http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/the-cancer-blog.html The cancer blog From Thecancerblog Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 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/12-2008/destabilizing-cancer-cells-in-kidney-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/destabilizing-cancer-cells-in-kidney-cancer.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Kidney cancer is typically without symptoms until it has spread to other organs, when it is also the most difficult to treat. Newer chemotherapies show great promise for extending survival during later disease stages, but they can also be highly toxic. In one of the first discoveries of its kind, UC Davis Cancer Center scientists have identified ways to block a cancer gene's own repair mechanism and, in so doing, help make chemotherapy for kidney cancer more effective and better tolerated. The outcome is reported in the current issue of Cancer Biology and Therapy....... ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/e.-coli-engineered-to-produce-anti-cancer-drugs.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/e.-coli-engineered-to-produce-anti-cancer-drugs.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Scientists from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have taken a major step forward in the field of metabolic engineering, successfully using the bacterium Escherichia coli to synthesize a class of natural products known bacterial aromatic polyketides, which include important antibiotic and anticancer drugs........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/persons-diagnosed-with-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/persons-diagnosed-with-cancer.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Patients with diabetes at the time of a cancer diagnosis have an increased risk of death in comparison to patients without diabetes, as per a meta-analysis of studies published in the December 17 issue of JAMA Approximately 20 million Americans have diabetes mellitus, which is about 7 percent of the U.S. adult population. Diabetes mellitus appears to be a risk factor for some cancers, but the effect of pre-existing diabetes on all-cause death in newly diagnosed cancer patients is less clear, as per background information in the article........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/fluorescence-tomography-of-tumors-in-living-animals.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/fluorescence-tomography-of-tumors-in-living-animals.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Fluorescent molecules - i.e. substances which can be stimulated to emit light - are extremely valuable tools in biological research and medical diagnosis. Fluorescence can be used for instance to analyze the regulation and expression of genes, to locate proteins in cells and tissues, to follow metabolic pathways and to study the location and migration of cells. Of particular importance is the combination of fluorescence imaging with novel techniques that allow tomographic three-dimensional visualization of objects in living organisms. At the Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health together with the Technische Universität München an own institute is concerned with the development and refinement of such new technologies: the Institute for Biological and Medical Imaging headed by Professor Vasilis Ntziachristos........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/selenium-vitamin-e-do-not-prevent.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/selenium-vitamin-e-do-not-prevent.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Findings from one of the largest cancer chemoprevention trials ever conducted have concluded that selenium and vitamin E taken alone or in combination for an average of five and a half years did not prevent prostate cancer, as per a team of scientists coordinated by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) and led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Cleveland Clinic........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/european-ancestry-increases-breast-cancer-risk.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/european-ancestry-increases-breast-cancer-risk.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Latina women have a lower risk of breast cancer than European or African-American women generally, but those with higher European ancestry could be at increased risk, as per data reported in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "We need to study the possible factors that are placing Latina women of high European ancestry at greater risk," said Laura Fejerman, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of California San Francisco. "The increased risk could be due to environmental factors, genetic factors or the interplay of the two"........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/prostate-cancer-spurs-new-nerves.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/prostate-cancer-spurs-new-nerves.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Prostate cancer and perhaps other cancers promotes the growth of new nerves and the branching axons that carry their messages, a finding linked to more aggressive tumors, said scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in the first report of the phenomenon that appears today in the journal Clinical Cancer Research....... ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/potential-new-drug-target-for-chronic-leukemia.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/potential-new-drug-target-for-chronic-leukemia.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have discovered what could be a novel drug target for an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia. The researchers have identified a unique "signature" or pattern of a specific family of enzymes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of adult leukemia........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/suppressing-prostate-cancer-development.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/suppressing-prostate-cancer-development.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have observed that inactivating a specific biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer blocks the development of prostate cancer in animal models. Scientists say the upcoming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesnow available onlinemay lead to a novel cancer treatment for humans........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/role-of-vitamin-d-in-cancer-therapy.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/role-of-vitamin-d-in-cancer-therapy.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT A colon cancer cell isn't a lost cause. Vitamin D can tame the rogue cell by adjusting everything from its gene expression to its cytoskeleton. In the Nov. 17 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Ordez-Morn et al. show that one pathway governs the vitamin's diverse effects. The results help clarify the actions of a molecule that is undergoing clinical trials as a cancer treatment........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/if-the-diabetes-has-a-direct-carcinogenetic-effect.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/if-the-diabetes-has-a-direct-carcinogenetic-effect.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT The association of DM2 with solid tumors, and especially with HCC, has been long suspected and several studies have reported increased mortality rates for neoplastic diseases in patients with DM2. However, the temporal relationship between onset of diabetes and development of HCC, and the clinical and metabolic characteristics of patients with DM2 and HCC have not been well examined........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/fight-deadly-childhood-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/fight-deadly-childhood-cancer.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT A multicenter team of researchers, including researchers from the University of Florida, has discovered a way to potentially block the growth of neuroblastoma, a type of cancer responsible for 15 percent of all cancer deaths in children. Working with human cell lines and tissue samples, scientists describe in Thursday's (Oct. 16, 2008) online issue of Nature how they were able to short-circuit genetic processes that apparently contribute to neuroblastomas tumors that arise from the developing nervous system in children and often appear in the abdomen, chest or neck........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/disparities-in-head-and-neck-cancer-patients.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2008/disparities-in-head-and-neck-cancer-patients.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT A new analysis finds considerable disparities in survival correlation to race and socio-economic status among patients with head and neck cancer. Reported in the November 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that earlier diagnosis and greater access to therapy could improve outcomes for these cancers among African Americans and the poor........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/molecular-imaging-technology-for-gastric-cancer.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/molecular-imaging-technology-for-gastric-cancer.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Modern cancer care is critically dependent on imaging technologies, which are used to detect early tumors and guide their therapy or surgery. Molecular imaging technologies provide information about the functional or metabolic characteristics of malignancies, tumor stage and therapeutical response, and tumor recurrence; whereas conventional imaging technologies predominantly assess the tumor's anatomical or morphologic features including its size, density, shape, etc........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/proton-therapy-lowers-chance-of-later-cancers.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/proton-therapy-lowers-chance-of-later-cancers.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Boston Patients who are treated with proton treatment (a specialized type of external beam radiation treatment using protons rather than X-rays to treat cancer) decreases the risk of patients developing a secondary cancer by two hundred percent, in comparison to being treated with standard photon radiation therapy, as per a first-of-its-kind study presented September 22, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/as-head-and-neck-cancer-risks-evolve.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/as-head-and-neck-cancer-risks-evolve.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT Advances in understanding head and neck cancer over the last decade have led to more therapy options and improved quality of life for patients, as per a review published this week in the New England Journal (NEJM) The authors are Dong M. Shin, MD, Frances Kelly Blomeyer Distinguished Professor and associate director of Emory University School of Medicines Winship Cancer Institute, and Robert Haddad, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical director of its Head and Neck Oncology Program........ ]]> http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/clon-cancer-and-gatekeeper-gene.html http://www.thecancerblog.org/blogs/permalinks/9-2008/clon-cancer-and-gatekeeper-gene.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:27:27 GMT The absence or inactivation of the RUNX3 gatekeeper gene paves the way for the growth and development of colon cancer, Singapore researchers report in the Sept. issue of the journal Cancer Cell Prior studies have shown that RUNX3 plays a role in gastric, breast, lung and bladder cancers. The inactivation of RUNX3 occurs at a very early stage of colon cancer, as per the Singapore scientists' studies with human tissue samples and animal models........ ]]>