Welcome to R.A.G.E

R.A.G.E. (Radiotherapy Action Group Exposure) supports and campaigns

for those suffering injury from Radiotherapy given as treatment for Breast Cancer.


"Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light." 
Dylan Thomas  -  1951

   The Big Story -  Rage Patients Talking

The founding members of RAGE drew up the following aims and objectives, each of equal importance.  

The Four Aims and Objectives of RAGE:

Each of these aims is strongly endorsed by the RAGE Committee on behalf of RAGE members.

The future of affordable cancer immunotherapy  -  06 September 2023

Derived from:   https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1248867/full

Citation:   The future of affordable cancer immunotherapy. Front. Immunol. 14:1248867. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1248867

Schaft N, Dörrie J, Schuler G, Schuler-Thurner B, Sallam H, Klein S, Eisenberg G, Frankenburg S, Lotem M and Khatib A (2023) 

The treatment of cancer has been revolutionized within the last two decades by utilizing the mechanism of the immune system against malignant tissue in so-called cancer immunotherapy

Two main developments have boosted cancer immunotherapy: 

1) the use of checkpoint inhibitors, which are characterized by a relatively high response rate mainly in solid tumors; however, at the cost of serious side effects, and 

2) the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells, which were shown to be very efficient in the treatment of hematologic (blood) malignancies, but failed to show high clinical effectiveness in solid tumors until now. 

Now active immunization against individual tumors is emerging, and the first products have reached clinical approval

These new treatment options are very cost-intensive and are not financially compensated by health insurance in many countries

Hence, strategies MUST be developed to make cancer immunotherapy affordable and to improve the cost-benefit ratio

In this review below, the authors discuss the following strategies: 

1) to leverage the antigenicity of “cold tumors” with affordable reagents, 

2) to use microbiome-based products as markers or therapeutics, 

3) to apply measures that make adoptive cell therapy (ACT) cheaper, e.g., the use of off-the-shelf products, 

4) to use immunotherapies that offer cheaper platforms, such as RNA- or peptide-based vaccines and vaccines that use shared or common antigens instead of highly personal antigens, 

5) to use a small set of predictive biomarkers instead of the “sequence everything” approach, and 

6) to explore affordable immunohistochemistry markers that may direct individual therapies. 

1 Introduction

Immunotherapy has changed the cancer treatment scenario and revolutionized tumor immunology. Immunotherapy treatments, such as adoptive T-cell therapy (ACT) or the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), are now well-established components of the toolbox of cancer treatments, significantly improving longevity in a substantial proportion of patients.

However, with the advancing success of cancer immunotherapy, it is becoming clear that a significant drawback of current immunotherapies is their high expense. 

To enable the wider usage of immunotherapy:

efforts will eventually have to be centered on developing immunotherapy treatments that are significantly cheaper and affordable to larger populations worldwide. 

Getting a cancer immunotherapy treatment costs more than a house in many cities in the US....... 

The average cost of cancer drugs increased from $50,000 per patient in the mid-1990s to $250,000. 

That is four times the median US household annual income. 

Immunotherapies often cost more than $100,000 per patient. 

For some of the newest immunotherapies, the price tag is even steeper: 

When including the value of the medical support necessary to deliver these treatments, a price tag of $850,000 per patient is not unheard of (4). 

For example, although the wholesale acquisition cost of CAR-T-cell therapies to treat B-cell lymphoma is $373,000

a new study by Prime Therapeutics of real-world data found that the total cost averages more than $700,000 and can exceed $1 million in some cases (5). 

Increasingly, approaches to treat solid tumors and hematological (blood) malignancies involve the concurrent administration of several products with distinct but complementary mechanisms of action in combination or in close sequence as part of a regimen 

The use of combined immunotherapies means that costs can quickly double or triple. 

Some recent examples include: 


This trend presents serious challenges for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) bodies and payers. 

Combination regimens are expected to increase over the next few years (7, 9). 

Almost all information regarding the costs of immunotherapy is based on data from OECD countries; however, access to oncology medicines remains unequal across OECD/EU countries. 

The charges in non-OECD countries will probably be higher and may enjoy less support from health or insurance institutions or drug companies. 

Additionally, there is little doubt that the population of third-world countries will mostly be unable to cope with such expenses.

The future of cancer immunotherapy will largely depend on the ability of researchers to make it affordable to larger populations. 

This review summarizes some scientific suggestions for making this happen........ 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1248867/full

Citation: Schaft N, Dörrie J, Schuler G, Schuler-Thurner B, Sallam H, Klein S, Eisenberg G, Frankenburg S, Lotem M and Khatib A (2023) The future of affordable cancer immunotherapy. Front. Immunol. 14:1248867. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1248867

Received: 27 June 2023; Accepted: 11 August 2023;
Published: 06 September 2023.

Doctors hail world first as woman’s advanced breast cancer is eradicated


04 June 2018    -    Immune cells from the woman’s own body used to wipe out tumours


A leading cancer researcher said the experiment was proof that we are on the ‘cusp of a major revolution’ in being able to target cancer with immunotherapy. 

