human cancer types.” This animal study lays a foundation for further research on humans, which potentially can offer “universal” cancer immunotherapy.
• Researchers from Italy were able to increase the effect of immunotherapy by enhancing it with high doses of vitamin C. This animal study was published in Science Translational Medicine.

What is blood made of? While you may think that this question has already been well answered, French researchers discovered the presence of a new component in the blood. 

In a breakthrough study published in The Faseb Journal, the authors report their discovery of the presence of fully functional, respiratory competent, extracellular mitochondria in blood. Prior to this study only cell‐derived mitochondrial components have been found in the extracellular space. Interestingly, Mitochondria seem to be present in large numbers: “We estimate that there are between 200 000 and 3.7 million cell-free intact mitochondria per mL of plasma”.

This discovery may have implications for cancer diagnosis. As mentioned in Science Daily, “the research team is now devoting its attention to evaluating the extracellular mitochondria as biomarkers in non-invasive prenatal diagnosis and cancer.”

Both plasma of healthy individuals and cell culture media contain structurally intact mitochondria. Fluorescence microscopy images of the MitoTracker Green stained 16gP from PPAP plasma A, SW620 CCCM B, and DLD-1 CCCM C, Electron microscopy images of the 16gP from of a PPAP plasma D, SW620 CCCM E, and DLD-1 CCCM F. From: Al Amir Dache, Z., Otandault, A., Tanos, R., Pastor, B., Meddeb, R., Sanchez, C., … & El Messaoudi, S. (2019). Blood contains circulating cell‐free respiratory competent mitochondria. The FASEB Journal.