Blood Cancer: October 2006 Archives

Melbourne cancer researchers discover that the body's immune system may cycle every 3-10 days - which could change the way cancer drugs are administered and possibly improve cancer survival rates.

Within this cycle, scientists at Genetic Technologies believe they have found a possible 'optimal window' for administering cancer drugs so that they work in best with the patient's immune response to the disease. The project, called ImmunAid, does not involve another cancer fighting drug; more simply, it determines the optimum time for administering existing treatments. Genetic Technologies is in the process of collaborating with a number of parties under which treatment trials will be initiated.

It is hoped that these trials will begin in early 2007.

Clinicians at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have successfully demonstrated an improved technique for blood stem cell transplantations in children that shows promise for those most likely to fail standard treatment for leukemia.

The St. Jude technique allows blood stem cells to come from parents or unmatched adult siblings; and it avoids the aggressive, toxic treatments that usually must accompany the transplant. This allows the majority of patients with leukemia or non-cancerous blood disorders to receive a transplant, according to Gregory Hale, M.D., St. Jude Bone Marrow Transplantation Division interim chief. A report on this work appears in the prepublication edition of the British Journal of Haematology.