Prostate Cancer Treatment Database Hits Milestone Of 12,500
Radiotherapy Centers of Georgia (RCOG), a division of RC Cancer Centers announced that as of March 23, they reached a new milestone and treated their 12,500th patient for prostate cancer with their ProstRcision® treatment therapy. The milestone means their treatment database is one of the most comprehensive in the nation. Available exclusively from RC Cancer Centers, ProstRcision® has the industry’s highest documented cure rate of 83 percent.
Each year thousands of patients from around the world and across the United States turn to RC Cancer Centers seeking a cure and learn why they are The Choice for Saving Lives. Founded in 1979, Radiotherapy Centers of Georgia, a division of RC Cancer Centers, has earned a reputation for being one of the country’s top cancer treatment and research facilities. With their commitment to quality, use of the latest radiation technology and research focus, RCOG treats men and women with different types of cancer, including breast, prostate, lung, colon, lymphatic and others.
RC Cancer Centers is the exclusive provider of ProstRcision®, which is a unique technique for curing prostate cancer that uses a combination of pinpoint irradiation through seed implant and conformal beam irradiation. In addition to the rigorous decade of education and training required of any surgeon, ProstRcision® doctors must complete an additional year of procedural instruction and surgical training before performing ProstRcision® on their own, in contrast to industry standards for other seed implant and robotic procedures. Only seven physicians in the country are credentialed in the procedure and all are affiliated with RC Cancer Centers.
“ProstRcision’s 10-year documented cure rate of 88 percent and the ability to protect against incontinence and preserve normal sex function makes it one of the most important treatment options available today,” said Dr. James Benton of Radiotherapy Centers of Georgia. “Our highly skilled and trained staff keeps abreast of the latest advances in treatment and are able to use this knowledge to provide men with effective outcomes delivered in a caring environment.” Read more
Advances Reported In Quest For Drugs Targeting Childhood Cancer
Investigators believe they have identified the founding member of a chemical family they hope will lead to a new class of cancer drugs, the first designed specifically against a childhood tumor, according to research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists.
The chemical is the first small-molecule inhibitor to target the MDMX protein. Excess MDMX is a hallmark of the childhood eye tumor retinoblastoma as well as certain cases of breast, lung, prostate and other cancers. Nationally about 300 new cases of retinoblastoma are identified each year.
The discovery was reported online in advance of the April 2 print edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. An overabundance of MDMX or its sister protein, MDM2, can promote tumor progression by binding and suppressing a protein called p53. The role of p53 in normal cells is to induce death in cells that begin the unchecked cell division that is a hallmark of cancer.
MDM2 and MDMX use different mechanisms to disrupt the p53 pathway. There is an emerging scientific consensus that restoring normal p53 function might require shutting down both MDMX and MDM2. A small-molecule inhibitor against MDM2 is already in Phase 1 pharmaceutical industry trials. In this study, St. Jude researchers reported that when the new St. Jude compound, known as SJ-172550, is combined with an MDM2 inhibitor there was a corresponding increase in retinoblastoma cells death.
Michael Dyer, Ph.D., Developmental Neurobiology and the paper’s senior author, said several years of detailed chemical studies and additional work are likely needed before SJ-172550 might be ready for human trials.
Evidence suggests SJ-172550 works by binding in a reversible manner to a pocket in the MDMX molecule. With SJ-172550 sitting in the pocket, the p53 protein cannot bind to MDMX, Dyer explained. That makes p53 available to do its job and eliminate tumor cells. About 65 percent of retinoblastoma tumors feature extra copies of the MDMX gene as do nearly 20 percent of patients with breast, colon and lung cancer.
The finding expands on work from Dyer’s laboratory into the genetic and biochemical missteps that give rise to retinoblastoma. The advance reflects the combined efforts of the St. Jude departments of Developmental Neurobiology; Chemical Biology and Therapeutics; and Structural Biology. The first authors are Damon Reed, M.D., formerly of St. Jude and now of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Ying Shen, Ph.D., of Developmental Neurobiology. Read more