I am finally sitting down to say "Hi" to you all, and post a couple of things about ONS congress. 

The Oncology Nursing Society holds a congress, or conference yearly to discuss new developments in cancer care.  Of course there is ASCO which is the BIG global cancer conference, but the one I attended is nursing focused.

I am ever so grateful for being given the opportunity to represent our foundation, and to meet new people who can further our cause.

I also was so happy to meet a new advocate, Heidi.  She is absolutely WONDERFUL, warm, and caring. I hope to see her again sometime.

Anyhow, I spent the majority of my time looking through the poster presentations and was also able to attend a couple of sessions.

One interesting poster/presenter was one that I had seen last year at ASCO discussing Grade 3-4 FU toxicity.  The presenter was at ONS with new developments recently discovered.

The poster was titled:

"DPYD Gene Mutations Are More Prevalent in Patients Experiencing Grade 3-4-FU Toxicity"

The research was funded by Myriad Genetic Laboratories, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT.

The new research presented on the poster was  DPYD mutation prevalence in patients with elevated 5-FU Plasma Levels.

" The DPYD gene variants were identified in 7 of the 24 patients experiencing elevated 5-FU plasma levels".
"The E412E variant was observed at a frequency similar to that of the common high risk mutations".

So what this says to me is that, as we are all rapidly realizing, our genes play a huge part in how and why our bodies develop cancer.....or how our bodies will react to treatments for cancer.
Chemotherapy is moving towards targeted, gene based therapy.  Very individualized.

5-FU is a commonly given chemotherapy agent, and some of  you have received the oral form- Xeloda for treatment of CC.

To quote the poster " 5-FU in chemotherapy regimens remains widespread, yet DPYD gene testing utilization remains minimal.  Most testing occurs post-treatment in response to a severe toxicity rather than pre-treatment, which would allow for treatment adaptation to reduce toxicity risk".

Perhaps with this new research, patients prescribed Xeloda or 5-FU as part of their treatment plan will be tested prior to initiation of therapy.  This would in my opinion, greatly improve the quality of a person's life (less toxic side effects), and perhaps increase the chances that the treatment plan (chemotherapy regimen) will be maintained.

Another poster I saw was by a nurse researcher out of Korea.  It was a study done on foot reflexology and the decrease in dyspnea ( shortness of breath)  in cancer patients. 
What caught my eye was that one of the patients in the study had Cholangiocarcinoma.

I will have to track down the abstract for the poster as the phone I had taken a picture of it with crashed and it got lost! AHH!  But needless to say, I think it is exciting to see studies of CAM (complementary and Alternative Medicine)  implementation. 

As soon as I track down the abstract I will attempt to post it for everyone.   

I also bumped into two old colleagues of mine who are APRNs in Virginia.  I was able to pass along our information, and discuss our foundation (and our goals) with them.  I will be shipping our beautiful new newsletter and foundation packets out to their cancer center in Richmond.

-Karen

Best wishes,

Gavin

One more way to treat cancer in the future by combining and using all of  the three weapons all at the same time?

http://www.onclive.com/conference-cover … apy-Agent\

Here is the article if you cannot open it.
MPDL3280A produced durable responses with no dose-limiting toxicities and a favorable adverse event profile in heavily pretreated patients, according to Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, a professor of Medicine at Yale Cancer Center and chief of Medical Oncology at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven in Connecticut.
“This therapy has the potential to be used in almost every tumor type,” Herbst said in an interview. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg so far. We’re still figuring out exactly what the right biomarker is going to be to predict the most responsive population.”
Herbst previewed the findings during a press conference Wednesday in advance of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), scheduled for May 31-June 4 in Chicago, where full data will be presented.
In the study, MPDL3280A was administered intravenously every 3 weeks to patients with metastatic tumor types including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), melanoma, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, and renal cell carcinoma. Responses were assessed with computed tomography scans every 6 weeks for 6 months and then every 12 weeks.

In all, 29 of 140 evaluable patients (21%) exhibited tumor shrinkage according to RECIST criteria, with the highest overall responses in patients with NSCLC and melanoma. Of the 29 responders, 26 patients continued responding as of their last assessment. Responders were on the study from 3 months to more than 15 months.

In a biomarker analysis, responses were better among patients with higher levels of PD-L1 expression. The response rate among PD-L1-positive patients was 36% (13 of 36 patients), compared with 13% (9 of 67 patients) who were PD-L1-negative.

The role that PD-L1 expression might play as a biomarker is still being explored, Herbst said. Methods of measuring the protein, the nature of the tumor samples used to analyze its expression, and the levels that would predict a response to therapy are among the questions that remain unanswered.

For the safety analysis, results were available for 171 patients.  A total of 43% of patients experienced grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs), most commonly hyperglycemia (5%), fatigue (4%) and increased alanine aminotransferase levels (3%). However, investigators determined that 13% of the grade 3/4 AEs were attributable to the drug, and there were no treatment-related deaths, Herbst said.

Moreover, only 2% of the participants (4 patients) experienced grade 3/4 AEs that were deemed to be immune-related, and only one patient discontinued treatment because of an immune-related AE.

“We didn’t see any high-grade pneumonitis, which makes us feel very optimistic that this drug, because it’s hitting only the PD-L1, is probably sparing some of the mechanisms that would allow for the lung to become inflamed,” Herbst said in the interview.” We saw a couple episodes of hepatitis and liver inflammation but really, it’s a very mild toxicity profile.”
Findings Generate Excitement
MPDL3280A is the latest example of the checkpoint blockade anticancer strategy pioneered with the development of ipilimumab (Yervoy), which unlocks the power of the immune system by targeting CTLA-4. The FDA approved the melanoma drug in 2011.

One of the highlights of the ASCO meeting last year was research into BMS-936558, now called nivolumab, which targets PD-1. Research into the agent also will be presented at this year’s meeting.

Herbst said the efficacy demonstrated thus far in attacking PD-L1 and other immune checkpoints “gives us the opportunity to open up a whole new avenue of therapy in cancer.”

Tumor cells express PD-L1, which in turn binds to the T-cell receptors PD-1 and B7.1, Herbst said.  “As long as there’s PD-L1 on the surface of the tumor, the T cell PD-1 sees it as a friend,” he said. “It is cloaked and it doesn’t recognize the tumor as a foreign body and it doesn’t kill it. But as soon as that PD-L1 goes away¾by blocking it with an antibody¾ the tumor becomes visible, the target can be lit up, you go after it, and the T cell attacks and kills it.”

Herbst said the therapeutic strategy could apply to a variety of cancers.  “Any tumor type that has mutations is going to have the potential to be immunogenic and to work in this way to activate the immune system,” he said, adding that “a lot of patients don’t have a driver mutation that’s easily targetable.”

God bless.

SENSITIVE

http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2013 … 09235.full