Pancreatic Cancer News

British Doctors to Start New Phase III Trial with Pharmexa's GV1001 PharmaLive 15th March 2007 "A Phase III trial testing a new treatment for pancreatic cancer has now been initiated. Biotech company Pharmexa has developed the drug and is co-financing the trial together with pharmaceuticals company Roche and Cancer Research UK. "

Liverpool trials cancer drug Liverpool daily Post 16th March 2007

Sugary drinks link to cancer risk BBC News - UK 9th November 2006, "...Drinking two sugary drinks a day almost doubles the risk of pancreatic cancer, a study suggests. "

Vitamin D slashes 'cancer risk' BBC News - UK 15th September 2006, ".. this result needs to be repeated in other large studies, and scientists need to show exactly how vitamin D might prevent pancreatic cancer before we could issue any specific lifestyle advice."

Pharmexa granted orphan drug designation for GV1001 in Europe Pharmexa (press release) - Horsolm, Denmark June 21 2006...."EMEA, the European Medicines Agency has today announced that it has recommended the European Commission to grant orphan drug designation to Pharmexa for its peptide vaccine GV1001 for the treatment of pancreatic cancer."

Phase III application submitted on the TeloVac trial Pharmexa (press release) - Newtown,PA,USA, HORSOLM, Denmark, June 7, 2006.. The trial is planned to include more than 1,100 patients with pancreatic cancer. The TeloVac (formerly telovax")trial...Dr. Gary Middleton, Chief Investigator in the TeloVac trial says: "We believe the future treatment of pancreatic cancer, as well as many other cancers, will include combinations of various chemotherapies together with biological and targeted therapies. GV1001 is a particularly attractive vaccine; the antigen that it targets is expressed on virtually all pancreatic cancer cells and the vaccine stimulates the production of all of the cells that are required for an effective immune attack upon these cancers. Adding it to the platform of optimised chemotherapy is an exciting strategy which, if successful, would create a new standard of care in this disease."

UK grants approval for pSivida trial of pancreatic cancer therapy(pdf) pSivida press release 30 May 2006 "pSivida is pleased to announce the Regulatory Agency in the U.K. (The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) has granted approval to proceed with the first human study of its BrachySil product in pancreatic cancer through a phase IIa clinical trial."

Cell Genesys Announces Favorable 2-Year Survival Data From Phase 2 Clinical Trial of GVAX(R) Vaccine for Pancreatic Cancer PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA, 15th Nov 2005. " ....60 patients with operable pancreatic cancer who received the vaccine after surgical resection of their tumor and adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy. The one-year survival was 88% and the two-year survival was 76%, with a mean follow-up of approximately 24 months.... "
AACR-NCI-EORTC: Pancreatic Cancer Vaccine Extends Life MedPage Today 15th Nov 2005. "A therapeutic vaccine for pancreatic cancer appears to extend life, researchers said here today. ..."

FDA Approves Tarceva® in Combination with Gemzar® for Pancreatic Cancer Press release 3rd Nov 2005, "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Tarceva® (erlotinib), when given in combination with the chemotherapy drug Gemzar® (gemcitabine), for the treatment of locally advanced, inoperable, or metastatic pancreatic cancer,..."

Early trial results show survival improvement for pancreatic cancer Cancer Research UK press release 2 November 2005 , "Preliminary results of a phase III clinical trial have shown patients receiving a new combination of chemotherapy drugs have a one year survival rate of 26 per cent compared to 19 per cent for those on the trial receiving the standard chemotherapy. "
Extra Drug May Help Pancreatic Cancer AZcentral.com 3 Nov 2005, "In the 29 percent of patients whose tumor had only spread to adjacent sites in the body, about half the patients were alive after one year,.."
PS11 Best of ECCO 13 Phase III randomised comparison of gemcitabine (GEM) versus gemcitabine plus capecitabine (GEM-CAP) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer ECCO abstract 2 Nov 2005, D. Cunningham, I. Chau, D. Stocken, C. Davies, J. Dunn, J. Valle, D. Smith, W. Steward, P. Harper, J. Neoptolemos EJC Supplements(2005) vol 3 No 4 p12

Oxford BioMedica Announces Presentation by Clinician of Phase II results with METXIA® in pancreatic cancer Oxford Biomedica press release 18th October 2005 "... at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK, presented further data from the first stage of the Phase II trial of MetXia in pancreatic cancer at the 13th ... "

Scientists develop screening method for pancreatic cancerUniversity of Liverpool press release 20th Sept 2005 "Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found a way of identifying families at high risk of pancreatic cancer...."

