Posts Tagged ‘RNA’

Gene driver for breast cancer discovered

Monday, February 21st, 2011

A rare but hard-to-treat form of breast cancer is driven by a newly discovered gene, researchers have found.

ZNF703 is the first oncogene to be discovered in five years, and it could lead to more effective treatments down the road, Cancer Research UK said.

Oncogenes tell healthy cells to divide when needed. But in tumours, they are overactive and the cancer multiply unstoppably. The oncogene act like a stuck accelerator that leads a car to speed out of control.

In Friday’s online issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, scientists from Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute and the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver said evidence strongly suggests ZNF703 is a new oncogene.

To come to that conclusion, they tested gene activity in 1,172 breast tumour samples that were estrogen receptor-positive. (more…)

British Ethics Group Calls for Regulations on Testing Sold Directly to Consumers

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Tests often provide medically meaningless data according to ethics group

With medical technology becoming more and more advanced, we have numerous new medical tests that doctors can use to check for various disease conditions. Some of the new genetic tests can be used to determine the chance a patient might have of developing a serious disease like cancer or diabetes at some point in their lives.

The interesting part about many of these genetic tests is that there is a market for direct sales of genetic testing to people that have no symptoms or reason to worry they might develop a certain disease. A new report by a British medical ethics groups has asked that private DNA testing be accredited and have to live up to certain standards to protect consumers.

The group maintains that many of these genetic tests provide “medically and therapeutically meaningless” results and that these false results could lead the person paying for the tests to pay for further testing that isn’t needed and to needlessly worry about their medical condition. The group, called the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, maintains that the results of many genetic tests are “unclear, unreliable, or inaccurate.” In addition to regulating genetic testing, the group also wants regulations placed on body scanning services using MRI and CT scans. (more…)

A/H1N1 deaths rise to 26 in American

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

HOUSTON, June 3 (Xinhua) — Four states on Wednesday reported five deaths related to the A/H1N1 flu virus, bringing the number of total deaths related to the virus to 26 in the United States, according to local health officials.

Michigan and Connecticut are the latest two states which reported their first deaths on Wednesday.

The Michigan Department of Community Health has confirmed that the state’s first death of A/H1N1 flu involved a 53-year-old woman, who died on Tuesday in a hospital in Macomb County after being sick for more than two weeks.

“This is sad and unfortunate. But, at the same time, we do expect a number of deaths (nationally) following the infection from this virus,” James McCurtis, a spokesman for the department, said on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, Michigan reported 298 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu statewide, comparing to 287 cases released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website. (more…)

Sanofi has winning cancer drug, but short patent

Monday, June 1st, 2009

LONDON (Reuters) – Sanofi-Aventis may have bagged a winning cancer drug when it agreed to buy privately held BiPar Sciences for up to $500 million in April, but a short patent could limit the French group’s scope to cash in on sales.

BiPar’s BSI-201 has emerged as one of the most promising new products at this year’s ASCO cancer conference in Orlando, Florida, with positive mid-stage trial results helping lift Sanofi shares by more than 3 percent on Monday.

But there is a fly in the ointment. A Sanofi spokesman said on Monday that the main U.S. composition patent on the medicine was valid only until 2013, though this could be extended by five years.

In Europe, the patent runs to 2014 and Sanofi will have 10 years data exclusivity after approval.

“These facts probably explain the relatively modest agreed price for the BiPar deal,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a research note.

They estimate BSI-201 could sell between $1 billion and $4 billion a year to Sanofi’s 2016 revenues, with a U.S. launch as possible by late 2010.

On the face of it, that makes the price Sanofi’s new chief executive, Chris Viehbacher, paid for BiPar seem a bargain. The problem is the medicine could face generic competition in the world’s biggest pharmaceuticals market from 2018.

BSI-201 belongs to a new class of drugs that block a cell repair enzyme known as PARP.

It impressed doctors at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday by improving survival by 60 percent compared with chemotherapy alone for women with tough-to-treat “triple negative breast cancer.”

Patients with triple negative metastatic breast cancer have tumors that do not express the hormones oestrogen or progesterone, as well as the protein HER-2.

These women, who account for 15 to 20 percent of breast cancer patients, have a very aggressive form of disease and there are currently no treatments other than chemotherapy.

Citigroup analyst Mark Dainty said the data for BSI-201 was significantly better than the results with Roche’s Avastin in triple negative patients and the new drug could put 20 to 25 percent of Avastin sales forecasts at risk.

Citi currently forecasts 2011 Avastin breast cancer sales at 1.7 billion Swiss francs ($1.6 billion) and losing 20 percent of this would slice some 2 percent off Roche’s 2011 earnings per shares.

AstraZeneca also has an experimental PARP inhibitor called olaparib that is further behind in development.