Reducing health disparities in incidence and mortality for major types of cancers can be aided by sophisticated computer modeling efforts, according to new, wide-ranging perspectives from researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues around the country.
Center to provide comprehensive patient navigation services and educational programming to southeast Washington, D.C., where these services have been historically lacking.
Discrimination experienced by Black people can affect their health and increase their frailty, which can be particularly impactful for cancer survivors, according to a new study by researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. The researchers assessed frailty by a number of factors, including whether a participant had several chronic diseases, poor muscle strength and difficulty performing activities of daily living.
While it has long been recognized that drugs that block the cancer-promoting activity of estrogen reduce risk of developing new breast cancers, a new computer modeling study led by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues showed that these treatments could also reduce the risk of dying from the disease in women who are at high risk.
A clinical trial led by clinicians at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center showed a remarkable 20 percent advantage in the two-year overall survival rate for people with advanced melanoma who first received immunotherapy (72 percent survival rate) versus those who initially got targeted therapies (52 percent survival rate). Progression-free survival, where the cancer is stable or improving, was also trending in favor of those who started on immunotherapy.
If Black women begin mammography screening every other year starting at age 40, breast cancer deaths could be reduced by 57 percent compared to starting screening 10 years later — as is currently recommended by some organizations — according to analyses conducted by a modeling team that is part of the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Just a small number of cells found in tumors can enable and recruit other types of cells nearby, allowing the cancer to spread to other parts of the body, report Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists. Working with their research collaborators, the scientists found that ‘enabler cells’ comprise about 20 percent or less of the cells in an aggressive tumor; their small numbers may account for why they are often missed when bulk tissue analyses are used to inform therapeutic decisions.
A bacteria typically linked to periodontal disease, Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nuc), could play an important role in the rising incidence of colorectal cancer in people under the age of 45. Another type of bacteria, Moraxella osloensis, has been found in colorectal cancer tumors at a nearly four-fold higher rate in people over 75 than in those under 45 years of age, pointing out how differences in the bacteria that comprise what is known as the body’s microbiome could affect cancer outcomes to varying degrees. These are the preliminary findings of an ongoing study that will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco from January 23-25, 2020.
Mice given a new drug targeting a key gene involved in lipid and glucose metabolism could tolerate a high-fat diet regimen (composed of 60% fat from lard) without developing significant liver damage, becoming obese, or disrupting their body’s glucose balance.
When FDA approved palbociclib (Ibrance ®), there was very little data about the safety of this drug in people with benign ethnic neutropenia (BEN), which is common in women of color. Some of these women didn’t qualify for the clinical trials because of the required blood count, which is lower in women with BEN.
Gulf War Illness (GWI) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) share symptoms of disabling fatigue, pain, systemic hyperalgesia (tenderness), negative emotion, sleep and cognitive dysfunction that are made worse after mild exertion (postexertional malaise). Now, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have evidence, derived from human brain studies, that GWI and CFS are two distinct disorders that affect the brain in opposing ways.
Women with an aggressive, less-common type of breast cancer, known as triple-negative, versus a more common form of the disease, could be differentiated from each other by a panel of 17 small RNA molecules that are directly influenced by genetic alterations typically found in cancer cells.
Georgetown University Medical Center, a Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) Association Research Center of Excellence, is now offering three clinical trials to study new treatments for LBD, a disease often confused with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
The pending deal for Altria to purchase 35% of Juul Labs should serve as a “wake-up call” for the careful monitoring of competition in the nicotine delivery market, and for evaluating how regulations and policies impact cigarette and non-cigarette firms selling alternative nicotine delivery products, says a Georgetown University professor.
Researchers have decoded a chain of molecules that are critical for the growth and survival of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma—the most common and also the most lethal form of pancreatic cancer.
Resistance to two critical antibiotic types, one a “drug of last resort” when all others fail against some “superbugs,” are widely distributed in Southeast Asia, raising the risk of untreatable infections, say a team of investigators led by Georgetown University Medical Center.
A combination of elevated symptoms of depression along with modifications in a gene responsible for dopamine activity, important to the brain’s pleasure and reward system, appear to influence an addiction to indoor tanning in young, white non-Hispanic women.
When it comes to buying probiotics, most product labels do not give consumers enough information to make an informed decision, according to a research team led by Georgetown University Medical Center.
Cancer patients previously excluded and underrepresented in immunotherapy clinical trials, such as African Americans and patients with HIV or viral hepatitis, actually benefit at the same rate as patients tested in the clinical trials, according to a Georgetown-led study to be presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.
A survey conducted by Georgetown investigators found a significant knowledge and practice gap among community oncologists in the understanding and usage of genetic testing in determining patients' treatment plans and potential clinical trial outcomes.
