Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Survival rate for African-American men with prostate cancer now comparable to Caucasians

The routine use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for screening and monitoring prostate cancer has led to early and more sensitive detection of the disease. A new study published in The Journal of Urology- reports that in the "PSA era," survival has improved for patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer that has spread to the bones or other parts of the body and the disparity between African American and Caucasian men has been resolved.

24 Aug 2012

Cocoa and blood pressure: an interview with Dr Karin Ried

The compounds in cocoa responsible for blood pressure reduction are called flavanols or polyphenols. Flavanols are also found in green tea, dark berries or red wine.

24 Aug 2012

Researchers create super-sensor that can detect even single samples of viruses

By affixing nanoscale gold spheres onto a microscopic bead of glass, researchers have created a super-sensor that can detect even single samples of the smallest known viruses. The sensor uses a peculiar behavior of light known as "whispering gallery mode," named after the famous circular gallery in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, where a whisper near the wall can be heard around the gallery.

24 Aug 2012

Parental methylated histones not transferred to daughter DNA

It's widely accepted that molecular mechanisms mediating epigenetics include DNA methylation and histone modifications, but a team from Thomas Jefferson University has evidence to the contrary regarding the role of histone modifications.

24 Aug 2012

Certain human diseases may have evolutionary epigenetic origins

Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee's genome is the same as a human's. It's the other 4 percent, and the vast differences, that pique the interest of Georgia Tech's Soojin Yi. For instance, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, even though chimps rarely develop the disease? In research published in September's American Journal of Human Genetics, Yi looked at brain samples of each species. She found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes.

24 Aug 2012

Scientists develop reliable method to convert adult blood cells into iPSCs

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body.

24 Aug 2012

Changes in DNA methylation might be linked to evolution of humans' vulnerability to diseases

Chimpanzees rarely get cancer, or a variety of other diseases that commonly arise in humans, but their genomic DNA sequence is nearly identical to ours. So, what's their secret? Researchers reporting in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, a Cell Press journal, have found that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, might play a role.

24 Aug 2012

The Wistar Institute, MSKCC partner to publish first annotated atlas of Epstein-Barr virus genome

Researchers from The Wistar Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have teamed to publish the first annotated atlas of the Epstein-Barr virus genome, creating the most comprehensive study of how the viral genome interacts with its human host during a latent infection. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is thought to be responsible for one percent of all human cancers, establishes a latent infection in nearly 100 percent of infected adult humans.

24 Aug 2012

Study shows how cancer survival rates developed in West Germany

Data from the 1970s and 1980s show that people affected by cancer survived significantly longer in West Germany than cancer patients behind the Iron Curtain.

24 Aug 2012

New method can differentiate between breast cancer patients with good and poor prognosis

It is now possible to identify aggressive breast cancers by interpreting the mathematical patterns in the cancer genome. Researchers at the University of Oslo, Norway (UiO) have developed a completely new method for differentiating between breast cancer patients with high and low risks of dying from the illness.

24 Aug 2012

Nanoparticle may bring great benefits to emergency treatment of brain-injury victims

A nanoparticle developed at Rice University and tested in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) may bring great benefits to the emergency treatment of brain-injury victims, even those with mild injuries.

24 Aug 2012

Racial differences persist in prostate cancer surgical care

A study led by investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), Nashville, Tenn., finds that black men with prostate cancer receive lower quality surgical care than white men. The racial differences persist even when controlling for factors such as the year of surgery, age, comorbidities and insurance status.

24 Aug 2012

GlcNAc plays a key role in keeping cancerous monsters ‘fed’

Behaving something like ravenous monsters, tumors need plentiful supplies of cellular building blocks such as amino acids and nucleotides in order to keep growing at a rapid pace and survive under harsh conditions. How such tumors meet these burgeoning demands has not been fully understood.

24 Aug 2012

PHF20 transcriptional factor plays a unique role in regulating p53

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have identified PHF20, a novel transcriptional factor, and clarified its role in maintaining the stability and transcription of p53, a gene that allows for both normal cell growth and tumor suppression. PHF20, the researchers found, plays a previously unknown and unique role in regulating p53.

24 Aug 2012

Results from Biodesix VeriStrat phase II advanced lung cancer trials

Biodesix today announced that VeriStrat results from two phase II advanced lung cancer trials will be presented at the upcoming 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.

24 Aug 2012

MOZ protein could explain variations in severity of DiGeorge syndrome

The discovery of a 'switch' that modifies a gene known to be essential for normal heart development could explain variations in the severity of birth defects in children with DiGeorge syndrome.

24 Aug 2012

NW Bio receives MHRA approval to initiate DCVax-L Phase III GBM brain cancer trial in the U.K.

Northwest Biotherapeutics announced today that it has received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of the United Kingdom, for the Company's 300-patient Phase III clinical trial of DCVax-L immune therapy for Glioblastoma multiforme brain cancer (GBM) to proceed in the U.K.

24 Aug 2012

NCKU research team identifies Au nanorod complex for cancer therapy

A National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) research team has discovered Near-Infrared Light-Responsive oligonucleotide-gated Au nanoensembles (Au nanorod complex), a potent new anti-cancer complex that is seen as a promising targeted therapy for curing cancer.

24 Aug 2012

AcelRx commences third ARX-01 Phase 3 study in post-operative pain

AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapies for the treatment of acute and breakthrough pain, today announced dosing of the first patient in the third of three planned Phase 3 studies for ARX-01, the Sufentanil NanoTab PCA System, its novel sublingual patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) system.

24 Aug 2012

Annual follow up after ESD for early gastric cancer recommended

Almost all recurrent lesions in gastric epithelial cancer could be cured by endoscopic submucosal resection with annual follow-up exams, say the authors of a Japanese study.

23 Aug 2012