Repositioning of proton pump inhibitors in cancer therapy — download the full PPI from Cancer Chemother Pharmacol by Zhen-Ning Lui, Bing Tian, and Xiu-Li Guo.
Many of you may be aware that I have concentrated my cancer research on the glycolytic nature of many cancers. Cancers that are glycolytic, such as GBM and triple negative breast cancer, primarily rely on glycolysis for the generation of ATP, rather than mitochondrial ox-phos. The end product of glycolysis is pyruvate, which then will be converted into lactic acid. These glycolytic cancer cells must upregulate their mechanism(s) for effluxing lactic acid, or else they will succumb to necrosis or apoptosis, secondary to acidosis.
Any one or combination of 6 mechanisms may be upregulated, but commonly, the proton pump is one of the mechanisms upregulated.
A study was performed in 2012, in which adult females with metastatic breast cancer were randomly assigned to 3 arms: Arm A; Docetaxol 75 mg/m2 and cisplatin 75 mg/m2 on day 4, repeat q 21 days; Arm B; The same chemotherapy plus oral esomeprazole 80 mg bid on days 1-3, Arm C; The same as Arm B except esomeprazole 100 mg bid. Median progression free survival: Arm A (N = 33) 7.5 months; Arm B (N = 30) 10.9 months; Arm C (N= 31) 9.5 months. Among 17 patients with triple negative breast cancer this difference was bigger with median PFS of 9.5 and 3.3 months respectively.
The reason that the great difference was seen in the triple negative group, was that triple negative breast cancer is typically the most glycolytic of the breast cancers. Although the data indicates that long term use of proton pump inhibitors in the healthy population may lead to nutritional deficiencies, as well as altering the bacterial flora, the data suggests using PPIs may be a helpful adjunct in patients with advanced-stage glycolytic cancers.
healthyliving August 27th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care, Cancer Prevention
Tags: cancer, cancer care, glycolysis, glycolytic cancer, metastatic breast cancer, proton pump inhibitors
Prostate cancer ultrasound treatment as effective as surgery or radiotherapy – an article by Imperial College London.
This is a ground-breaking and game-changing study for males. For may years, the only curative treatment for males with prostate cancer that had not spread outside the prostate was surgery or radiation therapy.
healthyliving July 23rd, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: cancer, HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound, prostate cancer, radiotherapy, research, surgery, ultrasound
Testosterone Research Brings New Hope for Cancer Patients – an article from Science Daily.
This is certainly not the first article published on the benefits of anabolic steroids for cancer cachexia. Anabolic steroids, such as testosterone and nandrolone, not only reduce muscle wasting, they also increase erythropoietin release, thereby mitigating the anemia and fatigue associated with maximum tolerated dose regimens. This affords the patients less transfusions, as well as a decreased need for erythropoietin stimulating agents, which have shown to increase mortality in cancer patients.
Commonly recommended drugs for appetite stimulation, such as progestins, corticosteroids, and dronabinol, are minimally and transiently effective. In addition, there is no risk of promoting the aggressiveness of the cancer with anabolic steroids if the cancer does not possess androgen receptors. To the contrary, breast cancer survivors who received subcutaneous implants containing testosterone in combination with a low dose of anastrozole for relief of menopausal symptoms, have had no recurrence of cancer after eight years of testosterone therapy.
Bottom line: consider the use of anabolic steroids for cancer cachexia, as long as the cancer does not possess androgen receptors, such as prostate cancer and often triple negative breast cancer.
healthyliving June 20th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: anabolic steroids, cancer, cancer cachexia, cancer care, nandrolone, testosterone
New Research Finds That Routine Breast Cancer Tests Lead to Unnecessary Mastectomies and Chemotherapy – an article from Cancer News.
This article may temper the celebrity-endorsed enthusiasm for prophylactic mastectomies for those with BRCA mutations. In addition, another study out of Duke Cancer Institute followed women with a BRCA mutation who had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, with one group having prophylactic mastectomies, and the other group receiving routine screening (mammograms/MRIs); you can read the article here.
Results: For women diagnosed at any age with BRCA 1 and 2 gene mutations and within the first four years after ovarian cancer diagnosis, prophylactic mastectomy was associated with a negligible gain in survival. For women diagnosed at age 60 or older, regardless of time since ovarian cancer diagnosis, the gain in survival months was also negligible. For women diagnosed at age 40 to 50 with BRCA 1 and 2 mutations and at least five years after an ovarian cancer diagnosis, the procedure was associated with a survival benefit of two to five months.
