For 40 years, plastic surgeons have used saline injections to expand tissue and prepare patients for breast implants following mastectomies. These tissue expanders consist of a silicone shell with a magnet and a self-sealing port; a doctor uses a different magnet above the skin to access the port and inject saline to stretch the skin. The […]
Oncology
Keystone Nano wins FDA nod for nanoliposome cancer treatment
Keystone Nano said today that the FDA approved its investigational new drug application for the ceramide nanoliposome as a treatment for solid tumors. The company will launch a phase I trial at 3 sites to evaluate safe dosing levels and the product’s efficacy as a cancer therapy. Ceramide is a lipid that has demonstrated efficacy in […]
Penn State researchers use immune cells to deliver cancer drugs
Researchers from the Penn State Materials Research Institute have developed a biodegradable and photoluminescent nanoparticle that are carried by immune cells to target melanoma. The team’s work was published last week in the journal Small. “The traditional way to deliver drugs to tumors is to put the drug inside some type of nanoparticle and inject those […]
Augmenix touts long-term data for hydrogel spacer in prostate cancer patients
Augmenix Inc. said today that long-term outcomes data from the company’s phase III clinical trial evaluating its hydrogel spacer, SpaceOAR, was published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology and Physics. The spacer is designed to separate the rectum and prostate during prostate cancer radiotherapy, according to the Waltham, Mass.-based company. The newly published […]
Provectus axes CEO Culpepper for expense account violations
Provectus Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB:PVCT) said this week that its board of directors voted unanimously to terminate CEO and chief operating officer Peter Culpepper, after an internal investigation revealed that Culpepper violated the company’s expense account reimbursement policy. The Knoxville, Tenn.-based company said it has established a search committee and is actively seeking a new CEO. […]
Researchers develop nanodiscs to deliver personalized cancer therapy
Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed nanodiscs that deliver a customized therapeutic vaccine to treat colon and melanoma cancer in mice. The team’s work was published in Nature Materials. “We are basically educating the immune system with these nanodiscs so that immune cells can attack cancer cells in a personalized manner,” senior author James Moon said […]
Researchers develop nanosensor to differentiate cancer cells and healthy cells in surgery
Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a threshold nanosensor that can differentiate between cancerous cells and healthy tissue during surgery. The team’s work was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. “We synthesized an imaging probe that stays dark in normal tissues but switches on like a light bulb when it reaches solid […]
Bristol-Myers, PsiOxus land licensing agreement
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) said today that it landed an exclusive licensing agreement for PsiOxus Therapeutics‘ ‘armed’ oncolytic virus, NG-348, for the treatment of solid tumors. According to the agreement, Bristol-Myers will pay PsiOxus $50 million upfront and will assume responsibility for global clinical development and commercialization. PsiOxus will be eligible for $886 million in development, regulatory and […]
Study: Laser-activated deep-sea drug kills prostate cancer
Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and Steba Biotech have reportedly developed a light-sensitive drug derived from deep-sea bacteria that has been shown to kill cancer cells in low-risk prostate cancer patients without affecting healthy tissue. The team’s work was published in Lancet Oncology. Vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy, VTP, utilizes a drug called WST11 which was […]
Japan approves Novocure’s Optune brain cancer treatment
Novocure (NSDQ:NVCR) said today that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved its tumor treating fields delivery system, Optune, for adult patients with supra-tentorial glioblastoma following surgery and radiation therapy. The St. Helier, N.J.-based company is expected to submit an application for public reimbursement of the device in Japan for newly diagnosed […]
Researchers use nanoparticles to overcome treatment-resistant breast cancer
Researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have developed RNA nanoparticles that show promise in overcoming treatment-resistant breast cancer. The team’s work was published in ACS Nano. The researchers used a nanocarrier to target HER2-positive breast cancer and stop the production of a specific protein to prevent metastasis and render the cancer cells vulnerable to tamoxifen, […]