Daily Health and Medicine News

MRIGlobal wins $28M contract to support cancer research

The Kansas City-based nonprofit research organization, formerly known as Midwest Research Institute, said Tuesday that the contract from the National Institutes of Health Division of Cancer Prevention calls for it to run the Centralized Chemopreventive Agent Repository and Drug Chemistry Support program.

Early this year, MRIGlobal bought a 90,000-square-foot facility in North Kansas City to gain an edge in the competition for the contract.

“This new repository complements MRIGlobal’s well-established programs within the National Cancer Institute (NCI),” the organization said in a release. “As the prime contractor, MRIGlobal will maintain a centralized source of chemopreventive agents for NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention to support research to reduce and prevent cancer.”

MRIGlobal will acquire, track and distribute a range of agents that can be used to produce drugs for human clinical trials. These agents include investigational agents, drugs, drug products and pharmaceutical ingredients.

This Breast Cancer Prevention Plan Is Nuts

There’s nothing more empowering than knowing that just making little changes in our lives can forever alter its course. Nothing scarier either. Especially when scientists are talking about the little things we can do to help prevent something as serious as breast cancer. That’s the kind of news I want to jump all over … but the latest bit out of the research team at Marshall University in Western Virginia sounds kind of, well, nuts, to say the least.

So what do researchers claim will help some women cut their risk of breast cancer entirely, and probably make smaller tumors in the women who do develop the disease?

Eat walnuts!

Gotcha, didn’t I? It’s nutty in a good way.

Based on work with mice, the study that shows up in the latest edition of the medical journal Nutrition and Cancer claims that as little as 2 ounces of the seeds can benefit humans in a big way. But it’s only walnuts. Loading up on your favorite peanut butter or pistachio won’t do. That’s because walnuts contain nearly twice as many antioxidant polyphenols as their other nut cousins. And in case you’re wondering why the heck they’re feeding mice walnuts to prevent breast cancer, it’s those polyphenols that make it worth it. They’ve already been found to prevent degenerative diseases, specifically cardiovascular diseases and cancers, and there’s evidence it can prevent osteoporosis and diabetes.

Think it’s too nutty to eat walnuts just for the breast cancer prevention? This might make it worth it: walnuts have been found to help with weight management, cognitive and motor function, and bone health. That’s in addition to diabetes and heart disease.

Do you eat walnuts? Do you think it’s worth adding them to your daily diet to prevent breast cancer?

Medicated Patch Shows Promise in Oral Cancer Prevention

Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a medicated oral patch that allows a chemoprevention drug to release directly into precancerous lesions in the mouth over an extended time.

The study evaluated the drug fenretinide, a synthetic derivative of vitamin A that has highly promising anti-cancer properties. Until now, scientists have failed to achieve a therapeutic, systemic dose of fenretinide because of drug toxicity and rapid release from the body. By using a new mucoadhesive patch invented by a team from Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) and the University of Michigan, the researchers developed a delivery system that can provide continuous drug therapy to saliva-coated oral tissue.

“The challenge with oral gels or rinses is the medication can dissolve in saliva before it penetrates into the tissue. This patch allows us to target and control drug delivery and tissue exposure,” says Dr. Susan Mallery, an oral pathologist at Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The patch consists of three layers: a disk saturated with fenretinide and polymers to make the drug more soluble in saliva, an adhesive ring to hold the disk in place, and a backing layer to ensure the medication stays within the patch.

In their study recently published online by the journal Pharmaceutical Research, Mallery and co-investigator, Dr. Peter Larsen of Ohio State, tested the fenretinide patch using simulated saliva as well as lab animals. In both situations, therapeutic doses comparable to levels needed in humans were achieved without detection of the drug elsewhere in the system or surrounding healthy tissue.

“These results are very encouraging. Fenretinide is a drug that scientists have studied as a cancer preventing compound for decades, and with this mucoadhesive patch, we finally developed a way to harness its potential,” says Mallery.

It is estimated that more than 300,000 people develop precancerous lesions in the mouth every year. Nearly 36,000 people will develop oral cancer. Currently, there is no way to determine which of the precancerous lesions will turn into cancer. While dentists can opt to wait and observe the lesions, they often will surgically remove them for biopsies to determine the course of treatment.

“For people with several or recurring lesions, repeated biopsies can become painful and affect their speech, ability to eat and quality of life,” says Larsen, who is chair of the division of oral and maxillofacial surgery and pathology at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry. “Ideally, we would like to have a way to slow down or even reverse the progression of these precancerous lesions without surgery. This medicated patch could be a solution.”

Next, Mallery and her team of investigators will see if these lab results translate to humans, as they begin treating patients in their dental clinic with the fenretinide patch within about 16 months.

This research is supported by the Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science, a collaboration of scientists and clinicians from seven OSU Health Science Colleges, OSU Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (cancer.osu.edu) strives to create a cancer-free world by integrating scientific research with excellence in education and patient-centered care, a strategy that leads to better methods of prevention, detection and treatment. Ohio State is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of only seven centers funded by the NCI to conduct both phase I and phase II clinical trials. The NCI recently rated Ohio State’s cancer program as “exceptional,” the highest rating given by NCI survey teams. As the cancer program’s 210-bed adult patient-care component, The James is a “Top Hospital” as named by the Leapfrog Group and one of the top 20 cancer hospitals in the nation as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.