Latest news with #MoffittCancerCenter
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Health
- Miami Herald
John Thrasher, former FSU president and Florida House speaker, dies at 81
John Thrasher, the former president of Florida State University and a longtime state lawmaker, died Friday morning, his family said in a statement. He was 81. Thrasher had been battling cancer before his death. 'The family would like to thank everyone for their well wishes, visits, and prayers during the last month and express their deep gratitude for the doctors and nurses who cared for him at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Center, Orlando Health, and Cornerstone Hospice‚' Sarah Bascom, a spokesperson for Thrasher's family, said in a statement. Thrasher will be buried in a private ceremony in Orange Park, Florida, and there will be a public celebration at Florida State University's Ruby Diamond Hall on Aug. 19, according to the statement. Thrasher, a longtime Republican, led Florida State University as president for about six years before retiring in 2021. In Tallahassee, Thrasher served in the Florida House from 1992 to 2000, the last two years as House speaker. He also previously spent five years in the Florida Senate. Gov. Ron DeSantis said on social media that he was sad to learn of Thrasher's death, saying he 'served the state well.' 'John lived a remarkable life — and he made a big difference in the lives of so many in our state,' DeSantis said. This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Patient with rare cancer finds hope in a clinical trial
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A runner, Judith Hetlage repeatedly felt pain in her left lower leg while on her daily path around Davie, Florida. Several trips to the orthopedist, however, left her frustrated and without an explanation. Eventually, though, Hetlage's primary doctor ordered a scan of her calf that showed a tumor, and a biopsy led to the diagnosis of a rare cancer of the soft tissue called synovial sarcoma. Her initial treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston — involving chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery — seemed successful, and Hetlage followed up regularly with quarterly scans. Ten years later, though, what began w as synovial sarcoma in her calf ultimately resulted in cancer cells spreading to her lungs. 'I felt like that was the death sentence,' Hetlage said. 'There were 13 tumors in my lungs in a matter of three months.' Hetlage, 65, has some hope in what could be a medical breakthrough. She is enrolled in a pioneering clinical trial that has implications far beyond her rare form of cancer. Through Memorial Cancer Institute and its partnership with Moffett Cancer Center, she is participating in a trial for T-cell Receptor Therapy (TCR-T). The treatment is an immunotherapy that harvests a patient's T-cells, a type of white blood cell that helps the body's immune system fight disease. After removal, the T-cells are genetically modified to recognize a specific protein within cancer cells and infused back into the patient's immune system to search and destroy the diseased cells. It is the first engineered cell therapy for solid tumor cancer approved in the United States. If effective in trial participants, it could extend the reach of TCR-T cells for use beyond just blood cancers to solid tumor cancer in the head and neck, lungs, and skin. Cancer patients whose disease has been resistant to traditional chemotherapy drugs or metastasized within their bodies could benefit. For Hetlage's type of rare cancer, the standard treatment after the disease spreads is chemotherapy. She had begun chemotherapy while waiting to be accepted into the trial. According to the National Cancer Institute, it has been more than a decade since the FDA approved a new therapy for synovial sarcoma. 'There is an exceedingly high need for new treatment options for patients,' said Dr. Sandra D'Angelo of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, who led a small, initial trial of TCR-T for 44 people with synovial sarcoma. The therapy shrank tumors in 19 participants and kept tumors from growing for an average of six months. For two participants, tumors went away and did not return during the three-year study period, according to D'Angelo's report for the National Cancer Institute. Initially, Hetlage's type of cancer hadn't been included in the current national trial of TCR-T for solid tumors. However, the FDA cleared Hetlage to participate. She began treatment three months ago. 'We took her cells and we activated them in a way that now they will recognize her cancer,' said Dr. Atif Hussein, Hetlage's oncologist and director of Memorial's Hematology & Oncology Fellowship training program. Hussein said he infused Hetlage with 'super immune cells' and then gave her a second dose about two weeks later to empower her immune system, which had been depleted and emptied of bone marrow prior to the treatment. The process, called lymph depletion therapy, allows the supercells to find a home in the immune system. While a similar approach has been successfully used to treat blood cancers, it had never before been used on solid tumors. Now, at least 30 clinical trials of engineered TCR-T cells are underway for a variety of solid tumor types including melanoma, lung and colon cancer. Patients have to qualify for Memorial's TCR-T trial by having a specific immune type. Hussein said dozens of his patients with other types of cancer did not have the right immune type to qualify, but Hetlage did. 'Hopefully, we'll have more who will qualify for this study,' he said. So far, it's too soon to know whether the treatment will work for Hetlage. At a cancer survivor's event at Memorial Cancer Institute, Hetlage, a mother of three daughters and former occupational therapist who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, stood behind the podium, telling other cancer patients: 'I'm not a survivor yet; it's not the end. I believe that survivorship is the day you're diagnosed. I believe that it's all the ups and downs. I stand in the storm. It's about being here and continuing to fight. You can't give in.' Hussein is optimistic about Hetlage's outcome: 'I have been doing oncology for 26 years and I have rarely seen somebody who is so positive, so strong. She is empowering herself, fighting so hard, and if anybody is going to respond, it is somebody like Judith.' Hetlage says she meditates, eats a healthy diet and walks six to seven miles a day. 'I believe your head has got to be in the game,' she said. 'You've got to do the best you can do for yourself while they're doing the medical end.' 'Everyone else I had ever known that had this (type of cancer) isn't still on this earth,' she said. 'This is something I'm going to have to watch and fight the rest of my life.' Hussein said if T-cell receptor therapy can treat solid tumors, it will represent hope in the fight against cancer. He predicts that new cell therapies will be tested in patients in the coming years and represent the next wave of cancer treatment.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
