Anti-cancer smart bomb ready for human use

From the Vancouver Sun:
B.C. cancer patients who don't get better on standard treatment will be offered a locally developed experimental drug using a nanotechnology smart bomb type of treatment derived from the bark of the "happy tree," indigenous to China.

Scientists at the B.C. Cancer Agency have developed an anti-cancer weapon that is not unlike a cruise missile, which is meant to hit targets with precision. It's been tested in mice and they say it's now ready for testing in humans.

They are calling their drug Irinophore C; its compounds are originally derived from a somewhat stubby tree called Camptotheca (or happy tree), which was found 40 years ago to have anti-cancer properties that were eventually extracted and synthesized. ...more

Where you live influences cancer survival

From Canada.com:
According to the latest report of a Cancer advocacy group, Canadians are experiencing care that is inconsistent, unfair and ineffective.

The Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada says that has created discrepancies in access to treatment.

"Tell me your postal code, and I will tell you your chances of surviving cancer," says Dr. William Hryniuk, past chair of CACC and former director of cancer centres in the Canada and U.S.

This year's report highlighted several areas in the fight against cancer.

Access to new and expensive cancer drugs continues to be one of the most urgent problems cancer patients face, according to the report.

Coalition researchers conducted a province-by-province review of access to 24 drugs featured in past reports, adding an analysis of 18 new therapies. ...more

Playing through cancer

From the Globe and Mail:
Two decades ago, a diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia was a death sentence.

But new drugs introduced in the past six years mean that Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake and thousands of others with CML can expect to live full and active lives.

In fact, experts say the successes with CML could hold promise as a model for treating other cancers. Because scientists have identified the specific mutation that causes CML, they have developed drugs that target only the cancerous cells — an elusive goal for many cancer researchers.

"There's a lot of hope out there," says Hildy Dillon, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's vice-president for patient services and disease programs. "It's a very exciting area in terms of cancer research." ...more

Human trial of experimental cancer drug approved

From the Toronto Star:
Health Canada has approved the first human trial of an experimental cancer drug called dichloroacetate, or DCA, in people with an advanced form of an aggressive brain cancer.

The molecule has drawn international attention after the University of Alberta's Dr. Evangelos Michelakis published promising results in January showing it significantly shrunk tumours in rats. This new trial will give doctors a clue as to whether the research's impressive results will make the jump into human subjects.

"Typically from the time you report results in animals to the point that you test in a human being, takes about three years, even with the support of the pharmaceutical industry," Michelakis said Wednesday. "For us to have completed it in eight months is remarkable."

Researchers hope to try the drug on up to 50 people with glioblastomas over the next 18 months. Michelakis said they are recruiting from the Edmonton area to start, but aren't ruling out allowing people from other provinces to take part, as long as the funding can be found. The first subjects could begin within a few weeks. ...more

Patient rips Ontario over access to drugs

From the Toronto Sun:
Suzanne Aucoin held golf tournaments, dinner dances and comedy nights to pay for her cancer treatment.

The 37-year-old St. Catharines woman -- diagnosed in 1999 with colorectal cancer, a disease that roared back in 2003 -- travels once a week to Buffalo for infusions of Erbitux, a drug approved by Health Canada but not available here.

Aucoin paid more than $50,000 out of pocket and, after fighting with OHIP, the province reimbursed Aucoin in January.

"Cancer doesn't wait. I had to get the drug right away," Aucoin said yesterday as she joined a coalition in pressing the three provincial parties to commit to better access to cancer drugs. "It's a full-time job being sick. The stress level is high when you fighting for your life." ...more

N.S. approves funding for two more cancer drugs

From CTV News:
Nova Scotia will fund two additional cancer drugs - but Avastin is not one of them.

Health Minister Chris D'Entremont says Oxaliplatin, a drug that treats colorectal cancer, and Mab Campath, a drug that treats chronic lymphocytic leukemia have been added to the list.

The decision is based on recommendations by the province's Cancer Systemic Therapy Policy Committee, which includes oncologists, pharmacists and cancer survivors.

The committee feels Oxaliplatin can treat colorectal patients after surgery and prevent the disease from progressing. ...more

Experts warn against overdoing it on cancer-fighting vitamin D

From the Halifax Daily News:
After the recent flurry of excitement about the cancer-fighting benefits of vitamin D, the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Cancer Society wants to warn people not to overdo it.

"Sometimes when people hear this really great news, they think that if a little is good, then more should be better, and that is not the case," said Meg McCallum, director of programs for the Canadian Cancer Society in Nova Scotia.

