Repurchase of Elekta Shares

June 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

STOCKHOLM–(Business Wire)–
The Board of Directors of Elekta AB (publ)(STO:EKTAB) has decided to utilize the
authorization received from the Annual General Meeting to repurchase shares in
the company.

Elekta`s new distribution policy is to distribute 30 percent or more of net
profit to shareholders in the form of dividends, share repurchases or comparable
measures.

Elekta`s Annual General Meeting on September 15, 2009 resolved to authorize the
Board to decide on the acquisition of a maximum of 10 percent of the total
number of shares in the company.

The Board has today decided to exercise the mandate by authorizing the executive
management to initiate, on appropriate occasion, the repurchase of shares in an
amount of MSEK 100 and not more than 650,000 shares, corresponding to 0.7
percent of the total number of outstanding shares in the company.

The purpose of the repurchase of own shares is firstly to align the Company`s
capital structure to the Company`s capital requirements and where appropriate to
be able to transfer shares in conjunction with the financing of company
acquisitions and other types of strategic investments and acquisitions. In
addition, the purpose is to facilitate hedging of costs and delivery in relation
to the Performance Share Program 2009.

The total number of shares in Elekta as of June 8, 2010 was 92,795,244 shares
and Elekta currently does not hold any shares in the Company.

Purchases will be made on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and at a price within the spread
at the time of the purchase. Purchases can be made during the time until next
Annual General Meeting.

About Elekta

Elekta is a human care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical
solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops
sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment planning systems for
radiation therapy and radiosurgery, as well as workflow enhancing software
systems across the spectrum of cancer care.

Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and
resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both healthcare providers
and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives,
making the future possible today.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 5,000
hospitals globally, and every day more than 100,000 patients receive diagnosis,
treatment or follow-up with the help of a solution from the Elekta Group.

Elekta employs around 2,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarter is
located in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange
under the ticker EKTAb.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com

Elekta AB
Stina Thorman, Vice President Corporate Communications
Tel: +46 8 587 254 37
email: stina.thorman@elekta.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Elekta Acquires Resonant Medical Inc., Adding New Solutions for Image Guided Radiation Therapy for Treating Cancer

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Groundbreaking non-invasive, non-ionizing image guidance technology enables
exquisite visualization of soft tissue targets, provides promising platform for
next generation motion management.
STOCKHOLM–(Business Wire)–
Elekta today announced the acquisition of Resonant Medical Inc., Montreal
Canada. Through this acquisition, Elekta adds exciting new solutions for image
guidance as well as highly skilled R&D resources in the field of oncology
imaging and motion management.

Resonant Medical Inc. (`RMI`) develops systems for image guided radiation
therapy of soft tissues using latest generation, 3-D ultrasound technology.
Subject to customary closing conditions, Elekta will pay CAD 30 M in cash for
the outstanding shares of RMI.

RMI`s integrated software solutions have been developed in cooperation with
leading academic institutions to improve treatment accuracy for cancer in the
prostate, breast, liver, cervix, uterus, bladder as well as head and neck. RMI`s
equipment is in daily clinical use in the US, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and
Ireland and its research collaborators are considered among the world leaders in
their field.

Elekta`s President and CEO Tomas Puusepp said “This is really exciting, as it
further enhances Elekta`s state-of-the-art solutions in IGRT, by adding RMI`s
leadership in soft tissue visualization and tracking, especially focused on
innovative solutions for breast and prostate cancer. In addition, given Elekta`s
dedication to open architecture, the technology will be made available to
customers with other vendors` equipment, making it possible to improve IGRT
processes everywhere.”

RMI`s current products will continue to operate with linear accelerators from
all manufacturers and provide outstanding image guidance for soft tissue
targets, especially in the breast and pelvic area, without additional x-ray dose
or using invasive implanted markers. They can add high quality IGRT to the
thousands of linacs in use today that do not have integrated imaging systems,
while the soft tissue detail is also highly complementary to linacs already
equipped with cone beam CT or MV (portal) imaging.

In addition, RMI will provide useful additions to Elekta`s MOSAIQ treatment
planning solutions by displaying soft tissue structures, not easily seen on
X-ray computed tomography but in exact spatial correlation with these CT images,
and offering a suite of automatic segmentation and contouring tools.

“Elekta has gained an experienced development team with mature, easy-to-use,
stable clinical products. And the established sales and marketing infrastructure
of Elekta is the perfect foundation to further introduce this valuable
technology to the radiation oncology market. Beyond just today however, the
really exciting things are yet ahead as we start to integrate RMI:s solutions
with MOSAIQ and in the future with our state-of-the art linear accelerators”,
says Elekta`s President and CEO Tomas Puusepp.

RMI was founded in 2000 based on research from McGill University, Montreal. The
CEO of the company, Tony Falco, Ph.D. is one of the founders and has over 15
years experience in advanced imaging technology; clinical, product development,
supply, and IP creation. The company has 35 employees, of whom most are based in
Montreal, Canada.

Tony Falco, CEO of RMI, says: “These are exciting times. RMI provides solutions
compatible with all vendors` simulators and linear accelerators and together
with Elekta`s world-wide customer network it provides us for the first time with
the ability to improve clinical standards on a global basis. In addition, being
fully integrated with a leading clinical solutions provider like Elekta makes it
possible for us to deliver truly unique integrated clinical solutions in the
future, all of which is important in improving patient care.”

