PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mays Cancer Center conducts only clinical trial in America of a specific drug combination for lethal brain cancer glioblastoma

An improvement in 6-month progression-free survival warrants additional study in a larger trial, researchers said

2023-05-23
(Press-News.org) SAN ANTONIO (May 23, 2023) — The Mays Cancer Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio recently conducted a clinical trial combining two drugs in patients with recurrent, high-grade glioblastoma (GBM). The Mays Cancer Center, one of the four National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers in Texas, is the only center in America to conduct this trial.

Andrew Brenner, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and a specialist in both breast cancer and malignancies of the brain and spinal cord, initiated the clinical trial.

“Glioblastoma is the most common and unfortunately the most aggressive primary brain tumor,” Brenner said. “The average survival for a newly diagnosed GBM is 20 months, and that’s only a four-month improvement in survival from 2005, when we began following surgery with chemotherapy and radiation.”

Deadly disease

Glioblastoma has claimed the lives of many well-known figures. U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died of GBM in 2009. Beau Biden, son of President Joe Biden, succumbed to the disease in 2015. Sen. John McCain lost his battle with GBM in 2018.

“That is the landscape in which we work,” said William Kelly, MD, Mays Cancer Center medical oncologist and assistant professor of medicine at UT Health Science Center San Antonio. “GBM comes back after treatment in almost all patients, and when it does, survival is extremely poor. There is a desperate need for more therapies to treat these patients.”

The treatment consisted of a standard-of-care chemotherapy called bevacizumab (brand name Avastin) combined with a small-molecule fatty acid synthase inhibitor called TVB-2640 (or Denifanstat). Glioblastoma tumors rely on their ability to make fatty acids for growth.

The Mays Cancer Center enrolled and treated 25 patients with GBM. Side effects such as rashes, dry eye and fatigue were mild, and researchers noted an improvement in six-month progression-free survival.

Hope tempered with realism

No current therapy improves survival in recurrent GBM. Indeed, the overall survival of participants in the Mays Cancer Center study was not statistically significant compared to historic controls (patients with high-grade GBMs who weren’t in the study and were treated with bevacizumab only).

However, the fact that the drug combination was able to arrest cancer progression for six months in a greater number of patients with high-grade GBM was noteworthy. “This gives us hope, although we are always simultaneously realistic about the disappointing history of treating these diseases,” Kelly said.

Results were published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by a National Cancer Institute P30 grant [CA054174] as well as an endowment from the Kolitz Foundation. The Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility was supported in part by a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) [RP130397] and two National Institutes of Health grants [1S10OD012304-01 and P30CA016672]. Biostatistical analysis was supported in part by a CPRIT core facility grant [RP160732]. TVB-2640 was provided by Sagimet Biosciences. The authors thank the patients for their trust and participation.

Phase II Investigation of TVB-2640 (Denifanstat) with Bevacizumab in Patients with First Relapse High-Grade Astrocytoma

William Kelly, Adolfo Enrique Diaz Duque, Joel Michalek, Brandon Konkel, Laura Caflisch, Yidong Chen, Sarath Chand Pathuri, Vinu Madhusudanannair-Kunnuparampil, John Floyd II, Andrew Brenner.

First published: May 9, 2023, Clinical Cancer Research

https://aacrjournals.org/clincancerres/article/doi/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2807/726341

In addition to their affiliation with the Mays Cancer Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, multiple authors are appointed in these academic departments and research institutes of the university’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine: Department of Medicine, Department of Population Health Sciences, Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy, and Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) is one of the country’s leading health science universities and is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. With missions of teaching, research, patient care and community engagement, its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have graduated more than 41,100 alumni who are leading change, advancing their fields and renewing hope for patients and their families throughout South Texas and the world. To learn about the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit UTHealthSA.org.

The Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, is one of only four National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. The Mays Cancer Center provides leading-edge cancer care, propels innovative cancer research and educates the next generation of leaders to end cancer in South Texas. To learn more, visit www.UTHealthSAMDAnderson.org.

