Chemotherapy for Late-Stage Cancer Patients: Meta-Analysis of Complete Response Rates.

Complete response (CR) rates reported for cytotoxic chemotherapy for late-stage cancer patients are generally low, with few exceptions, regardless of the solid cancer type or drug regimen. We investigated CR rates reported in the literature for clinical trials using chemotherapy alone, across a wide range of tumour types and chemotherapeutic regimens, to determine an overall CR rate for late-stage cancers. A total of 141 reports were located using the PubMed database. A meta-analysis was performed of reported CR from 68 chemotherapy trials (total 2732 patients) using standard agents across late-stage solid cancers-a binomial model with random effects was adopted. Mean CR rates were compared for different cancer types, and for chemotherapeutic agents with different mechanisms of action, using a logistic regression. Our results showed that the CR rates for chemotherapy treatment of late-stage cancer were generally low at 7.4%, regardless of the cancer type or drug regimen used. We found no evidence that CR rates differed between different chemotherapy drug types, but amongst different cancer types small CR differences were evident, although none exceeded a mean CR rate of 11%. This remarkable concordance of CR rates regardless of cancer or therapy type remains currently unexplained, and motivates further investigation.

Recent patents relating to diagnostic advances in age related macular degeneration (AMD).

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder accounting for 50% of blind registrations in the western world. Its substantial impact on quality of life has been a main driver in research to understand its etiology, which up until recently was mostly unknown. In the last three years our understanding of the molecular pathology of AMD has increased dramatically with the identification of two major AMD loci comprising of, Complement Factor H (CFH) and a chromosome 10q26 locus consisting of the Heat Shock Serine Protease (HTRA1) and LOC387715 genes. These two loci have been described as associated with over 50% of disease in certain ethnicities. The rapid pace in our understanding of the complex biology of this disease has placed a large emphasis on gene patenting, especially with the licensing of the CFH and chromosome 10 patents to a private life science company called Optherion Inc. The patents discussed in this review highlight the important discoveries that have contributed to our understanding of AMD and provide valuable information as to where research in this area will be heading in the future.

Novel sequence elements define ancestral haplotypes of the region encompassing complement factor H.

The genomic region encompassing complement factor H (CFH) is thought to be important in determining susceptibility to inflammatory diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, but only limited polymorphism has been described. After applying the genomic matching technique to three-generation families and an ethnically diverse reference panel we have demonstrated that the polymorphism resembles that found in the major histocompatibility complex. The different ancestral haplotypes carry either T or C at T1277C but also other more polymorphic alleles over a region of 2 Mb. Thus the association between age-related macular degeneration and T1277 or Y402 actually reflects multiple linked polymorphisms including an indel that cannot be dissected from any direct effect of Y402 and may be more important. We show for the first time that simple algorithms can identify genomic sequence elements that appear to be more useful haplospecific markers than single nucleotide polymorphism or microsatellites.