Elekta expects to consolidate RMI into its accounts as from June 1st, 2010. The
revenue for 2010/11 is expected to be around CAD 10 M. The transaction is
forecasted to have a minor dilutive effect on reported earnings per share during
fiscal year 10/11 and be mildly accretive the following fiscal year.

About Elekta

Elekta is a human-care company pioneering significant innovations and clinical
solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. The company develops
sophisticated, state-of-the-art tools and treatment-planning systems for
radiation therapy and radiosurgery, as well as workflow-enhancing software
systems across the spectrum of cancer care.

Stretching the boundaries of science and technology, providing intelligent and
resource-efficient solutions that offer confidence to both health-care providers
and patients, Elekta aims to improve, prolong and even save patient lives,
making the future possible today.

Today, Elekta solutions in oncology and neurosurgery are used in over 5,000
hospitals globally, and every day more than 100,000 patients receive diagnosis,
treatment or follow-up with the help of a solution from the Elekta Group. Elekta
employs around 2,500 employees globally. The corporate headquarter is located in
Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on the Nordic Exchange under the
ticker EKTAb. For more information about Elekta, visit www.elekta.com.

About Resonant Medical

Established in 2000, Resonant Medical innovates and develops revolutionary
clinical solutions that are safe and gentle for the patient while increasing the
accuracy and precision of radiotherapy cancer care. The company commercializes
unique products that provide better visualization of soft tissue anatomy
throughout the radiotherapy patient workflow. Resonant`s Clarity system is the
first and only product to provide a non-invasive and radiation-free image
guidance solution for all conformal breast cancer treatments, as well as for the
treatment of other cancers such as prostate, cervix, uterus, liver, bladder and
head & neck. Resonant`s technologies are available in cancer centers throughout
the U.S., Canada and Europe, helping make significant improvements in patient
care. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. For further information
about Resonant, visit www.resonantmedical.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://www.cisionwire.com.

For further information, please contact:
Elekta Software, Elekta AB
Todd Powell, +1 650-823-3085
Executive Vice President
todd.powell@elekta.com
Time zone: PDT: Pacific Daylight
or
Elekta AB
Stina Thorman, +46 8 587 254 37 / +46 70 778 60 10 (Mobile)
Vice President Corporate Communications
stina.thorman@elekta.com
Time zone: CET: Central European

Copyright Business Wire 2010

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Breast cancer survivors at increased second cancer risk if they smoke

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 3 (ANI): A study has found that women who survive early-stage breast cancer have an increased chance of developing a new second cancer in their other breast or elsewhere if they smoke.

Investigators from The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) are releasing these findings at an oral presentation during the 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Radium Society taking place this week in Cancun, Mexico.

CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

It has been shown that women who survive breast cancer have two- to six-times increased risk of developing cancer in their other breast, compared with women who have never had breast cancer.

In hopes of making second cancers less likely, researchers have studied risk factors that can be controlled, such as smoking, obesity and alcohol consumption.

This latest study focused on female smokers with early-stage breast cancer who had breast-conserving therapy to remove their disease.

Breast conserving therapy is the standard treatment given to most patients with early-stage disease and consists of a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy to the breast.

Data were analysed from 796 self-reported smokers who received breast-conserving therapy between 1975 and 2007 at Yale University School of Medicine.

The team found that at 15 years post-treatment, the risk of developing a new second cancer was significantly greater in smokers compared to non-smokers (25 percent versus 19 percent).

The study also found that smokers had a greater risk of developing cancer in the other breast than those who did not smoke (13 percent versus eight percent) 15 years following treatment.

While correlation was made to other prognostic factors, including age, family history, hormone receptor status and HER2/neu status, smoking was found to be independent of these other indicators.

CINJ Associate Director, Bruce G. Haffty, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is the senior investigator.

“We believe this study looks at the largest subgroup of women to date on this topic. These new data are significant in that they show women can exercise some control over a known risk factor for developing a new second cancer,” he noted.

The findings are being presented at the annual meeting by Amar Rewari, MD, MBA, who is a resident in Dr. Haffty”s department.

Other collaborators include Sharad Goyal, MD, CINJ and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Meena Moran, MD, Yale University School of Medicine.

Conflicting results on this subject recently appeared in studies published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the American Journal of Epidemiology. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Targeted treatment for prostate cancer to be tested

April 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 17 (ANI): Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are set to test targeted treatment for prostate cancer.

The partnership with Areva Med will see UC scientists using the lab of Zhongyun Dong, PhD, to test the efficacy of a new agent targeted against a specific protein on the surface of the tumour.

Dong, an associate professor of hematology oncology in the department of internal medicine, said: “It”s been shown that human prostate cancer cells overexpress some proteins on their surface.

“This overexpression presents a novel target for management of advanced prostate cancer.”

According to Dong, previous radiation therapy targeting these proteins has been shown to inhibit tumor growth in several animal models.

UC”s study will be the first to explore this approach for prostate tumours.

In the work, researchers will bind the isotope 212-lead to an antibody targeting one of these proteins.

Dong said: “When administered intravenously, the AREVA Med 2120lead-antibody is designed to bind to the tumor”s surface, emit alpha particles in and selectively destroy the tumor cells.”

