Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Enhanced imaging techniques could improve medical diagnosis

Chris Wyatt is a Virginia Tech electrical engineer who is attempting to provide the medical community with better, quicker, and more relevant images of the human body. The side effects are not bad either - lower medical costs, new treatments, and earlier disease detection.

19 Sep 2005

High-fat fare increases risk of heart disease for hospital staff and visitors

Nutrition scientists with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) have conducted a nationwide survey to determine if hospital cafeterias and restaurants are meeting the need for low-fat, cholesterol-free foods that can help people maintain a healthy weight and prevent heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

19 Sep 2005

PSA remains the best measure of the likelihood of prostate cancer recurrence after surgery

Despite recent claims by some urologists that measuring the blood protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) may not be effective in predicting risk of prostate cancer, a Johns Hopkins study of more than 2,000 men confirms that PSA remains the best measure of the likelihood of cancer recurrence after surgery.

19 Sep 2005

Approximately 25 percent of how a person ages is inherited from parents

According to professor Thomas Kirkwood of the University of Newcastle, there is no single gene for ageing. Throughout time, Humans have used energy to get food, produce offspring and survive danger - not to repair and maintain cells. So the maintenance system in the body slowly breaks down.

19 Sep 2005

Possible new target for treating obesity and diabetes

The new target, a molecule called hVps34, is activated by amino acids (nutrients) entering the cell. This molecule triggers the activation of an enzyme, S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1), whose function UC researchers linked last year to obesity and insulin resistance.

19 Sep 2005

Injury prevention could save Maryland at least $700 million per year

In 2003, the total estimated cost of injuries in Maryland due to lost productivity and premature mortality was $1.9 billion dollars.

19 Sep 2005

Carbon nanotubes as transport agents for antimycotics (antifungal agents)

Putting pharmaceutical agents into the body isn't hard, but getting them into targeted areas can be problematic. If drugs aren't taken up by a large enough proportion of cells, a suitable "transport agent" must be used.

19 Sep 2005

Study points to importance of MYC gene in cancer progression

The cancer gene MYC is among the most commonly overexpressed oncogenes in human cancers. Most human cancers demonstrate high levels of MYC or its biological partners, including those of the breast, ovaries, lung, prostate, and skin, as well as leukemias and lymphomas.

19 Sep 2005

Stress and breast cancer link

High levels of daily stress appear to result in a lower risk of developing breast cancer for the first time, says a study in the British Medical Journal.

19 Sep 2005

Acute-leukemia sign may signal need for different therapy

A type of chromosome change that was thought to predict a good response to treatment in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) might actually signal the need for a different therapy to achieve the best outcome.

19 Sep 2005

Compounds found in broccoli, cauliflower, and watercress block lung cancer progression

A family of compounds found in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, and watercress, blocked lung cancer progression in both animal studies and in tests with human lung cancer cells, report researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center and the Institute for Cancer Prevention.

19 Sep 2005

Human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston have found that human fat cells produce a protein that is linked to both inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

19 Sep 2005

Tarceva should be tested as front-line therapy for older lung cancer patients

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib (Tarceva) showed encouraging activity with relatively tolerable side effects in elderly, previously untreated patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), reports a team led by investigators from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

19 Sep 2005

Scientists have discovered a new and potent anti-cancer compound in beans

Scientists have discovered a new and potent anti-cancer compound in everyday food. The collaborative study led by UCL (University College London) shows that the compound - inositol pentakisphosphate - found in beans, nuts and cereals inhibits a key enzyme (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) involved in tumour growth.

19 Sep 2005

New research will play a major role in improving the future of breast cancer treatment

Cancer specialists at University of East Anglia have discovered that several 'ADAMTS' genes are turned off in breast cancer compared to normal breast tissue, while others are switched on. These genes could be targets for the development of 'smart' drugs tailored to treat individual patients' tumours.

19 Sep 2005

Molecular pathway in mice that makes prostate cells vulnerable to cancer-causing oxygen damage

Scientists from Maryland and New Jersey have identified a molecular pathway in mice that makes prostate cells vulnerable to cancer-causing oxygen damage.

19 Sep 2005

Methoxychlor (MXC), a common insect pesticide may lead to reduced fertility in women

Methoxychlor (MXC), a common insect pesticide used on food crops, may interfere with proper development and function of the reproductive tract, leading to reduced fertility in women, researchers at Yale School of Medicine write in the August issue of Endocrinology.

19 Sep 2005

Drug AMD-3100 may help cancer patients who need stem cell transplants

A new drug may help cancer patients mobilize the cells necessary to restore their blood-forming system after high-dose chemotherapy, according to results from a clinical trial at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and at other centers across the nation.

19 Sep 2005

Does surgery induce angiogenesis in dormant breast cancer?

Analysis of breast-cancer relapse patterns from two independent databases provides indirect evidence for the theory that surgery to remove the primary tumor may initiate formation of a new blood supply (angiogenesis) in formerly dormant metastases, accounting for a pattern of early relapse in younger women.

12 Sep 2005

New and unusual class of genes plays an important role in the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

The study found that the loss of two genes for producing small molecules known as microRNAs enables damaged cells to survive, rather than normally self-destructing before they become cancerous.

12 Sep 2005