September 2009 podcast transcript

00:00

Kat: We’re back after our summer break with news of a novel drug that’s showing promise for treating cancer in the lab, a new trial for treating lung cancer, and bad news for smokers of roll-up cigarettes.

Coming up later, we find out about the importance of spotting the symptoms of cancer. But first, here’s the news with Josephine Querido.

00:50

Josephine: Contrary to popular belief, Cancer Research UK scientists have found that roll-your-own cigarettes expose smokers to similar levels of cancer-causing chemicals as manufactured cigarettes.

In the first study of its kind, researchers compared urine samples from smokers of ready-made cigarettes with samples from roll-your-own smokers to check the levels of two cancer-causing chemicals.

There were no differences in the concentrations of the chemicals between the two groups, butwomen had higher concentrations of these toxins irrespective of the type of cigarette they smoked.

Here’s lead researcher Dr Lion Shahab, from Cancer Research UK's Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London to explain more.

“My key message to any smoker out there would be that there is no such thing as a safe cigarette. It doesn’t really matter if you smoke manufactured cigarettes or any herbal cigarettes. The advice is that the best alternative to smoking is to stop smoking, rather than switching to another product.”

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research have developed a new drug that can reduce the growth of tumours in mice by up to 98 per cent.

The researchers found that the drug, with the catchy name of GDC-0941, could reduce the growth of ovarian tumours and glioblastoma, a form of brain tumour. The drug also showed some effectiveness against other types of cancer, according to tests on cells grown in the lab.

The drug works by targeting a protein called PI3 kinase, which sends signals within cells telling them to multiply. It is thought to be overactive in some cancer cells, so they multiply out of control. Blocking the kinase stops the signals, so the cancer stops growing. It also affects the growth of blood vessels into the tumour – a process called angiogenesis, which is essential for cancers to grow and spread.

At the moment, the drug is being tested in early small-scale clinical trials in the UK and the US. Here’s lead scientist, Professor Paul Workman from the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics to explain more about the research.

“Well all this work took place in the laboratory, and we’re really excited about the first clinical studies that are being carried out by Genentech in the UK and also in the US. Our hope is that we’ve created a really powerful anti-cancer drug that will block the growth and spread of human cancers, while leaving the normal cells unharmed.”

And finally, Cancer Research UK’s Professor Karen Vousden, director of our Beatson Institute in Glasgow, has been awarded a Royal Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh for her outstanding contribution to cancer research. Just three Royal Medals are awarded by the Queen each year.

Professor Vousden has been director of Cancer Research UK's Beatson Institute since 2002, and is known worldwide for her research on a molecule called p53, the so-called “guardian of the genome”, with the aim of developing new treatments for cancer.

Kat: You can get the latest news from our award-winning Science Update blog, at Scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org And if you want find out more about these stories, or get the latest from the charity's scientists, and researchers around the world, then have a look at our News & Resources website.

04:11

Kat: Early detection is the key to improving cancer survival. But do you know the signs of cancer?

 

If you don’t you’re not alone, as a recent Cancer Research UK survey found that one in seven people couldn’t name a single cancer symptom, with even lower levels of awareness in ethnic minority communities.

I spoke to Health Information Officer Jess Harris to find out more about the importance of symptom awareness, and what we should be looking out for.

“We know that if cancer’s detected early, it can make a real difference in terms of how likely people are to survive the disease. Scientists estimate that about 5,000 lives a year could be saved if cancer was detected earlier in the UK. There are many more signs [of cancer] than just a lump – in fact there is a whole range. The really important thing is to know your body, to know what’s normal for you, and then if anything is out of the ordinary for you, it’s important to go and see a doctor as soon as you can. The doctor wants to see anything that’s not normal for you, even though it’s very unlikely to be a sign of cancer. But the fact is that it could be, so the sooner you pick it up the better. You can find a good list of all of the main symptoms to look out for on our website spotcancerearly.com Other things you can look out for include changes in your bowel habit, if you’re having problems going to the toilet, blood in the urine, if there’s a lump or ulcer in your mouth, or a cough that’s persistent. Any change that’s unusual for you and lasts for a long time.”

