Tag: cancer

The Future of Breast Cancer Treatment: Destroying Tumors with a Laser

Posted on by Liz Dowling

Breast cancer patients have long been in need of reliable therapeutic options that reduce pain and the risk of disfigurement. At the forthcoming MedTech conference of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed, Washington, DC), laser therapy specialist Novian Health Inc (Chicago) will showcase a novel technology for the ablation of early-stage breast tumors. The company’s CE-marked system is seeking to displace existing surgical procedures as the treatment of choice for early-stage breast tumors.

Every year, more than 275,000 women in the United States and 2 million around the world receive the dreaded diagnosis of breast cancer. The news can be overwhelming, triggering sudden and intense emotions. One participant in a study of patient responses to a breast cancer diagnosis said she felt “paralyzed and frozen with fear.”

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Using Liquid Biopsy to Capture Circulating Multiple Myeloma Cells: The Key to Personalized Treatment?

Posted on by Liz Dowling

What if you could isolate a single cancer cell from a patient and use its genetic makeup to create a personalized treatment plan optimized for that individual?

That’s exactly what Menarini Silicon Biosystems Inc. (MSB) hopes its technology could one day do for people with multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma is the most common hematological malignancy.  It forms in plasma cells, white blood cells found mainly in the bone marrow that protect the body from infection by producing antibodies. When these cells become malignant, abnormal plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow, producing abnormal antibodies and crowding out normal blood-forming cells. Some of these abnormal cells, known as circulating multiple myeloma cells (CMMC), escape from the primary tumor space and travel through the bloodstream.

Current approaches for diagnosing patients with multiple myeloma require bone marrow aspiration and biopsy. These are invasive procedures that use a hollow needle inserted into the hipbone or breastbone to remove bone marrow, blood, and a small piece of bone. While generally safe, bone marrow exams can result in excessive bleeding, infection, and long-lasting discomfort.

Liquid biopsies, on the other hand, examine cancer-related material from a peripheral blood sample obtained from a simple, common blood draw. MSB has developed a method for enumerating CMMC from liquid biopsies using CELLSEARCH® and DEPArray™ technologies.

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EARLY Act on Breast Cancer Gains ACS Support

Posted on by Greg Dennis

The EARLY Act is making progress toward passage in the Congress. To learn more about the bill and register your support with your senators, visit http://earlyactawareness.org. Thanks to recent changes, the bill is now supported by the American Cancer Society.

Dowling & Dennis has been working with the nonprofit Tigerlily Foundation and NeoMatrix, makers of the HALO Breast Pap Test, to get this legislation passed. Among other activities we have:

* Assisted the Tigerlily Foundation with a major Capitol Hill event; and
* Worked with breast surgeon Ernie Bodai, MD, to place his op-ed piece in the Sacramento Bee.
* Done outreach to all the major breast cancer advocacy and clinical organizations;
* Helped create the EARLY Act Website;

This valuable legislation would provide federal funding for educating young women and healthcare professionals about breast cancer in women 45 and younger. That age group accounts for more than 5% of the total breast cancer cases in the US every single year. The bill provides for $45 million in funding over five years.

Along with Tigerlily, NeoMatrix is committed to educating young women about what they can do to avoid breast cancer, and how they can assess their individual risk of getting the disease – thereby taking steps to potentially protect themselves against ever getting breast cancer.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, herself a breast cancer survivor, is the original author of the bill. It’s being carried in the Senate by Amy Klobuchar. The EARLY Act has more than 360 cosponsors in the House and more than 30 in the Senate.

For the latest info, check http://earlyactawareness.org.