In the study, expected to run through the end of the year, researchers will measure the toxicity of the treatment and its efficacy in inhibiting cancer cell growth.

Data will then be gathered to support phase-1 clinical trials in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Hematology oncology professor Olivier Rixe said: “Targeting a monoclonal antibody against this protein is not new.

“What”s new is that we will load the antibody with an isotope that can directly target the protein on the cancer cell and deliver very localized radiation to this specific target of the cancer.”

“It”s a very interesting concept for drug delivery and a novel strategy for cancer treatment,” Rixe added. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Navratilova diagnosed with breast cancer

April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 53-year-old, who won 18 grand slam titles including nine Wimbledon singles titles, said she cried after finding out she had the disease.

Navratilova, 53, said when she heard the diagnosis she felt she had suffered her “personal 9/11″.

“I was devastated,” she told (US) ABC television’s Good Morning America on being diagnosed in February, when a routine mammogram revealed a cluster in her left breast.

She explained she had had a lumpectomy, that doctors had found the disease had not spread to her lymph nodes and that there was a “very small chance” of the cancer recurring.

“It is just in that one breast,” Navratilova said.

“I’m OK and I’ll make a full recovery.”

But she said that emotionally it had been a difficult time.

“I’m this healthy person, I’ve been healthy all my life, and all of a sudden I have cancer. Are you kidding me?” she said.

Navratilova told US magazine People: “It knocked me on my ass, really. I feel so in control of my life and my body, and then this comes, and it’s completely out of my hands.”

According to the report, doctors say the former Wimbledon champion’s prognosis is excellent because the tumour was detected at an early stage.

Navratilova has already had the lump removed and will begin six weeks of radiation therapy in May.

“It was a total shock because I’ve been so healthy,” she added.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose my boob and then my hair, and I don’t have that much. There’s a good chance it won’t come back’.”

The former world number one said she had intended to keep the news quiet but changed her mind when she realised she could persuade other women to go for check-ups.

“The sooner you catch it, the better,” she said.

“So get the bloody mammogram.

“I went four years between mammograms. I let it slide. Everyone gets busy, but don’t make excuses. I stay in shape and eat right, and it happened to me. Another year and I could have been in big trouble.”

Born in Prague, Navratilova fled to the United States in 1975 at the height of the Cold War.

She became a US citizen six years later but regained her Czech nationality two years ago, and has dual nationality.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Radiation therapy is underused post-mastectomy

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 30 (ANI): Women who have had mastectomy and would benefit from radiation therapy are less likely to receive it than those who have had lumpectomy, a new American study has found.

The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, has appeared in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The study analysed 2,260 women treated for breast cancer, assessing whether they had lumpectomy or mastectomy, and whether they would be strong candidates for radiation therapy.

Women who have particularly large tumours or cancer in four or more of their nearby lymph nodes are recommended to have radiation after mastectomy.

The research discovered that among patients who should receive radiation therapy according to medical guidelines, 95 per cent of those who had lumpectomy went on to receive radiation, but only 78 per cent of those who had mastectomy received radiation.

Among women for whom radiation is less clearly beneficial, 80 per cent of the lumpectomy patients had radiation while only 46 per cent of the mastectomy patients did.

Author Reshma Jagsi, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School, said: “A substantial number of breast cancer patients are being undertreated. One in five women with strong indications for radiation after mastectomy failed to receive it. Radiation can be a life-saving treatment.”

She went on: “The fact that 95 percent of patients who had lumpectomy received radiation in the two metropolitan areas we studied indicates that we can do better than we are currently doing for the selected mastectomy patients who also need radiation. More attention needs to be paid to radiation after mastectomy.”

The study also demonstrated that doctor participation strongly influenced radiation receipt.

Patients who reported their surgeon was involved in the decision to receive radiation were more likely to receive radiation than patients whose doctor was less involved.

Jagsi said: “Even patients who wanted to avoid radiation therapy were very likely to receive it if their surgeons were highly involved in the decision process. We need to do a better job of educating both patients and physicians regarding the benefits of radiation after mastectomy in certain circumstances, and we need to encourage physicians to help their patients as they make these important decisions.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Single shot’ breast cancer treatment to ward off radiotherapy ordeals

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar 29 (ANI): A single half-hour “shot” treatment for breast cancer can now do away with a six-week course of tumour-destroying therapy, according to British doctors.

The radiotherapy treatment, which is for use in patients with early breast cancer after they have undergone surgery on the tumour, is showing positive results in early trials in patients.

The novel therapy is designed to kill remaining cancerous cells with a concentrated beam of radiation.

Currently, women with breast cancer undergo a five to six-week course of radiotherapy treatment after surgery, involving about 20 hospital visits.

The surgery is designed to conserve as much of the breast as possible, rather than a mastectomy where the whole breast is removed.

But the radiotherapy course can cause more general damage to the tissue and greater distortion to the breast.

The medics believe that, after the publication of trial data later this year, a single dose of intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) could become more widely available and offer women a less gruelling and more cosmetically satisfactory outcome.

The procedure involves lowering a spherical applicator, ranging between a marble and a squash ball in size, into the tumour through the incision created during surgery while the patient is still under anaesthetic.

