Latest Clinical & Research News
Specialty: Oncology
PARP inhibitors have become an important part of the arsenal for treating cancers caused by BRCA mutations — including breast cancer. Recently, clinical trials have begun looking at the combination of PARP inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors in breast cancer, with the goal of making treatment more effective and longer lasting.
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitor drugs is an emerging treatment for renal cell carcinoma. Now investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have reported the results from lab research looking at a potential new way to boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.
Today’s cancer therapies are helping patients live longer. However, treatments including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and certain targeted and immunological therapies increase the risk of developing cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT). Physicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Heart & Vascular Center are working with colleagues at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) to help prevent CAT and minimize its effect on timely cancer care.
While traditional tumor boards are common at most academic medical centers, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) has taken its 10-year-old tumor board to the next level by integrating molecular pathology into their discussions.
Targeted therapy has had much less success in treating renal cell carcinoma than in treating many other kinds of cancer. Physician-scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are working on several innovative approaches to address this shortfall.
Researchers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) are advancing innovative approaches to decrease tumor recurrence rates in patients with HPV-negative squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).
Based on clinical expertise and patient volume, the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) is one of the top programs in the country for the treatment of genitourinary cancers. The integrated center draws on the expertise of a multidisciplinary team of specialists to provide exceptional patient care.
E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and David Reardon, MD, of Brigham and Women’s and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, have received a $14.5M Program Project grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for his research on glioblastoma. These NCI grants support multidisciplinary research that addresses a major scientific objective. The highly competitive grants are only awarded to a few research programs every five years.
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Tracy Batchelor, MD, MPH, chair of the Department of Neurology, has received a Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
A rare genetic mutation discovered by a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital could hold the clues to developing new management strategies for pancreatic cancer. Sahar Nissim, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Brigham’s Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy & Genetics Divisions, found the mutation in a single family with a strong history of pancreatic cancer and published his findings in Nature Genetics. He said the discovery may have broader implications for all patients with pancreatic cancer, regardless of whether or not they have the mutation.