Researchers at Kyushu University have developed and validated a machine-learning model that can accurately evaluate the density of surviving tumor cells after treatment in pathological images of osteosarcoma—the most prevalent malignant bone tumor. The model can assess how individual tumor cells respond to treatment and can predict overall patient prognosis more reliably than conventional methods.
Surgery and chemotherapy have significantly improved the outcomes of patients with localized osteosarcoma. However, patients with advanced metastatic disease (the stage where cancerous cells have spread to distant tissues) have a low survival rate. After a standard treatment of surgery and chemotherapy, assessing the prognosis of patients is essential for determining their subsequent individual treatment plans. However, predicting patient outcomes has many challenges.
Currently, prognosis relies on necrosis rate assessment, which involves pathologists evaluating the proportion of dead tissue within a tumor. Unfortunately, these methods are limited by variability between pathologists' assessments and may not accurately predict treatment response.
Annual prostate cancer cases worldwide are projected to double by the year 2040, and annual deaths are projected to increase by 85% to almost 700,000 over the same timeframe—mainly among men in low- and middle-income countries. A commissioned report published in The Lancet highlights the future landscape of prostate cancer and seeks to guide cancer experts worldwide on how to manage the massive influx of prostate cancer patients projected over the next two decades.
Brandon Mahal, M.D., radiation oncologist and translational epidemiologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, was a member of a group of international experts commissioned to write the collaborative article.
"Unlike a typical study, which describes a single or set of experiments, commissioned pieces involve The Lancet editors working with academic partners to address the most pressing issues in science, medicine and global health," Mahal explained.
He said the report was conceived back in 2020, when the journal's editors sought advice from a select group of 40 cancer experts to highlight the increasing burden of prostate cancer, with global cases projected to more than double by 2040.
"Specifically, they wanted our collective, international perspective on this looming global burden," Mahal said. "They asked us to report the extent of the problem, identify the most at-risk populations and explain how best to address the expected surge."
Besides outlining the scope of the problem—worldwide cases are expected to explode from 1.4 million now to 2.9 million in just 16 years—The Lancet report highlights both ethnic and geographic disparities in the overall burden of prostate cancer and emphasizes the need for more research into the factors driving these differences.
A nanosized polymer, developed by a research team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, can selectively deliver chemotherapeutic drugs to blood vessels that feed tumors and metastases and has emerged as an effective treatment for advanced cancer. The polymer eliminates colorectal cancer liver metastases and prolongs mice survival after a single dose therapy.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed cancer and the third most common cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the United States. The liver is the most common site for CRC metastasis, with around 70% of patients ultimately developing liver metastases.
Treatment options for metastatic disease are scarce, and while surgery remains the gold standard, many patients need additional therapies (chemotherapy, targeted, or immune therapy) for a curative-intended treatment.
Targeted therapies and immunotherapies directed against specific features of the tumor have emerged as promising therapeutic strategies for cancer patients, but their efficacy is often limited by the large variety of mutation profiles of CRC tumors, many of them conferring resistance to specific treatments.
Researchers have developed a functional precision medicine approach that targets cancer by combining genetic testing with a new way to test individual drugs on tumor samples. The results of the clinical study were published in Nature Medicine.
This combined approach, developed by Florida International University cancer researcher Diana Azzam, was used successfully for the first time to guide treatment of relapsed pediatric cancer patients in collaboration with First Ascent Biomedical and Dr. Maggie Fader at the Helen & Jacob Shaham Cancer & Blood Disorders Institute at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami.
A new study led by researchers at Stanford Medicine finds that computer algorithms powered by artificial intelligence based on deep learning can help health care practitioners to diagnose skin cancers more accurately. Even dermatologists benefit from AI guidance, although their improvement is less than that seen for non-dermatologists.
"This is a clear demonstration of how AI can be used in collaboration with a physician to improve patient care," said professor of dermatology and of epidemiology Eleni Linos, MD. Linos leads the Stanford Center for Digital Health, which was launched to tackle some of the most pressing research questions at the intersection of technology and health by promoting collaboration between engineering, computer science, medicine and the humanities.