It is the first time that a patient with late-stage breast cancer has been successfully treated by a form of immunotherapy that uses the patient’s own immune cells to find and destroy cancer cells that have formed in the body. 

The doctors treated Perkins by injecting 80 billion carefully-selected immune cells into her body. 

The therapy was given alongside pembrolizumab, a standard drug that can help the immune system to attack cancers. 

Tests after 42 weeks showed Perkins was completely cancer free. She has remained so ever since. 

The success, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, is all the more remarkable because breast cancers, like prostate and ovarian cancer, have relatively few mutations, which makes them harder for the immune system to spot amid the body’s healthy tissues. 

“Metastatic breast cancer remains incurable, and if we are to finally stop women dying we urgently need to find new ways to target and stop the spread of the disease. We are thrilled by this early finding, but we must remember that this type of immunotherapy remains an experimental approach that has a long way to go before it might be routinely available to patients.” 


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jun/04/doctors-hail-world-first-as-womans-advanced-breast-cancer-is-eradicated


What To Know About Personalized mRNA Cancer Vaccines After Promising Trials From Moderna And Merck

Jun 4, 2024,11:12am EDT    https://www.forbes.com

https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2024/06/04/what-to-know-about-personalized-mrna-cancer-vaccines-after-promising-trials-from-moderna-and-merck/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydozen&cdlcid=64a266e7554da33a6bfb2f8c&section=science

Cancer vaccines are finally showing promise as Moderna and Merck produced promising data on an experimental skin cancer vaccine this week.

NHS England has announced plans for a “landmark” scheme to test the mRNA technology across the United Kingdom, after decades of research that could bring a new era of personalized medicine.

KEY FACTS






Trials of these mRNA personalized vaccines are planned or underway for:

Experts have hailed the shots as “gamechangers” that offer a real hope of curing cancer. 

NEWS PEG

While mRNA cancer vaccines are starting to show promise and experts hint a paradigm shift for cancer treatment is on the horizon, it is still early days for the therapy. 

The treatments have a long way to go until entering mainstream clinical practice. 

Until approval, the vaccine treatments are considered experimental and will primarily be available as part of clinical trials, for which patients around the world, including the U.S., are already being recruited

In late May, England announced a first-of-its kind scheme aimed at streamlining the often difficult recruitment process for trials. 

The country’s National Health Service will act as a matchmaker setting up thousands of patients with different clinical trials for specific cancer shots as part of the scheme, which is called the Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad. 

Victoria Kunene, a clinician leading the trial at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, told the BBC she believes the vaccines mark a “new era,” adding that she hopes they become “the standard of care” one day.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Merck and Moderna said they started late stage clinical trials for both their melanoma vaccine and a lung cancer vaccine, both of which are “actively enrolling” participants. 

The firms have also started mid-to-late stage trials of squamous cell carcinoma, another type of skin cancer, as well as a type of kidney cancer and urothelial carcinoma, which makes up most bladder cancers.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

Late last year, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told AFP of the melanoma vaccine: “We think that in some countries the product could be launched under accelerated approval by 2025,” describing the vaccines as “immunotherapy 2.0.”

KEY BACKGROUND

The early successes of Moderna’s cancer vaccine has helped shore up confidence in the company and its future. 

While Moderna flourished during the pandemic, its coronavirus shots remain its only product on the market. 

This will soon change following the recent approval of its RSV shot, its second ever, but Moderna has struggled to maintain its profile amid an influx of mRNA competitors and dwindling demand for Covid jabs. 

Though it maintains a robust pipeline of traditional vaccines in development that use its mRNA technology — such as for Lyme disease, flu and norovirus — the company has bet big on its personalized cancer treatments and is clear it plans to be at the forefront of this new frontier of medicine.

Leptospermum Honey to Manage Wounds Impaired by Radiotherapy: A Case Series

Volume 55 - Issue 1 - January, 2009

Radiation-induced tissue injury and wounds with radiation-impaired healing are traumatic for patients and challenging for their caregivers. Standardized management approaches do not exist. The effect of Leptospermum honey as a primary dressing for managing these wounds was assessed in four patients (age range 63 to 93 years) who had previously undergone radiotherapy that left them with fragile friable areas of damaged skin that did not respond to conventional treatment.


No adverse events were reported. Honey as an adjunct to conventional wound/skin care post radiation therapy shows promise for less painful healing in these chronic wounds. Prospective, randomized, controlled clinical studies are needed to confirm these observations. 


https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/wmp/content/using-leptospermum-honey-manage-wounds-impaired-radiotherapy-a-case-series

The European Cancer Patient Coalition have asked for our support with their survey on COVID-19 and cancer which they launched recently.  

With their survey 'Mapping EU Member State's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and cancer' they are gathering information to understand the effect that COVID-19 has had on cancer patients and their treatment across Europe.

Further details can be found on RAGE here: More Info   Or go directly to the ECPC page here: ECPC Survey 

Contact Us:

To apply to become a member, or to contact R.A.G.E.