In the race to find new ways to prevent and treat COVID-19, CCTG has launched an innovative clinical trial focussed on strengthening the immune system for one of the most vulnerable populations – cancer patients.
Tumor DNA Analysis Informing Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Stage III Colon Cancer (DYNAMIC III)
Nivolumab or Brentuximab Vedotin plus AVD in Pts (age >/= 12 Years) with Newly Diagnosed Advanced Stage Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
Fulvestrant and Ipatasertib for Advanced HER-2 Negative and Estrogen Receptor Positive (ER+) Breast Cancer Following Progression on First Line CDK 4/6 Inhibitor and Aromatase Inhibitor (FINER)
Maintenance Therapy with Olaparib and Cediranib or Olaparib Alone in Relapsed Platinum-sensitive Ovarian Cancer Following a Response to Platinum-Based Chemotherapy
CCTG has announced the commencement of a Phase II study of CFI-400945, an oral, first-in-class inhibitor of Polo-like Kinase 4 in combination with durvalumab, a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with advanced or metastatic triple negative breast cancer.
Radiation Therapy and Cisplatin Alone or in Combination with Triapine in Women with Newly Diagnosed Bulky Stage IB2, Stage II, IIIB, or IVA Cancer of the Uterine Cervix or Stage II-IVA Vaginal Cancer
Pembrolizumab and Brentuximab Vedotin vs GDP Followed by High Dose Chemotherapy and Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation for Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma
Immunotherapy Platform Study in Platinum Resistant High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (IPROC)
Perioperative vs Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Resectable Pancreatic Cancer
ExCELLirate Canada, led by the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) at Queen’s University, has received $5,187,685 to develop a national research platform to coordinate the development of new cancer cell therapies. This will be a comprehensive national research, development and testing platform that will benefit patients, healthcare providers, and industry by ensuring Canadian cell therapy innovations are safely, cost effectively and efficiently manufactured.
There has been a paradigm shift in cancer research and treatment because of new cell-based therapies that use modified immune cells to target cancer. Adoptive cell transfer involves taking a patient’s immune cells from their blood and modifying them in a lab so they can target cancer cells more effectively — enhancing the patient’s immune system to fight their cancer. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has successfully treated children and adult patients with forms of leukemia and lymphoma and there is growing evidence that engineered immune cells have the potential to be broadly applicable across more types of cancer.
“Cell therapies are demonstrating meaningful and lifesaving remissions for some people in whom chemotherapy and stem cell transplants have not worked. However, the current costs and access to these treatments are an issue,” says Dr. Annette Hay, project co-lead and Senior Investigator at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group. “The ExCELLirate Canada platform proposes to revolutionize the manufacturing of cell therapies, including CAR T-cells, and address the challenges that prevent this lifesaving therapy from being used to its full potential.”
Postmenopausal women with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer that has spread to a limited number of lymph nodes, and whose recurrence risk is relatively low, do not benefit from chemotherapy when it is added to hormone therapy, according to initial results from the MAC15 RxPONDER trial presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
The results show that using fewer and higher doses of high-precision radiation therapy is a more effective approach for treating painful spinal tumors than conventional radiation therapy. More than twice as many patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) reported an enduring, complete reduction in pain, compared to those treated with conventional radiation.
Congratulations to Dr. Annette Hay, a Senior Investigator with the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and Dr. Matthew Cheung, Hematologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Together they received $100,000 in bridge funding in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2020 competition.
ENZAMET | CCTG PR17 (NCT02446405) study has been highlighted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2020 annual report as a major advance in cancer treatment. The results were first presented at ASCO 2019, the trial demonstrated that hormone therapy with a drug called enzalutamide can improve the survival of some men with advanced, hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer.
Prof Annette Hay speaks to ecancer at the ASH 2019 meeting in Orlando about accrual barriers and detection of early toxicity signal in older, less-fit patients treated with azacitidine and nivolumab for newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Prof Hay says that AML and MDS are typically diseases of older people, yet these patients are poorly represented in clinical trials.
PLUDO (Prostate Lutetium/Docetaxel): Study of 177Lu-PSMA-617 vs Docetaxel in Pts with Met Castration-Resistant Prostate Ca & PSMA-Positive Disease
Darolutamide Augments Standard Therapy for Localized High-Risk Prostate Cancer (DASL-HiCaP)
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Followed by Surgery versus Surgery Alone for Patients with High Risk RetroPeritoneal Sarcoma (STRASS 2)
Once the initial shock of a cancer diagnosis wears off, patients and families are left with questions. Lots and lots of questions. It might come as a relief to know that some of the most brilliant, accomplished scientists from around the world are listening.
“The biggest question we ask is the one that all cancer patients have,” says CCTG Scientific Director Dr. Janet Dancey. “What is the best treatment?”
Today we think about cancer in terms of the tumour site—breast, lung, colon, brain, each is separate with different treatments. Precision medicine is a new way of looking at cancer. Instead of focusing on the site of the cancer, it identifies the genetic abnormalities that make cancer possible in individual patients.
Newly released clinical trial results show a substantial increase in survival rates for pancreatic cancer patients who received a four-drug chemotherapy combination known as mFOLFIRINOX after surgery.
An innovative clinical trial underway across Canada is providing new hope to a B.C. family braving pancreatic cancer – the deadliest cancer facing Canadians today.
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