Drug-loaded 3D printed films could change cancer treatments forever as world first research from the University of South Australia shows that new films not only kill more than 80% of liver cancer cells but could also significantly reduce recurrence rates while minimizing systematic toxicities of traditional chemotherapy.
Created from gels loaded with tailored doses of anti-cancer drugs 5-fluorouracil (5FU) and cisplatin (Cis), the 3D printed films are placed at the exact surgical site where a cancer has been removed, localizing drugs to the affected area to treat possible residual cancer cells, and limit undesirable side effects of traditional chemotherapy. The work is published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
Initially designed as an adjuvant treatment for liver cancer, the precision-cut films also have the potential to treat ovarian cancer, head and neck cancer and many other cancers, where 5FU and Cis have already proven successful.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham have created an endoscopic device that can 3D image the stiffness of individual biological cells and complex organisms, a discovery that could help doctors discover and treat cancer earlier.
In its early stages, cancer cells are, far softer than normal cells. This allows them to squeeze through tight gaps and rapidly spread throughout the body—known as metastasis. During this process, collections of cells modify their surrounding environment to create stiff tumors that protect them from outside threats.
Published in Communications Biology, the new technology can measure the stiffness of these individual cells with a hair-thin endoscopic probe, meaning it will be possible to perform histology (i.e. investigating microscopic cellular tissue) based on abnormal stiffness at the single cell level inside the human body for the first time.
Cancer Treatment: Experts Propose Specific and Suited Guidelines for the Use and Regulation of Artificial Intelligence April 16, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Current Artificial Intelligence (AI) models for cancer treatment are trained and approved only for specific intended purposes. GMAI models, in contrast, can handle a wide range of medical data including different types of images and text. For example, for a patient with colorectal cancer, a single GMAI model could interpret endoscopy videos, pathology slides and electronic health record (EHR) data. Hence, such multi-purpose or generalist models represent a paradigm shift away from narrow AI models.
Regulatory bodies face a dilemma in adapting to these new models because current regulations are designed for applications with a defined and fixed purpose, specific set of clinical indications and target population. Adaptation or extension after approval is not possible without going through quality management and regulatory, administrative processes again. GMAI models, with their adaptability and predictive potential even without specific training examples – so called zero shot reasoning – therefore pose challenges for validation and reliability assessment. Currently, they are excluded by all international frameworks.
The authors point out that existing regulatory frameworks are not well suited to handle GMAI models due to their characteristics. “If these regulations remain unchanged, a possible solution could be hybrid approaches. GMAIs could be approved as medical devices and then the range of allowed clinical prompts could be restricted,” says Prof. Stephen Gilbert, Professor of Medical Device Regulatory Science at TU Dresden. “But this approach is to force models with potential to intelligential address new questions and multimodal data onto narrow tracks through rules written when these technologies were not anticipated. Specific decisions should be made on how to proceed with these technologies and not to exclude their ability to address questions they were not specifically designed for. New technologies sometimes call for new regulatory paradigms,” says Prof. Gilbert.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have developed a new urine-based test that addresses a major problem in prostate cancer: how to separate the slow-growing form of the disease unlikely to cause harm from more aggressive cancer that needs immediate treatment.
The test, called MyProstateScore2.0, or MPS2, looks at 18 different genes linked to high-grade prostate cancer. In multiple tests using urine and tissue samples from men with prostate cancer, it successfully identified cancers classified as Gleason 3+4=7 or Grade Group 2 (GG2), or higher.
These cancers are more likely to grow and spread compared to Gleason 6 or Grade Group 1 prostate cancers, which are unlikely to spread or cause other impact. More than one-third of prostate cancer diagnoses are this low-grade form. Gleason and Grade Group are both used to classify how aggressive prostate cancer is.
Last year alone, more than 600,000 people in the United States died from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The relentless pursuit of understanding this complex disease has shaped medical progress in developing treatment procedures that are less invasive while still highly effective.