Stay connected with the Mays Cancer Center on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Researchers use nuclear spins neighboring a lanthanide atom in a crystal to create Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger quantum states

Researchers use nuclear spins neighboring a lanthanide atom in a crystal to create Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger quantum states
2023-05-23
Researchers have experimentally demonstrated a new quantum information storage protocol that can be used to create Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) quantum states. There is a great deal of interest in these complex entangled states because of their potential use in quantum sensing and quantum error correction applications. Chun-Ju Wu from the California Institute of Technology will present this research at the Optica Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition, as a hybrid event 18-22 June in Denver, Colorado. Quantum-based technologies store information ...

Recent papers in ACS Engineering Au

2023-05-23
ACS Engineering Au is a member of the ACS Au family of journals. These publications are open access, and each one focuses on a specific field relevant to chemistry. Here, we take a look at a few recent papers from ACS Engineering Au, which publishes a broad scope of research from both academic and industrial settings. The journal welcomes papers on topics such as process design, product research, energy and fuels, and measurement techniques. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. "Heat ...

Biomarkers may help ID treatment of acute kidney injury

2023-05-23
Hospital inpatients who develop an acute kidney injury (AKI) generally fare poorly after being discharged, and have few options for effective treatment.   A UW Medicine-led study published recently in American Journal of Kidney Diseases suggests that new tests might improve this narrative. In the study, “about 30% of the patients that came into the hospital developed AKI, which means in a matter of hours or days, their kidneys might be failing because of reaction to drugs or contracting sepsis,” said lead author Dr. Pavan Bhatraju, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Causes ...

nTIDE May 2023 Deeper Dive: How did COVID-19 lockdown impact employment of individuals with visual disabilities?

nTIDE May 2023 Deeper Dive: How did COVID-19 lockdown impact employment of individuals with visual disabilities?
2023-05-23
East Hanover, NJ – May 23, 2023 – New data show that while individuals with visual disabilities were slow to recover employment because of the effects of the COVID-2019 lockdown, they have made headway, depending on their level of disability, almost meeting their pre-pandemic levels. Possible reasons for their slower recovery include major safety concerns due to the shortage of personal protective equipment, less access to vaccines, and their vulnerability to severe consequences of COVID, according to experts speaking during last Friday’s nTIDE Deeper Dive Lunch & Learn Webinar. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for persons ages 16-64, the ...

Few adult smokers and nonsmokers think e-cigarettes have lower levels of harmful chemicals than cigarettes

2023-05-23
About half of cigarette smokers and young adult non-smokers think that nicotine-based electronic cigarettes have the same amount or even more harmful chemicals than regular tobacco-based cigarettes, according to a Rutgers study.   The study, published in Addiction, measured perceived levels of harmful chemicals in e-cigarettes compared with cigarettes using national samples of more than 1,000 adults ages 18 and older who smoke cigarettes and 1,000-plus adults ages 18 to 29 who are nonsmokers. The study also measured associations with e-cigarette/cigarette relative harm perceptions, e-cigarette use and interest. About 20 percent of all participants ...

Capturing transporter structure paves the way for drug development

Capturing transporter structure paves the way for drug development
2023-05-23
(Memphis, Tenn.—May 23, 2023) Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied the structure and function of a transporter involved in cancer and immunity. They captured six structures of the transporter, including when it was bound to an inhibitor, providing unprecedented insight into how it works. The findings, published in Cell, have implications for drug development.   Transporters escort substances across the cell membrane so that they can carry out their functions. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is an important signaling molecule that regulates the immune system, blood vessel formation, auditory ...

Did dome-headed dinosaurs sport bristly headgear?

Did dome-headed dinosaurs sport bristly headgear?
2023-05-23
If you look at enough dinosaur fossils, you'll see that their skulls sport an amazing variety of bony ornaments, ranging from the horns of Triceratops and the mohawk-like crests of hadrosaurs to the bumps and knobs covering the head of Tyrannosaurus rex. But paleontologists are increasingly finding evidence that dinosaurs had even more elaborate head ornaments not preserved with the fossil skulls — structures made of keratin, the stuff of fingernails, that were likely used as visual signals or semaphores to others of their kind. A newly described species of dome-headed dinosaur — a pachycephalosaur ...

