FDA Warns Anti-Cancer CAR-T Treatment May Itself Cause Cancer
CAR-T has been approved for life-threatening blood cancers for several years, but the FDA reported it had learned of a limited number of patients with new cancers after the treatment. Some experts disagree, and note other cancer treatments may have higher known risks.
The New York Times:
CAR-T, Lifesaving Cancer Treatment, May Sometimes Cause Cancer, FDA Says
A lifesaving cancer treatment may itself cause cancers, the Food and Drug Administration reported on Tuesday. The treatment, called CAR-T, was first approved in November 2017 for life-threatening blood cancers. But, the F.D.A. said, it had received 19 reports of new blood cancers in patients who received the treatment. (Kolata, 11/28)
Stat:
Despite FDA Concern, The Risk That CAR-T Causes Cancer Appears Low
The announcement on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration was investigating whether CAR-T immunotherapy had itself caused blood cancers initially appeared to be a significant blow to one of the brightest spots in cancer care. But experts quickly cautioned that risk of this complication is probably minuscule compared to the known risk of secondary cancers from other cancer therapies like chemotherapy and radiation. (Chen, 11/29)
In other cancer research —
The Washington Post:
Newly Discovered Stem Cell Offers Clues To A Cancer Mystery
Scientists have discovered a new type of stem cell in the spine that appears crucial to resolving a long-standing mystery: why far more cancer cells spread to the spine than to other bones in the body. When breast, lung and prostate cancers metastasize to multiple bones in the body, three to five times more cancer winds up in the spine than in the lower and upper limbs. Scientists have known of this disparity for decades, but the reason for it has remained unclear. (Johnson, 11/28)
Fox News:
AI Model Could Help Predict Lung Cancer Risks In Non-Smokers, Study Finds: ‘Significant Advancement’
Among the latest artificial intelligence innovations in health care, a routine chest X-ray could help identify non-smokers who are at a high risk for lung cancer. The study findings will be presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Researchers from the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center (CIRC) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School in Boston developed a deep learning AI model using 147,497 chest X-rays of asymptomatic smokers and never-smokers. (Rudy, 11/29)
CIDRAP:
Cancer Patients With COVID At Higher Risk Of Death, Hospitalization Amid Omicron
A study from Israel finds that adult solid-cancer patients had a higher risk of death and hospitalization after COVID-19 infection than infected patients without cancer during a period of Omicron variant predominance and that vaccination lowered that risk. (Van Beusekom, 11/28)
In other cancer research —
Reuters:
SpringWorks' Non-Cancerous Tumor Drug To Be Priced At $29,000 Per Month In US
SpringWorks Therapeutics' drug for treating adult patients with a type of rare non-cancerous soft-tissue tumor will be sold in the U.S. at a list price of $29,000 for a 30-day supply, the company said on a conference call on Tuesday. The monotherapy nirogacestat, branded as Ogsiveo, became the first approved treatment for desmoid tumors — abnormal growths that occur in connective tissues and are associated with a high rate of recurrence — following the U.S. health regulator's nod on Monday. (Jain, 11/28)
Stat:
Colonoscopy Often Costs More For Those At Higher Cancer Risk
Ashley Conway-Anderson was prepared for a lot of things when it came to her first colonoscopy. She sought out tips to make the daylong prep more bearable. She braced herself mentally for what the doctors would find; her mother, after all, was just a couple years out of recovery from colorectal cancer. When she awoke from the procedure, she said, things seemed relatively fine. “Surprisingly fine,” said Conway-Anderson, a 36-year-old agroforestry professor at the University of Missouri. There was an 11-millimeter precancerous polyp that the doctors had discovered, but they’d snipped it out of her colon and recommended surveillance every three years. “Obviously, it’s big news to hear, but grateful this seems to be manageable. I’ll do it,” she said. “Then the bill came.” (Chen, 11/29)
