Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

First Edition: November 14, 2011

In today's headlines, reports about the Supreme Court's expected health law announcement; about where things stand with the super committee and its fast-approaching deadline; and other health policy news.

14 Nov 2011

Luminescent upconversion nanocrystals can detect cancer cells

Upconversion emission materials are ideal for bioimaging due to its effectiveness as contrast agents for the detection of cancer cells, more so when the background emission of non-cancerous tissues can be minimised. These materials could be used as biomarkers for luminescent labeling of cancerous cells. Opaque tissues can be turned into glassy, transparent substances by using these biomarkers which rely on near-infrared excitation.

14 Nov 2011

First study to look at alcohol consumption in adolescents and risk of breast disease

Adding to research linking alcohol to breast cancer risk, a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that adolescent girls with a family history of breast disease - either cancer or the benign lesions that can become cancer - have a higher risk of developing benign breast disease as young women than other girls. And unlike girls without a family history, this already-elevated risk rises with increasing alcohol consumption.

14 Nov 2011

Study uses fMRI to assess changes in brain after exercise intervention

Areas of the brain responsible for pain processing and cognitive performance changed in fibromyalgia patients who exercised following a medication holiday, say researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center. They say the changes indicate brain functioning is more streamlined after an exercise intervention because less of the brain-s resources is devoted to processing bothersome fibromyalgia perceptions such as pain.

14 Nov 2011

Scientists discover molecular basis for tamoxifen resistance and potential way to defeat it

In the last three decades, thousands of women with breast cancer have taken the drug tamoxifen, only to discover that the therapy doesn't work, either because their tumors do not respond to the treatment at all, or because they develop resistance to it over time. Now researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have discovered the molecular basis for tamoxifen resistance and found a potential way to defeat it.

14 Nov 2011

Scientists create new phenotypic cancer drug screening platform

Researchers have created a new phenotypic screening platform that better predicts success of drugs developed to prevent blood vessel tumor growth when moving out of the lab and onto actual tumors.

14 Nov 2011

New-onset AF, severe sepsis may increase risk of stroke and mortality in hospital settings

A recent study led by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) shows an increased risk of stroke and mortality among patients diagnosed with severe sepsis and new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) during hospitalization.

14 Nov 2011

Scientists identify factors that lead to concomitant tumor resistance

Scientists are another step closer to understanding what drives tumor metastasis, as laboratory models suggest there are factors inside tumors that can slow their own growth.

14 Nov 2011

Next-generation drugs may prevent skin lesions in BRAF mutation-positive melanoma

Findings from preclinical studies in a skin cancer model showed that next-generation BRAF inhibitors used alone, or first-generation BRAF inhibitors used in combination with an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor, may have the potential to prevent drug-induced skin lesions in BRAF mutation-positive patients treated for melanoma.

14 Nov 2011

ZIOPHARM announces darinaparsin preclinical data on prostate cancer

ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc., a drug development company employing small molecule and synthetic biology approaches to cancer therapy, announced today that results from preclinical studies of darinaparsin (Zinapar or ZIO-101), a novel organic arsenic, in prostate cancer were presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, taking place November 12-16 in San Francisco.

14 Nov 2011

Combination of REGN910 and aflibercept inhibits tumor angiogenesis in animal models

Combining the investigational agents REGN910 and aflibercept yielded statistically significant improvements in antitumor effects in animal models compared with either agent alone, according to results presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held Nov. 12-16, 2011.

14 Nov 2011

Amplification of ALK gene may drive rapid breast cancer metastasis

Amplification of anaplastic lymphoma kinase, which has been reported in other cancers such as non-small cell lung cancers, may be a primary driver of the rapid metastasis that patients with inflammatory breast cancer experience.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers show how ER-positive breast cancer tumors become resistant to tamoxifen

Researchers have shown how estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer tumors become resistant to tamoxifen, the only approved hormonal therapy for premenopausal patients with this type of breast cancer.

14 Nov 2011

Exelixis reports cabozantinib phase 2 trial data on bone metastases

Exelixis, Inc. today reported interim data on pain relief and related reduction in narcotic analgesic use with cabozantinib in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients with bone metastases.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers identify new cancer drug discovery approach

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center have identified a new drug discovery approach enabling the destruction of the most highly proliferative tumors.

14 Nov 2011

Alcohol consumption may increase risk of benign breast disease in adolescents

Breast cancer patients often wonder what their daughters might do to reduce their risk of also developing cancer. Are there dietary intakes or behaviors that can be modified by their daughters to lower their own chances of getting the disease? A new study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, sought information relevant to this question.

14 Nov 2011

New data on TetraLogic's TL32711 cancer drug to be presented at AACR-NCI-EORTC conference

TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel small molecule Smac mimetic drugs to treat cancer, today announced presentations of new data on its Smac mimetic drug candidate TL32711 at the 2011 AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in San Francisco.

14 Nov 2011

Patients with KRAS mutant NSCLC should respond well to antifolates

Patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have mutations in the KRAS gene should respond well to the antifolate class of drugs, according to results of a recent study conducted by Quintiles comparing human lung cancer cell lines and patients.

14 Nov 2011

Novel gene mutation may increase risk of inherited and sporadic cases of MM

A major international study has identified a novel gene mutation that appears to increase the risk of both inherited and sporadic cases of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.

14 Nov 2011

Researchers retrace evolution of unusual bacterial infection

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston have retraced the evolution of an unusual bacterial infection as it spread among cystic fibrosis patients by sequencing scores of samples collected during the outbreak, since contained.

14 Nov 2011