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Proton therapy treatment for anal canal cancer performed for first time in US

The INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma and the ProCure Proton Therapy Center announce a breakthrough treatment approach for anal canal cancer. For the first time in the United States proton therapy is now being used to treat this type of cancer.

17 Jul 2010

Resveratrol concentration impacts cancer risk mitigation: Study

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Thomas Wang, who specializes in cancer prevention research, has reported evidence that for some dietary compounds, length of exposure over time may be key to whether or not ingestion leads to a beneficial, or detrimental, effect.Scientists do not know exactly why one person develops cancer and another does not. But they do know that certain nutrients might increase or decrease cancer risk. There are "layers" of factors involved in the development of cancer, and Wang is studying the layers involving peoples' diet complexity and gene expression.

17 Jul 2010

Epizyme publishes two new review papers on epigenetics

Epizyme, Inc., a company leading the discovery and development of first-in-class, targeted cancer therapeutics against epigenetic targets, announced today the publication of two new review papers in the area of epigenetics. Together, the articles provide an overview of the major epigenetic enzyme classes, as well as chemical biology approaches for discovering small molecule inhibitors of these epigenetic enzymes, and demonstrate Epizyme's scientific leadership in the area of epigenetics.

17 Jul 2010

Amgen granted FDA priority review designation for denosumab BLA

Amgen today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted priority review designation to denosumab, a subcutaneous RANK Ligand inhibitor, for the treatment of bone metastases to reduce skeletal related events (SREs) in patients with cancer.

17 Jul 2010

Researchers discover potential way to stop tumor growth

Washington State University researchers have discovered a way to help cancer cells age and die, creating a promising avenue for slowing and even stopping the growth of tumors. "Hopefully, we can make cancer cells die like normal cells," says Weihang Chai, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Molecular Biosciences and WWAMI medical education program in Spokane. "Basically, you make the cancer cell go from immortal to mortal."

17 Jul 2010

An overview of AAPM annual meeting

AAPM is the premier organization in medical physics, a broadly-based scientific and professional discipline encompassing physics principles and applications in medicine and biology. Its membership includes medical physicists who specialize in research that develops cutting-edge technologies and board-certified clinical medical physicists who apply these technologies in community hospitals, clinics, and academic medical centers.

16 Jul 2010

Philadelphia to host 52nd annual meeting of American Association of Physicists in Medicine

Next week the city of Philadelphia will host the 52nd annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the premier organization in medical physics, a broadly-based scientific and professional discipline encompassing physics principles and applications in medicine and biology.

16 Jul 2010

Bioethics through the lens of literature

What if I were grown only so that my organs could be harvested, and I had to care for others whose organs are being taken, too, while I wait for my own death? What if doctors cut off a piece of the tumor that killed me and grew it in a lab for the next sixty years? What if scientists discovered a gene that would ensure my happiness no matter what life throws at me?

16 Jul 2010

MD Anderson Cancer Center continues to rank first in cancer care

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center remains the leading hospital in the nation for cancer care for the fourth year straight, according to the annual "Best Hospitals" survey published by U.S. News & World Report.This is the seventh time in the last nine years that MD Anderson has ranked number one in the annual listing. Since the survey began in 1990, the institution has been ranked one of the top two cancer hospitals in the United States.

16 Jul 2010

Study reveals improved process to obtain, store RNA from lung tumor biopsies

Analyzing the genes expressed by cancer cells allows for a better understanding of that patient's specific disease and in turn, a more personalized approach to treatment. But obtaining the RNA from a tumor in the lungs in order to conduct the genetic analysis is a challenging prospect. Currently, lung cancer researchers are limited to using RNA extracted from early-stage tumors removed during surgery. The small quantities of tissue extracted during routine diagnostic biopsies have not been useful to researchers, due to their small size and the variety of ways they have been processed.

16 Jul 2010

Arsenic nanoparticle to combat aggressive type of breast cancer prevalent in young women

You can teach an old drug new chemotherapy tricks. Northwestern University researchers took a drug therapy proven for blood cancers but ineffective against solid tumors, packaged it with nanotechnology and got it to combat an aggressive type of breast cancer prevalent in young women, particularly young African-American women.

16 Jul 2010

Meningiomas account for about 25% of primary brain tumors: Mayo Clinic Health Letter

Meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumors, are rarely cancerous and may not require treatment. The July issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter offers an overview of this brain tumor that is usually benign.

16 Jul 2010

Premier, Xoft execute group purchasing contract

Premier Inc., an alliance of more than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and 67,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to achieve high quality, cost-effective care, and Xoft, Inc., the leading provider of FDA-cleared Electronic Brachytherapy Systems, announced the execution of a group purchasing contract. Xoft was awarded an exclusive three-year contract for brachytherapy systems with Premier Purchasing Partners L.P., the group purchasing unit of Premier, Inc.

15 Jul 2010

NIH awards MacroGenics $9.8 million grant for three projects

MacroGenics, Inc, a privately held biotechnology company that develops immunotherapeutics to treat autoimmune disorders, cancer and infectious diseases, today announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the company three new grants representing total funding of $9.8 million.

15 Jul 2010

Plexxikon announces promising preclinical data of PLX3397

Plexxikon Inc. today announced promising preclinical data from in vivo Alzheimer's Disease studies demonstrating a dramatic reduction in activated microglia in the brains of very old (22 months) 3xTG-AD mice, a triple transgenic model for Alzheimer's Disease. This reduction of activated microglia led to significantly improved learning in the treated group.

15 Jul 2010

Medical standard of care triggers biological responses in brain that can fuel tumor cell survival: Researchers

The medical standard of care - comprised of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy - for the most common form of brain cancer triggers a number of biological responses that may actually feed the energy metabolism that supports the disease, according to Boston College researchers writing in the journal Lancet Oncology.

15 Jul 2010

Long-term exposure of arsenic may increase risk for lung cancer

To determine how arsenic increases the risk of lung cancer and to identify potential treatments, a Michigan State University researcher will use $1.7 million in federal funding during the next five years to examine why certain genes disrupt cells, leading to the disease.

15 Jul 2010

Keck School of Medicine receives grant for research on biomarker impact on breast cancer screening

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) will test whether a set of blood-based biomarkers can assist mammography in the early detection of breast cancer with a $180,000 grant announced today from Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. The grant will fund research into whether specific biomarkers, or minute substances in the blood, can effectively distinguish breast cancer patients from their healthy counterparts and whether an inexpensive, less invasive screening strategy can be developed based on this approach.

15 Jul 2010

JNK protein controls cell cycle, new study reveals

Put simply, a tumor is the result of out-of-control cell growth. To assure that the cell cycle - the cell's process of duplicating itself to make more cells - goes smoothly, a large network of proteins tells other proteins what to do and when to do it. When any of these layers of protein regulation fail, cell growth can get out of hand. A new study led by Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D., associate director of Sanford-Burnham's National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center, reveals a new player in cell cycle control.

15 Jul 2010

Study links high-fat diet as potential cause of prostatic diseases

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men with an estimated 192,280 new cases diagnosed in the US in 2009 (Jemal 2009). Diet is considered one of the most important controllable risk factors for inflammation and prostate diseases including benign prostatic hyperplsia, prostatitis, and prostate cancer.

15 Jul 2010