The Canadian Cancer Society announced at the beginning of June that adults who take 1,000 international units of vitamin D a day could cut their chances of breast, colorectal and prostate cancer by up to 60 per cent.

This recommendation should be followed in the fall and winter months, when natural light in the northern hemisphere is low and the body's ability to produce the vitamin decreases. ...more

Vitamin D a hot-ticket item; Pharmacy shelves picked clean since U.S. cancer study released

From the Sault (Ont.) Star:
Psst, need some vitamin D?

Consumers craving the so-called "sunshine drug" may have to find some clandestine sources after shelves across Sault Ste. Marie have been laid bare in the week since a United States study linked vitamin D to reduced risk for colorectal, breast and prostate cancer.

"We were done two days ago. We tried ordering more, but our wholesaler in Toronto has it on back order as well," said Manuel Dos Reis, pharmacist and proprietor of The Medicine Shoppe on Great Northern Road earlier this week.

Shoppers Drug Mart on Second Line West had also gone through its stock by Saturday, a day after results from the four-year study were publicized.

Researchers at Creighton University in Nebraska said of 1,024 women over 55 who completed the trial, those randomly assigned to take calcium and vitamin D and who had higher levels of both in their blood were 77 per cent less likely to develop cancer after the first year compared to those taking placebos or calcium alone. ...more

Vitamin D hoopla has researchers debating what's next

From the Vancouver Sun:
The Jean Coutu pharmacy in Montreal is a long way from the bucolic cornfields of Nebraska. A simple little pill is what they have in common.

The drugstore's vitamin D supply ran dry after the release of a small but groundbreaking study last week involving 1,179 white, older Nebraskan women. It found the vitamin can dramatically cut the risk of cancer.

The run on vitamin D reported in Canadian pharmacies - after the Canadian Cancer Society, reacting to the study, recommended all adults consider taking the supplement - is just the first ramification of a report that may profoundly affect efforts to prevent cancer.

In the wake of the Nebraska study, researchers are scrambling to organize an international meeting later this year to make a plan on how to best exploit recent vitamin D discoveries. ...more

Consult doctor before boosting vitamin D intake, advises Cancer Society

I find this recommendation by the Canadian Cancer Society a bit weak. Consult your doctor before increasing your Vitamin D? Thousands of doctor visits sounds like an unnecessary expense when you consider your neighbourhood pharmacist should be able to answer these questions.

From the Canadian Press:
Canadians should consult with their doctors before rushing to their neighbourhood stores and pharmacies to snap vitamin D off of the shelves, a Canadian Cancer Society official said Tuesday.

The caveat was part of the organization's recommendation last week which advised adult Canadians to consider boosting their intake of the so-called sunshine vitamin in fall and winter by supplementing their diet with 1,000 international units.

"The reason the recommendation is for fall and winter is because of where we live in Canada, almost all Canadians are at risk of vitamin D deficiency during the fall and winter because we don't produce any vitamin D from exposure when you live as north as we do in Canada," said Heather Logan, director of cancer control policy at the Canadian Cancer Society. ...more

Association of Avastin (bevacizumab) with tracheo-esophageal fistula

From Health Canada:
Hoffmann-La Roche Limited, in consultation with Health Canada, has informed Canadian healthcare professionals of important new safety information concerning AVASTIN (bevacizumab).

Avastin is used in combination with a specific type of chemotherapy for the treatment of cancer of the bowel and rectum which has spread to other sites. Please note the following new safety information for the use of AVASTIN:
For Health Care Professionals
For the Public

Patients in life and death struggle pay for cancer drugs

From the Thunder Bay (Ont.) Chronicle Journal:
Three Northwestern Ontario patients with an incurable form of colon cancer have paid $35,000 each for a drug in a bid to extend their lives.

The drug, Avastin, was administered through the regional cancer program.

Two of the patients died after just five months.

The patients were from Thunder Bay, Kenora and Fort Frances, said Michael Power, vice-president of regional cancer services and diagnostics.

Power said cancer specialists at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre would be willing to administer Avastin if the patients order and pay for the drug, or have it paid for by private insurance plans. ...more

Vitamin D selling out

From the Montreal Gazette:
Vitamin D pills are flying off the shelves, a random survey of local pharmacies indicates.

The rush follows publication of a new study indicating that high doses of Vitamin D can reduce the risk of developing some common cancers.

The Pharmaprix on Sherbrooke St. W. near Grey Ave. was cleared out of Vitamin D yesterday.
Pharmacist Ann Labreque also said she had three or four requests for information, which is a lot more than she would normally receive. ...more

Vitamin D dramatically cuts cancer risk: researchers

From the National Post:
A simple vitamin to prevent cancer has finally been accepted by the mainstream.

