Enzyme Target for Cancer DrugsThe veil has finally been lifted on an enzyme that is critical to the process of DNA transcription and replication, and is a prime target of antibacterial and anticancer drugs. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley have produced the first three-dimensional structural images of a DNA-bound Type II topoisomerase (topo II) that is........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/20/2007 9:38:42 PM)
Drug study for brain cancer shows promiseA clinical study conducted at Henry Ford Hospital on the use of a drug to extend the survival of patients with the most common and aggressive type of brain cancer, has yielded results that were significantly better than expected.
The randomized Phase II study focused on patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), whose cancer had recurred after first- or second-line treatment. The study revealed that more than a third who were treated with........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/13/2007 10:01:52 PM)
Silencing small but mighty cancer inhibitorsScientists from Johns Hopkins and the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered another reason why one of the most usually activated proteins in cancer is in fact so dangerous. As reported in Nature Genetics this week, the Myc protein can stop the production of at least 13 microRNAs, small pieces of nucleic acid that help control which genes are turned on and off.
Whats more, in several instances, re-introducing repressed miRNAs into........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 12/10/2007 10:47:35 PM)
Development of colon tumorsDamaged or defective genes have long been known to be the cause of some cancers. Over the past decade, however, researchers have discovered that even healthy genes can be switched on or off and can cause cancer without any changes in the underlying DNA sequenceeventhough how this happens has remained poorly understood.
Scientists in the laboratory of Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch now have established a direct causal correlation between........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/2/2007 8:50:04 PM)
Rural patients' cancers diagnosed earlierRural patients are often assumed to be the top truants in American medicine, not seeking medical attention until a condition is more advanced and less treatable. However, a new study by Dartmouth scientists suggests that urban, not rural, patients are most likely to slip through the cracks-at least when it comes to colorectal and lung cancer.
Looking at national data on those two types of cancer, the study observed that urban patients tend........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/21/2007 5:11:49 AM)
Stress Hormone May Hasten Blood CancersScientists here have shown that in cell cultures, the stress hormone norepinephrine appears to promote the biochemical signals that stimulate certain tumor cells to grow and spread.
The finding, if verified, may suggest a way of slowing the progression and spread of some cancers enough so that conventional chemotherapeutic therapys would have a better chance to work.
The study also showed that stress hormones may play a completely........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/19/2007 8:28:23 PM)
Smac-ing lung cancer to deathHoward Hughes Medical Institute scientists have developed a small molecule that can turn the survival signal for a variety of cancer cells into a death signal. The molecule mimics the activity of Smac, a protein that triggers the suicide of some types of cancer cells.
The scientists say their findings suggest that Smac-mimetic compounds could be useful as targeted cancer therapys for lung and other cancers. Such treatment may be less toxic........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/12/2007 10:21:52 PM)
Radiation plus chemo for GBMOver four times as a number of patients with a rapidly fatal type of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), who are treated with the chemotherapy drug temozolomide (TMZ) and radiation treatment, can live for four years after diagnosis, in comparison to those who receive only radiation therapy, as per updated results of a large, international trial presented at the Plenary I session on October 29, 2007, at the American Society for........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/29/2007 10:24:25 PM)
New treatment option for bladder cancerA chemotherapy regimen for patients with advanced bladder cancer who aren't eligible for standard therapy is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.
The unfortunate reality is that kidney problems often result from bladder cancer which precludes the usual chemotherapy package of cisplatin and gemcitabine, says Dr. Teresa A. Coleman, hematologist-oncologist at the MCG Cancer Center.
A Phase II study at about 120 sites in North........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 10/29/2007 7:49:16 PM)
A new chemotherapeutic target for liver cancerHepatocellular 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/26/2007 5:09:57 AM)
Device
For Zapping Cancer CellsMIT 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/23/2007 9:11:57 PM)
Colorectal cancer screening remains essentialAs 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/15/2007 4:46:17 PM)
Protein's Role in Deadly Form of Pancreatic CancerA 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/11/2007 10:46:28 PM)
Extended wakefulness, combined with alcoholThe combination of extended wakefulness and low-dose alcohol has significant adverse effects on a persons ability to drive, and elevates the risk of getting into a vehicular accident, as per a research studyreported in the October 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.
The study, authored by Mark E. Howard, PhD, of the Institute for Breathing and Sleep in Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, focused on 19 volunteer professional drivers, who participated........Go to the What-media-blog (Added on 10/1/2007 5:39:46 AM)
Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms In Adolescent Children Of Cancer PatientsA new study by Dutch scientists has observed that adolescents may suffer from severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress when a parent is recently diagnosed with cancer and that parents tend to underestimate the problems.