St. Pete City Council votes for twin apartment towers to be built instead of Moffitt Cancer Center
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., (WFLA) – The City of St. Pete approved a plan to build two apartment towers on 800 Second Avenue S. The land was originally planned to be a new Moffitt Cancer Center, but city council approved the plan to build the towers instead after the mayor said Moffitt's plan did not include enough affordable housing. In a unanimous vote, St. Pete City Council approved the new project for two apartment towers, both of them 31-stories high to be built. There will be 824 dwelling units, 35,800 square feet of commercial space, and around 1,550 parking spaces. The project is estimated to cost $225 million. The original plan with Moffitt included on 35 affordable housing units. This is why St. Pete's mayor vetoed the plan. He said any project slated for the property needed to include over 100 housing units. While the now-approved towers far exceeds that number, none of the units will be designated as affordable housing. Despite approving the project, some city leaders still believe Moffitt having a location in St. Pete would have been a major benefit. 'Staff has reviewed it, I feel comfortable with it, but goodness, it's just very different from where we started here and it does feel like a little bit of a missed opportunity, that's nothing to say anything about this development,' said Richie Floyd, city council member. The planned apartment towers exceed the Airport Height Limit, so before the project can move forward, developers will need to get additional approval from the F.A.A. The three-story building that currently sits on the property will be demolished to make way for the towers. There is no word on when construction could begin. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Arabian Business
12-05-2025
- Health
- Arabian Business
Cholesterol drugs linked to 61% lower death risk in blood cancer, study shows
A groundbreaking study led by researchers from the University of Sharjah and the Burjeel Cancer Institute , in collaboration with prestigious international partners, has uncovered promising new evidence that statin medications – commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol – may significantly improve survival rates in patients with certain types of blood cancer. The study revealed that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) who were taking statins at the start of modern targeted therapy such as ibrutinib were 61 per cent less likely to die from cancer, 38 per cent less likely to die from any cause, and 26 per cent less likely to experience disease progression. Statins boost cancer survival Notably, statin use was not associated with an increased risk of severe side effects, supporting its safety profile in this context. The study, led by Dr. Ahmad Abuhelwa, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Therapeutics at the University of Sharjah, brought together expertise from Burjeel Cancer Institute (UAE), Harvard University, Moffitt Cancer Center (USA), and Flinders University (Australia). Dr. Abuhelwa, the study's lead author, said this is the first systematic evaluation of the link between statin use and survival outcomes in patients with CLL or SLL receiving modern targeted therapies. 'Our study analysed data from 1,467 patients enrolled in four international clinical trials conducted between 2012 and 2019. 'The results highlight a strong association between statin use and improved survival, opening the door for future research that could ultimately benefit patients around the world,' he said. Dr. Abuhelwa, however, cautioned: 'While these results are highly encouraging, we cannot recommend statins as a cancer treatment based on this study alone, as it is observational and does not establish causality.' 'We need future clinical trials to confirm whether statins can be used as a supportive treatment in this setting,' he said. Prof. Humaid Al Shamsi, CEO of the Burjeel Cancer Institute and co-author of the study, said as oncologists, they are always looking for safe and effective ways to improve patient survival. 'This study raises an exciting possibility – that a well-known and widely used medication like statins could enhance treatment outcomes without introducing additional risks,' he said. Dr. Karem Alzoubi, Dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Sharjah, said this outstanding research reflects their faculty's dedication to producing impactful scientific studies that address pressing healthcare challenges and contribute to innovative solutions for complex diseases like cancer. The findings of the study, which was published in the prestigious medical journal Blood Advances, have captured the attention of leading global media outlets, including The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Independent, Associated Press, and Medscape. The findings have also been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Polish, Bulgarian, and Japanese, reflecting their broad international reach and impact.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Moffitt Cancer Center will no longer raise flags to commemorate Pride Month
Related video: 2025 Tampa Pride takes over Ybor City TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Moffitt Cancer Center announced Wednesday that it will not be raising the Pride or Juneteenth flags on campus this year. The decision to forego raising any flags this year was confirmed in an email from the chair of Moffitt UNITY, Laura Bosselman, who expressed her shared dismay at the decision. 'I know this is not the outcome many of us were hoping for,' the message read. 'These flags have served as powerful symbols of recognition, inclusion, and visibility for our communities, and I share in the disappointment this decision brings.' Bosselman emphasized the continued importance of the group's mission to UNITY leaders. 'Still, this does not erase who we are or the impact we continue to have. UNITY has neverbeen defined by a flag alone—we are defined by our people, our purpose, and ourpresence. That presence is stronger than ever.' According to Bosselman, the UNITY board is continuing to discuss alternative ways to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month, which falls on Monday, June 2. 'Though there will be no flags raised, we will stand proudly— with you— to represent our strength, our resilience, and our unwavering commitment to Moffitt's mission and to each other,' said Bosselman. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