This applicator then gives out a uniform dose of low energy X-rays directly to the surrounding 2cm-deep area of the tumour bed.

The ten-year targeted intra-operative therapy trial aims to show that IORT is as safe and effective as a conventional course of radiotherapy.

Michael Baum, a British cancer specialist involved with the trial, said that the excitement surrounded the possibility that a one-shot treatment might be at least as effective and safe as conventional treatment.

Patients would then be able to move on to drug-based therapies, chemotherapy or hormonal therapy, as required.

Baum said that the portable machine, called the Intrabeam and manufactured by the Karl Zeiss Corporation in Germany, emits X-rays of a different quality to electron beam radiation, giving a different biological effect that “has the equivalent effect”.

“[The treatment] has a major complication of distorting the breast, and the breasts can end up different sizesIf this is shown to work [in the full trial results], many women will be spared six weeks of treatment going back and forth to the radiotherapy centre. Women would vote with their feet for this treatment,” Times Online quoted Baum as saying.

The study results will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Novel way to improve bone health in cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 16 (ANI): Scientists looking for ways to reduce bone loss in astronauts claim to have found a novel way of improving the bone health of cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment.

“Our studies indicate significant bone loss at the radiation levels astronauts will experience during long missions to the moon or Mars,” said Ted Bateman, a member of NSBRI’s Musculoskeletal Alterations Team.

The study conducted over mouse models has shown that bone loss begins within days of radiation exposure through activation of bone-reducing cells called osteoclasts.

Under normal conditions, these cells work with bone-building cells, called osteoblasts, to maintain bone health.

“Our research challenges some conventional thought by saying radiation turns on the bone-eating osteoclasts. If that is indeed the case, existing treatments, such as bisphosphonates, may be able to prevent this early loss of bone,” he added.

He said even though the research is being performed to protect the health of NASA astronauts, cancer patients, especially those who receive radiation therapy in the pelvic region, could benefit from the research.

“We know that older women receiving radiotherapy to treat pelvic tumors are particularly vulnerable to fracture, with hip fracture rates increasing 65 percent to 200 percent in these cancer patients,” said Bateman.

Once a person loses bone, their long-term fracture risk depends on their ability to recover lost bone mass.

For older cancer patients, early introduction of bisphosphonates and other forms of treatment could help greatly since the process of regaining bone mass can be more difficult due to lower activity levels. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hormone therapy ups death risk for prostate cancer patients with heart disease

August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 26 (ANI): Prostate cancer patients, who also suffer from heart conditions, have increased death risk if they undergo hormone therapy, revealed a study led by an Indian-origin scientist.

Dr. Akash Nanda, from Boston, has found that when men with coronary artery disease-induced congestive heart failure or heart attack receive hormone therapy before or along with radiation therapy for treatment of prostate cancer, they have an associated increased risk of death.

His study report says that patients with localized prostate cancer have several options available for treatment, including the use of brachytherapy (treatment in which radioactive seeds are implanted in the prostate), both as monotherapy and in conjunction with external beam radiation therapy.

Neoadjuvant (treatment that is given before or with the primary treatment) hormonal therapy (HT) is used as a means for prostate gland cytoreduction (decrease in number of cells, as in a tumor) in order to eliminate pubic arch (an arch formed by the pubic bones) interference and improve the ability to perform brachytherapy.

Previous research has suggested that “hormonal therapy, when added to radiation therapy (RT) for treating unfavorable-risk prostate cancer, leads to an increase in survival except possibly in men with moderate to severe comorbidity [co-existing illnesses]. However, it is unknown which comorbid conditions eliminate this survival benefit,” the authors write.

Dr. Nanda his colleagues assessed whether neoadjuvant HT use in men with prostate cancer treated with brachytherapy affects the risk of all-cause death of men with known coronary artery disease-induced conditions, including congestive heart failure and heart attack.

The researchers conducted the study on 5,077 men (median [midpoint] age, 69.5 years) with localized or locally advanced prostate cancer who were treated with or without a median of 4 months of neoadjuvant HT followed by RT between 1997 and 2006 and were followed up until July 2008.

They found that during the study period, 419 men died, out of which, 200 had no underlying comorbidity, 176 had one coronary artery disease risk factor, and 43 had a history of known coronary artery disease resulting in congestive heart failure or heart attack.

The researchers said that the analyses of the data indicated that “when considering comorbidity groups separately, neoadjuvant HT use was not associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality in men with no comorbidity or a single coronary artery disease risk factor after median follow-ups of 5.0 years and 4.4 years, respectively.”

But, for men with coronary artery disease-induced congestive heart failure or heart attack, after a median follow-up of 5.1 years, neoadjuvant HT use was associated with nearly twice the risk of all-cause mortality.

“The clinical significance of this finding is that for men with favorable-risk prostate cancer and a history of congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction who require neoadjuvant HT solely to eliminate pubic arch interference, alternative strategies such as active surveillance or treatment with external beam radiation therapy or prostatectomy should be considered.

