The US health regulators have accepted and filed for review Cell Therapeutics Inc’s application seeking marketing approval for its experimental drug to treat a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system. The FDA has designated a standard review for pixantrone as a treatment for relapsed, aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the company said.

A new study that compared the newer drug, letrozole, to the widely used tamoxifen found that the former was more effective. The study confirmed that survival rates for postmenopausal women, who are suffering from breast cancer and have undergone surgery, taking letrozole (Femara) are higher than that taking tamoxifen. Both letrozole and tamoxifen have been used to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive cancer.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced in the new issue of the Lance Oncology that the use of sunbeds and sunlamps is definitively “carcinogenic to humans.” Until now, the committee of experts who advise the World Health Organization had not confirmed a link between tanning beds, sunlamps and cancer. The new assessment puts sunbed use on a par with smoking or exposure to asbestos.

Accuray Inc. and IMPAC Medical Systems, Inc. will be collaborating for development of inter-operability between the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System and the MOSAIQ® oncology information system. Treatment plan and delivery information from the CyberKnife System will be fed directly into the electronic medical record of IMPAC with the use of DICOM standard interface protocols. This will facilitate clinicians who will have all the data in a single, easily-accessible and readily available to make timely and informed medical decisions.

An emerging nano-medicine company, Nanobiotix,  with its focus on development of therapies for cancer, has announced that the European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a patent for its “novel activable particles” which can be useful in the medical sector.
The patent seeks to protect composite particles which have ability to generate heat when energized by X-rays. There use in the development of treatments for diseases in particularly human beings is also patented. Designed to destroy cancer cells precisely through the controlled application of an external source of energy, the NanoXray will advance the treatment of cancer in human body.

According to research published in Science, animals have been shown to be protected against radiation therapy damage in cancer by a modified version of a natural intestinal protein. The intestinal protein, flagellin, is produced by the bacteria, that live within the body, to stop the intestinal cells from starting programmed cell death process known as apoptosis.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has received tentative approval from the FDA for the Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for its generic version of Eli Lilly’s cancer drug, Gemzar. The generic gemcitabine injections are therapeutic equivalents of Eli Lilly’s Gemzar injections and are available in strengths of 200 mg and 1g single use vial.