Free Republic

A new personalized cancer treatment can radically improve the outlook for some patients with bile duct cancer, finds an international multicenter trial involving researchers. The clinical trial found that patients who were otherwise facing end of life care survived for up to two years when treated with the drug futibatinib. In September last year, data from the FOENIX-CCA2 trial led to the FDA to approve futibatinib. Futibatinib targets a particular genetic alteration, called FGFR2 fusion, which is found in around 14% of bile duct cancers. Of those diagnosed annually in the UK with bile duct cancer, which comprises cholangiocarcinoma and...

Veterans returned to the U.S. after fighting in the jungles of Vietnam a half century ago, but hundreds of them may be dying from a silent bullet — a slow-killing parasite living in the men decades after the war, a new study revealed. Liver flukes, parasites that infect a human when raw or undercooked fish is eaten, are being investigated as the cause of a rare bile duct cancer among veterans who served in the Vietnam War. It could take years for symptoms to show up, but when they do, the host is left with tremendous pain and given just...