Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Study details how breast tumors may flip TGF-beta signalling switch

Signals can tell cells to act cancerous, surviving, growing and reproducing out of control. And signals can also tell cells with cancerous characteristics to stop growing or to die. In breast cancer, one tricky signal called TGF-beta does both - sometimes promoting tumors and sometimes suppressing them.

17 Feb 2012

Study: 3D organization of chromosomes plays a role in cancer genomics

It is well understood that chromosomal translocation - a process whereby pieces of two chromosomes break off and exchange places - is a hallmark of many cancers including leukemia, thyroid cancer and lymphoma and play an important part in how healthy cells become cancerous. The role spatial proximity plays in why certain chromosomal translocations happen repeatedly, however, has been a long-standing area of debate among scientists.

17 Feb 2012

Researchers sequence genome of Tasmanian devil contagious cancer

Researchers have sequenced the genome of a contagious cancer that is threatening the Tasmanian devil, the world's largest carnivorous marsupial, with extinction. Cataloguing the mutations present in the cancer has led to clues about where the cancer came from and how it became contagious.

17 Feb 2012

Scientists create first 3-D living tissue model of glioma

Brown University scientists have created the first three-dimensional living tissue model, complete with surrounding blood vessels, to analyze the effectiveness of therapeutics to combat brain tumors. The 3-D model gives medical researchers more and better information than Petri dish tissue cultures.

17 Feb 2012

New transfection method changes genetic material of cancer cells

Researchers at Polytechnique Montr-al have succeeded in changing the genetic material of cancer cells using a brand-new transfection method. This major breakthrough in nanosurgery opens the door to new medical applications, among others for the treatment of cancers.

17 Feb 2012

Sebelius: Exchanges will strengthen employer health coverage

The health and human services secretary told Senate Finance Committee members she expects health insurance exchanges to give employers another option to provide coverage to workers. In the meantime, HHS is touting newly covered preventive services it says 86 million Americans have used.

17 Feb 2012

New preclinical data from Regulus' miR-21 study on kidney fibrosis

Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company leading the discovery and development of innovative medicines targeting microRNAs, today announced that new preclinical data investigating the role of microRNA-21 (miR-21) in the treatment of kidney fibrosis has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

17 Feb 2012

Viewpoints: Contraception conscience vs. political objections; Is the mandate the 'non-tax' tax?

The president's new birth control plan would insure coverage of women's birth control without copayments or deductibles. Sounds fair, especially given that men's anti-impotence Viagra treatments have been covered by insurance plans for years.

17 Feb 2012

Sandia's decontamination foam now used for meth lab cleanup

Sandia's decontamination foam, developed more than a decade ago and used to decontaminate federal office buildings and mailrooms during the 2001 anthrax attacks, is now being used to decontaminate illegal methamphetamine labs.

17 Feb 2012

New genetic resource to accelerate development of novel treatments for diseases

A new genetic resource from an international research consortium is expected to accelerate the development of new cures and treatments for a wide range of human diseases. This project, called the mouse "Collaborative Cross" (CC) resource, will increase the likelihood that experiments conducted in mice will advance our understanding of human biology.

17 Feb 2012

Collaborative Cross can help fast-track key discoveries about genetics and disease

A series of 15 scientific papers published this week in the journals of the Genetics Society of America (Genetics and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics) put North Carolina at the epicenter of a scientific resource called the Collaborative Cross - a "library" of genetic diversity that scientists believe can help fast-track important discoveries about genetics and disease into new discoveries, tests, and treatments that impact human health.

17 Feb 2012

IKK2 enzyme plays a key role in proliferation of lung cancer cells

Drugs targeting an enzyme involved in inflammation might offer a new avenue for treating certain lung cancers, according to a new study by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

17 Feb 2012

AstraZeneca launches ARIMIDEX Direct to help cancer patients

AstraZeneca today announced its first-ever direct-to-patient program offering patients with a valid prescription for ARIMIDEX or anastrozole the opportunity to have the brand ARIMIDEX delivered directly to their home by Express Scripts, a specialty pharmacy services provider, for $40 per month, including shipping.

17 Feb 2012

New way to improve vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases

Research groups from Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Geneva have discovered a new way of improving vaccines against infectious diseases and for use in cancer therapies. Scientists have shown a basic new mechanism that stimulates the body's own alarm signals in case of viral infection to animate the immune system to maximum performance.

17 Feb 2012

Synthetic Oct4 protein more effective at turning genes into pluripotent stem cells

Scientists have found a way to generate and maintain stem cells much more efficiently by amplifying the effect of an essential protein.

17 Feb 2012

New details about how cell signalling is controlled in immune system

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have revealed new details about how cell signalling is controlled in the immune system, identifying in the process potential new therapeutic targets for treating severe blood disorders.

17 Feb 2012

Jefferson's KCC creates new center to reduce and eradicate cancer disparities

In an effort to reduce and eventually eliminate cancer disparities among adults in the Philadelphia region, the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson has established the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities.

17 Feb 2012

Scientist uses GPUs to simulate inner workings of human cells

The cure for cancer comes down to this: video games. In a research lab at Wake Forest University, biophysicist and computer scientist Samuel Cho uses graphics processing units (GPUs), the technology that makes videogame images so realistic, to simulate the inner workings of human cells.

17 Feb 2012

Cryoablation increases survival rates in ovarian cancer patients

Ovarian cancer, which killed 15,000 American women last year, is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. A team of Wayne State University School of Medicine researchers recently proved that freezing tumors increases survival rates in ovarian cancer patients.

17 Feb 2012

Biochemists determine first crystal structure of an immunoproteasome

Like a shredder, the immunoproteasome cuts down proteins into peptides that are subsequently presented on the cellular surface. The immune system can distinguish between self and nonself peptides and selectively kills cells that due to a viral infection present non-self peptides at their surface. In autoimmune diseases this mechanism is deregulated and the immune system also eliminates uninfected cells by mistake.

16 Feb 2012