Patient Care Blood Cancer Leukemia
Matt Lubick had finished marathons before, but none was so personally meaningful as the 26-mile distance he covered in one day while being treated for leukemia at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. Lubick walked dozens of laps around the facility, wheeling his IV pole up and down the corridors as day slowly turned to night outside the tall glass windows.
Illustrating the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s research strength in the area of blood cancers, the American Cancer Society Journal recently asked CU Cancer Center members Andrew Kent, PhD, and Dan Pollyea, MD, MS, to give readers an update on the latest advances in leukemia treatment.
Research Education Community Blood Cancer
Growing up in Windsor, Colorado, Elijah Johnson thought he would grow up to be a professional musician. He never considered a career as a biomedical researcher. But that all changed when his mother was diagnosed with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS), a rare genetic mutation that increases the risk of cancer.
The good news for people with multiple myeloma is that treatments exist that almost always put the cancer into deep remission soon after it’s diagnosed. The bad news for people with the blood cancer, though, is that even though that remission can last several years, almost all patients eventually relapse — and the disease that returns becomes increasingly difficult to treat.
Research Blood Cancer Immunotherapy lymphoma
For 30% to 40% of lymphoma patients who receive CAR T therapy, the treatment is a godsend. Typically given to lymphoma patients for whom other treatments have proven ineffective, CAR T therapy involves removing immune cells from the body via a blood draw, reengineering them to become better cancer fighters, then reintroducing them to the bloodstream, where they seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Already regarded as one of the country’s leaders in CAR T-cell therapy, University of Colorado Cancer Center member M. Eric Kohler, MD, PhD, has received a $150,000 Scholar Award from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to investigate a method to make CAR T cells function even better.
A necessary part of the scientific process is sometimes being wrong, and Eric Pietras, PhD, was wrong. He’s the first to admit it.
When Pietras, a University of Colorado Cancer Center member and associate professor of hematology, joined the CU School of Medicine in 2015, a significant body of research suggested that inflammation activated blood-forming stem cells, which normally are dormant in bone marrow.
Community Blood Cancer Leukemia Multiple Myeloma
September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month, a time for bringing attention to leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, Hodgkin’s disease, and other blood cancers.
Research Pediatric Cancer Blood Cancer Leukemia Clinical Trials
As part of its ongoing efforts to eradicate childhood cancers, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation has awarded University of Colorado Cancer Center member Kelly Faulk, MD, a St. Baldrick’s Scholar grant to investigate a new method for treating infant leukemia.
Research Blood Cancer Leukemia
In research that reinforces the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s longstanding relationship with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), CU Cancer Center member Lauren Nicholas, PhD, MPP, is co-principal investigator on a new LLS-funded study to examine the role of Medicare plan selection in dealing with a blood cancer diagnosis.
Patient Care Community Blood Cancer Colorectal Cancer
Jimmy Guerrero’s first diagnosis was a possible stomach ulcer, because it seemed inconceivable that a 26-year-old would have colon cancer.
Of the 18,000 people diagnosed with large B-cell lymphoma each year, only half will be successfully treated with chemotherapy. The 9,000 remaining patients typically have poor outcomes, with only 25% responding to additional, higher-intensity chemotherapy, followed by a stem cell transplant.
Press Releases Pediatric Cancer Blood Cancer Brain and Spinal Cancer Ovarian Cancer
Three researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center have received grants from the V Foundation, a cancer research nonprofit founded in 1993 by college basketball coach Jimmy Valvano, who died of cancer.
In a grim reminder of the toll COVID-19 can take even among those who are vaccinated against it, former Secretary of State Colin Powell died Monday of complications from the virus. His family said Powell, who was 84, was fully vaccinated against the disease.
Comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Norm MacDonald died Tuesday, after what his brother, Neil MacDonald, described as a nine-year battle with acute leukemia. Norm MacDonald, known for his intelligence and sarcastic wit, was 61.
Two recent collaborative publications by CU Cancer Center members provide insights into how chronic inflammation can serve as a key factor in the development of leukemia and other blood cancers.
A pilot study of childhood leukemia patients living near Colorado’s oil and gas drilling sites recently led to an American Cancer Society (ACS) grant award for CU Cancer Center member Lisa McKenzie PhD, MPH.