Kat: If you’re concerned about any unusual changes that have persisted for several weeks, then do go to your doctor. As Jess says, it’s more likely that it isn’t a sign of cancer, but if it is, the sooner it’s detected the better. You can find out more at www.spotcancerearly.com

06:15

Kat: When we talk about treating cancer, we're really looking at three main areas – that's surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These are often used in combination, but what combination should people use? And what dose is best? Cancer Research UK funds a range of studies that are trying to answer these questions, and one that's currently underway is the CONVERT trial for small cell lung cancer.

To find out more, our reporter Anna Lacey went to the Christie Hospital in Manchester to meet consultant clinical oncologist Corinne Faivre-Finn.

“So small cell lung cancer is a type of lung cancer that tends to be quite an aggressive type of lung cancer, because it can spread to other organs – the brain, the liver, the bones for example. Patients tend to present with a cough, shortness of breath, sometimes a poor appetite or weight loss. Unfortunately [many] patients who have symptoms once the disease is relatively advanced. Some patients are lucky to go to their GP with a bit of a cough, and their GP will refer them for a chest X-ray, and the disease can be picked up early with limited stage disease, but that is relatively unusual.”

The reason small cell lung cancer needs to be caught early is because the small cells from the original tumour are very good at getting out into the bloodstream to form new tumours elsewhere.

What this all means in terms of treatment is that people with small cell lung cancer do not usually have surgery - because there's a chance that cells have already spread. Instead they have a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as Corinne explains.

“What is currently recognised as the international standard of care is to give - for patients who are well enough to receive it - a combination of the two treatments together, and the radiotherapy can be delivered twice daily. The downside is that when we give twice-daily radiotherapy we know that it can increase the side-effects of the treatment. For example the gullet can become very inflamed during treatment in quite a large proportion of patients.

CONVERT is an acronym that stands for “Concurrent once daily vs twice daily radiotherapy” and we are going to be comparing the international standard of care – chemotherapy plus twice-daily radiotherapy – to chemotherapy given with radiotherapy but this time once a day, with a higher dose of radiation.

The hypothesis of the trial is that if we give a higher dose of the once-daily treatment, we could increase survival and perhaps decrease side effects. We do not have the answer to that question at the moment.

The other thing is that the trials that were done in small cell lung cancer looking at the combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy together were done at least ten years ago, and the radiotherapy techniques have evolved a lot. We also need to get some data on whether the modern radiotherapy techniques that we’re using now could also help decrease the side effects of the treatment.”

As well as looking at the combination of chemotherapy with once or twice-daily radiotherapy, Corinne and her team are trying to work out if small cell lung cancer treatment can be personalised – so that the right person gets the right kind of therapy.

“When we see a patient in the clinic at the moment, we are unable to tell who’s going to respond to treatment, and who’s going to develop severe side effects. So what we are doing with CONVERT is collecting blood and tissue, and we’re going to do some analysis. These will be tests that perhaps we can use in the future to help us to personalise treatments. So hopefully in the future we will see a patient in clinic, we will do a battery of tests, and we will be able to say if we know a patient is going to develop severe toxicity, we may not treat with this combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy – it may be better to give the chemotherapy first, and then the radiotherapy.”

The CONVERT trial is still in its early stages and has at least four years left to run before there are any results. But what Corinne does know is that research into lung cancer as a whole is crucial in trying to help improve survival and reduce side effects.

“It is extremely important, and the main reason is that the survival of patients with lung cancer in the UK has hardly changed over the last two decades. Thankfully Cancer Research UK has decided to make lung cancer research a high priority, and they’re investing in this research. The hope is that survival of patients with lung cancer in the UK is going to dramatically increase in the next decade.”

11:32

Kat: We've reached the end once more so we hope you've enjoyed this month's podcast. You can keep up to date with all the latest progress in research from our Science Update blog.

And please let us know what you think of this podcast by leaving feedback on the blog, or emailing your comments to podcast@cancer.org.uk.

We're having a break from podcasting next month, but we'll be back next month with a special podcast dedicated to breast cancer, so until then, goodbye!

 

• Credits:
• Presented and produced by Kat Arney
• News by Nell Barrie and Kat Arney
• Keyhole surgery package produced and presented by Anna Lacey
• Original music written and performed by Kat Arney and Henry Scowcroft
• With special thanks to all the participants