Firm has high hopes for blockbuster drug

From the St. Catharines (Ont.) Standard:
The clinical setting inside Biolyse Pharma Corp. resembles the space-plague movie The Andromeda Strain.

Except this St. Catharines firm is developing what could be a real miracle drug for a horrible earthly disease.

In lab tests, the as-yet-unamed drug so far seems to kill all cancer cells; if it continues to perform as well in human trials, it could revolutionize cancer treatment, generate billions of dollars for Biolyse and create hundreds of new jobs in St. Catharines.

Biolyse executive vice-president John Fulton is more blunt: “I’ve heard talk in the labs referring to this as the Holy Grail of cancer drugs.” ...more

Second-class citizens

From the Fredericton (NB) Telegraph Journal:
David Lyon is painfully aware of one of the cruelest facts of life in New Brunswick - you do not want to be seriously ill in this place.

It's a wry twist on New Brunswick's much-ballyhooed tourism slogan, "Be ... in this place."

Lyon is dying of incurable brain cancer and like many other seriously ill people in New Brunswick, he feels trapped in a province bewilderingly out of step with the rest of the country.

Just out of reach in other parts of Canada are life-lengthening drugs people can afford and compassionate services designed to ease the economic and emotional burden of catastrophic illness.

But not here. In this place, the road to better health, to the sweet promise of longer life, is paved with catch-22s. ...more

Ill Patients Forced to Pay for Cancer Pills

I think this story perhaps explains in part why drug costs are outpacing other aspects of medical care.

From the New York Times:
Chuck Stauffer’s insurance covered the surgery to remove his brain tumor. It covered his brain scans. And it would have paid fully for tens of thousands of dollars of intravenous chemotherapy at a doctor’s office or hospital.

But his insurance covered hardly any of the cost of the cancer pills the doctor prescribed for him to take at home. Mr. Stauffer, a 62-year-old Oregon farmer, had to pay $5,500 for the first 42-day supply of the drug, Temodar, and $1,700 a month after that.

“Because it was a pill,” he said, “I had to pay — not the insurance.”

Pills and capsules are the new wave in cancer treatment, expected to account for 25 percent of all cancer medicines in a few years, up from less than 10 percent now.

The oral drugs can free patients from frequent trips to a clinic to be hooked to an intravenous line for hours. Fewer visits might save the health system money as well as time. And the pills are a step toward making cancer a manageable chronic condition, like diabetes.

But for many patients, exchanging an I.V. bag for a pill is a lopsided trade because the economics and practice of cancer medicine have not caught up with the convenience of oral drugs. ...more

Edmonton wellness company ordered to offer refunds on cancer drugs

From the Calgary Herald:
An Edmonton-based wellness company that made unsubstantiated claims that some of its products could cure cancer has agreed to post a correction online and offer full refunds to its customers after a federal investigation by the Competition Bureau.

Bioenergy Wellness Inc., which did business as Energyworks Wellness Center, was making unproven claims on two websites that its products — papimi, magnapulse and far infrared sauna — were effective in preventing or treating cancer.

Papimi is a medical device that delivers radiation-free magnetic pulses to body tissue and claims to stimulate health and repair diseased tissue. Magnapulse operates on a similar philosophy.

Infrared saunas produce sun-like heat without harmful ultraviolet rays that penetrate the body and allegedly detoxify the body through sweat.

“Cancer is a serious disease and we’re not going to let them make those claims,” said Tagreed Boules, senior competition law officer for the Competition Bureau. ...more

St James chemo patients blanked

From the Trinidad Express:
Chemotherapy patients at the St James Radiotherapy Clinic have been turned away because the pharmacists are not mixing the drugs.

According to the patients, who requested anonymity, clinic officials told them that the pharmacists had not been paid and as a direct result, they refused to do any work.

The patients, however, found this excuse to be ridiculous and called on Health Minister Jerry Narace to intervene.

"The doctors are seeing people, the nurses are seeing people, but yet no one can get therapy," one patient angrily said. ...more

Cancer patients need access to records, report says

From CTV News:
Cancer patients in Canada - especially those who live in remote areas - need to be given access to their electronic health records to ensure they get the best treatment, say the authors of a new report card on cancer in Canada.

The Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada says in its annual report card that patients are not getting enough access to their own medical records.

The CACC conducted a survey of oncology clinics located more than two hours from a regional cancer centre, and found that most aren't using electronic health records to record vital information. Of 11 clinics surveyed across the country, only seven had access to an integrated health record system.

Of those seven, only three allowed clinic staff to make notes on the records.

Such limitations compromise patient care, the authors insist, because oncologists who devised the treatment plans are not able to follow whether treatment is being given properly, or what complications the patient encountered. ...more

Green tea blocks cancer drug benefits

From the Globe and Mail:
Many consider it a miracle beverage that can help shed pounds, reduce the risk of heart disease and even ward off some types of cancer.

But new research suggests that green tea may also have a dark side - by blocking the effects of a cancer drug.

Components of green tea seem to bind to the cancer drug bortezomib, also known by brand name Velcade, and stop it from reaching its target in cancer cells, according to a study published online yesterday in the journal Blood.

Velcade is primarily used to treat multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

Health Canada approved the drug in 2005 for use in patients who have already received at least one prior therapy or a stem-cell transplant, or are not suitable for transplant.

"We expected the opposite. We expected that [green tea] would help the drug," said Axel Schönthal, professor in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and senior author of the study. ...more

Website again pitching untested cancer drug

From the Edmonton Sun:
A controversial website marketing a promising yet untested treatment for cancer is once again running after U.S. officials shut it down last year.

"We ship internationally, everywhere in the world, except the United States and its territories," reads the site's home page, www.buyDCA.com.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the California-based operation closed last summer after its owners began selling the drug, dichloroacetate, or DCA, as a cancer treatment.

The marketing efforts followed developments here in Edmonton by University of Alberta researcher Evangelos Michelakis that showed DCA -- a common and cheap drug -- shrinks tumours in rats. ...more

Ontario to cover cost of expensive cancer treatment

From the Toronto Sun:
Ontario will spend an additional $50 million to cover three of the most expensive cancer drugs over the next three years, Health Minister David Caplan announced Wednesday.

The province is earmarking $30 million to fund Avastin for colorectal cancer and $20 million to pay for both Sprycel, used to treat leukemia, and Alimta, for lung cancer, Caplan said.

But it’s not clear whether everyone who requests the drugs will be able to get the medication.

About 3,000 patients are looking for Avastin, which costs $40,000 for one treatment, according to Cancer Care Ontario. That could add as much as $120 million to the province’s drug budget.

Many cancer patients say they’ve been forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars for drugs that were recommended by their doctors but not covered under the provincial health insurance plan. Some sought donations and organized fundraisers to help defray the huge cost of the potentially life-saving treatment. ..more

Rheumatoid arthritis drug may increase cancer risk

From CBC News:
Sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis who take the antirheumatic drug methotrexate increase their risk of developing certain types of cancer, suggests new research.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory illness that affects the joints, as well as internal organs such as the eyes, lungs or heart. It affects one in 100 Canadians, according to the Arthritis Society of Canada.

Methotrexate suppresses the immune system, which in rheumatoid arthritis is overactive.

Australian researchers studied 459 rheumatoid arthritis patients — 309 women and 150 men — who started taking methotrexate before June 1986.

After 4,273 person-years of followup, which averaged 9.3 years per patient, they found 87 malignancies.

They discovered that the risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in RA patients was five times higher than in the general population. ...more

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