Prognostic value of the limited visceral plural invasion solid part of the lung cancer

Prognostic value of the limited visceral plural invasion solid part of the lung cancer -

By Laura Cowen, medwireNews Reporter

Visceral invasion plural (VPI) is an important predictor of survival in patients with small tumors of the lung solid, but not in patients with solid tumors part, the results of Japanese studies indicate.

Kenji Suzuki and colleagues from Juntendo University School of Medicine in Tokyo, explained that although VPI "has long been recognized as an adverse prognostic factor" in lung cancer non-small cell ( NSCLC), its impact in tumors with ground-glass opacity (GGO) lesions, including those with a solid partial aspect, is controversial because of their nature minimally invasive.

to better understand the importance of IPV in these tumor types, Suzuki and team retrospectively reviewed CT thin section (TDM) from 446 patients (mean age 66 years, 50.4% male) with surgically resected, node-solid part NSCLC or pure-solid less than 30 mm.

a solid part nodule (n = 237) was defined as a tumor with focal nodular opacity which contained both solid and components EOG (consolidation ratio / tumor from 0 to <1 , 0), while a pure-solid nodule (n = 209) showed no consolidation EOG.

The researchers report in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery that VPI was present in 24 (10%) solid and 79 part nodules (38%) pure-solid nodules .

multivariate analysis, IPV, with the invasion of vessels, maximum tumor diameter and level of carcinoembryonic antigen, significantly and independently predicted overall survival in patients with nodules pur- solids. Indeed, the 5 year survival rate in patients with pure-solid nodules with VPI (70.1%) was significantly worse than patients without VPI (81.3%).

However, IPV was not a significant predictor of overall survival in patients with partially solid nodules, but consolidation / report of the tumor and the levels of carcinoembryonic antigen were.

in this group, 5-year survival rates in patients with and without IPV were 85.6% and 94.9% respectively.

These results suggest that "VPI plays a completely different role in each subtype of early stage NSCLC based on the findings of thin-section CT scan," Suzuki et al note.

They say it is important because the presence of VPI "increases the T factor in the staging of T1 to T2 and upstages a stage IA tumor stage IB pathologically," which in turn can influence the decision of a clinician to administer adjuvant chemotherapy.

"Thus, the upgrade of the TNM classification and administration of postoperative chemotherapy based pleural factors should not be considered for lung cancer patients with predominantly EOG, "the team concludes.

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Neurosurgeons develop new technologies to make surgery very complex brain

Neurosurgeons develop new technologies to make surgery very complex brain -

In a step procedure, UC health system neurosurgeons San Diego have integrated imaging, 3D computer simulation by advanced and next generation surgical tools to perform a very complex brain surgery through a small incision to remove deep tumors. This is the first time this complex choreography technologies were brought together in an operating room in California.

"tumors located at the skull base are particularly difficult to treat because of the location of delicate anatomical structures and critical blood vessels," said neurosurgeon Clark C. Chen, MD, PhD, of the UC San Diego health system. "the conventional approach to excise these tumors involves long incisions and removal of a large piece of skull. This new minimally invasive approach is much less radical. it decreases the risk of surgery and shortens the patient's hospital stay. "

"An essential part of this surgery is to identify the nerve fibers in the brain, the connections that allow the brain to perform its essential functions. Orientation of these fibers determines the trajectory of the tumor," he said Chen, academic Affairs Vice President for neurosurgery division at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "We viewed these fibers with imaging restriction spectrum, a proprietary technology developed at UC San Diego. Color-coded visualization of routes allows us to trace the surest way to the tumor."

After planning the surgery, 2-inch incision was made near the root of the patient's hair, followed by a big fourth hole in the skull. The surgery was performed through a thin spacer similar to a tube which created a narrow path of the tumor. Aided by an arm and high-resolution robotic cameras, the team was able to safely remove two tumors within millimeter accuracy.

"What we see is a new wave of advances in minimally invasive surgery for patients with brain cancer," said Bob Carter, MD, PhD, professor and chief of neurosurgery, UC San Diego School of Medicine. "These minimally invasive approaches allow smaller incisions and shorter recovery. In this case, the patient was able to go home the day after the successful removal of many brain tumors. "

Health System UC San Diego is an internationally recognized leader in minimally invasive neurosurgery. Chen a pioneer in tractography-guided procedures and an expert in endoscopic surgery. He was among the first surgeons in the United States to perform laser and gene therapy guided magnetic resonance imaging to treat brain cancers such as glioblastoma.

