Trial finds combination of pancreatic cancer drugs extends survival

Cancer campaigners are hailing a “monumental leap forward” in pancreatic cancer treatment after a new drug trial significantly extended survival from what is the most lethal form of the disease.

The clinical trial found that 29% of patients given a combination of two chemotherapy drugs lived for at least five years compared with 16% who received the one chemotherapy drug that is still the NHS’s standard treatment.

The results are important because they could lead to an improvement in the prospects for people who develop pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival rates among the 21 most common forms of the disease and kills 8,800 Britons a year. Only one in 100 people survive for 10 or more years after their diagnosis.

“These results are a monumental leap forward in pancreatic cancer treatment. We believe this could herald a true step change in the treatment of this tough cancer, offering substantially more patients who have had surgery the chance to live for longer and, crucially, without significant added side-effects,” said Leanne Reynolds, head of research at the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK.

About 10,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the UK. However, the apparent breakthrough may only benefit the 800 who have surgery. The cancer is too advanced in most of the other 9,200 cases for surgery to be worthwhile.

Four in five patients are only diagnosed when the cancer has reached an advanced stage, and in 46% of cases only after they have presented as an emergency at an A&E unit. Survival rates have barely improved for 40 years, in contrast to some other forms of the disease. It is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the UK.

The ESPAC-4 (European study group for pancreatic cancer) trial involved 732 patients from 92 hospitals in England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France and Sweden. Of those given both gemcitabine and capecitabine, 28.8% survived for at least five years, compared with just 16.3% who received only gemcitabine.

Pancreatic Cancer UK and the researchers behind the findings are now urging the NHS to replace gemcitabine with the combination as the standard treatment for the one in 12 sufferers of the disease who undergo a resection of their pancreas.

“This is one of the biggest ever breakthroughs prolonging survival for pancreatic cancer patients,” said Prof John Neoptolemos of Liverpool University, who lead the team of researchers.

“When this combination becomes the new standard of care it will give many patients living with the disease valuable months and even years.” The two drugs taken together extend median overall survival from 25 and a half months for those on gemcitabine alone to 28 months, according to the study, which has been published in the Lancet.

Cancer survival rates in England and Wales

“The difference in short-term survival may seem modest, but improvement in long-term survival is substantial for this type of cancer,” added Neoptolemos.

Meanwhile, separate research has also brought good news about lung cancer, which has the second worst survival rates among the commonest forms of cancer.

The number of people surviving for at least a year after diagnosis rose from 31% to 38% between 2010-2015, according to the NHS’s latest audit of the quality of care patients receive. Experts in the disease welcomed the increase, which is mainly the result of earlier diagnosis.

Ian Woolhouse, the audit’s senior clinical lead, said it was “very encouraging” that one-year survival had improved in what is the UK’s second most common form of cancer after breast cancer.

His team noted other progress too in how the NHS treats patients, including the fact that 60% of patients now receive some for of anti-cancer treatment. They analysed the records of 43,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015.

However, they voiced concern about the persistent “wide and unacceptable variation in standards of care” provided by NHS trusts and boards across England, Wales, Scotland and Guernsey. Only 57% of patients are seen by a specialist lung cancer nurse, for example, even though the target for that is 90%.

Dr Jesme Fox, medical director of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: “We are pleased to see this encouraging increase in patient survival. However, there is much still to do to ensure that lung cancer patients are diagnosed as early as possible and are able to access best practice treatment and care.”

Trial finds combination of pancreatic cancer drugs extends survival

New York extends filing deadline for 9/11 rescue workers seeking compensation

New York state has reopened the window for workers and volunteers seeking compensation for lost wages and medical benefits arising from their involvement in the rescue, recovery and clean-up at the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

A law signed by the Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attacks that caused the collapse of the twin towers in lower Manhattan, extends the claims filing deadline until 11 September 2018. It lapsed two years ago.

“We still feel the pain and the loss like it was yesterday, and the thousands of brave men and women who stepped up in our darkest hour are still grappling with the after-effects,” Cuomo said at the signing in Manhattan.

The law also authorizes new claims for related injuries and illnesses since the attacks through this year’s anniversary for workers’ compensation, disability and accidental death benefits that were disallowed because of late filing.