A cancer diagnosis is among those life experiences that can be so stressful that it is traumatic. While only a fraction of people who develop post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) go on to develop post-traumatic stress........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 9/26/2007 8:57:09 PM)
PET scan breast cancer and chemotherapyScientists in Australia have shown that positron emission tomography (PET) that uses a radioactive sugar molecule is more useful than mammography and ultrasound in predicting a breast tumour's response to chemotherapy and, therefore, the patient's ultimate likelihood of survival.
In research presented today (Tuesday) at the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona, Dr Vinod Ganju reported that when the scanning procedure was used to........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/25/2007 9:44:25 PM)
Most Children With Cancer Are Well-adjustedChildren under therapy for cancer are generally emotionally well-adjusted and no more depressed or anxious than other children their age, as per scientists at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital. In studies of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress and quality of life, children with cancer do as well as, and often better than their healthy peers.
We see them as a flourishing population that has adapted to the stress of having cancer and........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/18/2007 10:11:07 PM)
Secret Of Bone's StrengthNew research at MIT has revealed for the first time the role of bone's atomistic structure in a toughening mechanism that incorporates two theories previously proposed by scientists eager to understand the secret behind the material's lightweight strength.
Past experimental studies have revealed many different mechanisms at different scales of focus, rather than a single theory. The combination mechanism uncovered by the MIT scientists........Go to the What-media-blog (Added on 9/12/2007 6:36:45 PM)
Targeting nerve growth factor to cure liver cancerNerve growth factor (NGF), as the name says, is an essential peptide factor for the growth and differentiation of neuronal cells. Therefore we can imagine that this growth factor is important for the nervous system including brain. But a recent scientific report reported in the October 7 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology tells us another surprising and exciting discovery about this growth factor: NGF is positively related with........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/6/2007 10:08:50 PM)
Detect Cancer By Scanning Surface VeinsA new technology for cancer detection that eliminates the need for drawing blood has been developed by Purdue University researchers.
Scientists from Purdue's Cancer Center, Department of Chemistry and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering collaborated with cancer and biotechnology experts from the Mayo Clinic to develop technology to detect tumor cells within the human body. By shining a laser on surface veins, such as those on the wrist........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/4/2007 7:19:36 PM)
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Cancer Is Too Complex For Easy AnswersScientists who study cancer may be prone to drawing simplistic conclusions from the powerful molecular tools now available because they don't appreciate how complex the data is that is being generated, said a team of Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers in the recent issue of Nature Reviews Cancer.
In a review article summing up the state of the field, they said cancer scientists should endeavor to better understand the........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/28/2007 8:04:56 AM)
Cancer cell line resistant to new cancer therapyThey found the HDAC inhibitor-resistant cell line resistant to a number of therapies, including more standard therapy such as chemotherapy, but highly sensitive to heat shock protein 90, or hsp90, inhibitors, another emerging cancer therapy.
"As part of their resistance mechanisms, they acquired greater sensitivity to hsp90 inhibitors," says Dr. Bhalla, Cecil F. Whitaker Jr., M.D./Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer. "This........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/11/2007 10:23:21 PM)
Lower dose of steroids for Multiple myelomaResults of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Phase III clinical trial E4A03, for multiple myeloma, showing significantly better overall survival with lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone treatment in comparison to lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone, were reported today by S. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D. at the American Society of Hematologys annual meeting.
Currently lenalidomide and high-dose dexamethasone, referred to as Rev/Dex, is........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 12/9/2007 5:15:44 PM)
Racial disparities in colorectal cancer riskRisk of developing colorectal cancer is known to differ across ethnic and racial groups, and now an analysis of 26 studies, involving over 25,000 participants shows that some of these disparities might be explained by distinct patterns of genetic inheritance. A team of researchers, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, present their findings today in Atlanta at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on The Science........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/28/2007 10:06:38 PM)
Stereo Mammography Improves Cancer DetectionA new radiological diagnostic tool called stereo mammography allows clinicians to detect more lesions and could significantly reduce the number of women who are recalled for additional tests following routine screening mammography.
The findings from a clinical trial underway at Emory University were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America held in Chicago.
In the study, stereoscopic digital........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 11/28/2007 10:02:28 PM)
The age for prostate cancer detectionShould the UK lower the age for prostate cancer detection in line with the USA?
