http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/the-cancer-blog.html The cancer blog From Thecancerblog Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT en-us http://www.thecancerblog.org/images/blogs/the-cancer-blog-3210.jpg http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/the-cancer-blog.html 100 125 http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/conflicts-of-interest-in-many-cancer-studies.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/conflicts-of-interest-in-many-cancer-studies.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT A new analysis finds that a considerable number of clinical cancer studies published in respected medical journals have financial connections to pharmaceutical companies. Reported in the June 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that conflicts of interest may cause some scientists to report biased results that are favorable to companies........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/cancer-obesity-link.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/cancer-obesity-link.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT A new link between body fat and cancer identified by a Michigan State University researcher underscores obesity's health risk and could lead to new cancer therapy and prevention strategies. Jenifer Fenton, an MSU food science and human nutrition researcher with the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, identified the correlation between obesity and colon cancer, the third-leading killer of Americans, in part by examining tissue hormones........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/a-new-weapon-against-brain-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/a-new-weapon-against-brain-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT An unlikely multidisciplinary scientific collaboration has discovered that an electronic nose developed for air quality monitoring on Space Shuttle Endeavour can also be used to detect odour differences in normal and malignant brain cells. The results of the pilot study open up new possibilities for neurosurgeons in the fight against brain cancer........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/diagnostic-advance-in-head-and-neck-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/diagnostic-advance-in-head-and-neck-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Pharmacy scientists at Oregon State University today announced the discovery of a genetic regulator that is expressed at higher levels in the most aggressive types of head and neck cancers, in work that may help to identify them earlier or even offer a new treatment at some point in the future. This "transcriptional regulator" is called CTIP2, and in recent research has been demonstrated to be a master regulator that has important roles in a number of biological functions, ranging from the proper development of enamel on teeth to skin formation and the possible therapy of eczema or psoriasis........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/reducing-prostate-cancer-and-disease.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/reducing-prostate-cancer-and-disease.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Statins, drugs widely prescribed to lower cholesterol, may have protective effects on prostate health. This large Mayo Clinic cohort study looked at three different aspects of urological health -- prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction and prostate enlargement. Initial research results are being presented April 25-30, 2009, at the American Urological Association (AUA) meeting in Chicago........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/how-to-improve-immune-response-to-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/how-to-improve-immune-response-to-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT A team of researchers at The Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research (CFIBCR) at Princess Margaret Hospital and international collaborators have discovered how to trigger an improved immune response to cancer that could be included in new clinical trials that use a patient's own cells to destroy tumours........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/genetic-variants-predict-recurrence-of-bladder-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/genetic-variants-predict-recurrence-of-bladder-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have discovered genetic variations in the inflammation pathway that reduce the likelihood of recurrence and increase survival of patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) who are treated with mainstream treatment. Patients with risk-reducing genotypes were 84 percent less likely to have their disease recur after therapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the prevailing immunotherapy to prevent high-risk NMIBC patients from developing recurrence. The recurrence-free median survival time among these patients was 96.7 months compared with 47 months among those with the more typical genotype, the team reported at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/a-gel-to-treat-esophageal-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/a-gel-to-treat-esophageal-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center are studying the safety and efficacy of a new system for delivering chemotherapy for patients with esophageal cancer, a rare, but deadly disease that attacks the throat. The unique drug treatment delivers a highly concentrated dose of chemotherapy injected directly on to the hard-to-reach tumors in the esophagus non-surgically. Scientists at Rush are trying to determine if the gel therapy can reduce the size of the malignant tumors........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/genetics-alone-is-poor-indicator-for-drug-response.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/genetics-alone-is-poor-indicator-for-drug-response.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT In certain respects, cells are less like machines and more like people. True, they have lots of components, but they also have lots of personality. For example, when specific groups of people are studied in aggregate (conservatives, liberals, atheists, evangelicals), they appear to be fairly uniform and predictable. But when looked at one person at a time, individuals often break the preconceptions........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/when-cancer-cells-cant-let-go.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/when-cancer-cells-cant-let-go.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Like a climber scaling a rock face, a migrating cancer cell has to keep a tight grip on the surface but also let go at the right moment to move ahead. Chan et al. reveal that the focal adhesion kinase (FAK) coordinates these processes to permit forward movement. The study will be published online April 13 (www.jcb.org) and will appear in the April 20 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology....... ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/breakthrough-model-for-human-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/breakthrough-model-for-human-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leveraging breakthrough discoveries in cancer biology to discover, develop and commercialize targeted oncology therapies, today announced findings from its novel human-in-mouse (HIM) cancer model system, in which AVEO successfully created invasive human tumors from primary human breast tissue that develop over time in mice and mimic human tumor behaviors and response. The findings were published this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....... ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/the-new-tumor-suppressor-gene.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/the-new-tumor-suppressor-gene.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists have identified a gene that suppresses tumor growth in melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. The finding is reported today in the journal Nature Genetics as part of a systematic genetic analysis of a group of enzymes implicated in skin cancer and a number of other types of cancer........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/switch-may-prevent-the-spread-of-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/switch-may-prevent-the-spread-of-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a master switch that might prevent cancer cells from metastasizing from a primary tumor to other organs. The switch is a protein that, when in the "on" position, maintains the normal character of cells that line the surface of organs and body cavities. These epithelial cells are the type of cell from which most solid tumors arise. However, when the switch is turned "off" or absent, epithelial cells acquire characteristics of another cell type, called mesenchymal cells, and gain the ability to migrate and move away from the primary tumor. The scientists report their findings in this month's issue of Molecular Cell........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/treatment-of-early-stage-prostate-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/treatment-of-early-stage-prostate-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Preliminary results show that a shortened course of radiation treatment for prostate cancer called stereotactic body radiation treatment (SBRT) provides good PSA response for early-stage prostate cancer and has the same side effects as other therapys, as per a March 15 study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Study authors caution that further follow-up will be necessary to establish that SBRT is as effective in the long term as other proven therapys........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/pancreatic-cells-reveal-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/pancreatic-cells-reveal-cancer.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT A team of scientists led by a Northwestern University biomedical engineer has developed a way to examine cell biopsies and detect never-before-seen signs of early-stage pancreas cancer, as per a new paper published online by the OSA journal Optics Letters. Though the new technique has still not proven effective in double-blind clinical trials, it may one day help diagnose cancers of the pancreas and, potentially, other organs at their earliest and most treatable stages, before they spread........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/when-should-you-stop-doing-psa-testing.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/when-should-you-stop-doing-psa-testing.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT Although widespread Prostate-Specific-Antigen (PSA) testing has undoubtedly decreased prostate cancer mortality, is there a point of diminishing returns? According to a research findings published in the April 2009 issue of The Journal of Urology, researchers found that in a subgroup of elderly men, among those who were 75 years old or older and had a PSA below 3 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter), none subsequently died of prostate cancer. The discontinuation of routine PSA screening in these men may not increase the rates of undetected lethal disease, and could avoid potentially unnecessary treatments and reduce diagnostic costs........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/new-method-to-predict-colorectal-cancer-recurrence.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/new-method-to-predict-colorectal-cancer-recurrence.html Mon, 11 May 2009 11:12:50 GMT A preliminary report shows that genetic testing may help identify a marker in lymph nodes that is linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer recurrence among patients in whom conventional testing indicates that those lymph nodes show no evidence of cancer spread, as per a research studyin the February 18 issue of JAMA....... ]]>