In my last glioblastoma grant application, I made the following statement: survival has barely moved in years, indeed the FDA’s approval of current standard treatment was based on improvement in median survival from 12.1 months (radiotherapy alone) to just 14.6 months (radiotherapy plus temozolomide) I thought this was a great thing to say (and to put in italics) because it emphasizes the problem: This disease is terrible, and it’s obvious that our progress has been pathetic if an improvement of just a couple of months is the basis for current clinical practice. So, if I do anything at all to change mortality for the better, there … [Read more...]
Thorburn: Like home runs, singles can lead to wins against cancer mortality
December 9, 2011 By
Andrew Thorburn
CU Cancer Center experts say vaccinating boys against HPV is a “no-brainer”
November 17, 2011 By
Kim Chriscaden
A five-year dispute over Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus (HPV), just got hotter. Last month, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel recommended that, like girls, all 11- and 12-year-old boys should get vaccinated against HPV. Head and neck cancer experts at the University of Colorado Cancer Center agree. “In my opinion, it’s a no-brainer,” says Antonio Jimeno, MD, PhD, director of the Head and Neck Cancer Medical Oncology Program at the CU Cancer Center. “Vaccinating both sides of the population—male and female—is the best way to protect people from these three types of … [Read more...]
Thorburn: Let’s blow our own trumpet more
November 3, 2011 By
Andrew Thorburn
Last week, I visited the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center to attend a couple of conferences, and I ran into an old friend who I had forgotten had moved there from another big cancer research center. She went on and on about how great it was there, how much opportunity she found. She was excited about the possibilities. And she wasn’t the only one. I think everyone I met on my trip—from graduate students to the center director—had that same level of enthusiasm for their cancer center, for the vision of their center, for where they were going. It was enthusiasm in the face of our very challenging environment, where we are all … [Read more...]
Prostate cancer saga continues: prevention and screening, too much of a good thing?
October 20, 2011 By
Kim Chriscaden
In early October, two major announcements about prostate cancer prevention and screening hit the news. This monthly post lets experts at the University of Colorado Cancer Center weigh in on cancer headlines of the day. Yearly physicals and vitamin supplements aren’t top priorities for most men. In fact, for many men, PSA stands for “patient-stimulated anxiety” not prostate-specific antigen, a common prostate cancer screening test conducted during yearly physicals, jokes E. David Crawford, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Yet, last week’s news about vitamin E safety and PSA legitimacy, left many men … [Read more...]
Decoding Cancer: Androgen – a new hormone target in triple-negative breast cancers?
October 13, 2011 By
Garth Sundem
In this every-second-Thursday “Decoding Cancer” series in Target Cancer, and in honor of National Breast Cancer month, Jennifer Richer, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and assistant professor of pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, describes recent breakthroughs in our understanding of androgen (not estrogen!) in the growth of breast cancer. The Richer Lab's work with androgen-mediated breast cancer offers hope of new treatments for patients with triple-negative breast cancers, which due to their lack of hormone target, currently carry the worst prognosis. ----- The danger and … [Read more...]
Thorburn on sloppy science redux: Lies, damned lies and statistics
October 6, 2011 By
Andrew Thorburn
What I’m hoping for with these blogs is to stimulate debate about some of the things that flit across my mind. Last month’s missive about the impact of sloppy science did this, and I think we should continue a bit longer on this topic. Last month, I wrote about sloppy science because I heard someone from the pharmaceutical industry say that when they try to repeat findings from the scientific literature, they often find that they are not reproducible. Inadequate basic controls The first response I got was an email from Dylan Taatjes, PhD, a cancer center member from CU Boulder, who pointed that even the most basic controls … [Read more...]
In functional genomics and weather forecasting, global data equals accuracy
September 29, 2011 By
Lynn Clark
Functional genomics is like weather forecasting in the 21st century. That’s according to Joaquin Espinosa, PhD, director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center Functional Genomics Shared Resource and co-leader of its Molecular Oncology Program. We’re having lunch in Udi’s on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Espinosa is explaining the metaphor between scoops of hummus as I scramble for my pen to keep up with his Spanish-inflected dialogue. “You see,” he tells me, “genes are not soloists, they work in large networks.” I look out the window at the sunny day, the famous wind tunnel of the Research Quad seemingly quiet. … [Read more...]
For tobacco companies profit comes before public health
September 22, 2011 By
Kim Chriscaden
“Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.” Written in small typeface that matched the packaging, these words were originally placed along the sides of every cigarette pack in the late 1960’s. Unfortunately, for more than 50 years, text warnings were buried amongst tobacco companies’ attention-getting brands and graphics. In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rolled out its own “attention-getting” or rather truthful graphics depicting the health risks of smoking, going beyond the small text warnings. Pictures of diseased lungs, rotting teeth and a man blowing smoke out of a tracheostomy hole in his … [Read more...]
Decoding Cancer – Petri dish stem cells give mother of six new hope
September 15, 2011 By
Garth Sundem
On the morning of Aug. 19, 2011, Jonathan Gutman, MD, and the stem cell transplant team infused a patient at the University of Colorado Cancer Center with stem cells grown from umbilical cord blood. In this phase I clinical trial, the recently pregnant patient was fighting for her life, having delayed treatment for leukemia so that her child could develop long enough to live. This link to Denver’s CBS4 tells her story. Here, in this every-second-Thursday “Decoding Cancer” series in Target Cancer, and in honor of National Leukemia and Lymphoma month, Dr. Gutman leads us through the fascinating science of this CU Cancer Center … [Read more...]
Thorburn: Better treatment for cancer start by ending “sloppy science”
September 8, 2011 By
Andrew Thorburn
Dr. Andrew Thorburn is deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He blogs about cancer research the first Thursday of the month. In August, I (and several other members CU Cancer Center members) was at the Era of Hope breast cancer meeting in Orlando. This article will reflect my views of one of the issues raised there and I’m hoping that some of the other CU Cancer Center folks who were there will chime in… I learned some science at the meeting and did some very important human interaction work in the bar. I also … [Read more...]
About Andrew Thorburn
Andrew Thorburn, PhD, is deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, and chair and professor of pharmacology and Grohne Chair of Basic Cancer Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
A lab-based scientist, Dr. Thorburn studies mechanisms of cell death in two key cancer biology processes: cancer development and reaction of cancer cells to therapeutics.