“However, for men with unfavourable-risk prostate cancer who require HT in addition to radiation therapy to take advantage of its survival benefit, appropriate medical evaluation prior to initiation should facilitate clinicians in balancing the relative risks against the benefits of HT use,” said the researchers

The study has been published in the latest issue of JAMA. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Novel MRI technique can lead to less breast biopsies in high-risk women

June 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 30 (ANI): Researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison have suggested a new method, that when applied with MRI scans of the breast, can help rid women with increased breast cancer risk of the pain and stress of having to endure a biopsy of the lump or lesion.

It is recommended that women with certain breast cancer risk factors – including inherited genetic mutations, family or personal history of breast cancer, or previous radiation therapy to the chest should receive an annual MRI screening in addition to their yearly mammogram.

During a breast MRI, which lasts about a half hour, the technician injects a contrast agent into a vein in the patient’s arm.

The contrast agent flows throughout the body, including the breasts.

Because they are growing quickly, cancerous lesions often have immature vasculature, and the contrast agent flows in and “leaks” out quickly. Conversely, benign lesions show more gradual in and out flow.

“The tricky ones are the ones that enhance quickly and then fall off more slowly,” said Wally Block, a UW-Madison associate professor of biomedical engineering and medical physics.

“Many of these lesions turn out to be difficult to classify and lead to biopsy,” Block added.

The researchers suggest that right kind of MRI scan can help identify a cancerous lesion based on characteristics about its shape.

For instance, breaks or interruptions in a lesion can indicate a benign fibroadenoma. Lumps with smooth edges often are benign, while those with jagged edges can signal cancer.

With the new technique, an MRI machine acquires data radially and generates a high-resolution, three-dimensional image that radiologists can turn, slice and view from many perspectives – enabling them to study a lesion’s physical characteristics more carefully.

Machines equipped with the technique also acquire more data in less time. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chemotherapy, radiation may help preserve voice box even with largest cancers

June 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 26 (ANI): Some patients with large tumours on their larynx may preserve their speech by choosing Chemotherapy and radiation, and avoiding surgery to remove the voice box, according to a study.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, the study has shown that a single round of chemotherapy could identify those patients who are most likely to benefit from this approach.

“Organ preservation studies have excluded these patients because their tumors are so large. We found that if a patient’s tumor does not respond to chemotherapy, the patient can be instantly referred for a laryngectomy, which is the standard of care. But if the tumor responded to the drugs, perhaps some of those people could survive the cancer with their voice box intact,” says lead study author Dr. Francis P. Worden, associate professor of Internal Medicine at the U-M Medical School.

For their study, the research team reviewed data from two U-M studies of advanced laryngeal cancer patients, looking specifically at patients who had the largest tumours, called T4.

The researchers point out that besides being large, T4 tumours often invade the nearby cartilage, making them particularly difficult to treat.

They revealed that those participating in the study were administered one round of induction chemotherapy, an initial dose designed to see if the cancer responds.

If the tumour shrank by more than 50 percent after that first round, say the researchers, the participants were given three more rounds of chemotherapy, combined with daily radiation therapy.

They add that the participants whose tumours did not respond to the induction chemotherapy were referred for surgery.

The researchers revealed that 81 per cent of the 36 T4 disease patients enrolled in the two studies responded to the induction chemotherapy, and many saw their tumours shrink completely.

After three years, 78 percent of the T4 study participants were still alive, and 58 percent still had an intact larynx.

While chemotherapy and radiation come with unpleasant and serious side effects, avoiding surgery allows patients to retain their voice.

The study also showed that people whose larynx were preserved had better quality of life and less depression than those who had undergone surgery. Few people required a feeding tube or tracheostomy.

“If the patient failed chemotherapy up front, he or she could go straight to surgery and avoid the side effects of chemo-radiation. Meanwhile, a large group of patients get to preserve their voice box by avoiding laryngectomy,” Worden says.

“We saw no survival difference between the smallest and the largest tumors, which suggests that organ preservation is a viable alternative to surgery for some of the largest laryngeal cancers,” he adds.

A research article describing the study has appeared online in the journal Laryngoscope. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jacko may scrap more gigs due to skin cancer treatment

May 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, May 29 (ANI): Michael Jackson may have to scrap more of his concerts in the UK due to his treatment for skin cancer.

The King of Pop, who was diagnosed with skin cancer last month, might have to undergo gruelling radiotherapy to beat the disease.

His friends are worried that the therapy could leave the 50-year-old star so exhausted that he might even have to cancel other July gigs.

Jacko has already postponed the first four UK dates of his 50-show tour at London’s O2 arena, leaving 80,000 fans disappointed.

While Specialists in California’s Beverly Hills have removed potentially lethal growths from his nose and arm, they are worried about a patch that remains on his chest.

One treatment option is to remove it layer by layer, which would not have any impact on his tour.

However, experts have insisted that radiotherapy is more effective.

“Michael has a devil of a decision. The temptation is to go for the treatment, which will allow him to perform,” the Sun quoted a close source as saying.

“The last thing he wants is to let down his fans. But it may well turn out that radiation therapy is still needed if the cancer is deep in his cells.

“That can have really nasty side effects and leave him unable to sing at all.”

“Everyone is praying that more dates will still go ahead,” the source added

Last night, a spokesman for Jacko insisted: “He is in great health.” (ANI)

Filed Under: Entertainment News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why prostate cancer returns in some patients

May 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): A new study has shed new light on why prostate cancer returns in some men despite receiving surgery or radiation therapy.

