Showing posts tagged with: drug

Cancer 'Smart Bomb' Successfully Tested in US

Scientists have successfully tested a capillary "smart bomb" that simultaneously attacks cancer and boosts the immune system.

The tiny hollow spheres become trapped in leaky tumour blood vessels, where they unleash an anti-cancer drug.

At the same time the spheres, called nanolipogels (NLGs), release a protein that rallies the body's own defences.

Researchers tested the spheres in mice on melanoma skin cancer that had spread to the lungs.

Tumour growth was significantly delayed and the survival of the mice increased.

The new technology overcomes a problem with cancer treatment that has been difficult to tackle using conventional therapies, say the scientists.

Cancer tumours are known to secrete chemicals that confuse the immune system.

But attempts to boost patient immunity while at the same time neutralising the cancer's chemical arsenal rarely work.

The NLGs, described in the journal Nature Materials, package together two completely different kinds of molecule.

One is designed to overcome a potent cancer defence weapon called TGF-beta, which stunts the local immune system.

The other, an interleukin signalling molecule, boosts immune system activity.

Researcher Dr Stephen Wrzesinski, from Yale University School of Medicine in the US, said: "One problem with current metastatic (spreading) melanoma immunotherapies is the difficulty managing autoimmune toxicities when the treatment agents are administered throughout the body.

"The novel nanolipogel delivery system we used will hopefully bypass systemic toxicities while providing support to enable the body to fight off the tumour at the tumour bed itself."

Each NLG is small enough to travel through the bloodstream, but large enough to get entrapped in leaky cancer blood vessels. Once trapped, they biodegrade to release their cargo.

Article taken from Sky News - click here to view.

Latest life-extending cancer drug 'rationed by postcode': Dozens of hospitals refuse to hand out treatments

Hospitals are denying patients the latest  life-extending cancer drugs, a report reveals.

Dozens of trusts are failing to hand out  treatments for bowel, ovarian, lung and brain cancer that have been approved by  the NHS watchdog NICE.  Some of these drugs have been shown to boost  survival rates by a quarter while others have extended the lives of  terminally-ill patients by over a year.

The report - commissioned by the Department  of Health - also reveals that many hospitals are failing to prescribe the latest  treatments for heart attacks, asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Crohn’s  Disease.

In fact some of the drugs were approved for  use by NICE more than seven years ago.

Click here to read more.

Researchers claim NHS drug decisions 'are flawed'

The formula used by the NHS to recommend which drugs should be funded is "flawed" and should be scrapped, researchers say.

The European Commission-funded study tested the assumptions of the system used by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence).

Researchers concluded the watchdog's system failed to reflect variations in views on illness and disability.

To read the full article, click here.

Multiple sclerosis patients are missing out on drugs

Only 40% of people eligible for drugs to combat multiple sclerosis in the UK are actually taking them, says a report from the MS Society.

A survey of more than 10,000 adults with MS showed that many were missing out on the seven licensed medicines approved for use.

The charity said a lack of information and access to specialists was to blame.

It is calling for the government to provide a personalised care plan to every person with MS.

To read the full article please click here.

Children with cancer 'denied drugs because of EU rules'

EU rules must be changed to allow more testing of potentially life-saving cancer drugs on children, say experts.

The UK's Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) says the current system acts as a disincentive to drug companies who can seek waivers to avoid doing the trials.

Of 28 new cancer drugs approved in the EU for adults since 2007, 26 could potentially work in children, but 14 have been exempted from child testing.

The ICR wants these "class waivers" to be scrapped.