oncology department – Senator Medical AB

Who can take benefit of Electrochemotherapy? Simply explained!

admin — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 13:39:48 +0000

What is electrochemotherapy?

Electrochemotherapy is a way of getting specific chemotherapy drug into cancer cells.

It is a combination of:

Chemotherapy injected into the tumour or bloodstream
Aan electric pulse to send the chemotherapy into the cancer cells (called electroporation)

A special probe sends an electric pulse to the tumour. The electric pulse changes the outer layer of the cancer cell. This makes it easier for the chemotherapy to get inside the cell.

Who can have electrochemotherapy?

Doctors use electrochemotherapy for cancers that started in the skin or have spread to the skin from elsewhere. These include:

Basal and squamous cell skin cancers
Melanoma skin cancer
Kaposi’s sarcoma
Breast cancer that has spread to the skin
Head and neck cancers that have spread to the skin

Electrochemotherapy has been approved by many of European Health Authorities including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a possible treatment to relieve symptoms for people with cancers affecting their skin. It can help to control symptoms when other treatments are no longer working.

Most people who have this treatment have shown improvement in their symptoms. How much it helps varies from one person to another. You might need more than one treatment to control your symptoms.

Research is looking into finding out more about how well it works and which patients it can help.

Having electrochemotherapy

You usually have electrochemotherapy as a day patient. But occasionally people need to stay in hospital overnight. You will have either a general anaesthetic, so you are asleep, or you might have a local anaesthetic with a drug to make you sleepy (sedation).

You have chemotherapy as either:

An injection into the tumour (intratumoural)
An injection into your bloodstream through a small tube (intravenously)

The type of chemotherapy you might have is either Cisplatin or Bleomycin. You have much lower dose than with standard chemotherapy treatment. This is because the electric pulse helps the chemotherapy get through the cell wall. Lower doses of chemotherapy mean fewer side effects.

Injection into the tumour

You might have this treatment awake with a local anasethetic to numb the area or you might be asleep (general anasethetic).

First you have an injection of local anaesthetic to numb the area. The doctor then injects the chemotherapy and you have the electric pulse immediately afterwards.

Injection into a vein

You usually need to have this while you are asleep, under general anaesthetic.

You have the chemotherapy into a vein. Then eight minutes later, you have the electric pulse to the tumour.

The electric pulse comes from a special machine. Attached to the machine is a probe. The probe is the size of a large pen and has an electrode on it. The doctor puts the electrode against your skin to deliver an electric pulse to the tumour.

Your whole treatment can take between 10 and 60 minutes, depending on how many tumours you have.

Side effects of electrochemotherapy

The main side effect is pain in the area where the electrode touches the skin. This is usually mild and lasts for a couple of days. More rarely some people have more severe pain that can last between two and four weeks. Your doctor or clinical nurse specialist will give you some painkillers if you need them.

Some people have muscle contractions during the treatment. Your doctor can slightly alter the way they give treatment if this is uncomfortable. You may also feel sick but this is usually mild and you can have anti sickness medicines. Infection in the area you have treatment is rare. Tell your doctor if you notice the area has become redder, swollen, painful or if there is any discharge.

You might notice the colour of your skin changes where you had treatment. It might be darker or lighter. This usually fades with time but can be permanent for some people.

The area where you have treatment can form an ulcer or the skin might breakdown. If this happens you will need a nurse to dress it until it heals. This might take a couple of weeks.

Research into electrochemotherapy

So far, researchers have used electrochemotherapy to control symptoms of advanced skin cancers when other treatments aren’t working.

In the future, researchers hope that electrochemotherapy could become a treatment for early skin cancers. But we need to compare it with the current standard treatments and this can take many years.

Researchers are also looking into using electric pulses to treat cancers in body cavities. These include early bladder cancers and cancers in the chest. This treatment in body cavities is called electromotive drug administration.

Reference: Cancer Research, UK, 2019

How Viruses Are Being Used to Fight Cancer?

admin — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 15:21:59 +0000

The viruses that cause measles, polio, herpes and the common cold are being genetically engineered to fight certain aggressive cancers.

