WASHINGTON  — Laboratory analysis from the first arm of a phase II clinical trial testing the use of nilotinib in patients with Parkinson’s disease demonstrates precisely how the agent increases levels of dopamine in the brains of study participants, says a research team at Georgetown University Medical Center. Symptoms of Parkinson’s, such as motor dysfunction, are a result of a dopamine loss. In the journal Pharmacology Research & Perspectives, investigators report that a single low dose of the leukemia drug, nilotinib (Tasigna® by Novartis), reduces levels of a toxic protein that prevents the brain from utilizing dopamine that is stored…

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WASHINGTON – The first cancer patient to be treated as part of a CAR-T cell clinical trial at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital through Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is still in “complete remission” six months after receiving the treatment. Daisy Diggs Daisy Diggs, 67, of Laurel, Maryland volunteered for the experimental treatment after a lengthy battle with stage-three non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Following her diagnosis in 2015, the mother of two and grandmother of four developed several tumors that could not be eliminated with chemotherapy alone. “I had tumors in my lymph nodes, hip, pelvis, neck and…

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WASHINGTON –– A large, national study examining a radiation treatment for prostate cancer––popular because it delivers a high dose of therapy in a very short time frame––supports its routine use.  The study, conducted at cancer centers around the United States including at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, looks at long term follow up data for stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) used to treat more than 2,100 men with prostate cancer that had a low or intermediate risk of recurring. The results were published Feb. 8 in the journal JAMA Network Open. At MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, the therapy is delivered by a…

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