http://www.forbes.com/sites/tommeyer/2013/12/16/hope-for-breast-cancer-patients-is-around-the-corner/

CDX-011 results are pretty good for triple negative MBC patients.   But still not good enough.

iSpy-2 shows 2 drugs winners

Quote:

Both drugs were tested in an unconventional mid-stage trial called I-Spy 2. The trial involves patients with cancers confined to the breast, where a cure is possible but the disease is at high risk of spreading to other parts of the body. In one of the novel features of the study, the drugs were measured on their ability to eradicate the cancer in just six months, before any surgery to remove tumors.

Veliparib, for instance, when combined with the drug carboplatin and a six-month regimen of standard chemotherapy, achieved a complete response in 52% of patients compared with 26% for patients treated with standard chemo alone, according to results presented Friday at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Typically, late-stage cancer drug studies succeed only 30% to 40% of the time, said Laura Esserman, director of the breast care center at University of California San Francisco and co-leader of I-Spy 2. Such trials can involve several thousand patients--many of whom wind up taking drugs that don't help them--and can take nearly a decade to get an answer.

...

Whether the promising results will translate into a speedier approval--or any approval at all--isn't assured. A key to the I-Spy strategy is that the FDA accepts a complete response at six months--meaning that no residual cancer cells can be detected after the tumor and lymph nodes are removed--as a surrogate for a long-term benefit. The aim is for FDA to allow a drug on the market on that basis, on the condition that follow-up research demonstrates a long-term benefit.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20131213-705589.html?dsk=y

Surgeon's skill at the Surgery table a Key factor of Success

Obvious, but apparently it takes 3000 year of medicine to state:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/a-vital-measure-your-surgeons-skill/

News updates

What's new in metastatic breast cancer research

http://www.slideshare.net/DanaFarber/mbc-2013-talk-3-whats-new-in-metastatic-research-and-clinical-trials-mg-edited

AIDS Drug may work against cancer:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/25/us-cancer-hiv-idUSBRE99O0R920131025

More Satisfied Patients Die Sooner?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kaifalkenberg/2013/01/02/why-rating-your-doctor-is-bad-for-your-health/

Also by Forbes, super computer Watson working on matching patients to clinical trials at MD Anderson
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/10/18/ibms-watson-now-tackles-clinical-trials-at-md-anderson-cancer-center/

Tiny Pacemaker

Massive innovation in computer/cell phone/battery technologies enables this tiny pacemaker.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24535624

Within a decade, it could be even smaller with better battery life.   Innovation never stops.  It never stopped before and will not stop in the future.   Without even knowing a lot what we know today about immune system, HIV got a cure within 15 years of the virus being first discovered.

Are we the cancer patients, including the breast cancer patients the only ones stuck in an innovation-deficient hell, where the word "cure" dare not appear in peer reviewed scientific journals?   There are lots of hope, lots of interesting research, but the focus on metastasis is not always there.  Hopefully this is changing:
http://wrbw.membercenter.worldnow.com/story/23667473/fifteen-leading-charities-and-advocacy-groups-join-forces-to-change-the-way-metastatic-breast-cancer-is-understood-and-to-increase-focus-on-research



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22956040
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/gcrc-dav101513.php

Valproic acid encourages virus to fight cancer.   Dandy


http://www.aacr.org/home/public--media/aacr-press-releases.aspx?d=3179

OMI helps identify therapy response easily.

BXQ-350 for pancreatic cancer and brain cancer

This is about BXQ-350 for pancreatic cancer and brain cancer:

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201310130522/NEWS10/310130052&nclick_check=1

Quote from:

Getting this far has been an achievement of its own for Bexion’s team. Fewer than 10 percent of drugs that undergo animal testing ever make it to phase 1 human trials.

And its challenges are just beginning. About 10 percent of drugs that get this far ultimately gain U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, a total that drops to 4.7 percent for cancer drugs, according to a 2011 study.