Long after natural "cures" such as shark cartilage and laetrile from peach pits flopped comes the first study of its kind to show that vitamin D is a potent cancer stopper.

The Canadian Cancer Society has used that finding and others in deciding to recommend for the first time that adult Canadians lower their cancer risk by taking 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily - five times the current recommended daily amount for people under age 50. ...more

Patients buy cancer drugs at new clinic

From the Ottawa Citizen:
A private clinic has opened in Ottawa, giving patients who can pay for them, cancer drugs not covered in Ontario.

The clinic, one of about 10 similar operations that have opened across Ontario since last fall, is part of a growing chain operated by Bayshore Home Health and "sponsored" by the pharmaceutical company Roche Canada.

Some of the federally approved drugs, administered intravenously, are already covered under health plans in other provinces. ...more

The battle over a cancer pill

From the Globe and Mail:
British businessman Peter Sartorius has devised his own treatment regime for prostate cancer. Every day, he drinks a salty cocktail, a mixture of water and an experimental drug called DCA he orders over the Internet.

Jim, a retired handyman in Louisiana, has lung cancer, and has been told that he has only a few months left to live. He swallows homemade capsules filled with DCA that his son, Jason, puts together.

Both men started self-medicating this spring after University of Alberta researchers announced that DCA (dichloroacetate) dramatically shrank tumours in rats without damaging healthy cells. But the Edmonton team was having trouble finding money to see if DCA works in humans. ...more

Drug offers promise in treating advanced breast cancer: Cdn. drugmaker

From the Canadian Press:
A Canadian pharmaceutical company is touting the benefits of a drug to treat advanced breast cancer.

Results of two studies have been released at a cancer conference in Chicago on the effectiveness of Tykerb, made by Mississauga, Ont.-based GlaxoSmithKline.

Tykerb tablets are meant to be a once-daily oral treatment for women with HER-2 positive breast cancer.

They claim Tykerb reduced brain tumour volume in some women whose breast cancer had spread, and, when used in combination with another drug, paclitaxel, can improve progression-free survival times for women with HER2-positive advanced breast cancer. ...more

Cancer drug Avastin battleground in debate over fairness versus costs

I suspect that someone is eventually going to take this type of inequality to court as a Charter of Rights challenge. I'd suspect that the court would rule it's a breach of Charter rights, and would that result in a chaotic aftermath in the health care system.

While a ruling like that would appear to be a victory for patients, I think it would financially break the provincial systems, and that would bring in more of a private element into the system. Ironically, this would the opposite result that the plantiff would be looking for.

From the Canadian Press:
Two middle-aged women living on opposite sides of the country, both battling the spread of colorectal cancer, believe a medicine called Avastin separates their fates.

Ruth Tremblay of Vancouver says she's now "cancer free" because the drug is part of her treatment.

Halifax resident Judee Young wonders if her life will be cut short because her provincial government has declared the same medicine, at roughly $35,000 a year, too expensive to provide.

Young, 47, the married mother of an eight-year-old, calls the contrasts "crazy."

"It's a question of whether my health is not as important as someone else's health. I've been a taxpayer for 25 years and the time comes I need help from my government, and I can't get it."

Tremblay, 48, married and living on a yacht with four step children, said she always thought there was an equality of health care in Canada.

"What I've discovered is it's divided down by province on who gets what." ...more

Trade gambit doubles cost of cancer medicine

From the Globe and Mail:
A chemotherapy medicine that sells for $500 a vial is about to be marketed for double that amount due to changes in Canada's intellectual property rules that, unwittingly, will leave one pharmaceutical company with a monopoly on a long-established cancer drug.

The regulation changes will give Sanofi-aventis Canada eight years of market exclusivity over the colorectal cancer drug oxaliplatin as soon as the firm receives its licence from Health Canada to sell it - expected as early as next month.

That means that three other companies will have to stop selling versions of oxaliplatin to cancer centres, hospitals and patients at deep discounts. ...more

Use of IRESSA® in patients with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck (SCCHN) failed to prolong survival and increased bleeding events

From Health Canada:
AstraZeneca Canada Inc., in consultation with Health Canada, would like to inform all patients in the IRESSA Patient Registry (IPR) Program of new information from a clinical trial on the use of IRESSA in patients who have head and neck cancer. It should be noted that head and neck cancer is not an approved use for IRESSA, but patients with this diagnosis may be participating in the IPR Program if benefiting from therapy.
For the Public