Bottom line: Although prophylactic mastectomy in BRCA gene mutation carriers has shown to decrease breast cancer incidence, the data does not confirm an increase in survival.
healthyliving June 11th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care, Cancer Prevention
Tags: breast cancer, cancer, chemotherapy, mastectomy, new research, research, study
healthyliving May 28th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: antifungal, antifungal agent, breast cancer, cancer, colorectal cancer, III NSC lung cancer, itconazole, lung cancer, NSC lung cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer
healthyliving May 14th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care, Cancer Prevention
Tags: cancer, cancer care, immunotherapy, oncolytic virus, OV, OV therapy, rigvir
Personalized cancer vaccine may increase long-term survival in patients with deadly brain cancer — an article from Science Daily.
Unfortunately, with all of our new cancer drugs, we have been unable to improve survival for patients with glioblastoma (GBM). Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc uses a personalized vaccine, by taking the patients’ tumor, and making a lysate from it. The brain tumor tissue lysate is then combined with the patients’ own dendritic cells, so the dendritic cells can “learn” what it needs to attack. These matured cells are then injected back into the patient.
Using this technique, we are seeing improved survival for GBM, certainly compared to any other modalities. When we sit back and attempt to discern the “big picture” in treating cancer, we keep coming back to the same concept: each patient with cancer must be treated uniquely and individually, because each cancer is a unique disease to each individual. In the future, if a patient presents to you with GBM, consider sending them for a clinical trial with Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc.
healthyliving April 23rd, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: brain cancer, cancer, GBM, personal vaccine, survival, vaccine
More breast cancer patients can safely forgo chemotherapy: Study – an article from Science Daily.
healthyliving April 9th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: breast cancer, cancer, chemo, chemotherapy
Combination therapy doubles survival in metastatic lung cancer – an article from Science Daily.
The purpose of this article is to clarify the efficacy, or lack thereof, of checkpoint inhibitors by themselves, for cancer patients.
Across the board, approximately 20% of the treated population will have a positive response to these immunotherapy drugs. We are identifying subsets of patients that are more likely to respond, such as those who have tissue significantly expressing PD-L1, evidence of microsatellite instability (MSI), and high mutation burden.
Multiple studies have been published showing synergy between checkpoint inhibitors and the use of molecularly targeted drugs, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Intuitively, this makes sense, because when we kill some cancer cells with these other modalities, there will be more antigens released to theCD8+ T cells, which have been turned back on with the checkpoint inhibitors. In my practice, in patients with terminal diagnosis, I often combine checkpoint inhibitors with other modalities, regardless of the tissue of origin.
The major problem, however, is often financial, as the insurance companies are unlikely to cover the cost of immunotherapy if the checkpoint inhibitor is not approved for that specific cancer. Keep in mind that just because immunotherapy is not indicated for the patients’ diagnosis, does not mean that the patient can’t get the drug; it just means that the patient must pay out of pocket.
healthyliving March 28th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: cancer, combination therapy, immunotherapy drugs, lung cancer, metastatic cancer, metastatic lung cancer
“Circulating Tumor Cells Predictive of Adjuvant Radiotherapy Benefit in Early Breast Cancer” – an article from Cancer Therapy Advisor can be accessed here.
This article validates what I have been proposing for quite some time; we should be checking for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in early stage cancer.
In the US, we have a test called CellSearch, to search for CTCs in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. This test is FDA approved to help physicians make clinical decisions in patients with metastatic breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
We know the greater the number of CTCs, in a patient with metastatic cancer, the worse the prognosis. This study found that approximately 20% of patients with early stage breast cancer had CTCs. This study also showed that more aggressive treatment, adding radiation therapy, in those with CTCs, improved survival.
One of my mantras has always been, “the practice of medicine lags far behind the science of medicine.” This scientific data can and should be applied to the practice immediately. On early stage cancers, we should be checking for CTCs. If we are dealing with breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer, we can use the CellSearch test for those in the U.S. If it is a different type of cancer, we will need to send the patients’ blood outside of the country (such as a lab in Germany), where they test 6 other genetic markers for CTCs. If the patient has early stage cancer and CTCs, in my opinion, the adjuvant or neoadjuvant treatment should be continued until the CTCs are zero.
healthyliving February 7th, 2019
Posted In: cancer care
Tags: breast cancer, cancer, cancer care, radiotherapy, tumor
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Dr. Mark Rosenberg received his doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1988 and has been involved with drug research since 1991.