A new study suggests that Oncotype DX-guided treatment could reduce the cost for the first year of breast cancer care in the U.S. by about $50 million (about 2 percent of the overall costs in the first year). The study by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and National Cancer Institute researchers was published April 24, in JNCI.
Despite a mandate to help patients make better-informed health care decisions, a ten-year research program established under the Affordable Care Act has funded a relatively small number of studies that examine primary care, the setting where the majority of patients in the U.S. receive treatment.
A consortium of researchers led by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators have completed the largest analysis of a new gene fusion they believe is responsible for development of a wide spectrum of cancer types.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval today of atezolizumab (Tecentriq®, Genentech) in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin and etoposide) for the initial treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) marks the end of numerous failed attempts to improve survival for those with the deadly disease.
The immunotherapy that has revolutionized treatment of many cancers appear to offer similar benefit to cancer patients living with HIV.
To the great surprise of cancer researchers in a Georgetown University-led study, a protein they investigated for its possible role in cancer turned out to be a powerful regulator of metabolism.
In an article published in Creativity Research Journal, Georgetown researchers address neuro-ethical concerns associated with the increasing use of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES).
Georgetown Breast Cancer Advocates (GBCA), a volunteer group of survivors and other advocates who support and promote cancer research at Georgetown University, have published an article that underscores ways in which both the scientific and advocacy communities can foster a mutually beneficial collaboration.
A valuable cache of brain cancer biomedical data, one of only two such large collections in the country, has been made freely available worldwide by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Lewy Body Dementia Association has designated Georgetown University Medical Center as a “Research Center of Excellence.”
Georgetown University and CEPI U.S. – the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations U.S. – today announce a new agreement to explore joint cooperative academic and research initiatives.
Family history of breast cancer continues to significantly increase chances of developing invasive breast tumors in aging women — those ages 65 and older, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The findings could impact mammography screening decisions later in life.
Combining an anti-angiogenesis agent, which blocks blood vessel formation, with an immunotherapy agent, was found to have promising anti-tumor activity and no unexpected side effects in an early-phase clinical trial in patients with advanced kidney cancer.
Based on a novel approach to drug discovery, researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center say an agent approved to treat a type of leukemia might also help young people with a much rarer and aggressive form of cancer, Ewing sarcoma.
It has often been claimed that humans learn language using brain components that are specifically dedicated to this purpose. Now, new evidence strongly suggests that language is in fact learned in brain systems that are also used for many other purposes and even pre-existed humans, say researchers.
A new study that seeks to better ascertain HIV mortality rates in Zambia could provide a model for improved national and regional surveillance approaches, and ultimately, more effective HIV treatment strategies.
The most commonly used gene expression profile test, Oncotype DX®, used to help predict breast cancer recurrence may not be as cost-effective as once thought, say a team of researchers.
Consuming soy foods (such as soy milk, tofu and edamame) and cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbages, kale, collard greens, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli) may be associated with a reduction in common side effects of breast cancer treatment in breast cancer survivors, say a team of scientists.
A new biomarker test developed by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and their colleagues can help predict, with up to 90 percent certainty, which chemical compounds can cause DNA damage that could lead to cancer.
A survey of young, white women who have used indoor tanning at least once in the past year showed that more than one in five of them have signs of being addicted to the high dose of ultraviolet (UV) radiation from tanning beds. In addition, women with symptoms of depression were three times more likely to meet the criteria for having a tanning dependence.
The National Academy of Medicine announced today the election of Mark Dybul, MD, professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, as one of its newest member. Dybul is faculty co-director of the Center for Global Health and Quality at Georgetown University Medical Center.
The 2001 New York State Medicaid expansion — what is considered a precursor to the Affordable Care (ACA) — widened the racial disparity gap when it came to access to high-quality hospitals for cancer surgery, according to a new study from Georgetown University.
When combined with an already FDA-approved chemotherapy, a novel agent developed by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, appears to halt the ability of Ewing sarcoma to grow and progress.
Up to 6.6 million cigarette smokers will live substantially longer if cigarette smoking is replaced by vaping over a ten-year period, calculates a research team led by investigators from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. In all, cigarette smokers who switch to e-cigarettes could live 86.7 million more years with policies that encourage cigarette smokers to switch completely to e-cigarettes.
Beth Cameron, senior director for the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Global Biological Policy and Programs, will discuss why U.S. leadership continues to be vital in advancing the Global Health Security Agenda’s mission to build a world safe from biological threats on Friday, Sept. 15 at Georgetown University,
Frequent e-cigarette use does help smokers quit — a finding that researchers say supports the use of e-cigarettes as a cessation aid for those trying to quit cigarette smoking. But, they note, an examination of a recent national survey uncovers important clues about who’s successful at quitting and why.
Feeding pregnant female mice a diet high in fat derived from common corn oil resulted in genetic changes that substantially increased breast cancer susceptibility in three generations of female offspring, reports a team of researchers led by scientists at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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