Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

New technique effective in jumpstarting defective immune systems against many diseases

In a study published in Nature Medicine, Loyola researchers report on a promising new technique that potentially could turn immune system killer T cells into more effective weapons against infections and possibly cancer.

26 Feb 2012

Exelixis announces cabozantinib preclinical data on pancreatic cancer

Exelixis, Inc. today announced the company's lead compound, cabozantinib, is highlighted in a new peer-reviewed publication demonstrating that simultaneous inhibition of MET and VEGF signaling reduces tumor invasiveness and metastasis in preclinical models of pancreatic cancer.

26 Feb 2012

Cost of NHS prescriptions set to rise

Mr. Burns outlined a number of changes in the amounts charged for NHS services in a written statement to MPs. He added that patients purchasing a three-month or annual prescription payment certificate (PPC) will not face any increase, with the costs remaining at £29.10 and £104, respectively. The health minister pointed out that PPCs “offer savings for those needing four or more items in three months or 14 or more items in one year”.

26 Feb 2012

Skin cancer drug may prolong survival in advanced cases: Study

Researchers say 132 patients in the U.S. and Australia who were given the drug vemurafenib gained several extra months of life. The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that those on the drug lived an average of 16 months, compared with nine months on conventional treatment.

26 Feb 2012

Citrus fruits may keep stroke at bay for women

In the study published last Thursday in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association, researchers analyzed the flavonoid intake of 69,622 women from the U.S.-based Nurses’ Health Study, which has followed nurses since 1976 to assess risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer. The total flavonoid intake of the 69,622 women was calculated after they completed food intake questionnaires collected every four years using a U.S. Department of Agriculture database. They found that during 14 years of follow up surveys beginning in 1990, 1,803 incidents of strokes were confirmed from the women.

26 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Elizabeth Warren on contraception mandate, comparison shopping for drugs, 'dismantling' Illinois

In this Kaiser Health News Different Takes feature, The University Of Maryland's Dr. E. Albert Reece and The Heritage Foundation's Stuart Butler discuss how health enterprise zones, a new take on an old economic development idea, might be used to improve the health of the state's minority populations (2/23). Read the commentaries by Reece and Butler.

24 Feb 2012

Senate contests touch on contraception, health reform issues

Media outlets report on how these issues are being debated in Senate campaigns in Massachusetts and Texas.

24 Feb 2012

Research roundup: Hospital medication errors; Key Medicaid issues in 2014

Use Of Preventive Services Could Be Better Aligned With Clinical Recommendations -- This report looks at Medicare patients' use of eight specific preventive services, which have "the potential to improve health outcomes and lower health care expenditures," according to the authors. Use of cardiovascular and cervical cancer screenings "generally aligned with clinical recommendations, ... but use of other cancer screenings" did not.

24 Feb 2012

UCSF: 1-2 punch blocks tumor growth, invasion and metastasis

Simultaneous targeting of two different molecules in cancer is an effective way to shrink tumors, block invasion, and stop metastasis, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have found-work that may improve the effectiveness of combination treatments that include drugs like Avastin.

24 Feb 2012

Texas bars abortion providers from Medicaid, endangering federal money

Texas is barring abortion providers from the state's Medicaid program in defiance of the federal government, sparking a showdown that could close the state's Women's Health Program.

24 Feb 2012

New, less toxic radiotherapy technique specifically targets cancerous tissue

Researchers at the University of Granada and the university hospital Virgen de las Nieves in Granada have developed a new radiotherapy technique that is much less toxic than that traditionally used and only targets cancerous tissue.

24 Feb 2012

Celldex announces pricing of underwritten public offering of common stock

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 10,500,000 shares of its common stock, offered at a price to the public of $3.85 per share for an aggregate offering of $40,425,000 of common stock.

24 Feb 2012

Rhei granted marketing approval for MuGard in China

ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., a biopharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary drug-delivery platforms to develop treatments in areas of oncology, diabetes, and RNAi, announced that its MuGard partner in China, Rhei Pharmaceuticals HK Ltd., received regulatory and marketing approval for MuGard in China from the State Food and Drug Administration, or SFDA, to treat oral mucositis in cancer patients.

24 Feb 2012

YM BioSciences prices 35,000,000 common shares in underwritten public offering

YM BioSciences Inc., a drug development company advancing a diverse portfolio of hematology and cancer related products, today announced the pricing of 35,000,000 common shares at US$2.00 per common share in its previously announced underwritten public offering.

24 Feb 2012

FDA clears invendo medical's new C20 colonoscopy system

invendo medical announced today that the company received 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of the company's new C20 colonoscopy system including the SC20 single-use colonoscope.

24 Feb 2012

New insurance coverage option may have negative effects on veteran's health care

While the Affordable Care Act will expand health insurance coverage for low-income persons through Medicaid and state health-insurance exchanges, including much-needed care for 1.8 million uninsured veterans in the U.S., the new insurance coverage option also may have a number of unintended negative effects on health care for veterans, said Kenneth W. Kizer, director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement at UC Davis Health System.

24 Feb 2012

Higher alcohol intake may increase risk of CRC among obese people

A case-control study from Newfoundland/Labrador has reported that greater alcohol intake may increase the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) among obese subjects, but not among non-obese subjects.

24 Feb 2012

Ipsen, Active Biotech report data from tasquinimod Phase II study on CRPC

Active Biotech's and Ipsen's castrate resistant prostate cancer project, TASQ, will be presented at the 27th Annual EAU Congress held in Paris on 24-28 February 2012.

24 Feb 2012

Study strengthens statistical link between BPA and heart disease

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a controversial chemical widely used in the plastics industry. A new study followed people over a 10-year time period and shows that healthy people with higher urine concentrations of BPA were more likely to later develop heart disease.

24 Feb 2012

Scientists identify specific pathways behind breast cell's transformation into cancer

Although it's widely accepted that inflammation is a critical underlying factor in a range of diseases, including the progression of cancer, little is known about its role when normal cells become tumor cells. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shed new light on exactly how the activation of a pair of inflammatory signaling pathways leads to the transformation of normal breast cells to cancer cells.

24 Feb 2012