This weekend, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the time of 9/11, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, told the Guardian she was sorry for the agency’s advice in the aftermath of the attacks that the air around Ground Zero in New York was safe to breathe.

“Whatever we got wrong, we should acknowledge and people should be helped,” she said, adding that she still “feels awful” about the tragedy and its aftermath.

“I’m very sorry that people are sick,” she said. “I’m very sorry that people are dying and if the EPA and I in any way contributed to that, I’m sorry. We did the very best we could at the time with the knowledge we had.”

Dr Jim Melius, a member of the advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch, said: “Within the next five years we will be at the point where more people have died from World Trade Center-related illnesses than died from the immediate impact of the attacks.”

Almost 3,000 people were killed on 9/11 in attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon outside Washington, and in the crash of a fourth hijacked airliner in a field in Pennsylvania.

Melius, who is also a doctor at the New York State Laborers Union, an adviser to the White House on worker health and chair of the steering committee overseeing the government health program for 9/11 responders, added: “There are a lot of people who are very, very ill with lung disease who will see at least 10 years taken from their normal life span.

“We are already seeing many more premature deaths occurring, and among younger people, from the cancers. There is going to be a new generation of widows and widowers.”

At the bill signing on Sunday, Sal Turturici, who attended in a wheelchair, said of the extension: “It’s going to help a lot of people who are in harm’s way right now. They’re on the end of losing their benefits because they’re running out of time or running out of any grants or any kind of time to get to extend their pay, so they’re falling off the payroll.”

Turturici’s wife, a fire department paramedic like her husband, said he was diagnosed on 4 October with terminal cancer. Wendi Turturici said Cuomo had given her hope that she can take care of their three young children and give her husband peace.

Thousands of people who aided in the rescue and recovery effort were found to have respiratory ailments and other health problems in the years after the attacks. Cancer has remained the biggest fear for people exposed to the gritty soot at the site.

New York extends filing deadline for 9/11 rescue workers seeking compensation

White Property Extends ObamaCare Coverage Deadline For Some Organizations

As President Obama’s political opponents gain more momentum heading into this fall’s midterm elections with however another delay of a crucial aspect of the Cost-effective Care Act, tiny employers will now get much more time to kind out the new principles on the so-known as “employer mandate.”

It will be welcome relief, analysts say.

The Obama administration announcement, manufactured Monday by way of the U.S. Treasury Division and linked right here, would yet again delay enforcement of a federal necessity for employers with far more than 50 staff to supply health insurance coverage to their employees. Employers with 100 or much more employees will have more time dependent on the percentage of complete-time workers they have. Companies with 50 to 99 personnel now have till 2016 to supply overall health insurance coverage to their personnel previously the deadline had been extended to  Jan. 1, 2015. Employers with fewer than 50 staff had been already exempt from the mandate.

“Complying with the (Affordable Care Act) is a complex job for several employers,” J.D. Piro, head of the overall health and advantages legal practice at Aon Hewitt (AON), a large employee benefits consulting and outsourcing firm, said of the latest implementation delay for the health law.  “The decision to phase in the 95% coverage necessity is a welcome growth that will give organizations much more time to apply these adjustments properly and with out possessing to incur penalties.”

The administration  lumped the new delay into three buckets. They are:

• Modest companies with fewer than 50 employees, which it described as about 96 percent of all employers: “Under the Affordable Care Act, firms with fewer than 50 staff are not needed to offer coverage or fill out any forms in 2015, or in any year.”

• Huge employers with 100 or a lot more workers, which the administration described as about 2 % of employers. “The mind-boggling vast majority of these businesses with 100 or much more employees currently supply good quality coverage.  Today’s rules phase in the percentage of total-time employees that employers need to have to supply coverage from 70 percent in 2015 to 95 percent in 2016 and past. Employers in this category that do not meet these standards will make an employer accountability payment for 2015.”

• Employers with 50 to 99 workers, or about two % of employers: “Companies with 50-99 personnel that do not however provide top quality, reasonably priced health insurance to their complete-time workers will report on their staff and coverage in 2015, but have till 2016 just before any employer obligation payments could apply.”

White Property Extends ObamaCare Coverage Deadline For Some Organizations