Scientists have determined a new way to protect the hair follicle from [taxane] chemotherapy in an effort to prevent hair loss as a result of cancer treatments.

...we found that CDK4/6 inhibitors can be used temporarily to halt cell division without promoting additional toxic effects in the hair follicle. When we bathed organ-cultured human scalp hair follicles in CDK4/6 inhibitors, the hair follicles were much less susceptible to the damaging effects of taxanes..."

The team hope that their work will support the development of externally applicable medicines that will slow or briefly suspend cell division in the scalp hair follicles of patients undergoing chemotherapy to mitigate against chemotherapy-induced hair damage. This could complement and enhance the efficacy of existing preventive approaches i.e. scalp cooling devices.

Article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190912120535.htm

Reference: https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.201911031

Breast cancer cells 'stick together' to spread through the body during metastasis

"The good news," he says, "is that our study reveals that the process of metastasis, even in ideal laboratory settings, appears to be exceedingly inefficient." Research suggests that about 99% of cells that leave primary tumors die and never form new tumors.

Wow, Bounce, this is the first I've heard of it... how exciting! Comparable sensitivity to mammos without any radiation! The article says that it doesn't pick up microcalcifications, but one could keep one's mammo schedule and add additional scans with the iBreastExam to pick up any lumps earlier.

HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Fixed-Dose Subcutaneous Pertuzumab Combo Shows Noninferiority in HER2+ Breast Cancer

The fixed-dose subcutaneous injection formulation plus intravenous chemotherapy had noninferior pharmacokinetics versus standard IV infusions of the regimen in patients with HER2-positive early disease.

FDA Accepts sNDA for Neratinib Combo for HER2+ Breast Cancer

Neratinib could become available for use in combination with capecitabine for select pretreated patients with HER2-positive metastatic disease.

Novel Approaches Push the Envelope in HER2+ Breast Cancer

Douglas K. Marks, MD, discusses key developments in the HER2-positive breast cancer space.

Pyrotinib Combo Delays Progression in Heavily Pretreated HER2+ Breast Cancer

A phase III trial is now being conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this regimen compared with lapatinib/capecitabine.

For those who use turmeric, this is worth reading

Summary:

Turmeric adulteration with lead chromate was assessed in Bangladesh.

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Turmeric Pb concentrations exceeded the national limit by up to 500 times.

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Evidence of turmeric adulteration was found in 7 of 9 turmeric-producing districts.

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Turmeric adulteration was found to be driven by consumer demand for yellow roots.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935119305195?via%3Dihub

Interesting and as you say, not surprising. At my hospital, they send the excision for examination DURING surgery. For me, they found they needed to take a bit more and did it right then. So it was one surgery. Takes a bit longer that way but still better than doing repeat surgery.

Before I went under for my excisional biop, I told my surgeon as well to "go big". When I woke up, he told me the margins were "close but clear".

So far so good.

Claire in AZ

New blood test could detect more than 20 types of cancer

• Laura Donnelly, health editor

Anew blood test could detect more than 20 types of cancer, allowing cases to be identified and treated far earlier.

Experts said the breakthrough - which spots changes in the genes, as disease develops - could be used to improve screening for cancer, allowing treatment much sooner, when it is more likely to succeed.

Crucially, 99.4 per cent cases identified as cancer were correctly spotted - meaning just 0.6 per cent of cases were misdiagnoses of healthy patients.

The test was able to detect one third of patients with stage one disease, and three quarters of those with stage two disease.

Ministers have pledged to speed diagnosis, so that by 2028 three quarters of cancer patients are diagnosed at these two stages. Currently just half of patients can expect to receive a diagnosis before they reach stage three or four.

The advances, by US scientists, look for abnormal patterns of methylation in the DNA, which can indicate different types of cancer.

The study found the new method could even pinpoint the cancer source nearly 90 per cent of the time, including for diseases like ovarian and pancreatic disease, which are some of the most difficult to spot.

Study lead author, Dr Geoffrey Oxnard of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, part of Harvard Medical School, said: "Our work indicated that methylation-based assays outperform traditional DNA-sequencing approaches to detecting multiple forms of cancer in blood samples.

"The results of the new study demonstrate that such assays are a feasible way of screening people for cancer."

In the study, researchers analysed cell-free DNA - which enters the bloodstream after becoming detached when its parent cell dies - in more than 3,500 blood samples.

The samples were taken from more than 1,500 cancer patients and more than 2,000 from people without cancer.

The patient samples comprised more than 20 types of cancer, including hormone receptor-negative breast, colorectal, oesophageal, gall bladder, gastric, head and neck, lung, lymphoid leukaemia, multiple myeloma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer.

The test accurately detected 76 per cent of high mortality cancers.

Within this group, the test accuracy was 32 per cent for patients with stage one cancer; 76 per cent for those with stage two; 85 per cent for stage three; and 93 per cent for stage four.

Dr Oxnard said: "Detecting even a modest percent of common cancers early could translate into many patients who may be able to receive more effective treatment if the test were in wide use."

The research was presented today at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Britain is bottom of international league tables for cancer survival, with rates two decades behind some countries for some types of disease.

This week an independent review of NHS cancer screening will warn that "confusion and delays" is costing lives, as it calls for for Public Health England to be stripped of responsibility for the service.

Former cancer tsar Prof Sir Mike Richards was asked to examine the system following a series of scandals and a sharp decline in uptake of checks for breast, bowel and cervical disease.