This week already we have seen several very exciting things happening overseas. Here’s a snapshot and links for more information:

Last Thursday, March 31st 2016, UCLA reported that their  scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research were able to pinpoint the gene responsible for Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer.

“UCLA scientists pinpoint cancer gene responsible for neuroendocrine prostate cancer

Study defines a possible target for future treatments for a deadly form of the disease

Scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have discovered that a protein produced by a cancer gene leads to the development of a deadly, late-stage form of prostate cancer called neuroendocrine prostate cancer. The discovery could be a significant step toward a more effective treatment.

The findings, which were published in the journal Cancer Cell, are particularly important because neuroendocrine prostate cancer does not respond to standard treatments, and men who are diagnosed with the disease typically live for less than a year afterward. Up to one-quarter of those who die of prostate cancer have the neuroendocrine subtype.

“Identifying the cellular changes that happen in cancer cells is key to the development of drugs that inhibit those changes and thereby stop the progression of the disease,” said Dr. Owen Witte, founding director of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and the study’s lead author. Witte also is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a member of the President’s Cancer Panel, which reports to President Barack Obama.”

You can read the rest of the article from UCLA here.

On Tuesday, April 5th, 2016, iCancer announced and posted the following on their Facebook page an update concerning the AdVince virus and their trials in Uppsala, Sweden:

“INCREDIBLE UPDATE

This is a photograph of the iCancer (AdVince) virus finally leaving the freezer and heading for the first patient.

Thanks to your contributions the iCancer (AdVince) clinical trial has begun this month.

The Financial Times recently declared it the most successful crowdfunded medical trial ever. The campaign went global and viral and trended on Twitter – as we hoped and intended.

As we reported Vince Hamilton, having seen the publicity around the campaign, stepped forward and made up the funding gap.

The potential treatment, an oncolytic virus for neuroendocrine tumours which (potentially) targets and destroys the cancer cells and amplifies the anti-cancer cell immune response, is named Advince, in honour of Mr Hamilton.

The trial is a phase I/II trial focused on safety.

We simply cannot thank you enough.

Without you all this trial would not be taking place. And a potential treatment would still be sitting on the shelf in a freezer in Sweden.

Please stay tuned for further updates (including a film of the first patient) over the coming weeks.”

For more information on iCancer, please visit their website here and their Facebook page here!

We will be keeping a very close eye on this news as they both progress in the next stages!