Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

NSERC awards $5M grant to develop faster detection methods for cancer

A nanomedicine research group led by a University of Toronto chemist has received a $5-million grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), giving them the green light to develop faster ways of detecting leukemia and lung cancer cells.

28 Sep 2009

Health inequalities linked to socioeconomic status

Prostate cancer patients of low socioeconomic status are more likely to die than patients with higher incomes. That is the finding of a new study from Swiss researchers to be published in the December 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

28 Sep 2009

Research reveals prophylactic mastectomy is on the rise

A new study of New York State data finds that the number of women opting for surgery to remove the healthy breast after a cancer diagnosis in one breast is rising, despite a lack of evidence that the surgery can improve survival.

28 Sep 2009

Rosiglitazone slows progression of cachexia in cancer affected mice

Insulin resistance, the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and a condition often associated with obesity, is paradoxically also an apparent contributor to muscle wasting and severe fat loss that accompanies some cancers, according to new research.

27 Sep 2009

Pfizer to commence Phase 3 trial of oral c-Met and ALK inhibitor

Pfizer Oncology announced today that it will initiate a global, Phase 3 clinical trial of its investigational oral c-Met and ALK inhibitor, PF-02341066, versus standard of care chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) carrying the ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinases) fusion gene, who have progressed on one prior treatment with a platinum-based chemotherapy.

26 Sep 2009

NIEHS director to discuss health concerns with citizens

The director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) will visit Milwaukee to preside over a "Town Hall Meeting" in which the public can discuss with local, state and federal authorities how the physical environment underlies many of the health problems in Milwaukee.

26 Sep 2009

Morphotek announces preliminary data from Phase II trial of farletuzumab

Morphotek(R), Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Corporation of North America, today announced preliminary data from a Phase II trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of farletuzumab in platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer subjects experiencing their first relapse. Farletuzumab (MORAb-003) is a humanized monoclonal antibody that targets the Folate Receptor Alpha (FRA).

26 Sep 2009

GenVec to receive $2.3M from NIAID for HIV vaccine candidate production

GenVec, Inc. announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has executed its third option period (year four) under a previously announced, five-year contract with GenVec valued at up to $52 million for the production of HIV vaccines.

26 Sep 2009

G-bor Bal-zsi's innovative research in drug resistance earns select honor

A unique approach to understanding how cells develop resistance to drugs has won a scientist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health.

26 Sep 2009

RWJF Nursing Scholarship Program helps alleviate nation's nursing shortage

Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (MNSON) has been awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funding through the RWJF New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program.

25 Sep 2009

Stelara approved by the FDA for treating psoriasis

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Stelara (ustekinumab), a biologic product for adults who have a moderate to severe form of psoriasis.

25 Sep 2009

Androgen deficiency linked to diabetes and cardiovascular diseases

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in collaboration with researchers from Lahey Clinic Northshore, Peabody, Mass., believe that androgen deficiency might be the underlying cause for a variety of common clinical conditions, including diabetes, erectile dysfunction, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (CVD). These findings appear in the September/October issue of the Journal of Andrology.

25 Sep 2009

Careful follow-up after eradication therapy for peptic ulcer needed

Although it has been demonstrated that Helicobacter pylori causes gastric cancer, it is still controversial that whether H. pylori eradication therapy is effective in primary prevention of gastric cancer. This is especially important for Yamagata Prefecture, a region of Japan with the second highest incidence of gastric cancer in the world.

25 Sep 2009

Non-AIDS-defining malignancies more prevalent among HIV-infected patients than non-HIV patients

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that non-AIDS-defining malignancies such as anal and lung cancer have become more prevalent among HIV-infected patients than non-HIV patients since the introduction of anti-retroviral therapies in the mid-1990s.

25 Sep 2009

Folotyn approved for the treatment of Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Folotyn (pralatrexate), the first treatment for a form of cancer known as Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma (PTCL), an often aggressive type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

25 Sep 2009

NIH calls for identifying better methods to predict the risk of developing breast cancer

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the most common non-invasive lesion of the breast, presents unique challenges for patients and providers largely because the natural course of the untreated disease is not well understood. Because most women diagnosed with DCIS are treated, it is difficult to determine the comparative benefits of different treatment strategies versus active surveillance, meaning systematic followup.

25 Sep 2009

On quality of care, U.S. is not always best

The Washington Post interviewed Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., about other developed nations' health care systems: "We won't adopt the German system or French system or anything of the like. But I think we can get clues on the fundamental differences of various systems," he said. Conrad added that the system that has "largely been adopted in France, Germany, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland, is not government-run.

25 Sep 2009

DOR Biopharma to raise $3.85 million from institutional investors

DOR BioPharma, Inc. (DOR or the Company) (OTC Bulletin Board: DORB), a late-stage biotechnology company, announced today that it has entered into common stock purchase agreements with institutional investors totaling approximately $3.85 million. DOR's North American commercial partner, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc., participated in this financing.

25 Sep 2009

NCI awards Altor Bioscience a $3 MM grant to develop its targeted cancer therapeutic ALT-801

Altor BioScience Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Bridge Grant by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award of $3 MM over three years will help Altor further its clinical development of ALT-801, a novel tumor-targeted immunotherapeutic designed to improve the efficacy and safety of the FDA-approved anticancer cytokine, interleukin-2 (IL-2).

25 Sep 2009

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to raise public awareness about breast cancer

A sea of pink t-shirts will stretch from Athens to Bologna to Frankfurt to Zurich to Antwerp today in an effort to raise public awareness about breast cancer. In five cities across Europe, breast cancer survivors, their families, friends, supporters and advocates will join forces in a show of strength, courage and solidarity.

25 Sep 2009