October 28, 2007, 1:58 PM CT

Surgery, radiationfor bile duct cancer

Oregon Health & Science University scientists are reporting the discovery of an early survival advantage when a combination of surgery and radiation treatment is used for patients with a rare but deadly bile duct cancer.

Surgery and radiotherapy shows an early response benefit. It shows that the addition of radiation is potentially reasonable for the first-line therapy, said Clifton David Fuller, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the study. Fuller is a research associate in radiation medicine at OHSU, and a resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology and trainee in Human Imaging/Radiobiology, Division of Radiological Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

A poster of the study will be presented Oct. 28 at the 2007 annual American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) meeting in Los Angeles.

The specific cancer type studied, locoregional extraheptitc cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC), is an uncommon cancer of the bile ducts between the liver and gall bladder. Patients with this cancer typically experience symptoms at advanced stages, and cure rates are low even with aggressive treatment. Patients with this cancer have extremely poor prognosis, with an average five-year survival rate of 5 to 10 percent. The reported occurence rate of cholangiocarcinoma is one to two cases per 100,000 people in the U.S......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 26, 2007, 5:09 AM CT

A new chemotherapeutic target for liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem worldwide. Currently, the only chance for obtaining a cure in patients with HCC is by either a surgical resection or liver transplantation. However, a number of HCCs with scattered tumors cannot be operated on. In such patients, effective alternative therapies need to be discovered in order to treat patients in the early stages of this disease.

An article would be published on 28 October in the World Journal of Gastroenterology proposes a new target for treatment. A study was conducted by Dr. Satoshi Mamori, of Jikei University, in which he reviewed tumor biopsies in order to confirm the diagnosis of HCC.

The immunohistochemical expression of survivin in liver tumor specimens obtained from 17 patients was studied. In addition, to determine the survivin expression in response to anti-cancer drugs in early stage HCC, the survivin expression was determined after treating HCC cells with anti-cancer drugs under hypoxic culture conditions.

Survivin is a member of a family of inhibitors of apoptosis protein (IAP), which has been implicated in both the control of cell division and the inhibition of apoptosis. Survivin is selectively expressed in most common human neoplasms and it also appears to be involved in tumor cell resistance to some anticancer agents and ionizing radiation. Several preclinical studies have demonstrated a down-regulation of the survivin expression/function by the use of anti-sense oligonucleotide, dominant negative mutants, ribozymes, small interfering RNAs and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors to increase the rate of apoptosis, while also reducing the tumor growth potential and sensitized tumor cells to various chemotherapeutic drugs and -irradiation using both in vitro and in vivo models of various types of human tumors......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 23, 2007, 9:12 PM CT

Device For Zapping Cancer Cells

MIT and University of Rochester scientists report important advances toward a therapeutic device that has the potential to capture cells as they flow through the blood stream and treat them. Among other applications, such a device could zap cancer cells spreading to other tissues, or signal stem cells to differentiate.

Their concept leverages cell rolling, a biological process that slows cells down as they flow through blood vessels. As the cells slow, they adhere to the vessel walls and roll, allowing them to sense signals from nearby tissues that may be calling them to work. Immune cells, for example, can be slowed and summoned to battle an infection.

"Through mimicking a process involved in a number of important physiological and pathological events, we envision a device that can be used to selectively provide signals to cells traveling through the bloodstream," said Jeffrey M. Karp of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. "This technology has applications in cancer and stem cell therapies and could be used for diagnostics of many diseases".

The team, led by Karp, started with technology to induce cell rolling for research. With an implantable therapeutic device in mind, they improved that cell rolling technology to make it safe, more stable and longer lasting......... Posted by: Andria      Source

October 23, 2007, 9:11 PM CT

Device For Zapping Cancer Cells

MIT and University of Rochester scientists report important advances toward a therapeutic device that has the potential to capture cells as they flow through the blood stream and treat them. Among other applications, such a device could zap cancer cells spreading to other tissues, or signal stem cells to differentiate.

Their concept leverages cell rolling, a biological process that slows cells down as they flow through blood vessels. As the cells slow, they adhere to the vessel walls and roll, allowing them to sense signals from nearby tissues that may be calling them to work. Immune cells, for example, can be slowed and summoned to battle an infection.

"Through mimicking a process involved in a number of important physiological and pathological events, we envision a device that can be used to selectively provide signals to cells traveling through the bloodstream," said Jeffrey M. Karp of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. "This technology has applications in cancer and stem cell therapies and could be used for diagnostics of many diseases".

The team, led by Karp, started with technology to induce cell rolling for research. With an implantable therapeutic device in mind, they improved that cell rolling technology to make it safe, more stable and longer lasting......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 15, 2007, 4:56 PM CT

Mesalamine for cancer protection

Scientists observed that mesalamine use among patients with inflammatory bowel disease was linked to a decrease in occurence rate of colorectal cancer when comparing cases and controls. In the study presented at the 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, scientists from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit matched 16 patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease to 23 controls with similar body mass index, family history of IBD, family history of colorectal cancer and smoking.

Among those with ulcerative colitis who did not get colorectal cancer, scientists observed that 100 percent used mesalamine. While among those with UC who developed colorectal cancer only 76.9 percent used mesalamine. This finding suggests an association between mesalamine use and reduced risk of colorectal cancer, as per Jeffrey Tang, M.D. Dr. Tang and colleagues, including Ann L. Silverman, M.D., conducted conditional logistic regression analysis which revealed that at doses greater than 5068 grams mesalamine use in patients with IBD was linked to an 89 percent reduction in risk of colorectal cancer, in comparison to IBD patients matched for other major risk factors. While these are provocative findings, it should be noted that this is a small study and further investigation is needed on the chemoprevention potential of mesalamine......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 15, 2007, 4:46 PM CT

Colorectal cancer screening remains essential

As people get older, their risk of developing polyps and colorectal cancer increases. Currently, there is no clear evidence or established guideline for the upper age limit for colorectal cancer screening by colonoscopy. Two new studies presented at the American College of Gastroenterologys 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting suggest continued colorectal cancer screening among healthy elderly Americans.

