The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

(Antfer) #1

4 Wednesday November 10 2021 | the times


News


Men whose prostate cancers are
becoming resistant to a commonly
used chemotherapy drug could be
identified using regular blood tests, new
research suggests.
The study, presented at the National
Cancer Research Institute festival,
raises the prospect of sparing patients
painful biopsies and enabling a switch
to more effective therapies.
Men with prostate cancer that has
started spreading to other parts of the
body, and which does not respond to
standard therapy, often receive doce-
taxel to boost their survival chances.
Caitlin Davies, a PhD research stu-
dent at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen
Mary University of London, and col-
leagues looked at markers of cancer in
the blood known as circulating tumour
cells (CTCs), which are shed into the
bloodstream.
Davies and her colleagues found that
certain patterns of CTCs could predict
men’s chances of survival, and how long
they were likely to continue without the
disease progressing. Samples can be
taken in “a matter of minutes”, with
results in two to three days.
She added that the new insights, if
borne out by further research, would
mean clinicians could “make early


Organix Banana Soft Oaty Bars, which
are sweetened with apple juice concen-
trate and contain 8.1g of sugars per
serving. Five Kiddylicious products
scored the worst for sugars per 100g,
including Banana Crispy Tiddlers, at
59g of sugar per 100g.
In a poll for Action on Sugar, 84 per
cent of parents of young children said
they bought these sweet snacks for
their children, and 60 per cent said a
“no added sugar” claim would be the
reason for choosing a particular
product. About 92 per cent said they
were more inclined to buy products
containing “natural sources” of sugars,
for example fruit.
Action on Sugar said it had “deep
concern” about the findings and ad-
vised that babies and toddlers should
not eat any free sugars at all. It has

Why bee’s foes buzz off


Asian honey bees “shriek” when
their colony is attacked by giant
hornets, prompting the hive to
spread specks of animal dung at
the entrance as a “chemical
weapon”. Scientists at Wellesley
College, Massachusetts, said they
got chills when they heard the
pulsing distress signals, which are
made by vibrating the wings and
thorax. The study is published in
Royal Society Open Science.

Three murder arrests


Three men have been arrested on
suspicion of murdering a former
company director. Sarah Ashwell
Joice, 47, was found dead at home
on Sunday in Wells, Somerset.
Avon and Somerset police has
referred itself to the Independent
Office for Police Conduct due to
recent police contact with Joice, a
mother of two. The men remain
in police custody.

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Solve all five clues using each
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1 Group of witches (5)

2 React to pain or discomfort (5)

3 Unit of interstellar distance (6)

4 Treat with pharmaceuticals (8)

5 Suitable for maritime use (8)











Quintagram® No 1156


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SWNS

Coats of many colours A 15-year-long breeding programme has been hailed a success after a labrador in Horsham, West Sussex, gave birth to a rare mix of yellow, chocolate and black puppies in a single litter


Officer cleared of rape


A Metropolitan Police officer has
been found not guilty of raping a
woman at her home in Loughton,
Essex, after a night out together in


  1. James Geoghegan, 27, of
    Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, told
    Chelmsford crown court that the
    claim, which led to his suspension,
    had been a “complete shock”. The
    Met said that it would now see if
    he should face a misconduct case.


called for the removal of “misleading”
nutrition and health claims, especially
around “no added sugar”, when such
ingredients are replaced by fruit con-
centrates, which are still a type of free
sugar and should be limited.
It is also urging the government to
publish its composition guidelines for
baby and toddler products, which will
guide manufacturers on how much
sugar should be used.
Dr Kawther Hashem, campaign lead
at Action on Sugar and research fellow
at Queen Mary University of London,
said: “It’s ludicrous that certain food
companies are being allowed to pro-
mote their high-sugar sweet snacks to
parents with very young children,
despite them being aware that babies
and toddlers shouldn’t be having any
free sugars.”

