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Cod With Mediterranean Salsa

Ingredients:

Salsa

1/3 cup kalamata olive, pitted and diced

1 plum tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced
1 tablespoon capers
1/4 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt
pepper

Cod
1 lb cod fish fillet
lemon pepper
salt
cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil
Directions:

1
Mix all salsa ingredients together and adjust salt and pepper to taste.
2
Pat fish dry and season with salt and lemon pepper.
3
Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat.
4
Add olive oil to pan and heat until hot.
5
Cook fillets 4 minutes on each side or until done. Do not overcook.
6
Serve with salsa spooned over top.

Read more: <a href=”http://www.food.com/recipe/cod-with-mediterranean-salsa-244722?oc=linkback”>http://www.food.com/recipe/cod-with-mediterranean-salsa-244722?oc=linkback</a>

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Maintenance Therapy with Votrient Provides Benefit in Advanced Ovarian Cancer

In a Phase III clinical trial, treatment with Votrient® (pazopanib) after initial chemotherapy improved outcomes among women with advanced ovarian cancer. These results were presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, highlighting the importance of finding new and more effective ways of treating this stage of the disease.

Votrient is an oral drug that blocks several biological pathways involved in the growth of tumors and new blood vessels. It is used for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer and advanced soft-tissue sarcoma.

To evaluate Votrient for the treatment of ovarian cancer, researchers conducted a Phase III clinical trial among 940 women with Stage III or Stage IV ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, or primary peritoneal cancer. All of the study participants had undergone surgery and initial chemotherapy. Women were only included in the study if chemotherapy had successfully prevented their cancer from worsening.

After completion of chemotherapy, study participants received either Votrient or a placebo daily for up to two years. Treatment that is given after a patient responds to initial treatment, but before cancer progression, is called maintenance treatment.

Maintenance treatment with Votrient improved progression-free survival (survival without the cancer worsening). Progression-free survival was 17.9 months among women treated with Votrient and 12.3 months among women treated with placebo. Side effects of Votrient included high blood pressure, diarrhea, nausea, headache, and fatigue.

These results suggest that maintenance treatment with Votrient delays cancer progression among women with advanced ovarian cancer. Longer-term follow-up will provide information about the effect of Votrient on overall survival.

Reference: Du Bois A, Floquet A, Kim JW et al. Randomized, double-blind, phase III trial of pazopanib versus placebo in women who have not progressed after first-line chemotherapy for advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer (AEOC): results of an international Intergroup trial (AGO-OVAR16). Presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. May 31-June 4, 2013; Chicago, IL. Abstract  LBA5503.

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Happy Father’s Day!

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Canadian scientists use math to kill cancer

Researchers in Canada are pinning their hopes on advanced mathematics in the fight against cancer, using sophisticated models to enhance engineered viruses that home in on and destroy cancerous cells.

Nature Communications has just published a paper authored by Ottawa researchers that deals with the use of oncolytic viruses, a fairly new method that involves the engineering of intentionally infecting and killing tumors in the human body while avoiding harm to healthy tissue.

Oncolytic virus human trials have so far been very limited, but the research produced by the Canadian team could have wide repercussions in their use. Dr. John Bell and the paper’s co-author Dr. Mads Kaern have developed mathematical models that could altogether bypass expensive and time-consuming trials by using simulations instead.

“By using these mathematical models to predict how viral modifications would actually impact cancer cells and normal cells, we are able to accelerate the pace of research,” says Kaern.

The models explore the infection cycle of the cancerous cells as they are attacked by the engineered viruses, and from there researchers can examine the spread and the defense mechanisms released by the tumor cells.

Using the results from those simulations, scientists can explore how to modify the genome, or the genetic structure of the virus, to counter the anti-viral defenses of the cancer cells. That represents a significant time-saving measure without before ever using live biological specimens, such as tumor-bearing mice.

According to the research team, the raw mathematical models have so far been surprisingly accurate.

“What is remarkable is how well we could actually predict the experimental outcome based on computational analysis. This work creates a useful framework for developing similar types of mathematical models in the fight against cancer,” says Bell.

The use of oncolytic viruses, a method known as virotherapy, has come a long way. Initially, researchers attempted to thwart cancer cells using naturally-occurring oncolytic viruses, such as the poliovirus, the Coxsackie virus and others. Some clinical trials have gone further, such as the use of the “T-VEC” virus, which normally causes cold sores, to help in the treatment of melanoma, or skin cancer.

Early success with chemotherapy and radiation for treating cancer into remission caused virotherapy to become sidelined in cancer research, but progress with model-based methods using engineered cancer-killing viruses could well change all that.

Still, researchers caution that their results with mathematical models will be unlikely to deliver a cure-all solution to cancer treatment, though the Canadian team’s research still represents an exciting development.

“The most fascinating thing is to challenge existing knowledge represented in a mathematical model and try to understand why these models sometimes fail. It’s a very exciting opportunity to be a part of this, and I am glad that our efforts in training students in computational cell biology have resulted in such a significant advancement,” says Kaern.

Source: RT.com

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