Breaking Research News from sources other than Breastcancer.org

Cure-ious

Here is a recent Nature paper analyzing different types of fasting (namely the nighttime calorie-restricting diet vs the fasting-mimicking diet) in terms of effects on primary and metastatic breast cancer (lung in this case) in mice- they find the nighttime fasting (13+ hours of a water-only fast every evening, as GoKale mentioned) to be the best way to fight cancer cells and improve immune response

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26431-4

Cure-ious

Re ERSO, I think it was just an unfortunate press release, in that their enthusiasm they made it sound like a potential cure, but what was reported looked like just a regular "dang good in mice" kind of finding

Cure-ious

Another Nature paper identifies a gene KDM5B as a problem for immunotherapy- this gene is already a target drug companies are working on- inhibition of KDM5B enzyme activity strongly up-regulates immune system attack on solid tumors and helps immunotherapy work

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03994-2

Related to that, Cell has an open-access review of all things Immunotherapy-related; if immunology is your thing you will appreciate the scope:

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)01101-6

GoKale4320

Cure-ious - you don't think ErSO will work in humans? I'm willing to try it, and I am going to email the CEO of Bayer every day. I'm asking my family members to email him, too. Plus I signed and shared the change.org petition on facebook.

elenas401

GoKale: I think many share your enthusiasm. Dr. Shapiro from U of I said they couldnt believe what they saw, unlike anything they had seen before. More than just "dang good in mice" I saw an article that brought out that they're also testing it in larger animals. I'm glad so many are doing whatever they can to get this moved along faster. Bayer has already invested so much in this it must look promising to them. So many things don't turn out but just think about what it would mean even if it worked almost as good in people. Let's keep hopeful. HIV patients had to to get meds that are keeping them alive today.

BSandra

GoKale, I absolutely agree with you - if there's a promising drug, we must push for it to be tried out on humans. I know several drugs that were amazing with mice, and yet they do not reach humans in over 5 years because of many reasons (mostly inaction of institutions, lost interests as ,,it might cost too much", etc.). I am not naive and do not say that what worked in mice might work in humans as well 100% but man, at least we have to try, as mechanism of action is known, toxicities are known (mice!), and probably the only problem that remains is delivery in larger bodies. HIV patients were pushing for their drugs very hard and what they have today is amazing (sure, you cannot compare HIV with C). You never know until you try. Saulius

Anonymous

my two cents - not that I’m a expert but — some drugs look very promising in animal studies but the researchers can’t get a drug company or other funding entity interested and the project goes nowhere

In the case of ERSO, Bayer has put lots of money behind it doesn’t that mean something? At the very least, human trials will go forward, even if the result is not positive, there will be an answer one way or another

Cure-ious

GoKale, Of course it could be terrific in humans but there have been many treatments that work fabulously in mice and end up disappointing in humans (indeed we can cure cancer in mice). Mouse models of human disease are being improved but have problems recreating the mechanism of metastatic spread to various organs, and also do not recapitulate the tumor-immune system interactions that protect tumors in humans, so anyway my sense was ERSO data looked good but its in early days, and there are hella lot of drugs that fall into that category. For example, I was excited about the discovery of a universal cancer neoantigen, which should allow CAR-T to work for any cancer, but there's still no news for any clinical trials and its been two years now. Similarly, very excited about the IL19 decoy drug that in mice makes immunotherapy work amazingly on all kinds of cold tumors, they promised trials were coming but there's been no news for a couple years.

I hope you learn some insider information, and I'd be thrilled if it works- sometimes it seems these companies need people pushing them from the outside

Lumpie

The FDA strengthened safety standards for breast implants

The agency will require manufacturers and plastic surgeons to warn prospective patients of possible complications, The {Washington} Post's Katie Shepherd reports.

Key context: The requirements come after years of complaints from tens of thousands of women who received breast implants and later had brain fog, fatigue and other health issues, known as "breast implant illness."

Providers will now be required to walk patients through a checklist of risks. It will warn of cancer linked to the implants and patients will be required to affirm that they understand that breast implants don't last a lifetime.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/27/f...

{Complete article may be behind a pay wall... not sure...}

LillyIsHere

Lumpie, so good to see you back. Thank you for the link. So helpful for me since I am considering the next step to remove the implants.

Lumpie

Thank you, LilyIsHere! very glad I could pop in. Schedule has been hectic lately but I am trying to ad a bit here and there. I get notifications of posts and enjoy following the postings/discussion.

Lumpie

NIH Director Francis Collins On Covid, Faith, And The Future Of Medical Research In The U.S.

