Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Fentanyl surpasses heroin in cause of U.S. drug overdose deaths

According to a new report from health officials, Fentanyl – a synthetic opioid drug, is surpassing heroin as cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States. The report was released 12th of December 2018 in the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Report.

13 Dec 2018

Prostate cancer detection using MRI now first-line investigation tool

Men with prostate cancers under the NHS would soon get non-invasive MRI scans for detections after a health body (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence or NICE) has given its approval. At present the MRI scans for detection have undergone pilot trials in three areas only and may soon be available all over Wales.

13 Dec 2018

Study finds drug targets for Ebola, Dengue, and Zika viruses

No drugs are currently available to treat Ebola, Dengue, or Zika viruses, which infect millions of people every year and result in severe illness, birth defects, and even death. New research from the Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco may finally change that. Scientists identified key ways the three viruses hijack the body's cells, and they found at least one potential drug that can disrupt this process in human cells.

13 Dec 2018

Researchers discover new mechanism behind spread of malignant pleural mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is divided into three subtypes, one of which is particularly aggressive. Researchers from the Comprehensive Cancer Center of MedUni Vienna and Vienna General Hospital have now managed to discover a mechanism that contributes to this aggressive behavior: the tumor cells of this subtype are able to assume special characteristics that promote migration and therefore spread of the cancer.

13 Dec 2018

Research identifies nerve-signaling pathway behind sustained pain after injury

A toddler puts her hand on a hot stove and swiftly withdraws it. Alas, it's too late--the child's finger has sustained a minor burn. To soothe the pain, she puts the burned finger in her mouth.

13 Dec 2018

Cancer patients have greater risk of developing shingles, study shows

People newly diagnosed with cancer, particularly blood cancers, and those treated with chemotherapy have a greater risk of developing shingles, according to a new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

13 Dec 2018

New ingestible capsule can be controlled using Bluetooth wireless technology

Researchers at MIT, Draper, and Brigham and Women's Hospital have designed an ingestible capsule that can be controlled using Bluetooth wireless technology. The capsule, which can be customized to deliver drugs, sense environmental conditions, or both, can reside in the stomach for at least a month, transmitting information and responding to instructions from a user's smartphone.

13 Dec 2018

Salk professor receives $1.8 million from NOMIS Foundation for research on mechanisms to promote health

Associate Professor Janelle Ayres has been awarded $1.8 million over two years by the NOMIS Foundation to study health as an active process in which microbes--including the trillions of microorganisms that call the human body home--initiate interactions that promote the health of the host.

13 Dec 2018

Scientists develop new stem cell line to study conversion of stem cells into muscle

To help patients with muscle disorders, scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have engineered a new stem cell line to study the conversion of stem cells into muscle. Findings appeared in Cell Reports.

13 Dec 2018

Study: Loss of tight junction barrier protein results in gastric cancer development

Tight junctions are multi-protein complexes that serve as barriers in epithelial tissues such as the skin or lining of the gut. Loss of a specific tight junction barrier protein, claudin 18, occurs in the majority of gastric cancer patients and is correlated with poor prognosis in patients with advanced gastric cancer.

13 Dec 2018

Allen Institute for Immunology: A new division focused on human immune system

The Allen Institute today announced the launch of the Allen Institute for Immunology, a new division of the Institute that is dedicated to studying the human immune system.

13 Dec 2018

Study assesses safety and efficacy of new treatment for pancreatic cancer

Gemcitabine given in combination with nab-paclitaxel is the standard of care for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. This practice, however, rests on data obtained from several recent clinical trials enrolling patients with pancreatic cancer who skewed younger and in better overall condition than most.

13 Dec 2018

New method to visualize small-molecule interactions inside cells

Like people in a large company, proteins in cells constantly interact with each other to perform various jobs. To develop new disease therapies, researchers are trying to control these interactions with small-molecule drugs that cause specific proteins to associate more or less with their "coworkers."

13 Dec 2018

New mouse model shows potential for rapid identification of promising muscular dystrophy therapies

A Massachusetts General Hospital research team has created a new mouse model of a common form of muscular dystrophy with the potential of rapidly distinguishing promising therapeutic drugs from those unlikely to be successful.

13 Dec 2018

Hearing loss linked with increased risk for premature death

A new study links hearing loss with an increased risk for mortality before the age of 75 due to cardiovascular disease. Researchers at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that mortality among those with hearing loss is elevated, particularly among men and women younger than age 75 and those who are divorced or separated.

13 Dec 2018

Exercise may reduce colorectal cancer risk after weight loss

New research suggests that exercise is a key factor in reducing colorectal cancer risk after weight loss. According to the study, physical activity causes beneficial changes in the bone marrow. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology--Endocrinology and Metabolism.

13 Dec 2018

Unraveling the complexity of cancer biology can prompt new avenues for drug development

Unraveling the complexity of cancer biology can lead to the identification of new molecules involved in breast cancer and prompt new avenues for drug development. And proteogenomics, an integrated, multipronged approach, seems to be a way to do it.

13 Dec 2018

New substance could improve efficacy of established breast cancer treatments

Physicians from Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems (Austria) demonstrate potential for clinical application, collaborating with research groups from Germany, the USA, and China.

13 Dec 2018

Research identifies new therapeutic target for cancer treatment and tissue regeneration

Research led by the University of Plymouth and Technische Universität Dresden has identified a new therapeutic target for cancer treatment and tissue regeneration - a protein called Prominin-1.

13 Dec 2018

Surgical treatment unnecessary for many prostate cancer patients

Otherwise healthy men with advanced prostate cancer may benefit greatly from surgery, but many with this diagnosis have no need for it. These conclusions were reached by researchers after following a large group of Scandinavian men with prostate cancer for 29 years. The results are now published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

12 Dec 2018