Five presentations at the 101th annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research were highlighted a news release from Geron Corporation (dated March 3, 2010). One presentation that had an explicit focus on CSC was this poster:

Imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor in phase I trials in solid tumor and hematological malignancies, has broad activity against multiple types of cancer stem cells [Presentation Abstract].

Also mentioned in the news release was an oral presentation by Jerry W Shay, given as part of the Major Symposium entitled: Role of Telomeres and Telomerase in Chromosomal Stability and Disease [Session Detail]. The presentation was:

Role of telomerase in normal and neoplastic stem cells [Presentation Abstract].

Another poster about the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat (GRN163L) was:

Sensitivity and resistance of non-small cell lung cancer to the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat [Presentation Abstract].

Comments: A search of the ClinicalTrials.gov database for GRN163L revealed 6 trials. Four were ongoing, but not recruiting participants. Two were still recruiting: 1) Safety and Dose Study of GRN163L Administered to Patients With Refractory or Relapsed Solid Tumor Malignancies; 2) A Study of GRN163L With Paclitaxel and Bevacizumab to Treat Patients With Locally Recurrent Or Metastatic Breast Cancer.

An analogous search for imetelstat yielded the same 6 trials. All 6 trials have been sponsored by Geron Corporation.

It has been a long-time coming. It has been hyped and scoffed, bet against and hoped for, but now none of that matters. It's here. Dendreon has brought Provenge to market. Here, in the word's of the FDA...

FDA NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: April 29, 2010

FDA Approves a Cellular Immunotherapy for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Provenge (sipuleucel-T), a new therapy for certain men with advanced prostate cancer that uses their own immune system to fight the disease.

Provenge is indicated for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and is resistant to standard hormone treatment.

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among men in the United States, behind skin cancer, and usually occurs in older men. In 2009, an estimated 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed and about 27,000 men died from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“The availability of Provenge provides a new treatment option for men with advanced prostate cancer, who currently have limited effective therapies available,” said Karen Midthun, M.D., acting director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Provenge is an autologous cellular immunotherapy, designed to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to respond against the cancer. Each dose of Provenge is manufactured by obtaining a patient’s immune cells from the blood, using a machine in a process known as leukapheresis. To enhance their response against the cancer, the immune cells are then exposed to a protein that is found in most prostate cancers, linked to an immune stimulating substance. After this process, the patient’s own cells are returned to the patient to treat the prostate cancer. Provenge is administered intravenously in a three-dose schedule given at about two-week intervals.

The effectiveness of Provenge was studied in 512 patients with metastatic hormone treatment refractory prostate cancer in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial, which showed an increase in overall survival of 4.1 months. The median survival for patients receiving Provenge treatments was 25.8 months, as compared to 21.7 months for those who did not receive the treatment.

Almost all of the patients who received Provenge had some type of adverse reaction. Common adverse reactions reported included chills, fatigue, fever, back pain, nausea, joint ache and headache. The majority of adverse reactions were mild or moderate in severity. Serious adverse reactions, reported in approximately one quarter of the patients receiving Provenge, included some acute infusion reactions and stroke. Cerebrovascular events, including hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes, were observed in 3.5 percent of patients in the Provenge group compared with 2.6 percent of patients in the control group.

Provenge is manufactured by Seattle-based Dendreon Corp.

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

I know I haven't been a very good blogger for quite some time but I wanted to pass on a letter I just received from my friend James Price as a Charter member of the Canadian Stem Cell Foundation. They're going for a Webby award. You don't have to be Canadian to support their cause - you just have to:

• believe in the power of interactive, online network-based activism,
  
• support the potential of stem cells to change people's lives, and
• wanna have a little fun raising awareness for our otherwise-sometimes-stodgy-science!

Go vote - it's good for you and the world! (WARNING: you might find out some things about some pretty cool stuff nominated in the other categories while you're there).

http://www.celltherapyblog.com hosted by http://www.celltherapygroup.com

(HealthDay News) -- Beetroot juice can boost physical stamina and increase exercise endurance by up to 16 percent, a new British study shows.

The researchers found that nitrate in beetroot juice reduces oxygen uptake to a degree that can't be achieved by any other means. The findings could benefit endurance athletes, elderly people and those with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases, the study authors suggest.

The study included eight men, aged 19 to 38, who drank 500 milliliters a day of organic beetroot juice for six consecutive days. They then completed a series of tests on an exercise bike. The same tests were repeated after the men drank the same amount of a placebo (blackcurrant cordial) for six days.

After drinking the beetroot juice, the men were able to cycle for an average of 11.25 minutes -- 92 seconds longer than after consuming the placebo drink. The men also had a lower resting blood pressure after they drank the beetroot juice, the researchers found.

The study was published Aug. 6 in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Read more...

Joint Mender for Joint Care

When President Richard Nixon launched the war on cancer in his January 1971 State of the Union, he called for "the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon." Yet nearly 40 years and $100 billion in federally funded cancer research later, it seems the lunar landing was a much less daunting task.

[More]

There were two poster sessions on Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). The sessions, Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics 1 and Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics 2, took place on the morning and afternoon of April 20, 2010 [FriendFeed entry].

Two posters presented in the 2nd session have been highlighted in a news release. See: Alchemia’s HyACT Technology Enhances the Killing of Cancer Stem Cell Populations in Breast and Colorectal Cancer, Business Wire, April 20, 2010 [FriendFeed entry]. One of these is Poster #4293: Evaluation of activated CD44 as a biological target in the eradication of breast cancer stem cells, by Vera J Evtimov and Tracey J Brown [Presentation Abstract]. The other is Poster #4278: HA-Irinotecan targeting of activated CD44 is an effective therapy for the eradication of putative colon cancer stem cells [Presentation Abstract].

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Long-term high consumption of red and processed meat may increase the risk of cancer in the colon and rectum, a new study shows.

Dr. Michael J. Thun, with the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues followed 148,610 adults, average age 63 years, who completed questionnaires in 1982 and again between 1992 and 1993 regarding their diet, exercise, medical history and other lifestyle habits.

By 2001, there were 1667 new cases of colorectal cancer, according to a report in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The participants who consistently ate the most red meat and processed meats had a 50 percent higher rate colorectal cancer than those who ate the least red or processed meat.

Prolonged high consumption of poultry and fish was marginally associated with about a 25 percent lower risk of colon cancer, but not rectal cancer. Read more...

Ayurtox for Body Detoxification

NEW YORK--Will exotic orchids soon be subjected to the same genetic scrutiny as some luxury caviars? That is just one of the coding conundrums that scientists convened at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to discuss on a cloudy mid-April afternoon. [More]