Call to cut sugar in baby and toddler snacks


So-called healthy baby and toddler
snacks can contain as much as two
teaspoons of unnecessary sugar,
despite being sold as a weaning food, a
study has found.
Action on Sugar analysed 73 baby
sweet snacks and found that while all
featured “healthy sounding” claims on
the packaging, more than a third (37 per
cent) could receive a red traffic light-
style label for sugar content.
Just six products (8 per cent) would
have received a green (low) label for
sugars. Currently, baby and children’s
food and drink is not required to display
front-of-pack traffic light labelling.
Two of the worst offenders, accord-
ing to the campaign group, are Heinz
Farley’s Mini Rusks Original, with 8.7g
of sugars per serving, or the equivalent
of two teaspoons of sugar, followed by


Blood test may help


in prostate treatments


changes of treatment from docetaxel to
an alternative, which may significantly
improve patients’ chances of long-term
survival.”
The researchers took blood samples
from 56 patients with advanced pros-
tate cancer who were being treated at
St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
The samples were taken over six to
eight months — before the patients
started docetaxel treatment, after their
first dose of chemotherapy, before their
fifth dose and once they had finished all
doses — and 205 were collected in total.
The team looked for patterns in the
data from men who responded to treat-
ment or who did not, and whose cancer
further advanced and at what speed.
They found that men were less likely
to respond to docetaxel, the disease was
more likely to recur or progress within
three months and they were more
likely to die within 18 months if more
than six CTCs per 7.5ml of blood was
detected before the first docetaxel dose.
This compared to progression-free sur-
vival of 17 months and an overall sur-
vival time of three years for men with
fewer than six CTCs per 7.5ml of blood.
The type of CTC detected may also
play a role in predictions, the study sug-
gests, while high numbers of CTCs
towards the end of treatment predicted
that men were more likely to suffer a

rapid spread of cancer and an earlier
death.
Davies said: “Using these patterns,
we can apply them to future patients
with the goal to predict whether they
will respond to therapy and pre-emp-
tively decide on the best course of
action that will have maximal benefit.
For instance, an increase in CTC num-
bers may indicate a lack of response to
treatment. Furthermore, by monitor-
ing the appearance of potentially drug-
resistant CTCs, we can change treat-
ment tactics early on and in a patient-
personalised and timely manner.”
The study also suggests that a protein
encoded by a gene called KLK2 may
predict time to disease progression and
death better than prostate-specific an-
tigen, the current gold standard.
Hashim Ahmed, chairman of the
NCRI prostate group and professor of
urology at Imperial College London,
said the results had the potential to
change clinical practice. “Assessing the
responsiveness of a patient’s tumour to
docetaxel treatment by means of blood
tests will enable clinicians to persona-
lise cancer treatment more easily and
effectively, without the patient having
to undergo invasive procedures such as
tissue biopsies. It could also help to
avoid unpleasant systemic treatments
that are going to be unsuccessful.”

Kat Lay Health Editor


Breast cancer


survival time


doubled over


past decade


The average survival time for many
advanced breast cancer patients has
doubled in the past decade, according
to new research.
Improved treatments mean about
half of patients in the later stages of the
disease can live for five years or longer.
Treatment has improved for the two
most common types of advanced breast
cancer — hormonal-dependent, where
the growth is fuelled by oestrogen, and
HER2+, in which the cancer cells make
too much of a protein known as HER2,
which stimulates their growth.
In the past decade, the average sur-
vival rate for these two subtypes, which
make up 85 per cent of cases, has risen
from one or two years to five years.
The third subtype, known as triple-
negative cancer because it is not fuelled
by oestrogen and it does not over-pro-
duce HER2, has fewer treatment
options. However, in recent years two
new treatments have provided some
survival benefit.
Fatima Cardoso, chairwoman of the
Advanced Breast Cancer Global Alli-
ance, said: “We have made a major step
towards our goal of doubling average
survival times for patients because we
have now achieved this in two out of
three subtypes of advanced breast
cancer.
“This disease is still incurable, but we
have come a long way and this progress
makes me feel hopeful. It means that for
the majority of patients, they have two
or three extra years of life, with good
quality of life as well.
“Survival has also improved for
patients with triple negative disease,
but we need to do more for these
patients, especially as it tends to affect
younger people who often have young
children to care for.
“A decade ago there was a terrible
lack of research about how to help
patients with advanced breast cancer
and, as a result, we had to base most of
our recommendations on the opinion
of experts.
“We’ve made major progress over the
last ten years. This year, as a result, most
of our recommendations for treating
advanced breast cancer are now based
on the best possible scientific evidence.”
The research was presented at the
Advanced Breast Cancer sixth inter-
national consensus conference.
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