• New cancer therapy developed by scientists from Israel achieves “a 100% Tumor Shrinkage Rate”. The new “ALPHA DaRT” treatment achieves total tumor destruction in over 78% of cases by using alpha radiation for solid tumor treatment in a way tolerated by the human body. Until now using alpha particles for cancer treatment presented a challenge – while being highly efficient in tumor destruction without causing damaging side effects, the particles simply can’t travel the long distance to penetrate all of the tumor. The new technology uses an isotope called radium-224 to push alpha particles across entire the tumor. This technology was recently reported by Jerusalem Post and reporting on this research can be found in scholarly literature.
• Scientists at the University of Toronto have identified a protein related to developing colorectal cancers. The protein, called Importin-11, carries beta-catenin, a protein involved in cell adhesion and gene transcription, into the nucleus of colon cancer cells, where it may promote cell growth. Blocking the function of Importin-11 could lead to new approaches in developing therapies to treat colorectal cancer. The study was published in Journal of Cell Biology.
• Currently, cancer immunotherapy using CD-40 antibodies is unable to demonstrate efficacy in human clinical trials. However, recently scientists at the University Hospital Basel and Roche Innovation Center combined anti-CD40 antibodies with two other antibodies, whose mechanism of action was hypothetically conducive to boosting the anti-CD40 effect, and the combination demonstrated an increased treatment effect in animal models of colorectal, breast and skin cancer. According to study leader Dr. Abhishek Kashyap, “patients with ‘cold’ tumors — tumors that do not respond well to immunotherapy — could benefit most from this new combination.” The study, authored by academic and pharmaceutical scientists and supported, in part, by a Roche grant, was published in PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
• New animal research found that taking the antibiotic vancomycin before undergoing radiation therapy boosts the immune system and enhances the anti-tumor effect of radiotherapy (specifically, hypofractionated therapy) by altering gram-positive bacteria in the gut. The study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania was related to lung cancer, melanoma and cervical cancer. The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. 

A recent study has made the news by showing a correlation between hair products including dye and straighteners and an increased risk for breast cancer. Over a six-year period, it found that hair dye use was associated with 45% higher breast cancer risk in black women and 7% higher risk in white women. Dr. Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at MSK was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “You cannot, based on these data, make the statement that hair dyes and straighteners cause breast cancer” and that “these effects were small.”

While this study does not show a direct causal link between breast cancer and hair products, there is other interesting research related to cancer and hair. Recently, researchers including Dr. Mario E. Lacouture (Director of the MSK Oncodermatology Program) have studied how cancer treatment can adversely affect cancer patients hair.

Dr. Mario E. Lacouture. Source: Robert A. Lisak.

While most people are familiar with hair loss during chemotherapy, cancer treatments have been shown to contribute to a range of hair disorders. Researchers are now beginning to investigate how these hair disorders can affect cancer patients’ quality of life.

• One reason that cancer patients can have a poor response to a cancer therapy is due to the cancer cell’s ability to evade the therapy, through a variety of means including mutations to their own genome. A group of researchers from Italy explored the way colorectal cancer cells increase the rate of DNA mutations to evade targeted therapy. The study was published in Science.
• The first attempt in the United States to use CRISPR gene editing technology for cancer management was reported this week. A phase I trial showed safety and feasibility of using this technology in cancer immunotherapy and a potential for its further exploration in cancer management. The study will be presented next month at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology.
• Researchers from the University of Nottingham developed a blood test using protein microarray screening technology which can detect breast cancer “up to five years before there are any clinical signs of it.” This was reported at 2019 NCRI Cancer Conference.
• Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University found evidence that tumor cells spread increases when they are suffering from oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia. The study was published in October in Nature Communications.