Doctor Shares Simple steps for women to keep the young breasts

Doctor Shares Simple steps for women to keep the young breasts -

Aging affects the breasts as the rest of the body. Skin stretches over time and the breasts begin to sag, while sun exposure causes age spots and wrinkles of the neckline. Women often spend time and effort the fight against facial aging, but often neglect to take care of their breasts properly, resulting in premature aging of the breast, says Dr. Price.

"The breast skin needs daily care as the face done," says Dr. Price. "It is also vitally important to wear a well-fitting bra to support the breasts, particularly during exercise."

Dr. Price action women can take simple steps to keep their breasts look as young as possible:

1. Get a professional bra fitting Support bra fits properly can help keep the juvenile form. breasts. If a woman maintains a stable weight, it should have a professional fitting at least once a year to ensure that her breasts are properly supported; more frequent connections are recommended if a woman has undergone significant weight loss or gain, been pregnant, or had breast cosmetic procedure like breast augmentation or a breast lift.
2. wear a good sports bra. When caring for breasts, it is particularly important to have adequate support during exercise, particularly high impact activities such as running. The breasts are made of soft tissues connected to the chest wall by ligaments, and over time these ligaments can stretch, causing sagging. Physical activity is important for overall health - and exercise is thought to help lower the risk of breast cancer -. but wear a bra during exercise is crucial for maintaining a youthful profile within
3. Moisturize and protect the breasts and cleavage. As women learn to use a moisturizer and sunscreen on their faces to keep them looking young and healthy, they must follow the same practices for breasts and cleavage. Creams and lotions designed for use at night generally have the right balance of ingredients to help protect the delicate skin in this area. Women should also regularly apply sunscreen to exposed areas of the chest to protect against sun damage.
4. Practice good posture. Poor posture can exacerbate drooping breasts while sitting right some advantages: it creates a more youthful profile and makes the breasts appear larger than if a woman was slumped. Incorporate exercises to strengthen the chest, shoulders and back into an exercise routine can be easier to maintain good posture throughout the day.
5. Maintain a stable weight. Weight gain causes the skin of the breasts to stretch, and it may or may not reduce to its original size after weight loss. Yo-yo should be avoided to maintain the breasts in their optimal state.

Although the aging process is inevitable, following these 5 tips can help maintain the elevation of the breasts and keep skin healthy breasts.

When considering a breast enhancement procedure
If the breasts show unwanted effects of aging, loss or weight gain or pregnancy, there are a variety cosmetic procedures can improve their appearance. sagging breasts can be lifted and reshaped with a lift or breast reduction, and breast augmentation can help restore fullness to the breasts that have lost volume.

Dr. Price recommends that a woman interested in making such improvements consult an experienced plastic surgeon in cosmetic breast procedures that may suggest aesthetic enhancement options.

HCV reactivation can not worsen survival outcomes for lymphoma patients with HIV

HCV reactivation can not worsen survival outcomes for lymphoma patients with HIV -

More than a quarter of HIV patients are also infected with the virus hepatitis C (HCV), which can complicate treatment and care decisions after a diagnosis of cancer. Details of these complications has been well documented in the past. The results of a new Fox Chase Cancer Center study of this patient population can begin to fill this gap

Fox Chase hematologist and medical oncologist Stefan K. Barta, MD, MS, MRCP -., Who led study - analyzed the HIV patient data + lymphoma diagnosis, collected over 17 years, to better understand how HCV infection influences survival results. Mr. Barta collaborators will present the group's findings at the 50th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Reactivation of HCV, in which the virus is detectable symptoms but not necessarily the origin, is common in HIV + patients. Notably, Dr. Barta and his team found that reactivation of hepatitis C does not seem worse survival outcomes for patients with lymphoma who also had HIV.

"Many patients do experience some reactivation of hepatitis C, but in most patients it seems to be self-limited and does not affect the results for the treatment of cancer" said Dr. Barta.

he noted that the treatment of patients co-infected with HIV lymphoma and HCV requires caution and care. HIV more than triple the risk of liver failure in people also infected with HCV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And among cancer patients, HIV patients infected with HCV can fall into a feedback loop that can decrease the effectiveness of treatment.

"patients undergoing chemotherapy may experience reactivation of herpes virus C, which in turn can lead to liver failure," said Dr. Barta. "This means that we have to reduce the dose of chemotherapy, which could adversely affect the results."

In addition, HIV patients often take a variety of other drugs, including antiretroviral drugs, which makes them particularly vulnerable to side effects such as toxicity. However, Dr. Barta said the new study suggests that the potential risks should not deter oncologists to treat these patients with chemotherapy.