Doctor Francis Collins is stepping down as director of the National Institutes of Health after 12 years. He reflects on his legacy and his agency's efforts in the fight against COVID-19.

https://dianerehm.org/audio/#/shows/2021-10-22/nih-director-francis-collins-on-covid-faith-and-the-future-of-medical-research-in-the-u-s/116534

@{@45 minute interview by Diane Rehm. Not exclusively, or even primarily, about cancer research, but may be of interest to those interested in NIH, medical research and some of the humans behind this work. No charge for access. You'll have to copy and paste the *full* web address to get to the right episode.}

santabarbarian

TNBC Vaccine to prevent recurrences: trial

Vaccine trial TNBC

Frmthahart

Lumpie, you were missed! Glad to see you posting again. I love this thread as I learn so much - I keep my MO on his toes…LOL

Santabarbarian, that is an interesting trial. I hope it proves to be a success!

LaughingGull

I join the chorus celebrating Lumpie. I missed her posts. Thank you Lumpie. Glad to see you back and I hope all is well with you.

Lumpie

Study: Eating nuts improves survival rate in breast cancer

A study in the International Journal of Cancer found that breast cancer survivors who consumed more than one-half ounce of nuts a week had 94% five-year survival and disease-free survival rates, while those who didn't consume nuts regularly only had an 89% five-year survival rate and an 86% disease-free survival rate. The findings also revealed that 94% of the participants who ate nuts regularly did not report return of their breast cancer within half a decade of recovery.

Full Story: United Press International

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/10/20/breast-cancer-nuts-survival-study/1631634735622/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.33824

{Golly. That's a plus. The study only evaluated 5 years and notes that long term study is needed. Free access to both reporting and to the journal article. (I don't know why it's still underlining....) }

Lumpie

You are all too kind and generous with the very nice comments! It is good to be missed. Thank you!

Salamandra

I love nuts but they are expensive and not very filling despite being highly caloric. They're basically dessert for health-concscious fancy people.

My first impulse was that nuts are standing here as a proxy for socio-economic status and it was interesting to me that when they adjusted by income, nuts actually made no impact on overall survival.

MinusTwo

Only a 1/2 oz of nuts a week isn't much. I've been eating 2 tblsp a week for some time & it has helped lower my cholesterol. Of course almonds & pistachios are better for you than cashew nuts. And naturally un-salted are better too. Sometimes they are dessert, but just as often I throw them in a salad.

Anonymous

I remember hearing that walnuts, specifically, may be good for breast cancer patients. Here’s a mouse study -

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30979659/

And I think there are other studies with walnuts

LillyIsHere

I have been eating nuts every day for many years and I keep them at work, car, home even though my kids are allergic to tree nuts. I even mix nuts with honey and eat them as dessert. Since starting letrozole I am finding them difficult to digest and I don't eat as much anymore.

Salamandra, you can find them cheap at Costco.

MinusTwo

Agree about the Costco prices. Yes walnuts are high on all the 'good' lists. Unfortunately I am allergic to walnuts & macadamia nuts - but I eat all the rest.

Rah2464

Walnuts are good for your brain as well. Here in Ky you can find walnuts for free if you want to go to the trouble to crack them open yourself.

Karenfizedbo15

Ooohh yes good to see you Lumpie and a real pic of Cure-ious!

HomeMom

I'm wondering, in these instances where funding a human trial is an issue, does Metavivor come in to help fund? I give 2% of my net commissions to a handful of charities and of course Metavivor is one and the next one up for a check.

GoKale4320

I received a response from Bayer about the emails I have been sending with requests for ErSO clinical trials:

Thank you for your inquiry regarding one of our drugs in development, ErSO. As you may have read, it has shown promising results in pre-clinical models of breast cancer. However, before it can be tried in humans, additional safety tests (such as in primates) must be undertaken, and that is where the compound currently is in development. We try to move our compounds through development as quickly as possible, but at the same time we have to take the prudent steps to ensure that the compounds are safe and provide the potential benefits we are striving to achieve (and thus the tests in other species such as primates). Because of these necessary steps the drug is not currently available for trials in humans. However, we hope to be able to provide an update on the status of the program before the end of the year.

If you would like to contact me in a 6-8 weeks, I may be able to give you a more definitive schedule.

You should know that Bayer posts its human clinical trials for all of its drugs on clinicaltrials.gov and that is another source for ongoing (or soon to start) clinical trials.

I hope that your doctors find ways to control your cancer in the meantime.

Sincerely,

Joseph Germino, MD, PhD

Vice President USMA

Bayer Healthcare

JoynerL

WOW, Kale!! Great job, and thanks so much!

LaughingGull

Go Kale!

Simone80

GoKale,

Wow, it's wonderful he responded to you. Thanks for sharing.

MoCoGram

GoKale, thank you so much for taking the initiative on this. Wonderful that you received what appears to be a personalized response. Can you share the email address you used to contact Mr. Germino?

Praying that ErSO reaches human trial phase soon and that it actually works! I'm very cautiously optimistic.