Gene mutation boosts cancer risk in men New Scientist (subscription) - UK 1st September 2005 "... that men carrying a mutated BRCA2 gene are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer and six times more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those free of ... "
Breast cancer gene risk for men BBC News, UK - Aug 31, 2005 "Researchers say they have begun to understand how a breast cancer gene poses a risk to men. Experts have known for some time that ... "

Oxford Biomedica Plc announces Completion of Clinical Trial Market Wire (press release) -USA 1st August 2005 .... prodrug cyclosphosphamide (CPA) in patients undergoing palliative surgery for pancreatic cancer. ... of both MetXia and CPA to the pancreas, thereby focusing gene ...

Pancreatic Cancer Latest Target in Peer to Peer Computer Campaign press release - Oxford, UK; Phoenix, Ariz.; Bethesda, Maryland 19th April 2005 ... the world's second largest virtual supercomputer announced today that their vast Peer-to-Peer Network has turned its attention to fighting pancreatic cancer. In a joint statement, with the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), Dr. Graham Richards, Chairman of the Oxford University Chemistry Department and Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, Director of the NFCR Center for Targeted Cancer Therapies at the University of Arizona in Tucson and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, announced the new collaborative research project that will target developing cancer drugs to fight one of the world's most deadly cancer types, pancreatic cancer.
More information from Dept of Chemistry, Oxford University www.chem.ox.ac.uk/curecancer.html on the project and how to download the software onto your PC to join the project.

New outcome predictor for pancreatic cancer Cancer Research UK press release 15 April 2005
"CANCER RESEARCH UK scientists have made a surprise discovery that could predict which pancreatic cancer patients are likely to do better after surgery, a paper published in today's (Friday) Cancer Research* reveals."...... "Dr Eithne Costello says: "We do not know whether calcyclin is a marker for pancreatic cancer growth, or whether it is an actual underlying cause promoting the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer. ""
Dr Eithne Costello is a lecturer in molecular biology and works in the research group at Royal Liverpool University Hospital
abstract of High Nuclear S100A6 (Calcyclin) Is Significantly Associated with Poor Survival in Pancreatic Cancer Patients Dale Vimalachandran, William Greenhalf, Christopher Thompson, Jutta Lüttges, Wendy Prime, Fiona Campbell, Andrew Dodson, Richard Watson, Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic, Nicholas Lemoine, John Neoptolemos, and Eithne Costello Cancer Res 2005 65: 3218-3225

Thalidomide slows cancer disease BBC News, UK - 7th March 2005 "The controversial drug thalidomide can slow down the progress of a wasting disease in patients with pancreatic cancer, a study has shown. ... "

How 'cookery' can help beat cancerFinancial Times - London,England,UK 10th December 2004 "... Hammermsith Hospital, London, was the first to use it to seal off a cancer before cutting ... and spleen surgery, and Prof Habib hopes to extend it to the pancreas, uterus and ... "

Lifting the shroud on the Big C The Observer - UK 28th November 2004 "... One of Lemoine's colleagues, Tatjana Jurcevic, sits surrounded by documents and journals as she investigates pancreatic cancer, a disease of the gland which ... "

Surgeons pioneer new technique for prostate cancers Telegraph.co.uk - London,England,UK 6th November 2004 "... According to Cancer Research UK, it could be used for cancers of the pancreas, bladder, kidney and liver as well as the prostate. ... "

UNIVERSITY of Nottingham research developments could mean new drugs will reach cancer patients more quickly News-Medical.net - World 2nd September 2004 "... This is already being used to successfully treat patients with cancer of the stomach and pancreas, known to be among the hardest forms of the disease to combat ..." press release

Apple boss Jobs in cancer scare BBC News Online 2nd August 2004. "Steve Jobs, head of Apple, has undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer."

CYCLIST Armstrong shares heartfelt glory Kansas City Star (subscription) - Kansas City,MO,USA, 17th July 2004 "... For the past week, Armstrong, a cancer survivor, has been trying to help Basso find a doctor for Basso's mother, who has pancreatic cancer. ..." also Daily Telegraph, The Times

ONE third of cancers are linked to diet Medical News Today - UK, 11th July 2004. ".... bowel that could start to grow abnormally. There is also evidence that eating more fibre might reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer."

GENE therapy to treat deadly cancer New Scientist - London,England,UK, 2 June 2004. "The world's first gene therapy trial to treat patients with pancreatic cancer is being launched in the UK. The therapy uses a "Trojan ..."

Survival boost for deadly cancer Doctors discover a treatment for pancreatic cancer that has tripled survival rates at five years. BBC News Online, Thursday, 18th March, 2004

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