"People should not be afraid to treat patients with HIV and HCV aggressive," said Dr. Barta. "At the same time, we must be careful to monitor these patients because reactivation occur and could potentially lead to severe liver failure."

He and his colleagues analyzed the medical records of 10 HIV patients who had been diagnosed with lymphoma at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center in the Bronx, New York, from 1997 to 2013. Patients with primary lymphoma central nervous system have been excluded. The researchers found that 53 patients, or 28 percent of eligible patients were also infected with HCV. The virus reactivated in 17 of these patients, about one third of the population of patients infected with HCV during treatment.

Patients infected with HCV were overall survival 59.7 months compared to 88.6 months for patients or HCV or hepatitis B (HBV). However, this survival advantage disappeared when the researchers adjusted for variables including age, sex, race, CD4 count, the presence of cirrhosis, type of lymphoma, and levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH , an enzyme). Multivariate analysis showed that co-infection with HCV was not associated with a lower overall survival in patients with lymphoma. At the same time, researchers have seen the overall survival results worse associated with low CD4 counts (below 100 cells / cubic millimeter), a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the disease in an advanced stage, the levels LDH more than 10, or cirrhosis.

Dr. Barta said he hopes the new study opens clinical cancer trials to a little studied patient population. HIV patients with HCV are often excluded from clinical trials of cancer because of concerns about liver failure and drug toxicity, resulting from the interaction of retroviral drugs with chemotherapy. Barta said he hopes the new results suggest that these patients can tolerate chemotherapy without side effects, will help to reverse this trend.

"This is very important for a large proportion of patients," he said. "We want to assure researchers that these patients, as long as they have adequate liver function should also be enrolled in trials clinical. "

The co-authors Dr. Barta include Ashwin Sridharan, Santiago Aparo, Susanna A. Curtis and Justin D. Kaner.

Patients with advanced colorectal cancer respond well to the new combined therapy

Patients with advanced colorectal cancer respond well to the new combined therapy -

In an aggressive disease known for low response rate, researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson cancer Center found patients with advanced colorectal cancer responded well to a combination of vemurafenib therapy drugs, cetuximab and irinotecan.

The Phase I trial presented Saturday, May 31 in a discussion poster at the American Society 2014 Annual Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, examines a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, which is present in 5 to 10 percent of patients with colorectal cancer.

previous research identified this mutation as a target for therapy, but response rates with single agent vemurafenib were poor, leading researchers to learn more about the combination with different drugs.

"Patients with BRAF mutation in colorectal cancer are known to have aggressive disease that generally do not respond to standard chemotherapy," said David Hong, MD, associate professor, Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and principal. "So when BRAF inhibitors initially started there was excitement which could become the new standard of care, but we found they did not work very well."

in the study, the researchers combined increasing doses of vemurafenib (V) and cetuximab (C) and irinotecan (I), two drugs already used to treat metastatic. Twelve patients colorectal cancer were enrolled in both dose levels including seven at the dose of one (V-480 mg, 250 mg and C-I-180 mg) and five at the two dose with vemurafenib increased to 720 mg.

radiographic images were evaluated every four cycles in a cycle of 14 days of treatment. Patients were evaluated for adverse events with the most common, including rashes, diarrhea and nausea.

The results show better responses

Of the nine evaluable patients, partial responses or stable disease was seen in eight patients with colorectal cancer having undergone restaging examinations following the start of treatment. The rate for colorectal eight patients response was 50 percent, while response rates with single agent vemurafenib is less than 10 percent.

"What is promising is that we see these high response rates in early studies suggesting this could become a new standard of care in line," said Hong. "There is clearly a kind of synergistic activity with the combination."

US A randomized cooperative trial phase II of this association in colorectal cancer BRAF mutated begin later this summer led by Scott Kopetz, MD, Ph.D., In Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology is the lead author of the phase I.

"Although early, the exciting aspect is that we see significant response rates, but questions remain as to the duration of these responses and mechanisms resistance are "Kopetz said. "By expanding our initial findings and move to cooperative group network, we will be able to quickly conduct studies that could lead to get this approved combination."

