Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Shire extends existing partnership with Santaris Pharma in rare genetic disease space

Santaris Pharma A/S, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies, today announced that its long term partner, Shire has extended the existing partnership in the rare genetic disease space.

23 Aug 2013

Tufts Health Plan provides positive coverage decision and in-network provider status to bioTheranostics

bioTheranostics, a leading provider of molecular diagnostic solutions for cancer, has received a positive coverage decision and in-network provider status from Tufts Health Plan for its CancerTYPE ID molecular cancer classifier.

23 Aug 2013

Stem cell therapy improves radiation-induced cognitive impairment

Patients receiving cranial irradiation treatment for brain cancer may find the treatment life-saving, but often suffer progressive and debilitating cognitive detriments, including spatial learning and memory deficits. The cognitive deficits are a contributing factor to the often significant adverse impacts on the surviving patients' quality of life after radiation therapy. In an effort to improve post-irradiation cognitive impairment, scientists at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues at Neuralstem, Inc. (Rockville, MD), have transplanted fetal stem cells into laboratory animals with radiation-induced cognitive impairments and found that this led to a number of cognitive improvements.

23 Aug 2013

Challenges of studying health and mortality risks of obesity

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine point out that the body mass index, based on the weight and height, is not an accurate measure of body fat content and does not account for critical factors that contribute to health or mortality, such as fat distribution, proportion of muscle to fat, and the sex and racial differences in body composition.

23 Aug 2013

Researchers develop inexpensive test kit that detects phenolic compounds in water

Clean drinking water is a diminishing natural resource in developing nations and in many industrialised countries. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a simple and inexpensive test kit that detects phenolic compounds in water. Sources of phenolic compounds found in drinking water include industrial wastewaters, drug residues and pipes.

23 Aug 2013

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins-published journals win 13 APEX Awards

Wolters Kluwer Health, a world leader in healthcare information solutions, is pleased to announce that nine of its Lippincott Williams & Wilkins-published journals won 13 highly regarded awards in the 25th annual APEX Awards for Publication Excellence Competition.

23 Aug 2013

Moffitt Cancer Center study could offer hope to melanoma sufferers

A new study at Moffitt Cancer Center could offer hope to people with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Researchers are investigating whether an injectable known as PV-10 can shrink tumors and reduce the spread of cancer.

23 Aug 2013

New radiation treatment can reduce bone pain, extend lives of prostate cancer patients

Prostate cancer that has spread to the bones can cause pain and fractures. Loyola University Medical Center is among the first hospitals in Chicago to offer a new targeted radiation treatment that can reduce bone pain and the incidence of fractures - and also extend patients' lives.

23 Aug 2013

Seven researchers to receive grants from ASTRO to advance radiation oncology research

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has selected seven (7) leading researchers who will receive a total of $675,000 in awards and grants to advance radiation oncology research.

23 Aug 2013

ATF3 gene may be the crucial link between stress and breast cancer: Study

In an unexpected finding, scientists have linked the activation of a stress gene in immune-system cells to the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body.

23 Aug 2013

Drug to treat blood cancers may also stop spread of invasive breast cancer

A drug used to treat blood cancers may also stop the spread of invasive breast cancer, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have discovered. Their study, published online in Breast Cancer Research, found that in the lab and in animals, the drug decitabine turns on a gene coding for protein kinase D1 (PRKD1) that halts the ability of cancer cells to separate from a tumor and spread to distant organs.

23 Aug 2013

Study confirms exposure to arsenic in drinking water can impair lung function

A new study confirms that exposure to low to moderate amounts of arsenic in drinking water can impair lung function. Doses of about 120 parts per billion of arsenic in well water-about 12 times the dose generally considered safe-produced lung damage comparable to decades of smoking tobacco. Smoking, especially by males, made arsenic-related damage even worse.

23 Aug 2013

MC1R mutation responsible for red hair phenotype also promotes cancer-causing pathway

A person's skin pigment, which determines hair color and skin tone, is influenced by the melanocortin-1 (MC1R) gene receptor. For the population's one to two percent of redheads, a mutation in MC1R accounts for their red hair color and typical light skin.

23 Aug 2013

Noninvasive urine test can accurately monitor risk of kidney rejection

Levels of a protein in the urine of kidney transplant recipients can distinguish those at low risk of developing kidney injury from those at high risk, a study suggests. The results also suggest that low levels of this protein, called CXCL9, can rule out rejection as a cause of kidney injury.

23 Aug 2013