PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA (UroToday.com) - This was a pilot randomized clinical trial (n=44) in an academic health science center that was to evaluate three approaches to pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) following radical prostatectomy. Men were < 1 month post RRP. Mean age 58.8 (range 50-72). Used Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM) questionnaire and open-ended questions to describe aids enlisted for sexual activity.

The number of neurovascular (NV) bundles lost was 0 - 67.7%. Collected data at 1 yr, self-reported recovery was “poor.” A significantly larger number of older patients (>60yrs) reported some sexual recovery. The outcome did not vary by neurovascular bundle loss of surgery blood loss. Strategies used by these men were very limited.

More education and support are required. Limitations of note included the need for a larger and more diverse sample population.

Presented by J.P. Robinson, A. Minors, C. Pennacchio, and R. Ahmad at the 39th Annual Conference of the Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates - October 3 - 6, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA, USA

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A new study indicates that educational literature can influence young women’s use of indoor tanning, not by raising their fear of skin cancer but by changing their attitudes about indoor tanning and promoting healthier alternatives for changing appearance. The study is published in the December 1, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

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Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) today announced that it has enrolled the first multiple myeloma patient in a clinical trial of its telomerase inhibitor drug, GRN163L, in combination with other treatments.

The primary objective of the Phase I dose escalation study is to determine the safety, maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and objective response rate of GRN163L when administered intravenously in combination with bortezomib (Velcade®) with and without dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory disease.

“There is a need for novel therapies in the treatment of multiple myeloma,” said William Bensinger, M.D. of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a principal investigator for the trial. “GRN163L has shown synergistic effects in combination with bortezomib in preclinical models of multiple myeloma, so we are very interested in assessing this treatment regimen in patients.”

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ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA) announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial by Merck & Co., Inc. to evaluate the safety and efficacy of oral deforolimus, ARIAD’s investigational mTOR inhibitor, in patients with advanced prostate cancer. In collaboration with Merck, deforolimus is currently being studied in multiple clinical trials, both alone and in combination with other therapies, in patients with several different types of cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, ARIAD will receive a $12.5 million milestone payment from Merck upon treatment of the first patient in this clinical study.

The multi-center, randomized, double-blind clinical trial will compare oral deforolimus in combination with the anti-androgen drug bicalutamide (CASODEX®) against placebo and bicalutamide in men with asymptomatic, metastatic, androgen-independent prostate cancer. The primary endpoint of the study is based on the proportion of patients achieving a 30 percent decrease in prostate specific antigen (PSA) compared to base line within 12 weeks of treatment.
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Scientists from three Chicago-area universities have joined forces to develop new ways of building state-of-the-art chemical libraries that will help identify new compounds for future drug development and basic biomedical research.

Scientists from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago will establish the Chicago Tri-Institutional Center for Chemical Methods and Library Development with a $9.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Furthermore, the Chicago Biomedical Consortium, which is funded by the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust, has awarded a $2 million Lever grant to support the core infrastructure of the center and to make its resources available to the entire Chicago scientific community.

“In order to develop new drugs, you need to start with new compounds,” said Center Director Sergey Kozmin, Associate Professor in Chemistry at the University of Chicago.

Kozmin’s laboratory screens compounds specifically for their ability to kill cancer cells, but the chemical libraries that the Chicago Tri-Institutional Center produces will be readily available to many biology labs across the nation. The center also will broadly test for potential use against neurodegenerative disorders, infectious diseases and other therapeutic targets.

During the last two years, Kozmin’s laboratory has used parallel organic synthesis, which enabled them to perform many reactions simultaneously, to build 3,000 new molecules in his search for anti-cancer compounds. Now he and his associates have the resources to build a facility next year in the Searle Chemistry Laboratory on the University of Chicago campus that will be able to synthesize new compounds 10 times as fast.

The new center’s work will focus on the synthesis of what biologists call “small molecules,” Kozmin said. “Compared to large proteins, organic molecules that become drugs are rather small in size, however, such small molecules can make a big impact,” he said.

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In response to a successful data collection effort by the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR) showing that positron emission tomography (PET) scans help save the lives of thousands of cancer patients annually, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is weighing an expansion of coverage of PET for all types of cancer.

In concert with other nonprofit medical associations, SNM has worked closely with CMS over the past three years to increase access to these medically essential molecular imaging procedures used for the diagnosis, staging and restaging of cancer. Molecular imaging provides a rich portrait of exactly what is going on in a patient’s body, offering a wealth of useful information to help shape a treatment plan.

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The US government’s 700 billion dollar rescue package to bail out the financial sector signals bad news for US healthcare, and will severely damage the nation’s future healthcare plans regardless of whether McCain or Obama wins the presidency say healthcare experts.

Journalist Bryant Furlow discusses the views of healthcare experts in a Special News Report in the November edition of the The Lancet Oncology which is published early online on 22 October.

Furlow writes that John McCain plans to cut federal insurance for the poor and contain costs before expanding health insurance, and Barack Obama plans to expand coverage and to contain costs by making the system more efficient and making better use of information technology.

Sherry Glied, Professor and Chair of Mailman School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University in New York, believes the Obama plan offers cancer patients a better deal. She told Furlow:

“The Obama plan prevents insurance firms from looking at existing conditions or to deny coverage to cancer patients.”

Glied said she thought the McCain plan was “generally bad for cancer patients and others with chronic diseases”.

Richard Brown, Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and Professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health in Los Angeles, California, agrees with Glied He thinks McCain’s plans will:

“Undermine physicians’ efforts to prevent cancer and detect it when it is most responsive to treatment because insurers will not have to cover cancer screening.”

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ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. (OTC Bulletin Board: ACCP) announced that three posters describing significant recent results of the company’s proprietary polymer DACH platinum prodrug, ProLindac, in clinical and preclinical studies are being presented this week at a major international oncology conference held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The clinical poster highlights results from the multi-center Phase 2 recurrent ovarian cancer trial in France where the level of anti-cancer activity of ProLindac in a heavily-pretreated patient population compares favorably to previously published results of single agent oxaliplatin in patients that had less pretreatment. These promising efficacy results were obtained without significant toxicity or other significant side-effects. The two preclinical posters, describing studies performed by Access collaborators at prominent Institutes in France, demonstrate the potential benefits of ProLindac over current platinum therapies: one highlights the observation that ProLindac uses albumin as a carrier, slowing blood clearance, which provides for a sustained tumor exposure to platinum. The other poster highlights that the antiproliferative effects of ProLindac are associated with an increase in expression of p21, a gene associated with cell cycle control.

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The Garvan Institute of Medical Research and St Vincents & Mater Health Sydney will today announce plans to jointly establish a new $100 million Cancer Centre within the St Vincent’s Research Precinct. The Garvan St Vincent’s Campus Cancer Centre (GSVCCC) will integrate internationally acclaimed cancer research with best practice cancer services, enabling research findings to move quickly into patient care.

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Twenty physicians with the Indiana University School of Medicine have been recognized as the best in their field.

The 20 are among 25 in Indiana included in the most recent edition of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer. The current guide identifies the nation’s most outstanding physicians for the diagnosis and treatment of cancers in adults and children.

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