Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Discovery of promising new target in the battle against colorectal cancer

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have identified a promising new target in the battle against colorectal cancer - a biochemical pathway critical to the spread of tumors to new locations in the body.

15 Dec 2008

Researchers create new family of fluorescent probes called hydrocyanines to detect reactive oxygen species in vivo

Researchers have created a new family of fluorescent probes called hydrocyanines that can be used to detect and measure the presence of reactive oxygen species.

15 Dec 2008

Newly discovered esophagus stem cells grow into transplantable tissue

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered stem cells in the esophagus of mice that were able to grow into tissue-like structures and when placed into immune-deficient mice were able to form parts of an esophagus lining.

15 Dec 2008

Three-quarters of youths with type 1 diabetes have vitamin D deficiency

Three-quarters of youths with type 1 diabetes were found to have insufficient levels of vitamin D, according to a study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center - findings that suggest children with the disease may need vitamin D supplementation to prevent bone fragility later in life.

15 Dec 2008

Narrow-band imaging comparable to white light colonoscopy in differentiating colorectal polyps

Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine compared narrow-band imaging (NBI) without high magnification to standard white light colonoscopy in differentiating colorectal polyps during real-time colonoscopy and found that NBI was not more accurate than white light colonoscopy.

15 Dec 2008

Gene subnetworks provide new prognostic markers for breast cancer

The metastasis or spread of breast cancer to other tissues in the body can be predicted more accurately by examining subnetworks of gene expression patterns in a patient's tumor, than by conventional gene expression microarrays, according to a presentation at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

15 Dec 2008

Lessons from Northwick Park drug-trial disaster

Scientists investigating the 2006 Northwick Park drug-trial disaster that left six healthy volunteers hospitalised say they have developed new pre-clinical tests that could have stopped the trial from ever going ahead.

From The University of Manchester 15 Dec 2008

Fruits, vegetables and fiber may cut risk of breast cancer recurrence in women without hot flashes

A secondary analysis of a large, multicenter clinical trial has shown that a diet loaded with fruits, vegetables and fiber and somewhat lower in fat compared to standard federal dietary recommendations cuts the risk of recurrence in a subgroup of early-stage breast cancer survivors - women who didn't have hot flashes - by approximately 31 percent.

15 Dec 2008

Colonoscopy significantly reduces death from left-sided colon cancer but not from right-sided

A new study finds that colonoscopy is strongly associated with fewer deaths from colorectal cancer.

15 Dec 2008

Breast cancer genome shows instability of cancer

A newly published genome sequence of a breast cancer cell line reveals a heavily rearranged genetic blueprint involving breaks and fusions of genes and a broken DNA repair machinery, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Genome Research.

15 Dec 2008

Blocking Myc proteins stops ovarian cancer cell cycle in its tracks

Ovarian cancer cells are "addicted" to a family of proteins produced by the notorious oncogene, MYC.

15 Dec 2008

Aspirin does not provide protection against Lynch syndrome

Aspirin, recommended as a preventive approach for patients at risk of hereditary colorectal cancer, does not provide protection against Lynch syndrome, the most common form of hereditary colorectal cancer, according a study published in the Dec. 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

15 Dec 2008

Mouse model shows blood stem cells in action

Over a period of five years, scientists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have managed to create a genetically modified mouse in which the activity of the blood stem cells can be tracked.

15 Dec 2008

FDA Class 1 recall for two medical devices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a Class 1 recall today for two unapproved and uncleared devices whose manufacturers claimed could treat various medical conditions. A Class 1 recall means that there is a reasonable probability that the use of a device will cause adverse health consequences or death.

15 Dec 2008

Tongue reconstruction at University of Michigan

The night before her surgery for tongue cancer, 30-year-old Lisa Bourdon-Krause realized she might never be able to speak to her toddler son again. So she sat up half the night recording messages to him: "Hi, how was your day?," "You're so handsome," "You have a stinky butt. I need to change you." She read two of his favorite books.

15 Dec 2008

Prostate cancer screening programme shows high compliance and consistent results in more than 38,000 men

Just under five per cent of the men who took part in the prostate cancer element of the USA's largest ever cancer screening trial were diagnosed with the disease and the majority of those were picked up by screening programmes, according to research published in the December issue of the UK-based urology journal BJU International.

15 Dec 2008

Lung cancer screening feasibility study funded

A study to assess the feasibility of undertaking a UK-based screening trial for lung cancer has been commissioned by the National institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme. Lung cancer kills more people worldwide than any other malignancy accounting for around 1.4 million deaths each year, and around 38,000 individuals are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year.

15 Dec 2008