Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Chemically-modified mitochondrial toxin could lead to a new molecularly-targeted chemo drug

A chemically-modified version of a mitochondrial toxin long used to control species of invasive fish in lakes has been found to selectively inhibit two "survival proteins" in cancer cells.

12 Jul 2007

Chemotherapy may benefit all women with a BRCA1 mutation

Breast cancer patients who possess one of the so-called "breast cancer" or BRCA genetic mutations do not have a higher risk of dying than patients with no BRCA mutations, according to a detailed study by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto.

12 Jul 2007

New use for a cell toxin found to inhibit survival proteins in cancer cells

A chemically-modified version of a mitochondrial toxin long used to control species of invasive fish in lakes has been found to selectively inhibit two "survival proteins" in cancer cells.

11 Jul 2007

Potential role of milk thistle as an anticancer agent

Milk thistle extract, an herbal remedy since the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans, is today one of the most popular herbal supplements, with U.S. retail sales of nearly nine million dollars.

11 Jul 2007

Uncooked fish linked with liver cancer in Asia

An age old preference for eating uncooked fish dishes like koi-pla puts people in SE Asia at risk of ingesting trematodes that can cause a type of liver cancer called cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of the bile ducts), say researchers in this week's PLoS Medicine.

10 Jul 2007

Modified herpes virus - a killer of cancer cells

Scientists have developed a virus specifically designed to target cancer tissue while not affecting normal healthy tissue.

9 Jul 2007

Should soft tissue sarcomas be treated at high volume centres?

Soft tissue sarcomas -rare tumours of the connective tissue- should be treated at the few centres which see most cases, in order to give patients the best chance of good outcomes, concludes an analysis of sarcoma management in Florida, published in the Annals of Surgery last month.

9 Jul 2007

Abiraterone reduces levels of prostate specific antigen

For prostate cancer patients whose tumors have continued to grow despite medical or surgical castration, a new drug candidate that inhibits production of male hormones anywhere in the body is showing promise in early trials.

9 Jul 2007

Modified herpes simplex virus shows promise in early clinical trial

A virus that has been specifically designed by scientists to be safe to normal tissue but deadly to cancer is showing early promise in a preliminary study, researchers said at the ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU), Switzerland.

9 Jul 2007

Trastuzumab and chemo improves survival in women with operable HER-2 positive breast cancer

A recent meta-analysis of five major breast cancer trials has confirmed that combination treatment with the antibody trastuzumab and chemotherapy improves survival in women with operable HER-2 positive breast cancer.

9 Jul 2007

OncoLife web-based cancer survivorhip care plan

A team of cancer specialists from OncoLink.org, the award-winning cancer Web-based resource of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, has launched OncoLife, the first and only individualized plan-of-care based on the national Institute of Medicine's recommendations for adult cancer survivors.

4 Jul 2007

Lung cancer patients taking Tarceva who develop a rash fair better

The appearance of a rash in cancer patients treated with erlotinib (Tarceva) is strongly associated with longer survival, according to researchers from the drug's developer, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

4 Jul 2007

Stem cell procedure successfully treats amyloidosis patients

Researchers from the Stem Cell Transplant Program and the Amyloid Treatment and Research Program at Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) have found that tandem cycles of high-dose chemotherapy and blood stem cell transplantation can help treat patients with immunoglobulin-light chain (AL) Amyloidosis who did not respond to initial treatment with this method.

4 Jul 2007