The American Society for Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) virtual annual meeting began June 3 with the release of late-breaking abstracts, including LBA-1 on “Olympia: A phase 3, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of adjuvant?olaparib?after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations and high risk HER2-negative primary breast cancer.”
The Research to Accelerate Cures and Equity for Children Act is leading to deep changes in pediatric cancer research. Passed in 2017 and fully implemented in 2020, the RACE Act requires companies to investigate targeted drugs for adult cancers in pediatric cancers as well “when the molecular target of the drugs are substantially related to a pediatric cancer.”
With the advent of targeted therapies, cancer drugs have made strides in safety as well as efficacy. Still, because of the life threatening nature of the illness, safety is less of a focus in cancer drugs than other therapy types.
Collectively, lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are caused by malfunctions in metabolic enzymes in the lysosome system. Depending on which enzyme is missing, toxic metabolites accumulate. While the LSDs are highly heterogenous – even within one disease, presentation can vary widely – neurodegeneration is a common feature in these disorders.
With the advent of targeted therapies, cancer drugs have made strides in safety as well as efficacy. Still, because of the life threatening nature of the illness, safety is less of a focus in cancer drugs than other therapy types.
Roughly a year and a half after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many unknowns remain about the future of the virus. How it will mutate, how long protection from either illness or vaccination will last, when it will cease to be a pandemic and instead be endemic, even whether the worst is still ahead. And there is also an increasing acknowledgment that there remain unknowns about SARS-CoV-2’s past.
Roughly a year and a half after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many unknowns remain about the future of the virus. How it will mutate, how long protection from either illness or vaccination will last, when it will cease to be a pandemic and instead be endemic, even whether the worst is still ahead. And there is also an increasing acknowledgment that there remain unknowns about SARS-CoV-2’s past.
Collectively, lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs) are caused by malfunctions in metabolic enzymes in the lysosome system. Depending on which enzyme is missing, toxic metabolites accumulate. While the LSDs are highly heterogenous – even within one disease, presentation can vary widely – neurodegeneration is a common feature in these disorders.
Parasitic worms, or helminths, are a major global health issue. At the same time, "parasites have been a prolific area of biomedical research to emerge," De'Broski Herbert told his audience at the 2021 annual meeting of the American Association of Immunologists.
The discovery of synthetic lethality between BRCA mutations and PARP inhibitors ranks has led to major advances in the treatment of BRCA-mutated cancers. Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can leave cells with a deficiency in homologous repair (HR). And that deficiency can make them vulnerable to PARP inhibitors, which block alternate DNA repair pathways, as well as platinum-based treatment, which induces DNA mutations that BRCA-deficient cells are unable to cope with.
