Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Study compares benefits of laparoscopic and traditional open surgery for prostate cancer

The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the proverb goes. A study appearing in an upcoming edition of The Journal of Oncology appears to prove just that. The study compares the benefits of laparoscopic surgery versus traditional open surgery in the treatment of prostate cancer. With traditional surgery, surgeons remove the prostate gland via an incision below the belly button.

24 Sep 2009

HPV screening and vaccination programmes could eradicate cervical cancer

Cervical cancer could be eradicated within the next 50 years if countries implement national screening programmes based on detection of the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes the disease, together with vaccination programmes against the virus, according to a cervical cancer screening expert.

24 Sep 2009

"Top Docs" ad campaign suit resolved

Virtua may continue advertising that it has the most Top Docs as a result of a Consent Order agreed to by the parties in the suit brought by Cooper against Virtua in February 2009.

24 Sep 2009

Collaborative clinical care network at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Fostering innovation to speed the improvement of health care is the goal of an $8.3 million grant to researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

24 Sep 2009

Research study links cancer to excess body weight

At least 124,000 new cancers in 2008 in Europe may have been caused by excess body weight, according to estimates from a new modelling study. The proportion of cases of new cancers attributable to a body mass index of 25kg/m2 or more were highest among women and in central European countries such as the Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

From The University of Manchester 24 Sep 2009

Merck, QIAGEN to collaborate to increase access to HPV vaccination and HPV DNA testing in developing countries

Merck & Co., Inc. and QIAGEN N.V. today announced their intent to collaborate on a new program to increase access to HPV vaccination and HPV DNA testing in some of the most resource-poor areas of the world.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 24 Sep 2009

Research to identify inborn genetic susceptibility to colon cancer metastasis

A prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Transformative R01 Program grant for $4.9 million has been awarded to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The five-year grant will fund research to identify patients' inborn genetic susceptibility to the development of colon cancer metastasis. Case Western Reserve was one of only 42 recipients of this competitive new grant designed to support exceptionally innovative, high risk, original and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms.

24 Sep 2009

NIH awards three UNC Scientists for high risk and innovative research

Three scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have received prestigious awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at encouraging "high risk" and innovative research.

24 Sep 2009

National Day of Action to be celebrated on September 26

Saturday, September 26 officially has been designated as National Day of Action, in support of National Pain Awareness Month. To help promote awareness of chronic pain and how to access help, Valley Pain Specialists, an 11-member physicians group of board-certified, fellowship-trained pain medicine specialists, are launching a speaking circuit where they plan to meet with groups of patients and physicians throughout the community to raise awareness about pain, highlight the issues surrounding pain management and address the lack of access to pain care.

24 Sep 2009

How the human brain processes incoming sensory signals amidst background noise

The brain never sits idle. Whether we are awake or asleep, watch TV or close our eyes, waves of spontaneous nerve signals wash through our brains. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies studying visual attention have discovered a novel mechanism that explains how incoming sensory signals make themselves heard amidst the constant background rumblings so they can be reliably processed and passed on.

24 Sep 2009

Phase II study of OPAXIO to be revealed

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) (Nasdaq and MTA: CTIC) announced today that data from a Phase II study from Brown University of OPAXIO(TM) (paclitaxel poliglumex) combined with standard cisplatin and concurrent radiation in patients with advanced esophageal cancer will be presented by Dr. Howard Safran in an oral Proffered Papers session at the Annual Meeting of the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday, October 1st at 2:35 p.m. (Eastern time).

24 Sep 2009

Scientist reveals that selecting optimal radiation dosage for a patient is possible

An international group of scientists has taken the first step on the road to targeting radiotherapy dosage to individual patients by means of their genetic characteristics, a radiation oncologist told Europe's largest cancer congress, ECCO 15 - ESMO 34, in Berlin today (Thursday September 24). Professor Dirk de Ruysscher, from Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands, said that his team's work might provide the basis for personalised radiotherapy in which, with a simple blood test, doctors may be able to select the optimal radiation dose for a particular patient.

24 Sep 2009

PNNL Department of Energy researcher earns prestigious NIH Director's New Innovator Award

An analytical chemist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been recognized with a National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award. The award will support Wei-Jun Qian's drive to make new research and clinical diagnostic tools that are dramatically more sensitive, reliable and faster than current technologies.

24 Sep 2009

ThromboGenics completes enrollment for MIVI-TRUST clinical trial

ThromboGenics NV, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative treatments for eye disease, vascular disease and cancer, announces today that it has completed the enrolment of the US Phase III trial evaluating microplasmin for the non-surgical treatment of eye disease.

24 Sep 2009

CEL-SCI Corporation engages a CRO for clinical trial of its investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment

CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE AMEX: CVM), a developer of vaccines and therapeutics for the treatment of infectious diseases and a late-stage oncology company, announced today that it has hired a full-service Clinical Research Organization (CRO) with an office in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area to support its conduct of the upcoming clinical trial of its investigational LEAPS-H1N1 treatment.

24 Sep 2009

New method found for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

For the first time researchers have shown that by inhibiting the action of an enzyme called TAK-1, it is possible to make pancreatic cancer cells sensitive to chemotherapy, opening the way for the development of a new drug to treat the disease.

24 Sep 2009

Update on Cerezyme and Fabrazyme supply from Genzyme Corporation

Genzyme Corporation (NASDAQ: GENZ) today provided an update on its progress to restore supplies of Cerezyme® (imiglucerase for injection) and Fabrazyme® (agalsidase beta) for patients worldwide and revised its 2009 revenue guidance for these products.

24 Sep 2009

Hsp-27 protein: An indicator of prostate cancer progression

In the largest study of its kind, the international team of pathologists studied an initial 4,000 prostate cancer patients over a period of 15 years to further understanding into the natural progression of the disease and how it should be managed. The research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, could be used to develop a blood test to distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer.

24 Sep 2009

Court rules in favor of Eli Lilly for Evista's method-of-use patents

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana today upheld Eli Lilly and Company's (NYSE: LLY) method-of-use patents on Evista(R) (raloxifene HCl tablets). In the case of Eli Lilly and Company v. Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., the court ruled in favor of Lilly on all accounts for these method-of-use patents, including the patent doctrines of obviousness, enablement, and inequitable conduct.

24 Sep 2009

Enrollment for pSivida's pilot FAVOR clinical study commences

pSivida Corp., a leading drug delivery company that has developed two of the only three products approved by the FDA for the long term, sustained release delivery of drug to treat chronic back of the eye disease, today announced that enrollment has begun for a pilot study to assess the safety and efficacy of Iluvien in patients with macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion.

24 Sep 2009