Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

New hope for patients with metastatic melanoma

Patients with metastatic melanoma (MM) have new hope, says a recently published study by Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. The study, which shows the combination of paclitaxel and carboplatin (PC) appears to be effective for MM when traditional treatments have failed, is in this month's issue of Cancer.

6 Jan 2006

Delivering chemotherapy directly into the abdomen boosts survival in ovarian cancer patients

A 50-year-old method for delivering chemotherapy directly into the abdomen is making a comeback as investigators have found that it increases survival - by more than a year - in some women with advanced ovarian cancer. Results from a seven-year study of more than 400 patients nationwide are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

6 Jan 2006

Australian researchers discover stem cell that drives the formation of all breast tissue

Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium scientists from The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, using a mouse model, have discovered the rare stem cell that drives the formation of all breast tissue.

5 Jan 2006

A good year for breast cancer detection and treatment

It was a good year in women’s health, notably breast cancer treatment and detection. The December issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource hails these important advances of 2005.

29 Dec 2005

Targeted cancer therapies: Another step forward

While it is clear that the treatment of cancer has already begun to undergo a paradigm shift with the inclusion of innovative targeted therapies into current regimens, it would be wrong to assume these products will entirely replace traditional chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer sufferers.

22 Dec 2005

Targeted cancer therapies: Another step forward

22 Dec 2005

Children could be saved from neuroblastoma using antibody therapy

Combination of T cell, antibody to neuroblastoma cells and molecule that spurs T cell growth is designed to treat low initial tumor levels or small cancer cell populations that survive initial treatment, according to St. Jude.

22 Dec 2005

Good results with cervical cancer vaccine in young girls

Drug company GlaxoSmithKline have had a good result with their new vaccine which was designed to prevent infection with the virus that causes cervical cancer.

19 Dec 2005

Breast cancer survival rate boosted by radiotherapy

According to a new study breast cancer patients who have radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery have a lower risk of a recurrence of the disease and a better chance of beating the illness.

19 Dec 2005

Hydrogels to potentially make chemotherapy and tissue regeneration more convenient and safe

Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have invented an injectable and biodegradable gel that can deliver drugs at targeted sites or act as a scaffold for tissue repair.

15 Dec 2005

Study suggests a way to eliminate glioblastoma

Scientists have devised a strategy to treat tumors by selectively targeting and killing the malignant cells. A new preclinical study, published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, has applied the approach to combat glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

7 Dec 2005

Chemotherapy is a beneficial treatment women and elderly

Although all eligible patients with stage III colon cancer should be offered adjuvant chemotherapy treatment because it improves survival, up to one-third are not, and many of these excluded patients are women and the elderly, say researchers who looked at data from more than 85,000 patients.

7 Dec 2005

Stem cells may cause some forms of bone cancer

The researchers are the first to identify a population of cells with characteristics of adult and embryonic stem cells in cultures derived from biopsies of patients' bone tumors. They describe their findings in the medical journal Neoplasia.

7 Dec 2005

Cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy drugs - mechanism discovered

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have discovered new mechanisms developed by cancer cells to become resistant to various chemotherapy drugs.

6 Dec 2005

Hard to quit smoking even after cancer is diagnosed

According to a new study many people with cancer continue to smoke after their diagnosis, even though they are told that smoking can significantly compromise the outcome of any treatment.

29 Nov 2005

One-half of cancer patients continue to smoke after diagnosis

A pair of articles from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center makes the case that patients would receive better care if physicians and researchers would address the issue of tobacco use after a cancer diagnosis and monitor tobacco use during clinical trials that test new agents.

28 Nov 2005

Fullerenes can help fend off damage to normal tissue from radiation

Using transparent zebrafish embryos, researchers at Jefferson Medical College have shown that a microscopic nanoparticle can help fend off damage to normal tissue from radiation.

28 Nov 2005

Megestrol acetate may combat weight loss during radiation treatments

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues shows that a drug originally used to treat breast cancer may help combat the severe weight loss that can plague patients undergoing radiation treatment for lung and head and neck cancer.

28 Nov 2005

Potential new treatment for pancreatic cancer

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers are encouraged by early results of a treatment vaccine for pancreatic cancer, a disease with few options and low odds for long-term survival.

28 Nov 2005

Loss of genes on chromosome 1 or 11 raises the risk of death from the children's cancer neuroblastoma

A new study reports that a loss of genes on chromosome 1 or chromosome 11 raises the risk of death from the children's cancer neuroblastoma, even when other indicators seem to point to a lower-risk form of the disease.

28 Nov 2005