While most men have an excellent outcome with such standard treatments for localized prostate cancer, there are some for whom the treatment isn’t really effective.

The study is a collaborative effort between researchers at the Josephine Ford Cancer Center at Henry Ford Hospital and Fox Chase Cancer Center.

And it found that men with a low oxygen supply to their tumour are at a higher risk of prostate cancer return, if the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were increased after treatment.

“After several years of research, we were able to show that low levels of oxygen to the tumour are highly related to a patient’s outcome. Those with lower oxygen levels to the prostate cancer did not respond as well to radiation therapy, and the cancer returned more often,” said Dr. Benjamin Movsas, senior study author.

Recent studies have shown that the same applies to patients treated with surgery.

Movsas said that oxygen delivery to a tumour is critical to the treatment for many cancers- for example, radiation therapy creates free radicals that damage DNA in tumours, and oxygen acts as the mediator that perpetuates the free radicals.

Thus, Movsas began his work nearly a decade ago to investigate low oxygen levels – also known as tumour hypoxia – in prostate cancer tumours while working at Fox Chase.

To measure the amount of oxygen being delivered to the tumours and surrounding areas, researchers used custom-made oxygen probes to test 57 patients with low or immediate risk of cancer prior to radiation therapy.

The probe was used prior to “radioactive seeds” which were implanted in the prostate.

The initial study found that it is possible for prostate cancer tumours to have low oxygen levels.

And now, they have revealed that a tumour’s oxygen supply can significantly predict a patient’s outcome following treatment, independent from tumour stage or Gleason score-a classification of the grade of prostate cancer.

Of the 57 patients, the study found that eight experienced an increase in their PSA levels about eight years following treatment.

The results from the study will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Orlando. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Low oxygen levels in prostate tumours can help predict odds of cancer recurrence

May 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 16 (ANI): Low-oxygen regions in prostate tumours can be used to predict the recurrence of cancer in a patient, say scientists.

Researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center came to this conclusion after analysing the observations made during a long-term study, whose results will be presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Aruna Turaka, a radiation oncology fellow and the lead author of the study, says that low oxygen is a well-known risk factor for radiation resistance in solid tumours.

She says that the current study reinforces the preliminary findings of the six research papers published between 2000 and 2002, which detailed the link between low oxygen in tumours and the risk of increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels.

During the study, her team used a custom-built probe to monitor the amount of oxygen that prostate tumours and non-cancerous muscle tissue were receiving.

The researchers used this probe on 57 patients with low or intermediate risk of cancer just before the patients received a form of localized radiation therapy.

They then tracked the patients over time, looking for a correlation between the amount of oxygen levels in the prostate tumour relative to the muscle tissue at the time of therapy and later looked at the increase in PSA levels.

The study showed that eight of the 57 patients experienced an increase in PSA levels following prostate cancer treatment, defined as an increase of 2 ng/mL above the lowest PSA reading following brachytherapy. Overall, average muscle oxygenation was 12.5-times higher than that of the tumour.

The researchers used a statistical model that accounted for such risk factors as tumour grade, PSA level and tumour size and determined that low oxygen was a significant independent predictor of an increase in PSA levels.

Even after accounting for PSA value, Gleason score, tumour size, age, and other prostate cancer risk factors, the researchers said that low oxygen in tumour alone could predict the likelihood of increased PSA levels, and potentially cancer recurrence.

“Now, the goal is to apply the results to the clinic,” Turaka said.

“We already knew that there are hypoxic (low oxygen) regions within cancers. The future goal is to interpolate that to relate to the expression of molecular markers (such as hypoxia-inducible factor-1-alpha) and attack those tumours with dose escalation radiation oncology strategies and targeted agents,” she said. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Robotic assisted kidney cancer surgery beneficial for patients

May 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

p
Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Centre have shown that robot assisted kidney cancer surgery is more beneficial for patients compared to open surgery./pp
The standard treatment for kidney cancer is to surgically remove the entire or a portion of the kidney./pp
The surgeons are using the da Vinci robot assisted surgical system for patients with kidney cancer, or renal cell carcinoma. /pp
Our patients have experienced many benefits from the robot assisted approach, including shorter hospital stays (average 3 days), preserved kidney function (reduced need for dialysis), smaller scars with optimal cosmetic results, lower blood loss and easier and earlier return to normal activity, said Dr Rosalia Viterbo, Fox Chase robotic surgeon/pp
This laparoscopic approach allowed the surgeon to reach the kidney through 4 tiny holes in the patient’s abdomen. /pp
The researchers suggest that with fast recovery, patients do not delay the next step in their treatment plan, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, stopping the disease from progressing as fast. /pp
Similarly, patients with disease on both kidneys benefit because there is less waiting time between surgeries and there is no delay on further treatment. This provides less opportunity for the cancer to grow and spread. /pp
Results of the study show robot assisted partial nephrectomy to be a safe and technically feasible minimally invasive approach to kidney sparing surgery, said Viterbo./pp
The study was presented at the American Urological Association’s Annual Meeting. (ANI)/p

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Omega-3 fatty acids may help preserve muscle mass in cancer patients undergoing surgery

April 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 11 (ANI): A randomised controlled trial has shown that omega-3 fatty acids given as part of an oral nutritional supplement helps preserve muscle mass in patients undergoing surgery for oesopahageal cancer, a procedure normally associated with significant weight loss and quality of life issues.