VIRUSES CAN UNDOUBTEDLY be very dangerous, but while they are well known to cause devastating illnesses, a wide variety of them – including measles, polio, herpes and the adenovirus – have recently been used to treat cancer, especially aggressive types. Oncolytic virotherapy is an emerging treatment, with major institutions investing research and time into fine-tuning this therapy.

In 2015, researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas genetically modified the adenovirus, which can cause the common cold, to help treat Glioblastoma Multiforme, a very aggressive brain tumor. Malignant gliomas are both the most common and most lethal type of central nervous system tumors, with glioblastoma being the most aggressive subtype. The current standard of care involves a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, but even with this treatment these tumors remain incredibly fatal, and after second-line therapy there is currently no standard of care.

How are viruses being used to fight cancer?

The virus is engineered to leave healthy tissue cells alone and target proteins that exist only in the cancer cells. Once the virus detects the particular protein, it replicates continuously until it fills the cancer cells and causes it to explode. After the cancer cell bursts, the unleashed viruses find their way to other cancer cells and the process continues. If the cancer comes back, the virus will recognize it and attack it. In another approach, once the immune system has encountered the engineered virus, it can identify cancer cells that contain the modified virus and destroy them – that is, a cancer cell that was initially able to escape detection by the immune system can now be recognized and eliminated.

What viruses are being used to help treat cancer?

Duke University has used an oncolytic virus to treat Glioblastoma Multiforme by inserting a live, genetically modified polio virus into brain tumors via a catheter. The adapted virus, without the part that causes the viral disease, penetrates the cancer cells and spark an immune response to attack the cancer cells. The rate of overall survival of patients treated with this at 24 months was 21%, compared to 4% in the general population group.

The herpes virus Talimogene Laherparepvec (also known as TVEC) is used to treat melanoma and is currently FDA approved. It is genetically engineered to help shrink the tumor and then activate the immune system to continue to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Unlike other cancer treatments that use viruses, this oncolytic virus is genetically engineered to includegranulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor to help draw immune cells to the tumor. This can further enhance the response of our immune system to fight these once unrecognizable cells.

Most recently a strain of the common cold virus, cocksackie virus (CVA21), has been used to attack and kill bladder cancer cells by triggering a protein that triggers an immune response. In a study, 15 patients at the University of Surrey in England were given the cocksackie virus one week prior to surgery through a catheter. When the tumor samples were analyzed after surgery there was evidence that the virus had targeted and killed some of the bladder cancer cells in all 15 of the patients, with no significant side effects. Once those cancer cells had died, the virus then infiltrated and attacked other cancer cells, leaving the healthy ones intact.

Read the original article HERE

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Epidemiology of Breast Cancer in Young Women in the Southern part of the Mediterranean Area

admin — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 12:56:42 +0000

Breast Cancer Article-June 2017

Abstract: In Northern Africa, the high incidence of breast cancer among young women has been recognized as a particular epidemiologic feature within the region. However, a comprehensive epidemiological overview of the existing data is lacking.

Within this present review we aim to: (i) asses the available and reliable epidemiologic data reported from institutional series and registries (ii) investigate the possible impact of demographic or genetic factors on epidemiology and (iii) describe the distinct risk factors and tumour biology of breast cancer in young women presenting in this region of the world.

The evolution of young breast cancer incidence around the Mediterranean area and particularly in the region of Northern Africa will be discussed, as well as it is association to the existing demographic context. The issue of possible bias likely to influence the reported incidence rates, as obtained from the regional registries, will be elucidated. We will finally underline that interpretation of data coming from these registries should be cautious, as the concentration of resources within some metropolitan centres (or regions) may induce bias in terms of patients’ reporting.

Reference Article

Keywords: Breast cancer, Young women, Cancer registry, Epidemiology, Mediterranean area.

How to choose a cancer specialist?

admin — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 10:01:48 +0000

Its a confusing question, specially if you are under stress or time pressure

Nuclear Medicine and Imaging: Imaging such as MRI, PET CT, CT Scan creates pictures of soft tissue parts of the body that are sometimes hard to see using other imaging tests. MRI is very good at finding and pinpointing some cancers. An MRI with contrast dye is the best way to see the brain and spinal cord tumors. Using MRI, doctors can sometimes even tell if a tumor is or isn’t cancer.