Dr. Matthew M. Baichi and colleagues from the University of Buffalo and the VA Western New York analyzed the results of 587 colonoscopies performed at their institution in 2004. Fifty-six patients were age 80 or older and 531 patients were younger than 80. Scientists collected data on the number and location of adenomas, histology, presence of advanced adenomas, and colon cancer.

In this Buffalo study, colorectal adenomas were detected more frequently in older patients. Adenomas were found in 35.7 percent of patients age 80 or older and 20.4 percent of patients younger than 80. There was a trend for more proximal advanced adenomas in patients over 80 (12.5 percent) in comparison to those younger than 80 (6 percent). After a 2.5-year follow-up, 72 percent of patients over the age of 80 were alive in comparison to 82 percent of patients between the ages of 70 and 79......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 11, 2007, 10:57 PM CT

Many areas of differences between tumors

Scientists from University Hospitals (UH) Ireland Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine are part of a new national study that has analyzed more than 18,000 genes, including 5,000 previously unmapped genes, from breast and colorectal tumors. The study, published online by the journal Science on Oct. 11, shows a great number of genetic differences between breast and colon cancer tumors, leading the scientists to conclude that new drugs must be developed that can hit these newly identified genetic targets in a manner specific to each different individual's tumor.

Sanford Markowitz, M.D., Ph.D., the Ingalls Professor of Cancer Research at the UH Ireland Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University, said, The new insights gained are important in that they indicate there is great genetic diversity from one tumor to the next. Only a handful of genes are common targets for damage, and it will accordingly be necessary to develop a panel of drugs that target specific mutant genes in order to be able to provide individualized cancer therapy to different individual patients.

These results also have potential for tumor diagnosis, as per the researchers......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 11, 2007, 10:46 PM CT

Protein's Role in Deadly Form of Pancreatic Cancer

A tumor-blocking protein previously implicated in prostate and breast cancer development may also be behind the most aggressive type of pancreas cancer. Scientists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have discovered that the protein, pp32 - which normally applies the brakes on a cancer-causing gene - is missing in an aggressive form of pancreas cancer.

Though the work is preliminary, the researchers say, the absent protein could eventually become a marker for the disease and a potential drug target.

Researchers led by Jonathan Brody, Ph.D., assistant professor of Surgery, Charles Yeo, M.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor and chair of Surgery and Agnieszka Witkiewicz, M.D., assistant professor of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, all of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, have shown in experimental models that without the protein, mutations in the cancer-causing gene K-ras can take over, turning cells malignant. Adding pp32 to pancreas cancer cells that have K-ras mutations and lack the protein can slow the growth of these fast-growing cells, leading the researchers to speculate that losing pp32 might be a critical event in determining how aggressively a pancreas cancer behaves. They report their initial findings online in the journal Modern Pathology......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 8, 2007, 8:49 AM CT

Whites take breast cancer therapy more often than blacks

A new study finds that white women more frequently take more of the life-prolonging supplemental therapies used to treat breast cancer than African-American women.

African-Americans whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes were less likely to have adjuvant cancer treatment than white women, the study showed. Adjuvant treatment is therapy given to kill remaining cancer cells, in addition to the primary treatment. Studies suggest adjuvant treatment may increase the chances of long-term survival.

The study, which was led by Dr. Mousumi Banerjee of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, observed that among women whose cancer had spread or become regional in nature, whites were almost five times more likely to take tamoxifen, a widely-used adjuvant cancer treatment medication, and more than three times more likely to have adjuvant chemotherapy. White and African American women with cancer that had not spread received tamoxifen and chemotherapy at equal rates.

There was no significant difference in the numbers of white and African American women who received breast conservation surgery versus mastectomy. However, women with early stage breast cancer who were covered by government health insurance were less likely to have combination breast conserving cancer surgery and radiation, and more likely to have mastectomy without radiation than patients enrolled in non-governmental plans, or private plans......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source

October 2, 2007, 10:15 PM CT

Why Certain Cancers Become Resistant to Drugs

Resistance to chemotherapy therapys can be the worst news a cancer patient ever receives. A pair of scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia is working steadfastly to learn why some tumors eventually build a tolerance to the common chemotherapy drug cisplatin, in hopes of identifying the particular genes that can be manipulated to make therapy as effective as possible.

In a paper reported in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Hannah and Stephen Alexander, professors of biological sciences in MU's College of Arts and Science, in collaboration with Gad Shaulsky and Adam Kuspa, professors at the Baylor School of Medicine, demonstrate that a model organism called "Dictyostelium discoideum" is useful for studying mechanisms of cisplatin drug sensitivity. Dictyostelium discoideum cells share a number of genes and biochemistry with human cells - there are more than 30,000 genes in one human cell compared with 15,000 in Dictyostelium discoideum - which simplifies the process of isolating and studying particular genes. The current study identified 400 genes that have the potential for use in improving cisplatin treatment.

"The basic issue is that a number of types of cancer are treated with cisplatin," Stephen Alexander said. "In some cases it's the best drug, and in some cases it's the only drug. Nevertheless, lots of cancers are either resistant to it or become resistant during therapy. There's a lot of work being done in developing new drugs as cancer therapies, but not a number of of them have come on the market yet. Since cisplatin is effective and has already been approved, why not try to make it better?"......... Posted by: Andria      Read more         Source