Cancer Patients

• Ricercatori della UCL e della UCLH hanno condotto un trial in cui pazienti con cancro colorettale allo stadio 2 o 3 hanno ricevuto solo nove settimane di immunoterapia con pembrolizumab prima dell'intervento chirurgico, mettendo in discussione l'approccio standard che prevede l'intervento seguito da mesi di chemioterapia. • I risultati preliminari hanno mostrato che il 59% dei pazienti non presentava cancro rilevabile dopo aver completato l'immunoterapia e aver subito l'intervento e, dopo 33 mesi di follow-up, nessuno dei pazienti ha avuto recidive. • Questo risultato rappresenta un cambiamento significativo nei protocolli di trattamento del cancro colorettale, suggerendo che brevi cicli di immunoterapia mirata prima dell'intervento possano offrire risultati più duraturi rispetto ai convenzionali regimi di chemioterapia post-operatoria.

Injectable pembrolizumab can treat several types of cancer and can be administered in under two minutesThousands of patients across England each year will benefit from a new immunotherapy treatment that can be used for several types of cancer, the NHS has announced.The injectable form of pembrolizumab, which can be administered in under two minutes, kills cancer cells by blocking a protein called PD-1, which acts as a brake on immune responses, allowing the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pre-chemotherapy tests previously did not look for gene variant that put some ethnicities at higher risk of serious side effectsThousands of cancer patients from minority ethnic backgrounds will have access to “groundbreaking” genetic testing on the NHS that previously discriminated against them.This routine form of genetic testing, used before chemotherapy treatment, could save the lives of Black and minority ethnic cancer patients who already face poorer health outcomes after diagnosis compared with their white counterparts. Continue reading...

PhenMap tool could spare thousands of patients from treatment that would be ineffective for themA new AI-driven way of identifying how patients with advanced bowel cancer will respond to a drug that was recently introduced by the NHS has been announced.Researchers at London’s Institute of Cancer Research and the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin have developed the method with the goal of sparing potentially thousands of patients from being given drugs that would be ineffective in fighting their cancers. Continue reading...