Prostate cancer screening occurs in a number of countries ahead of evidence from ongoing trials. In a number of countries, early detection (including the UK, when practised), and opportunistic screening commences at 50 years, but a lower age limit has recently been adopted in the USA based on two studies that found elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/18/2007 9:08:39 PM)
Folic Acid Linked to Increased Cancer RateTwo recent commentaries appearing in the recent issue of Nutrition Reviews find that the introduction of flour fortified with folic acid into common foods was followed by an increase in colon cancer diagnoses in the U.S. and Canada. The two new review articles address these recent findings and provide an overview of the current evidence on folic acid fortification and the associated policy issues.
For nearly a decade, folic acid, a chemical........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 11/4/2007 9:15:12 PM)
New Therapeutic Molecular Target to Fight CancerScientists at the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have identified the enzyme sphingosine kinase 2 as a possible new therapeutic target to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy for colon and breast cancer.
In the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research, scientists examined human colon and breast cancer cells and established a role of sphingosine kinase 2 (SphK2), an enzyme that forms the potent lipid mediator........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 11/1/2007 10:05:03 PM)
PET scans track small tumorsReadily available CT screening for lung cancer is increasing the discovery of small, primary lung cancers. For a number of, a radiation technique called stereotactic body radiotherapy presents a less invasive therapy option to surgery that is typically offered to non-surgical candidates. Currently there is great interest in evaluating this approach in surgical candidates, but scientists have yet to identify an early method to determine the........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/28/2007 2:10:38 PM)
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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/28/2007 1:58:53 PM)
Mesalamine for cancer protectionScientists 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,........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/15/2007 4:56:04 PM)
Many areas of differences between tumorsScientists 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/11/2007 10:57:17 PM)
Whites take breast cancer therapy more often than blacksA 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/8/2007 8:49:54 AM)
Why Certain Cancers Become Resistant to DrugsResistance 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........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 10/2/2007 10:15:03 PM)
'Re-plumbing' liver helps beat cancerTemporarily diverting blood leaving the liver during chemotherapy could prolong the lives of people with primary or secondary liver tumours. The hour-long procedure allows massive doses of chemotherapy drugs to reach the liver and kill the cancer cells without poisoning the rest of the body.
The regime involves injecting the drug straight into the liver, while using catheters and balloons to divert the blood leaving it. This blood is then........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/26/2007 8:39:55 PM)
Internal radiotherapy better than externalQuality of life after therapy for endometrial cancer can be significantly improved by the use of vaginal brachytherapy, where radiotherapy is delivered internally using a vaginal cylinder, the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) heard today (Monday September 24). Dr. Remi Nout, from the clinical oncology department of the Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, said that this quality of life benefit would be an important........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/25/2007 5:15:04 AM)
Brain tumors need treatment with multiple 'targeted' drugsScientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that several, rather than just one, cell-growth switches are simultaneously overactive in a number of brain tumors and other solid tumors, explaining why therapy with just a single "targeted" switch-blocking drug often yields disappointing results.
The laboratory finding argues for quickly moving to clinical trials that combine three or more such targeted drugs for such cancers to shut........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/14/2007 5:22:59 AM)
Shrinkage of prostate leads to overestimation of cancerReanalysis of data from the first long-term randomized trial of a chemopreventive agent for prostate cancer shows that the excess prevalence of high-grade prostate cancer in the drug-treated group may be attributable to shrinkage of the prostate at the time of biopsy.
The study of the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, led by University of Illinois at Chicago professor of pathology Dr. Peter Gann, is reported in the Sept. 12 issue of the........Go to the Cancer-articles (Added on 9/12/2007 7:10:33 PM)
Generic prostate drug finds high-risk cancers early Men now have another good reason to consider taking finasteride, a well-known generic drug that shrinks an enlarged prostate and reduces the risk of getting prostate cancer by 25 percent. A new study from the Southwest Oncology Group strongly suggests that for men at risk of the disease which strikes one in six men finasteride also raises the odds that physicians will find fast-growing prostate cancers early, when they are most easily........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/11/2007 11:38:57 PM)
Regulation Of Gene P53So vital is the p53 tumor suppressor gene in controlling cancer that its dysfunction is associated with more than half of human cancers. At the same time, the genes capacity for shutting down cell growth, even causing cells to commit suicide if necessary, is so absolute that it must be tightly regulated to maintain the optimal balance between protecting against cancer and permitting normal growth.
Now, a study by researchers at The Wistar........Go to the The-cancer-blog (Added on 9/6/2007 4:57:53 AM)
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