Different biomarkers in the blood plasma can predict the recurrence of the tumor with skin cancer (melanoma). The report U.S. researchers at Yale University in the current issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research.


Harriet Kluger, and team studied the plasma of 216 persons, of whom 108 had a metastatic melanoma and the other 108, a melanoma disease in stage 1 or 2. The researchers identified seven proteins that were found in patients with metastases in larger amounts than in patients with early stage disease. Accordingly, 83 percent of the subjects had with metastatic skin cancer have elevated levels of at least one of the seven biomarkers. 76 percent of subjects with cancer in stage 1 and stage-2, however, showed no increase.

“The results of our study must still yet to be confirmed in clinical studies, they show that such a test is generally possible,” says Kluger.

With a careful screening may cause skin cancer are detected early and removed surgically. The risk that the cancer has metastasized is in the early stage at about 10 percent at an advanced stage in up to 70 percent. So far, the follow-up is possible only through regular check-imaging. The newly discovered biomarkers could be an effective and cost-effective alternative to monitor the recurrence of skin cancer.

A new PSA test can detect prostate cancer seems more reliable than the currently available PSA test. The so-called Pro-PSA test can be demonstrated especially the aggressive type of tumor. For this result, a large clinical study comes in the United States. “The new test is more specific and accurate than currently available blood tests for early detection of prostate cancer,” says study leader Dr. William Catalona of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. This would enable unnecessary biopsies can be avoided in older men. Catalona is considered the father of the PSA test. In 1991 he succeeded in showing that a simple blood test that measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), is suitable for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
PSA is a protein that is produced by the prostate gland (prostate). An elevated PSA level in the blood can have various causes, including inflammation of the prostate, benign prostate enlargement or even prostate cancer. Current PSA tests to determine the PSA level often deliver false-positive results, that is a suspicion of prostate cancer, which turns out only after a biopsy to be false.

Accurate other hand will be the new Pro-PSA test. It measures not just the total amount of PSA in the blood, but rather defines a specific form of the antigen, the so-called (-2) Pro-PSA. Even more revealing is the result when the measured value of Pro-PSA into a mathematical formula involved. “The logic behind this formula is: the higher the pro-PSA and the total amount of PSA, and the lower the amount of free PSA, the more likely the patient is suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer,” said Catalona.

That the new test method actually works, could show the researchers in a study with about 900 participants. Especially useful for the pro-PSA test is therefore in patients has been revealed by the standard PSA test, a result between two and ten. This area is known as a diagnostic gray zone where the assessment of ‘cancer – yes or no’ difficult. Most – but not all – men with readings in the upper region have cancer, most men with lower levels do not.

The FDA is still evaluating the new study data on Pro-PSA test. In Europe, however, he is already approved for commercial use.

Lung cancer patients who achieved the first chemotherapy no tumor reduction, but only a cessation of growth, earlier profit of erlotinib to inform the experts. You get the acting as a tumor growth inhibitor erlotinib substance. In contrast to chemotherapy, which is directed against all rapidly dividing cells of the body, the growth inhibitor erlotinib acts primarily on the tumor cells themselves, the well-tolerated erlotinib prolonged proved the lives of patients and relieves the lung cancer accompanying symptoms such as cough, pain and shortness of breath.
Erlotinib inhibits tumor growth and prolongs life expectancy. Erlotinib is a molecule that prevents the division of tumor cells by entering them and slowed cell growth significantly. This increases the life expectancy of erlotinib lung cancer patients, eases cough, pain or shortness of breath and can improve the quality of life. Compared to chemotherapy, erlotinib has the advantage that patients can take once-daily infusions and eliminated. Treatment with erlotinib is now right after the chemotherapy. Until now, patients with advanced lung cancer after chemotherapy is a “rest period” to check-ups showed that again the tumor growth or metastasis was. From the new “maintenance therapy” can benefit all patients with stable disease after initial chemotherapy. Modern drugs such as erlotinib inhibit the targeted cancer cell growth and in recent years have revolutionized the treatment of advanced lung cancer. They are compared to chemotherapy was well tolerated.

Erlotinib for five years worth in the treatment of advanced lung cancer. But so far as second-line therapy. This means that patients receive the drug only if the chemotherapy as first-line therapy is no longer the disease after a rest period progresses. Now you can benefit lung cancer patients after chemotherapy directly from the effect of erlotinib. This can prolong the life expectancy of lung cancer pretreated with chemotherapy patients. It also improves the quality of life and relieve the symptoms of the disease, because the patients suffer less from the typical lung cancer symptoms such as cough, pain and shortness of breath. The substance Erlotinib acts by blocking the receptors for growth factors and thus cell enlargement and cell division eventually reduced. This stunted the cancer cell dies. Since 27 April 2010, Erlotinib directly admitted for treatment after chemotherapy. Today we are losing in patients who do not respond well to chemotherapy, no more time by a rest period, as they can be treated directly, says the chief physician of respiratory medicine / oncology department at the hospital Großhansdorf, Dr. Ulrich Gatzemeier, in his Paper presented at the press conference of the Roche Pharma AG “Lung Cancer – What’s new? The tablet of the chemotherapy.