Nonadherence triple risk of relapse in African-American and Asian children with ALL in remission

Nonadherence triple risk of relapse in African-American and Asian children with ALL in remission -

nonadherence triple risk of relapse, more common in African American and Asian children

an estimated 25 percent of children in remission from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are missing too many doses of essential maintenance medication that minimizes the risk of relapse according to a study published online today in Blood , the Journal of the American Society of Hematology. The study also indicates that maintenance medication adherence was lower among African-American and Asian children in remission from ALL than in non-Hispanic white children, with 46 percent of African Americans and 28 percent of Asians not taking enough to prevent relapse, compared with 14 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of white blood cells, is the most common form of cancer in children. While more than 95 percent of children with ALL enter remission within a month of receiving the initial treatment of cancer, one in five people will relapse. In order to remain cancer free, children in remission from ALL must take oral form of chemotherapy every day for two years (known as 6-mercaptopurine or 6MP) that protects the body against the re-emergence of the disease.

Despite the proven benefits of 6MP, previous studies have suggested that children with ALL have difficulty taking the drug regularly. Other studies have reported that pediatric ALL survival rates vary widely between racial groups. These two ideas have prompted researchers to begin studying specific models to race in 6MP adherence in children with ALL.

"Although we do not yet know why the children of different races have significantly different survival rates for all we know they joined their maintenance drugs is a key factor in their survival," said lead study author Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, of City of Hope in Duarte, Calif. "in this spirit, we sought to investigate potential links that may exist between several specific key sociodemographic race of these children and their adherence to 6MP. "

Dr. Bhatia and a team of investigators began their research to study the differences 6MP adhesion between the different racial groups of children in remission of ALL in 2012, reports that Hispanic children were not following maintenance regime as prescribed 6MP consistent than non-Hispanic whites. to examine 6MP membership African-American, Asian and non-Hispanic white children in remission of all, the research team enrolled 298 patients 77 institutions in a study that followed 6MP drug levels in the bloodstream, the answers of a questionnaire administered to their families and, perhaps more importantly, an electronic method for tracking maintenance. Each patient included in the study, which was prescribed 6MP, came with a pill bottle fitted with a microprocessor chip in the cap that recorded each date and time of the bottle has been opened for a period six months.

for the three groups, African-American children took their 6MP least often, with 46 percent of them taking 0 percent or less of their medication, nonadherence during threshold which the relapse risk became statistically significant. While Asian children in the study group took their medication more consistently, 28 percent of them did not take at least 0 percent of their drugs. non-Hispanic white children were more adherent to their maintenance treatment regimen than any other group; However, 14 percent still did not 6MP enough to meet the criterion of researchers to adherence. Taken together, about 25 percent of children enrolled in the study did not take their 6MP at least 0 percent of the time, tripling their risk of relapse.

To better understand the socio-demographic factors that have influenced the drug nonadherence in children, the researchers asked their families to complete questionnaires to provide more information on race, income, the structure of the family, and the level of parental education. Responses to the questionnaire revealed that African American kids came largely from low income family households with lower education level parent (less than college training / professional degree). Conversely, Asian children in general have come to high-income nuclear families with educated parents (college diploma / vocational or postgraduate degree). Despite representing two demographic extremes, neither group adhered to their medication consistently as non-Hispanic white children, who reported a moderate income, relatively nuclear family structure, and the average parental education compared to other groups, in part because the specific demographics race played an important role in respect of 6MP.

researchers observed that 6MP adherence rates were significantly higher in Asian children and African-American who came from households where their mother acted as their full-time caregiver and supervisor drugs . Furthermore, according to the research data, African American children whose mothers had relatively low levels of education, as well as children living in a single parent, multiple-children households were less adherent to their medications. The researchers also noted that Asian children were more vulnerable to medication nonadherence if they were from low-income households and non-Hispanic whites did not take their medications as always if their fathers had a low level of education.

Regardless of race, families have reported that the most common reason for children not taking their medications 6MP was forgotten.

"Our data show that one in four children in remission from ALL do not take the drugs needed to stay cancer free, and overwhelmingly, the main reason why they forget to take their pills every day, "said Dr. Bhatia. "These results are the basis for other studies that examine how physicians can intervene successfully using technology, for example, that children do not know an increased risk of relapse because they take their chemotherapy oral. "

UIC is conducting clinical trials to evaluate the three-drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer

UIC is conducting clinical trials to evaluate the three-drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer -

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are leading a clinical trial to evaluate a new, three -drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer.

ductal carcinoma of the pancreas has a five year survival rate of less than 5 percent and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States, claiming nearly 40,000 lives each year.

scientists pace have made progress in the last decade to understand the biology of the disease at the cellular level, but progress in the clinical results are not kept.