Patient Care Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine Clinical Trials
Siri Lindley couldn’t swim. She had never learned how and the idea of competing in a triathlon seemed completely out of the question.
When Manali Kamdar, MD, joined the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Division of Hematology as clinical director of lymphoma services in January 2015, she was fresh off her third fellowship (a bone marrow transplant and lymphoma fellowship at Stanford) and ready for a new challenge.
Research Pediatric Cancer Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
M. Eric Kohler’s commitment to both cancer research — particularly CAR T-cell therapy — and clinical care make him a double threat when it comes to battling pediatric blood cancer.
Research Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
Craig Jordan, PhD, has spent more than 20 years developing better treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow that can spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen and central nervous system.
Research Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
Thanks in large part to early work by investigators at the CU Cancer Center, patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a new treatment option that has fewer side effects and has been shown to increase longevity.
A key component in treating newly diagnosed leukemia is genetic and molecular testing. With this knowledge, physicians can better determine which treatment options are best suited for patients based on genetic mutations, fusions and other biologic features.
University of Colorado (CU) researcher Srinivas Ramachandran, PhD, was named one of the five 2020 Pew-Stewart Scholars. These researchers are selected to spearhead innovations in cancer research.
When a blood cancer patient needs a bone marrow transplant, there are four common donor sources: A matched related donor (sibling), a matched unrelated donor (from a donor database), a half-matched donor, or umbilical cord blood. Of course, there are plusses and minuses to each approach, but consensus has generally ranked a matched sibling first, followed by a matched unrelated donor, with cord blood and half-matched donors reserved for patients without either of the first two options. Now a University of Colorado Cancer Center study based on a decade of research and treatment may reshuffle this list. In fact, the comparison of 190 patients receiving cord-blood transplants with 123 patients receiving transplants from the “gold standard” of matched sibling donors showed no difference in survival outcomes between these two approaches, with significantly fewer complications due to chronic graft-versus-host disease in patients receiving transplants from cord blood.
Research Blood Cancer Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Results of the phase III Inter-B-NHL-ritux 2010 clinical trial reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine show 95 percent three-year survival for pediatric patients with advanced B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with the addition of anti-cancer immunotherapy rituximab to standard chemotherapy. The trial represents a major international collaboration between the European Intergroup for Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (EICNHL) and the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and was led in the United States by Thomas Gross, MD, PhD, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator and pediatric oncologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and in Europe by Véronique Minard-Colin, MD and Catherine Patte, MD, both pediatric oncologists at the Gustave Roussy Department of Child and Adolescent Oncology in Paris, France. The addition of rituximab decreased treatment failures by 70 percent resulting in a 10 percent increase in the three-year survival rate seen with chemotherapy alone (LMB protocol).
In 1844, multiple myeloma was first treated with a rhubarb pill and an infusion of orange peel. Since then, more than 15 drugs have earned FDA approval to treat multiple myeloma and with so many options, a major question has become what cocktail and sequence is best?
With improved treatments, especially the use of anti-cancer immunotherapies, more than two-thirds of all patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) will survive. However, after treatment, patients are at a small but real risk of developing a new cancer, called a second primary cancer. Now a Colorado study of long term DLBCL survivors shows, for the first time, that the stage at which DLBCL is originally diagnosed impacts the types of second cancers that may form after treatment.
Gripped
March 27, 2024
Just 18 months after his leukemia diagnosis and on the brink of a bone marrow transplant, Chen defied the odds with an inspiring ascent. Reflecting on his journey, Chen's resilience shines through as he remains optimistic and determined for the future.
EurekAlert
March 06, 2024
Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found that drugs like botox may slow head and neck cancer progression by targeting nerve interactions in tumor environments, impacting immune responses. This study could lead to new treatments for patients intolerant to traditional therapies.
Mile High Magazine
February 25, 2024
Christopher Lieu, MD speaks on March being Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and the importance of screening.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
February 21, 2024
In 2024, the network will launch a pilot study, known as the Vanguard Study on Multi-Cancer Detection, to address the feasibility of using multi-cancer detection (MCD) tests in future randomized controlled trials.
Greg Glasgow