Omega 3 fats are essential fats found naturally in oily fish, with highest concentrations in salmon, herring, mackerel, and sardines.

Considering their health-related benefits, food manufacturers have started to add them to foods like yogurt, milk, juice, eggs, and infant formula also.

Professor John V. Reynolds of Trinity College Dublin and Dr Aoife Ryan of St James’ Hospital, the pair who led the trial, said that previous studies have had already shown that nutritional supplements containing one form of omega 3 fat, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), significantly reduced weight loss among inoperable cancer patients.

They revealed that that finding made them hypothesise that a nutritional supplement rich in calories and a high dose of EPA could stem the debilitating weight loss seen in patients following oesophageal surgery.

The researchers said that they chose to study patients undergoing surgery for oesophageal cancer because it is considered to be one of the most stressful and serious operations a patient can undergo.

“An increasing number of patients are treated with chemotherapy alone or in combination with radiation therapy before they undergo surgery. The surgery is a serious operation lasting several hours and can take weeks to recover from surgery and up to six months to recover pre-illness quality of life.

Weight loss is extremely common both before and especially after this type of surgery, and any approach that can preserve weight, in particular muscle weight and strength, may represent a real advance,” they said.
During the study, patients awaiting oesophagectomy surgery were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups.

While both groups received a 240ml nutritional supplement twice daily starting five days before surgery, patients in the treatment group received an enriched formula with omega 3.

Immediately following surgery, the supplement was given through a feeding tube for 14 days while patients recovered in hospital.

Once patients could resume oral feeding, they continued drinking the supplement until 21 days post surgery.

The researchers observed that the patients given the standard feed without omega 3 suffered clinically severe weight loss post surgery, while those in the omega 3 group patients maintained all aspects of their body composition

Professor John Reynolds said: “Omega 3 enriched nutrition appears to prevent loss of muscle mass by reducing the amount of inflammatory markers in the blood – this means the metabolism is not as stressed as it usually is post surgery. We also saw that the omega 3 group was less likely to have a fever in the first week post surgery which points to the ability of omega 3 to suppress inflammation. Looking at their blood tests omega 3 fed patients had much lower ‘inflammatory compounds’ circulating in their blood which points to the ability of omega 3 to reduce inflammation.”

The researchers said that using specialised nutritional feeds with a highly purified form of EPA enabled them to administer a dose of omega 3 that was much higher than that typically found in food.

Professor John Reynolds said: “This study has provided an interesting insight into how nutritional therapy can positively impact on the major stress of cancer surgery. More studies need to be done, in particular to address whether such approaches lead to more rapid recovery of quality of life, reduce complications, and improve outcomes.”

He expressed his belief that similar benefits from Omega 3 enriched nutrition might accrue to patients needing complex surgical care for non-cancer problems, for instance liver transplantation or major cardiac surgery.

A research article on this study has been published in the Annals of Surgery. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Radiation therapy ‘highly effective’ against early lung cancer

April 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 6 (ANI): A high-tech type of radiation treatment called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has been found to be “highly effective” in treating early-stage lung cancer for patients who are not eligible for surgery.

This therapy uses very large doses of high-energy radiation (x-rays), which are aimed directly at tumours with great precision and accuracy, thus sparing the surrounding, healthy tissue from damage.

“I think of this as ‘lung-sparing’ treatment, in which many patients with early-stage lung cancer can have effective treatment in as few as three treatment sessions with a low risk of side effects,” said Dr. Ronald McGarry, clinical associate professor and vice chairman of radiation medicine at the UK College of Medicine.

“The data we are reporting now show that long-term control of these localized cancers is possible,” he added.

During the study, the researchers looked at 70 medically inoperable patients at Indiana University.

The patients, most of whom had other significant health problems, median survival was 32.4 months, which compares favourably to the established median survival of only about nine months for untreated early-stage lung cancer.

Nearly 90 percent of patients had no evidence their cancer returned in the lung.

“Lung cancer is our number one cancer killer and non-invasive treatment for those patients with severe heart and lung disease opens new opportunities to help them,” said McGarry.

The study appears in The International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Low-risk prostate cancer patients may have good clinical outcomes by avoiding immediate treatment

March 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 16 (ANI): A new study suggests that opting not to receive immediate treatment may be safe for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer, and who are at minimal risk of cancer progression, if they are closely monitored.

Dr. Scott Eggener, assistant professor of surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center, says that the study addresses an important question as to when to actively treat versus when to observe and closely monitor.

Radiation therapy and surgery are effective treatments, but they can be associated with serious long-term side effects like incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

The new study has shown that two separate biopsies are needed to determine optimal selection of patients for active surveillance, also known as “watchful waiting”, when patients decide not to undergo immediate treatment.

Dr. Eggener notes that there are no widely-accepted recommendations on which patients are appropriate candidates for active surveillance or when to perform second or “restaging” biopsies.

He says that a restaging biopsy provides doctors with additional information regarding the cancer, and is the best way to ensure the short-term success of active surveillance.

“When or if to treat men with low-risk prostate cancer has always been a challenging question that faces patients and urologists,” the researcher says.

