A NEW WEAPON AGAINST AN IMPORTANT FOE

Linda and her friend Janie

Amherst, Mass - I think

That's Linda's mom on the left

If you don’t read this link I won’t be indignant; it is dry and tough-going.  Nevertheless, I think the matter easily is important enough to blog about.  I’ve read it several times and Googled stuff I didn’t quite understand; here is what I got out of it.

There exists within us an important gene, KRAS. that is vital for the smooth and correct regulation of cell division.  In many types of cancer, mutated KRAS is a driving force, hence KRAS is classified as an oncogene.  One particular form of mutated KRAS, called G12C, codes for a protein that is present in a large percentage of cancers.  This has been known for many years but G12C has, for reasons far beyond my pay grade, been deemed “undruggable”.  Now an outfit called Amgen (AMGN; $234/share), one of the larger bio-research firms, announces that it has developed something that works against G12C; not only in mice, but in humans (Phase 1 trial underway}. The stuff they have concocted is called AMG 510. Nothing was said about AMG 510’s effect on ovarian cancer, but one can hope.

Almost daily I become newly awe-stricken by how complicated the processes that keep us alive and ticking are shown to be.  I would like to have been a cancer researcher rather than a geologist – but I doubt that I ever was smart enough!

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/kras-inhibitor-amg-510-clinical-trial?cid=eb_govdel

THE FRENCH MAKE GOOD WINE. and MEDICINE?

Linda, pretending to be inebriated

On our Norwegian cruise

I have long harbored mixed feelings about the French.  Not only do they eat all manner of slimy invertebrates and settle their important political issues by rioting; they refuse to use English under any circumstances.  However:  they do  turn out wonderful – if expensive – wines.  Now I report on something  else admirable – and French.

I have mentioned in several blogs how the science of applying immunotherapy to solid tumors has lagged.  Well, a French outfit named Transgene has taken up the challenge.  They have just received a go-ahead from our FDA for a Phase 1 clinical trial, which they will finance.  They apparently use a virus to deliver their juice to the tumor.  Every other aspect of the thing is far out of reach of my aged brain. 

Whatever, this must be big stuff because it was offered to the public by three separate agencies (below).  Read ‘em and tell me how this works.

https://apnews.com/Business%20Wire/5663c47521744243a6e4ad6c35f3e89c

https://www.precisiononcologynews.com/regulatory-news/transgene-moves-ahead-phase-i-study-first-individualized-ovarian-cancer#.Xe2AEJNKiUk

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/transgene-receives-fda-ind-clearance-053000188.html

A USEFUL SOURCE OF INFORMATION

LINDA TUSSLES WITH CAROLYN'S CAT

Good Lord!  I have been writing these blogs for over six years, relying on various sources – even a subscription to the NYTimes – for input.  Just this morning I got around to typing “ovarian cancer news” into Google – and found this:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/categories/ovarian_cancer

I recommend that you all bookmark this web site, and consult it now and then.  I certainly will.

By the way, Google also will spit up a similar-sounding web name:

https://ovariancancernewstoday.com/

No doubt this outfit also has important OVCA news – but they make you pay for it.  I prefer to hand over my money to folks already on the field.  For instance, Fred Hutch:

http://engage.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573

Little DNA SpaghettOs splashing around in your nuclei.

\Linda and her life-long friend Pat

Long, long ago I blogged that it seemed as though biomedical research was a babushka doll; every time you solved a problem another emerged.  Well, it still seems that way; the deeper we probe into how our system works, the more mystifying it appears.  If you don’t believe me, read this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/science/dna-genetics-cancer.html?te=1&nl=science-times&emc=edit_sc_20191126?campaign_id=34&instance_id=14116&segment_id=19106&user_id=c99dbc6ac441bb768f28d85e3c047546&regi_id=6924760320191126

You already know that our DNA comes in distinct linear segments called chromosomes, and that when a cell divides these chromosomes are duplicated and divvied up evenly.  You also know that our cells have elaborate means of selecting which genes are activated at the correct time and place; we call these controls epigenetic markers.  You may not have known that one of these epigenetic controls involves tightly wrapping the linear chromosomes around little knots of things called histones, thus preventing the messenger RNA strips from translating selected genes into proteins.

 

Well, now it appears that a cell’s entire DNA is not contained in chromosomes; there exist numerous small circles of “extra chromosomal” DNA swimming around in the nuclear cytoplasm.  Moreover, when a cell splits these little circles don’t necessarily divide evenly.  These little circles come in many sizes, and are numerous.    What they do is not at all clear, but you can bet your MAGA cap that they’re doing something; probably several things in fact, and some of them important.  Inevitably, much research is underway.

Babushka  dolls.  Full employment for molecular biologists until the end of time.

METASTASIS: NOT A CHEERFUL SUBJECT

AT THE SONNY BONO BIRD REFUGE

This is not a lighthearted blog.  Read it anyway.

Linda, my beautiful wife, died of ovarian cancer.  However, it was not the primary tumor that killed her; it was a metastasis – probably in the brain.  Such is the case with most fatal tumors.  This link gives you valuable insight into how metastasis works.  Simplistically, metastasis occurs when a bit of the primary tumor breaks off and is transported by the blood or lymph system to a place with the correct “micro-environment” where it can lodge and grow.  Much research has and is being done on this question of micro-environment – and how to make it less hospitable.  This link concerns brain cancer and is a bit technical in places – but you will persevere. 

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/brain-metastasis-astrocytes-ppar-gamma?cid=eb_govdel

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

I don't know what's going on here

This is our new house

Maybe we only had one chair

If you read these things you will know that I have immense enthusiasm for immunotherapy in general, but am pessimistic about the pace with which it is being applied to solid tumors, and specifically OVCA.  Well, these two articles signal hope just over the horizon.  It appears that French and a Japanese research outfits have made significant progress on applying  immunotherapeutic techniques to ovarian cancer – in mice.  The method requires sequencing the tumor’s genome, then devising an individualized drug to croak it.  HOW this works remains several notches above my pay grade, but the FDA seems to be smiling upon it so there is reason for optimism.  A Phase 1 trial is in the offing. 

https://apnews.com/Business%20Wire/5663c47521744243a6e4ad6c35f3e89c

https://www.precisiononcologynews.com/regulatory-news/transgene-moves-ahead-phase-i-study-first-individualized-ovarian-cancer

SIDE EFFECTS

Linda, not quite enjoying a camel ride

2009

Our immune system has evolved for hundreds of millions of years  - heck, billions of years if we’re related to stuff like blue-green algae.  It is a fearsome weapon against would-be invaders: bacteria, virus, fungi, prions (look them up).  The immune system keeps us on our feet and going about our business, most of the time.  One thing it hasn’t been proof against until very recently is the internal threat known as cancer.  But now, thanks to the genius of those many people in white coats, immune treatments for many types of cancer have been developed.  If you read this blog you’ll know what they are.  Immunotherapy has yet to be successful against OVCA, but someday it will be.  Have faith.

Bur, as you might expect, there are problems.  If you start fiddling around with something as powerful and complicated as the human immune system, you should expect unintended consequences - some quite nasty.  And, of course, such is the case.  Read below to catch up on observed side-effects of various immunotherapies.  They range from trivial to catastrophic.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/cancer-immunotherapy-investigating-side-effects?cid=eb_govdel