A simple urine test is showing dramatically improved results in detecting bladder cancer, according to a study published in the February issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The new test detects a nuclear matrix protein, NMP22, which is secreted by bladder tumors into the urine. Until now, there has not been a simple in-office test to reliably diagnose this disease. Researchers at 23 institutions including UM/Sylvester, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Rochester Medical Center, and community physicians examined 1,331 patients who were considered high-risk for bladder cancer.
Of the 1,331 patients examined, 79 were diagnosed with bladder cancer. The NMP22 assay indicated bladder cancer in 44 patients – cytology detected cancer in 12 patients. Mark S. Soloway, M.D., led the efforts at UM/Sylvester. Dr. Soloway is physician leader of UM/Sylvester’s Prostate, Kidney, and Bladder Cancers Site Disease Group and chairman of the Department of Urology at the Miller School of Medicine.
Clinical investigators at UM/Sylvester have joined close to 100 centers worldwide in conducting an advanced clinical trial of a new vaccine that could prevent cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in women worldwide and the number one cause in the developing world. “The vaccine that is being tested is intended to offer protection against HPV 16 and HPV 18, says Leo B. Twiggs, M.D., member of the Gynecolgic Cancer Site Disease Group at UM/Sylvester, professor and associate dean for women’s health, interim chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, and medical director of the Institute for Women’s Health. “This could lead to the prevention of cervical cancer, a killer of women who often are the primary caregivers in the family.”
A team of UM/Sylvester researchers has discovered new findings that could improve cancer treatment. The team led by Beatriz M.A. Fontoura, Ph.D., an assistant professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology and a member of the Viral Oncology Program at UM/Sylvester, revealed how one viral protein disrupts the movement of molecules in and out of cells, which could lead to more effective use of that virus to kill cancer cells. These findings were published in the January 7 issue of the journal MolecularCell.
As of April 2005
In a discovery with enormous implications for fighting disease, a team of researchers at the Miller School of Medicine has identified a pathway that is activated in response to a viral infection at the very earliest stage. Glen Barber, Emmanuel Thomas, and Siddharth Balachandran believe the pathway helps explain innate immunity, the body’s very early detection system that sets off alarms that a pathogen, such as a fungus, virus, or bacteria, has contacted or penetrated a cell. Glen Barber, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology at the Miller School of Medicine and co-director of the Viral Oncology Program at UM/Sylvester is the lead author of the study. “As we unravel the pathway further we hope to learn how to regulate the innate immune system to improve vaccines and therapeutic treatments against viral and other pathogen-related diseases, and potentially against cancers caused by viruses.” The breakthrough findings are published in the November 2004 issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature.http://www.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/1,1770,2593-1:32692-3,00.html.
Radiation oncologists at UM/Sylvester have opened a phase II clinical trial of captopril (Capoten), an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor which is an established blood pressure medication. The controlled trial will test the drug’s ability to help patients with lung cancer, the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths. Captopril works by inhibiting the angiotensin II enzyme which causes blood vessels to constrict. This relaxes the blood
