Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are called the zebra of cancers because they are rare, and behave very differently from other cancer types. While NETs are typically small and slow growing, they can develop anywhere in the body, most commonly the stomach, intestines, pancreas, lungs and liver. Since they don’t show up on typical PET scans, finding them at early stages or detecting metastasis is difficult.
Roswell Park is one of very few institutions in the United States equipped to offer clinical trials of a full range of immunotherapies. How do these treatments work, and what new immunotherapy clinical trials are underway or close to being launched?
Dr. Gurkamal Chatta and his colleagues are conducting a phase I clinical trial of an immunotherapy for men with metastatic prostate cancer that has progressed in spite of standard treatment. “We are targeting an area of need where there are really no other effective therapies.”
In Western New York and across the country, the Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing population groups. Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic subgroup in the U.S., residing predominantly in the Northeast and along the east coast. In WNY, two-thirds (66.5 percent) of the Latino population is of Puerto Rican heritage. At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers are interested in knowing the cancer needs of local Hispanics and are conducting research to figure this out.
Metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage of breast cancer, known as stage IV breast cancer. It occurs when the cancer develops the ability to spread to other organs in the body – most commonly the liver, lung, bone, soft tissues or brain. Even though the cancer involves other organs, it’s still treated as breast cancer.
Because of AML’s aggressive nature, it traditionally requires aggressive—and immediate—treatment that involves intensive, high-dose chemotherapy and many weeks in the hospital. For older patients, however, such grueling treatment isn’t always promising, and many are mistakenly advised that their time and options are limited.