A few summers ago, Andrea lost a flip-flop. Anyone can misplace a shoe. But this was the only thing between Andrea’s foot and the London pavement. She didn’t notice that it was gone. She began dropping things then, too. “I couldn’t feel the pressure that I was applying when I was holding drinks. Quite often, they would just slip through my hands.” As they smashed and shattered on the floor, glasses didn’t feel like the only things Andrea was struggling to keep hold of. She was a young mother with bowel cancer, grappling with her mortality while trying to do her daughter’s hair. And these symp ..read more

Children’s cancers present very different challenges to adult ones. So do cancers in teenagers and young people. That gets right to the heart of our work. In order to give young people, teenagers and children with cancer the best chance of survival without side effects, we have to approach their diseases differently. Our network of paediatric Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs) makes that possible. When conventional treatments aren’t working, ECMCs give children with cancer, as well as young people up to the age of 24, access to trials testing promising new medicines that aren’t avai ..read more

“Timing is everything when it comes to treating colon cancer,” says Matthew Seymour, Professor of Gastrointestinal Cancer Research at the University of Leeds. He knows that’s much more than just a phrase. Seymour helped run the FOxTROT trial, which showed that starting chemotherapy just a few weeks earlier can change outcomes for people with colon cancer. Beginning it before surgery, instead of after, significantly cuts the risk of the disease coming back. It’s likely that the findings will change how doctors treat colon cancer (which is a type of bowel, or colorectal, cancer) in the NHS and ..read more

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has found that the level of a person’s immune cells may provide an indication of whether they would benefit from chemotherapy in a type of cancer called oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). These cells, called lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell that form an essential part of the immune system. The current standard of care for OPSCC involves radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, the use of cisplatin chemotherapy increases the amount and severity of side effects, compared to radiotherapy alone. To avoid the potential sid ..read more

Cannabis, cannabinoids and cancer – the evidence so far The post Can we grow the treatments of tomorrow? – That Cancer Conversation first appeared on Cancer Research UK - Cancer news ..read more

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended a new combination therapy for adults with an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on the NHS in England. After an initial rejection back in March, a combination of polatuzumab vedotin (Polivy) and 2 existing cancer drugs – rituximab and bendamustine – will now be available to some adults with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. It will be a new option for people whose cancer has either not responded to, or come back after, initial treatment, and who are unable to have a stem cell transplant. NICE decisions are usually ..read more

New clinical trial results show that adding rituximab to standard chemotherapy could improve survival for children and young people with a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Lymphomas are the third most common group of children’s cancers in the UK, and high grade, B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma tends to grow more quickly than other forms of the disease. Right now, these lymphomas are treated with chemotherapy alone. Dr Amos Burke, a childhood cancer specialist who led the UK arm of the trial, called the findings “a huge step forward”, adding that this marked the most significant breakthrough in treat ..read more

A new immunotherapy treatment has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for some adults with small cell lung cancer. Atezolizumab (Tecentriq), used in combination with standard chemotherapy drugs, will be made available on the NHS in England for people with small cell lung cancer that’s spread beyond a single area and can’t be treated with radiotherapy ­– otherwise known as extensive stage cancer. Following an initial rejection by NICE in January, a new price offer from the manufacturer has allowed the therapy to be approved under the extra flexibili ..read more

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not recommended a new combination therapy for adults with an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on the NHS in England. Adding polatuzumab vedotin to rituximab and bendamustine would have been a new treatment option for people with diffuse large B cell lymphoma whose cancer has either not responded to, or come back after, initial treatment. It was being considered for people who can’t have a stem cell transplant. Rose Gray, policy manager at Cancer Research UK said the decision would be “hugely disappointing for people affec ..read more

A combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy has been rejected by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for some adults with small cell lung cancer. The combination treatment would be an option for adults with untreated small cell lung cancer that’s spread beyond a single area and couldn’t be treated with radiotherapy, otherwise known as extensive stage cancer. Adding the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to standard chemotherapy drugs has been shown to give patients more time before their cancer gets bigger and can improve survival. But NICE concluded ther ..read more