A PET CT Scan can often help with diagnosing and staging as early spread or metastasis as cancer cells containing glucose and light up and show up in a scan. This often helps with diagnosis even in cases where a tumor is not seen in an MRI or a CT scan.

Targetted therapies such as MIBG, PRRT, Alpha Therapy, Radio Iodine Therapy for Thyroid cancer come under the scope of a Nuclear Medicine Specialist.

Pathology and Hematopathology: A pathologist plays a critical role in cancer diagnosis and can confirm if the tumor is cancerous or noncancerous and if cancerous, he can confirm the type of cancer. Chemotherapy, drugs and other treatment protocols are often decided post staging and knowing the tumor type.

A Hematopathologist takes a look at the peripheral smear and the bone marrow and helps in diagnosing blood cancer.

Precision medicine means administering chemotherapy and other treatment protocols based on tumor type and knowing which drug will be able to target the mutation better.

Medical Oncologist: A medical oncologist prescribes chemotherapy, targetted therapy, immunotherapy, and other treatment protocols. He is the one to treat metastatic cancer with radiation oncologists or his own team.

Surgical Oncologist: A surgical oncologist takes care of cancer surgeries and removes the tumor or the diseased part for cancers which can be operated upon.

Within surgical oncology, there are specialists for Head and Neck cancer surgeries, GI( Gastro-intestinal) cancer specialists, Breast Cancer, Gynae-Oncology, Uro-oncologists( who take of urological cancers such as bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and kidney cancer), Ortho-onco surgeons( for bone cancers) and neurosurgeons( brain and spinal tumors)

Radiation Oncologists: Radiation oncologists are the ones to administer radiation such as IGRT, IMRT, SBRT, to cancer patients to help control localized cancers, or cancers spread to the bone, locally advanced cancers or cancers not receptive to chemotherapy

Hemato–oncologists: A hemato-oncologist takes care of liquid cancers, blood cancers such as Leukemia, Lymphomas, Multiple Myelomas. He is the one responsible for doing a bone marrow transplant, often a curative option for many blood cancers.

Reference: see more HERE

Different types of Oncologists

admin — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:16:43 +0000

Oncologists types

Approved by the Cancer.Net Editorial Board, 03/2018

Oncology is the study of cancer. An oncologist is a doctor who treats cancer and provides medical care for a person diagnosed with cancer.

The field of oncology has three major areas: medical, surgical, and radiation.

A medical oncologist treats cancer using chemotherapy or other medications, such as targeted therapy or immunotherapy.
A surgical oncologist removes the tumor and nearby tissue during surgery. He or she also performs certain types of biopsies to help diagnose cancer.
A radiation oncologist treats cancer using radiation therapy.

Other types of oncologists include:

A gynecologic oncologist treats gynecologic cancers, such as uterine, ovarian, and cervical cancers.
A pediatric oncologist treats cancer in children. Some types of cancer occur most often in children and teenagers. This includes certain brain tumors, leukemia, osteosarcoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma. Types of cancer more common in children sometimes also occur in adults. In these situations, an adult may decide to work with a pediatric oncologist.
A hematologist-oncologist diagnoses and treats blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

The role of the oncologist

An oncologist manages a patient’s care throughout the course of the disease. This starts with the diagnosis. His or her role includes:

Explaining the cancer diagnosis and stage
Talking about all treatment options and his or her preferred choice
Delivering quality and compassionate care
Helping a patient manage the symptoms and side effects of cancer and cancer treatment.

Different types of doctors often work together to create a patient’s overall treatment plan that combines different types of treatments. For instance, a patient may need treatment with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. This is called a multidisciplinary team.

Cancer care teams also include a variety of other health care professionals:

A pathologist reads laboratory tests. This includes checking cells, tissues, and organs to diagnose disease
A diagnostic radiologist conducts imaging tests to diagnose disease. This includes x-rays or ultrasound tests.
An oncology nurse
An oncology social worker

The team may also involve doctors from other areas of medicine. For instance, a dermatologist who specializes in skin problems may also help treat skin cancer.

Sometimes a person’s cancer diagnosis is complex. In this case, the patient’s oncologist may ask a tumor board to review the case. This involves medical experts from all areas of cancer care who come together to decide on the best treatment plan