Immunotherapy is on the rise as a possible solution. Immunotherapy involves harnessing the power of the body's immune system to fight against cancer cells. Researchers in the College of Engineering have found a way to revamp a treatment procedure into a groundbreaking practice.
Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have designed a synthetic compound (antigen) that can latch on to a protein in blood and hitchhike a ride to the lymph node, where it can boost the production of antibodies against cancer cells.
The approach gives a new direction to develop vaccine candidates for a variety of cancers, the researchers say.
Inside the human body, cancer cells can weaken or shut down the production of antibodies that target and eliminate them. Developing a cancer vaccine, therefore, involves modifying or creating a mimic of an antigen found on the surface of cancer cells to turn up or turn on this antibody production. In recent years, scientists have turned to carbohydrates found on cancer cell surfaces to develop these antigens.
Purdue University researchers are developing and validating a patent-pending treatment for incurable glioblastoma brain tumors. Glioblastomas are almost always lethal with a median survival time of 14 months. Traditional methods used against other cancers, like chemotherapy and immunotherapy, are often ineffective on glioblastoma.
Sandro Matosevic, associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics in Purdue's College of Pharmacy, leads a team of researchers that is developing a novel immunotherapy to be used against glioblastoma. Matosevic is also on the faculty of the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery.
The Matosevic-led research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Breakthrough Rice Bran Nanoparticles Show Promise as Affordable and Targeted Anticancer Agent April 22, 2024
Introduction:
(Eurekalert) Several types of conventional cancer therapies, such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy, destroy healthy cells along with cancer cells. In advanced stages of cancer, tissue loss from treatments can be substantial and even fatal. Cutting-edge cancer therapies that employ nanoparticles can specifically target cancer cells, sparing healthy tissue. Recent studies have demonstrated that plant-derived nanoparticles (pdNPs) that have therapeutic effects can be an effective alternative to traditional cancer treatments. However, no pdNPs have been approved as anticancer therapeutic agents till date.
Rice bran is a byproduct generated during rice refining process that has limited utility and low commercial value. However, it contains several compounds with anticancer properties, such as γ-oryzanol and γ-tocotrienol. To explore these therapeutic properties of rice bran, a team of researchers led by Professor Makiya Nishikawa from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) in Japan developed nanoparticles from rice bran and tested their effectiveness in mice models. Their study, published in Volume 22 of Journal of Nanobiotechnology on 16 March 2024, was co-authored by Dr. Daisuke Sasaki, Ms. Hinako Suzuki, Associate Professor Kosuke Kusamori, and Assistant Professor Shoko Itakura from TUS.
In a breakthrough for cancer research, scientists at EPFL have created lab-grown mini-colons that can accurately mimic the development of colorectal tumors, offering a powerful new tool for studying and testing treatments for the disease.
As our battle against cancer rages on, the quest for more sophisticated and realistic models to study tumor development has never been more critical. Until now, research has relied on animal models and simplified cell culture methods, which are valuable but cannot fully capture the complex interplay of factors involved in tumor development.
Even newer, more advanced models for studying cancer, such as organoids—tiny, lab-grown versions of organs—do not faithfully replicate the cell behaviors and tissue architectures seen in actual tumors.
New Test Detects Cancer In Minutes Using Just 1 Drop of Dried Blood
Though the test is in its infancy, it could someday be used to spot three of cancer's deadliest forms.
By Adrianna Nine April 24, 2024 https://www.extremetech.com/science/new ... ried-blood
Current cancer detection methods are cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive. From getting an MRI to preparing for and undergoing a colonoscopy, today's most reliable diagnostics require that patients take full days off work and sit through discomfort during an already stressful period of life. Many of these methods are focused on just one region of the body, making it difficult to check for cancer across multiple systems at a time.
A test devised in Shanghai could make cancer detection quicker, easier, and practical for multiple areas of the body at once. Using just one drop of dried blood, the test looks for biomarkers that typically signal cancer's presence in the pancreas, stomach, and colon. Though the test is in its infancy, early trials reveal its promise to safeguard against deadly cancers often discovered too late.
