Prestigious Cancer Research Organization Selects MSK’s Physician-in-Chief, Dr. Jose Baselga as President-elect 2014-2015 and more…

The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) has elected MSK’s Dr. Jose Baselga as President-elect for 2014-2015. The Association has recognized Dr. Baselga with this honor for his achievements in developing innovative molecularly targeted agents for cancer treatment, especially for breast cancer. Dr. Baselga will become president in April, 2015.
Musician Taylor Swift recently visited children at MSK. Although her plans were to stay only one hour, she extended the visit to more than four and a half hours and thrilled the patients who met her. The video shows how comfortable Taylor was interacting with one of the children, Shelby Huff. Continue reading →

Increased PSA Screening for Prostate Cancer Reduces Mortality and more…

The results of a study conducted by Umeå University in Sweden and MSK, have suggested that the greater the number of PSA tests for prostate cancer carried out in a geographic area, the lower the prostate cancer mortality in that area. The increase in testing needs to be followed by early treatment to achieve these results. There is controversy regarding increased PSA screening because it leads to overtreatment.
Investigators Jedd Wolchok and Dmitriy Zamarin of MSK collaborated with MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers to study synergism between oncolytic virotherapy and cancer immunotherapy to increase the immune response against cancerous tumors. The researchers combined cancer immunotherapy and the Newcastle disease virus (NDV), a virus that initiates an immune response. The results have been promising. Continue reading →

Recent studies have shown that patients’ own immune systems can be harnessed to kill cancer. A genetic engineering procedure has shown success using the body’s immune system in the fight against B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer. Researchers at MSK and at the University of Pennsylvania have been trying to train immune cells to recognize leukemia cells and kill them. Dr. Renier Brentjens of MSK, one of the senior researchers, reported that 14 of 16 patients who received the special cell therapy achieved a “complete remission.”
Renal cell carcinoma survival is negatively affected by smoking. Dr. Behfar Ehdaie of MSK studied the effect of smoking on cancer specific survival in 1,625 patients suffering from clear cell renal cell carcinoma, looking at data collected between 1995 and 2012. The results did not reach statistical significance but indicated an adverse effect from smoking. Continue reading →