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Researchers have published a case report that signifies a potential breakthrough in the treatment of an aggressive type of prostate cancer. The report centers around a 60-year-old Air Force Veteran diagnosed with stage four metastatic prostate cancer and the positive outcomes of being treated with trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd), an antibody drug conjugate. The patient did not respond to multiple lines of therapy and experienced persistent tumor progression. As a last resort, the researchers tested for HER2 by immunohistochemistry, which came back positive and the patient was treated off-label in February 2024 with T-DXd. The antibody drug conjugate, which is FDA...

Recent numbers released by the American Academy of Dermatology revealed a dramatic spike in the incidence of melanoma cases among young women. Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer, and for women aged 18-39, its rates have increased by 800% from 1970 to 2009. In Caucasian women under 44, the number of cases has increased by just over 6% annually. (1) Now, in addition to being the most dangerous, melanoma is one of the most common cancers in young adults (especially young women). More than 7,000 people in the United States are expected to die of melanoma in...

SALT LAKE CITY — A mom dying of cancer took to YouTube and inspired a pharmaceutical company to release to her a potentially life-saving drug before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. A compassionate use clause allows for people with no other treatment options to receive experimental treatments prior to FDA approval, which is what Darlene Gant was hoping for on April 16 when she uploaded a 20-minute video to YouTube, pleading with the FDA approve her use of the drug Pertuzumab before its expected June approval date. Gant, 46, had been told earlier in 2012 that...

Single molecule can bind firmly to two different antigens. The two-in-one antibody.llison Bruce and Jenny Bostrom Researchers have challenged an old immunological dogma — that an antibody can bind to only a single target or antigen — by engineering an antibody to bind tightly to two distinct proteins. The antibody, described in Science1, blocks two proteins: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). VEGF is thought to promote growth in tumours, and HER2 is highly expressed by some aggressive breast tumours. Separate antibodies that target each protein individually are already used to treat some...

A particularly fast-growing form of breast cancer should be treated aggressively after surgery even when tumors are very small, according to new research that could alter treatment for one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer. The research, reported Friday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, focuses on the 15 percent to 20 percent of women with breast cancer who test positive for an amplification of the HER2 gene, which is typically among the most aggressive forms of the disease. Today, a targeted therapy called Herceptin, made by the biotech company Genentech, has greatly improved the odds for women...

Overactive growth controller could become drug target Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a molecular interaction that triggers a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, and suggest that attacking this target with selective drugs might improve treatment. Reporting in the January issue of Cancer Cell, a team led by Qunyan Yu, MD, and Peter Sicinski, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber say that the interaction of a certain mutated oncogene and the newly described growth control flaw is seen in about 10 percent of breast cancers - and the deadliest ones. The cancer results from a cascade of molecular events. The...