Lupus Research Alliance and its clinical research affiliate Lupus Therapeutics launch the Lupus Landmark Study to accelerate personalized treatments in lupus

2023-05-23
NEW YORK, NY (May 23) – The Lupus Research Alliance and its clinical research affiliate Lupus Therapeutics today announced the launch of the Lupus Landmark Study, a groundbreaking observational research study to accelerate the development of personalized treatments for people living with lupus. The Lupus Landmark Study, the largest study of its kind in lupus, will prospectively recruit and longitudinally follow 3,500 adults diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The Lupus Landmark Study is a ...

The severity of sleep apnea may be underestimated in Black patients

The severity of sleep apnea may be underestimated in Black patients
2023-05-23
Session:  C110, Advanced Signal Analysis: New Diagnostics and Physiologic Insights for SDB (sleep-disordered breathing) Date and Time: 2:15 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Location:  WEWCC, Room 144 A-C (Street Level)   ATS 2023, Washington, DC – Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) tests may underestimate the severity of OSA in Black patients, according to research published at the ATS 2023 International Conference.   Recent research with ICU patients during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that pulse oximeters—clip-like devices that are attached to a fingertip to measure blood oxygen ...

Strategic city planning can help reduce urban heat island effect

2023-05-23
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The tendency of cities to trap heat — a phenomenon called the “urban heat island,” often referred to as the UHI effect — can lead to dangerous temperatures in the summer months, but new Penn State research suggests that certain urban factors can reduce this effect. The study found that trees had a cooling effect on outdoor air temperature, mean radiant temperature and predicted mean vote index, a measurement designed to evaluate thermal comfort levels. Additionally, the researchers determined that higher building-height-to-street-width ratios — when taller ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

DGIST restores the performance of quantum dot solar cells as if “flattening crumpled paper!”

Hoarding disorder: ‘sensory CBT’ treatment strategy shows promise

Water fluoridation less effective now than in past

Toddlers get nearly half their calories from ultra-processed foods

Detroit researchers to examine links between bacterial infections, environmental pollution and preterm birth

In lab tests, dietary zinc inhibits AMR gene transmission

Two UMD Astronomy space probes advance to next round of $1 billion NASA mission selection

New MSU research sheds light on impact and bias of voter purging in Michigan

Funding to create world's first ovarian cancer prevention vaccine

Scientists develop novel method for strengthening PVC products

Houston Methodist part of national consortium to develop vaccine against herpesviruses

UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry earns first NIH grant under new center for pain therapeutics and addiction research

Do MPH programs prepare graduates for employment in today's market? Mostly yes, but who is hiring may be surprising

New article provides orientation to using implementation science in policing

Three beer-related discoveries to celebrate Oktoberfest

AAAS launches user research project to inform the new AAAS.org

In odd galaxy, NASA's Webb finds potential missing link to first stars

Adding beans and pulses can lead to improved shortfall nutrient intakes and a higher diet quality in American adults

What happens in the brain when a person with schizophrenia “hears voices”?

Ant agriculture began 66 million years ago in the aftermath of the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs

A new era of solar observation

The true global impact of species-loss caused by humans is far greater than expected – new study reveals

Smartphone-assisted “scavenger hunt” identifies people at risk for dementia

Green subsidies may have hidden costs, experts warn

Small brains can accomplish big things, according to new theoretical research

UTA professor honored for science education leadership

Decline of mpox antibody responses after modified vaccinia Ankara–Bavarian Nordic vaccination

Wider use of convalescent plasma might have saved thousands more lives during pandemic

Strong coupling between Andreev qubits mediated by a microwave resonator

UNF biological sciences professor receives NIH grant to study muscle atrophy

[Press-News.org] Mays Cancer Center conducts only clinical trial in America of a specific drug combination for lethal brain cancer glioblastoma
An improvement in 6-month progression-free survival warrants additional study in a larger trial, researchers said