"There is an urgent and unmet need for effective treatments for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer after first-line chemotherapy fails," said Dr. Neeta Venepalli, UIC assistant professor hematology and principal investigator of the study.

patients in the Phase 1 study will give three drugs that are considered to attack the cancer cells in different ways. First, gemcitabine is a chemotherapy drug approved by the FDA that works by slowing or stopping the growth of tumors. It has been the standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer for the past decade.

A second medicament, a monoclonal antibody which recognizes a protein called mucin 1 which prevents the death of cancer cells and is superabundant in ductal carcinoma of the pancreas, is administered to patients to stimulate an immune response. The antibody also attracts the third drug, PGG, which moves to the site of the tumor to activate an immune response and kill the targeted cancer cells

"Our Phase 1 trial combining gemcitabine with two new immunotherapies cancer -. A regime that has not been tried before, "said Venepalli, member of the IU Cancer Center.

" We are optimistic and pleased to provide a new approach for the treatment of this devastating disease. "

The study will evaluate the combination of drugs to determine the highest dose of the monoclonal antibody which can be tolerated without unacceptable side effects.

monoclonal antibody and PGG are experimental drugs and will be provided by Biothera, a US biotechnology company.

The sequencing of the tumor offers new perspectives for the management of lung cancer

The sequencing of the tumor offers new perspectives for the management of lung cancer -

sequencing of tumors in several different lung cancer and surrounding tissue complicates the dominant theory linear progression of lung cancer and offers new perspectives for the management of this deadly cancer, according to a new study from the Mayo Clinic. The sequencing results allow, for the first time, molecular solid evidence of the progress of phenotypic indolent components to more aggressive disease and also show that the two components can move independently, even if they originate from the same precursor, according the study. The paper appears online in Cancer Research .

"This study highlights the potential changes in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and better treatment of adenocarcinoma of the lung," said George Vasmatzis, Ph. D., lead author of the study and co -Director of the Biomarker Discovery program at the Mayo Clinic Center for individualized Medicine. "The heterogeneity of lung cancer we repeatedly said that the natural history of tumors and routes of progression vary by case, and several models are possible in certain cancers."

Lung cancer accounts for nearly 0,000 deaths each year in the United States, more than the three most common cancers combined, according to the American Lung Association. The treatment of cancers at an early stage can be adapted to the type of genomic alterations observed explains Dr. Vasmatzis. In some cases, this could mean less: aggressive treatment and observation periods nearby, while other situations may require more immediate interventions, such as surgery or radiation.

"As suggested by clinical studies demonstrating improved disease-free and overall survival for the treatment of lesions containing components of adenocarcinoma in situ [noninvasive lung cancer], it is possible that this represents a distinct clinical entity which can be treated less aggressively or by resection sub-lobar or even watchful waiting periods with almost following up imaging before treatment, "says Dr. Vasmatzis.

future lung cancer genome studies and tumor progression are under the Dr Vasmatzis team in Biomarker Discovery program. Their goal is to develop a series of predictive biomarkers that can help patients and doctors separate cancers potentially aggressive lung and threatening those indolent based molecular signatures found in the patient's tissue.

ASTRO publishes new policy model for proton therapy beam

ASTRO publishes new policy model for proton therapy beam

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The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has released a new model policy for by proton beam therapy (PBT) that details which cancer diagnoses meet standards based on ASTRO data and should be covered by private insurers and Medicare. Developed by leading radiation oncologists and medical physicists, including the significant contribution of expert representatives in proton therapy, this model policy supports PBT cover for appropriate patients and identifies areas where coverage with the development of evidence and further research is needed.

PBT is neither a new nor an experimental technology for treating cancer with radiation. It uses proton particle radiation to deliver radiotherapy highly conformal to a specific target area of ​​the tumor while giving a much lower dose in normal tissue in the path of the input and output proton beam. reduced radiation dose to healthy tissue PBT is attractive because it can reduce side effects for patients, potentially increasing their quality of life. To date, the scientific evidence exists confirming that PBT is particularly useful in a number of pediatric cancers, especially those in the brain, as well as certain adult cancers such as ocular melanoma. Further research on other sites of disease cancer, such as breast, prostate and lung, is underway with the NCI clinical trials currently supported from patients in three sites of disease in the centers therapy treatment over 14 protons across the country. PBT has attracted much attention because of its relative cost, which may be considerably more than traditional therapy to external beam radiotherapy because of the heavy load of the construction and maintenance of proton therapy centers.