“Some men may be rushing into treatment that won’t necessarily benefit them, prevent problems, or prolong life. Close observation in certain patients may provide and maintain quality of life without increasing the chances of the cancer spreading,” he adds.

According to Dr. Eggener, it is important for patients to undergo a restaging biopsy following the initial diagnostic biopsy, before active surveillance is elected.

The study conducted between 1991 and 2007 involved 262 men from four hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.

Of that initial pool electing surveillance of their cancer, 43 patients eventually chose treatment or had evidence of cancer progression prompting recommendation of treatment by their physician.

Following delayed treatment, all but one were cured of their cancer.

The remaining 219 patients remained on active surveillance without evidence of metastases.

“Active surveillance with delayed treatment, if necessary, for select patients appears to be safe and associated with a low risk of metastatic spread,” the study concludes.

Unlike many past studies on active surveillance that used data before PSA tests were widely available, this multi-centre study is based on patients who were screened with the PSA blood test, a widely used cancer-screening tool that predicts a man’s chances of having prostate cancer.

“Active surveillance is not a total disregard for patients with prostate cancer. Instead, it identifies men unlikely to be affected by their cancer and encourages frequent monitoring, and then starting therapy at a later appropriate time if needed. Cure rates appear to be identical when these men choose immediate treatment or delayed treatment when prompted by new information about their condition,” Eggener says.

The study has been published in the Journal of Urology. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

New approach to treat lung cancer offers high cure rates

March 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 5 (ANI): A new technique to treat lung cancer at Temple University might double a person’s chances of surviving the deadly disease, and that too without the need of conventional radiation regimen or surgery.

Called stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), the technique not only improves a person’s odds of surviving early stage lung cancer, but may also reduce the need for future surgeries, according to doctors in the Radiation Oncology Department.

“This is a big trend in radiation oncology for early stage lung cancer patients who either can’t undergo surgery or refuse it. With the success of this technique, we’re now questioning whether we’ll even be doing surgeries on these patients in the future,” said Curtis Miyamoto, chair and professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the School of Medicine.

The treatment of lung cancer with conventional radiation is quite burdensome because patients have to receive radiation therapy five days a week for six to seven weeks, making it difficult for people not living in the city.

Comparatively, SBRT requires only three to eight treatments, not 35. Once malignancy is confirmed through a PET CT scan or biopsy, treatments can begin.

Patients are placed in an immobilizing body frame to reduce movement so that doctors can focus radiation on the tumour while reducing exposure of healthy tissue.

Although both traditional treatments and SBRT methods involve radiation, SBRT administers large, highly precise doses instead of multiple smaller doses.

For those who undergo SBRT, the median survival range is more than 32 months.

And depending on the size and seriousness of the tumour, the two-year disease free survival, or cure rate through SBRT increases to approximately 81 percent and can reach up to 98 percent.

SBRT doubles the odds of surviving early stage lung cancer and can actually cure at least half of the patients.

“Such high survival rates are equivalent to other techniques, like invasive surgery, but you don’t have to go under the knife. I think the big thing the patient notices is it’s all done very quickly and the results are impressive,” said Miyamoto.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Radiation OncologyBiologyPhysics. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Compound used in BP drugs may benefit brain tumour patients

February 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 19 (ANI): Researchers from at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre have found that a compound used in blood pressure medication may help prevent cognitive loss after radiation therapy in brain tumour patients.

In the study conducted using a rat model, the researchers assumed that that a compound similar to the anti-hypertensive drug losartan can prevent the cognition loss that has been closely-associated with radiation therapy for brain tumour treatment.

The researchers hope that the same theory could easily be applied in a human clinical trial setting because the drug used has a long-established safety profile in patients who have taken it to treat high blood pressure.

“We need to kill cancer cells but also prevent or reduce treatment-related side effects,” said Mike E. Robbins, Ph.D., a professor in the department of radiation oncology at the Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence, part of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

“One very interesting feature of this compound is that it has never shown any pro-tumor effects. If anything, it appears to have anti-tumor properties.

“We’re very close to having a compound that will protect the normal brain from cognitive injury as a result of radiation and, at the same time, we may very well increase the likelihood of one day curing brain cancer patients of their tumours,” he added.

Previous studies had shown that radiation may lead to the overproduction of angiotensin II (Ang II), a peptide that has been associated with decline of brain function.

Blocking the binding of Ang II to the Ang type I receptor in patients receiving radiation, researchers suggest that they could prevent or hinder cognitive decline.

In the study involving 80 rats, each group was divided in half to either receive radiation or no treatment.

Then, each of those halves was divided into two more groups: one that received L-158,809, the compound similar to losartan, in its drinking water, and one group that received plain drinking water. The rats that received the drug received it before, during and for different time intervals – 14, 28 or 54 weeks – post-radiation.

In addition, a small group of rats continued to receive the drug for only five weeks after radiation.

They found that administering L-158,809 before, during and for as little as five weeks after radiation either prevents or lessens the severity of radiation-induced cognitive impairment.

“This study provides hope that we may be able to take a drug that has been prescribed to millions of individuals with essentially very little morbidity and give it to cancer patients and stop them from experiencing cognitive impairment as a result of brain radiation,” said Robbins.

The findings appear in the International Journal of Radiation, Biology, Physics. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,