Tapping the body’s own defenses, researchers look to cutting-edge gene therapy for bladder cancer

Bladder cancer, most frequently caused by smoking and exposure to carcinogens in the workplace, is one of the top 10 most common forms of cancer in men and women in the U.S. More than 70 percent of bladder cancers are diagnosed in stage T1 or less and have not invaded the muscle layer. At these early stages, standard treatment is surgery (transurethral resection) and the burning away of tumors with high energy electricity (fulguration). Many patients also may receive subsequent intravesical chemotherapy because there is often a high-risk for cancer recurrence.

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Improved radical surgery techniques provide positive outcomes for bladder cancer patients

Bladder cancer patients who have radical surgery at university hospitals can benefit from excellent local control of the disease, acceptable clinical outcomes and low death rates, according to research in the August issue of the urology journal BJUI.

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Just add water and treat brain cancer

Freeze-dried gene therapy system avoids virus, potential complications

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have developed a technique that delivers gene therapy into human brain cancer cells using nanoparticles that can be freeze-dried and stored for up to three months prior to use. The shelf-stable particles may obviate the need for virus-mediated gene therapy, which has been associated with safety concerns. The report appears in the August issue of Biomaterials.

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Meditation may help the brain ‘turn down the volume’ on distractions

Enhanced control of alpha rhythms may underlie some effects of mindfulness meditation

The positive effects of mindfulness meditation on pain and working memory may result from an improved ability to regulate a crucial brain wave called the alpha rhythm. This rhythm is thought to “turn down the volume” on distracting information, which suggests that a key value of meditation may be helping the brain deal with an often-overstimulating world. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report that modulation of the alpha rhythm in response to attention-directing cues was faster and significantly more enhanced among study participants who completed an eight-week mindfulness meditation program than in a control group. The report will appear in the journal Brain Research Bulletin and has been released online.

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Chemotherapy plus radiation prevents bladder cancer recurrences

Treatment offers patients an alternative to surgery

Adding chemotherapy to radiation therapy for muscle invasive bladder cancer allows 67 percent of people to be free of disease in their bladders two years after treatment. This compares to 54 percent of people who receive radiation alone, according to the largest randomized study of its kind presented at the plenary session, November 1, 2010, at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

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Increasing selenium intake may decrease bladder cancer risk

• 39 percent reduced risk seen in a meta-analysis.
• Selenium effects may vary according to individual’s characteristics.

PHILADELPHIA — A common mineral may provide protection against bladder cancer.

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Certain meat components may increase bladder cancer risk

A new study suggests that consuming specific compounds in meat related to processing methods may be associated with an increased risk of developing bladder cancer. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings may be relevant for understanding the role of dietary exposures in cancer risk.

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New diagnostic test for bladder cancer

Copenhagen, Denmark – Researchers from the Danish Cancer Society and the Herlev University Hospital of Copenhagen have developed a novel assay to test for multiple tumor markers in bladder cancer. The related report by Serizawa et al, “Custom-designed MLPA using multiple short synthetic probes: application to methylation analysis of five promoter CpG islands in tumor and urine specimens from patients with bladder cancer,” appears in the July 2010 issue of The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

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Clue to switch of bladder cancer from locally contained to invasive found by Jefferson scientists

Contact: Emily Shafer
emily.shafer@jefferson.edu
215-955-6300
Thomas Jefferson University
(PHILADELPHIA) Bladder cancer often becomes aggressive and spreads in patients despite treatment, but now researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have identified a protein they believe is involved in pushing tumors to become invasive – and deadly.

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Prediction model superior to traditional criteria in bladder treatment decision

A statistical model can accurately predict which patients will have poor outcomes after bladder surgery and can determine the need for chemotherapy. The analysis, to be published in the December 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, concludes that the model, which considers both how far the cancer has spread and other information, such as how the cancer cells look under the microscope and the time between diagnosis and surgery, could better identify patients who need to undergo further treatment.

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