"proton therapy beam (PBT) is demonstrating promise in our ongoing efforts to improve survival and cure rates for cancer patients while reducing side effects," said Colleen AF Lawton, MD, Fastro, president of the board of ASTRO. "as leading experts in radiation oncology, it is important for ASTRO to provide guidelines based on evidence-balanced payers which ensures access to PBT for . cancer patients while being wise stewards of our nation and the financial resources of our patients "

This model policy recommends two cover groups for PBT: 1) patients with specific diagnoses for which PBT been proven to be effective; and 2) patients with a diagnosis of cancer where the evidence of the effectiveness of PBT is still emerging, and thus cover the development of evidence is recommended for patients s they are enrolled in clinical trials or multi-institutional registry to collect data and to inform a consensus on the role of proton therapy. This model policy is consistent with the previous reporting ASTRO on the use of PBT for prostate cancer, as well as ASTRO Choose wisely published last September list. In addition, ASTRO urges private insurers and Medicare to cover PBT for cancer patients with difficult to treat, rare or very complex for which the PBT characteristics offers advantages over other forms of treatment .

ASTRO Model Policies are developed to communicate this ASTRO believes are correct coverage policies for radiation oncology. The model ASTRO policies do not serve as clinical guidelines and are subject to review and periodic review. The ASTRO model policy may be reproduced and distributed without modification for non-commercial purposes. ASTRO has already issued political models on the cover for brachytherapy, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic radiotherapy body (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and are available online at www.astro.org/ModelPolicies .

Rice, MD Anderson researchers refine the technique to attack hard to reach tumors

Rice, MD Anderson researchers refine the technique to attack hard to reach tumors -

Short, custom carbon nanotubes have the potential to provide drugs to pancreatic cancer cells and destroy them from within, according to researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson cancer Center.

nanotubes Pristine products through a new process in moss can be modified to carry drugs to tumors through gaps in the walls of blood vessels that larger particles can not not get through

nanotubes can then target and infiltrate the nuclei of cancer cells, where drugs can be released by sonication - .. that is, shaking

directed research rice chemist Andrew Barron has been reported in the Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Materials Chemistry B .

cancer patients most of the pancreas die within a year of diagnosis and have a five year survival rate of 6 percent, partly because there is no method for early detection, according to the American Cancer Society. The tumors are often inoperable and pancreatic cancer cells are also difficult to reach with chemotherapy, said co-author Jason Fleming, professor of surgical oncology at MD Anderson.

"These results are encouraging because they offer a potential delivery solution for patients with cancer of the pancreas with tumors resistant to standard chemotherapy," said Fleming. "There are molecular and biological barriers the effective delivery of chemotherapy for tumors of pancreatic cancer, and these nanotubes may be able to do some of those irrelevant. "

the rice scientists made sufficiently pure nanotubes to change profit and small enough to slip through the defenses of the body, Barron said the researchers knew of previous work that the nanotubes could be modified. - a process called functionalization. - When carrying chemotherapy agents and release at a controlled rate by sonication

"This time, we tried to work on the length of the tubes should be and the extent of functionalization maximize absorption by the cells," said Barron.

Several discoveries were the key, he said. First, the rice graduate student, former student and co-author Alvin Orbaek purified iron catalysts of carbon nanotubes need to grow by rinsing with chlorine. "Iron particles Leftover damage the tubes by oxidation," Barron said. "This makes it difficult for future use."

The next step was to cut the nanotubes to size. Very long nanotubes are floppy and difficult to treat, Barron said. Enrico Andreoli, a postdoctoral research associate in the group and the Barron lead author of the paper, used a thermal process to chop an average length of 50 nanometers. (A human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.)

"Instead of experiencing a nanotube powder fluffy, we get something that looks like a hockey puck," said Barron. "It's very dense - it looks like a sponge washer - .. But you can cut it with a razor blade can weigh and make accurate chemistry with her"

Laboratory Barron added polyethyleneimine (PEI) to the nanotube

surfaces. in laboratory tests, the tubes were modified easily dispersed in a liquid and able to pass through the barriers in living cancer cells to infiltrate the nuclei. a small molecule variant of PEI turned out to be less toxic to cells than larger versions, Barron said.

"This research shows that the particles are small enough to penetrate inside cells where you want them and they may have increased benefit kill - but it is still unknown, "said Fleming

Fleming, whose work focuses on improving the administration of medication for pancreatic cancer, has warned that more research is needed .. "the next step will be to test this approach in mice that have allografts taken from human tumors," he said. "The architecture of these tumors look more like that of human pancreatic cancer."