Radiation Therapy News and Research

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Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy, x-ray therapy, or irradiation) is the use of a certain type of energy (called ionizing radiation) to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated (the “target tissue”) by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible for these cells to continue to grow and divide. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue.

ASTRO's Annual Meeting to be held in Boston from Oct. 28-31

ASTRO's Annual Meeting is the premier scientific meeting in radiation oncology and is expected to attract more than 11,000 attendees including oncologists from all disciplines, medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation therapists, radiation oncology nurses and nurse practitioners, biologists, physician assistants, practice administrators, industry representatives and other health care professionals from around the world.

24 Sep 2012

UK scientists make breakthrough in new method of brain tumour diagnosis

UK scientists have made a breakthrough in a new method of brain tumour diagnosis, offering hope to tens of thousands of people.

20 Sep 2012

Harris Health System celebrates completion of Smith Clinic

On Sept. 12, Harris Health System celebrated the completion of Smith Clinic, the system's first outpatient specialty facility. The new facility enhances and expands specialty care for patients formerly seen at hospital-based clinics located at Ben Taub Hospital.

18 Sep 2012

University of Central Florida professor receives NIH’s New Innovator award

The National Institutes of Health today awarded University of Central Florida Professor Ming Su its coveted New Innovator award, which comes with a $2 million grant.

14 Sep 2012

FDG–PET/CT improves staging and modifies radiotherapy management

The addition of FDG–positron emission tomography/computed tomography revised radiotherapy decision-making and enhanced tumor staging capabilities in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, research shows.

13 Sep 2012

Four new studies on the treatment of early breast cancer

Four new studies on the treatment of early breast cancer, spanning from diagnosis through surgery, were released today in advance of the 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium.

13 Sep 2012

Viewpoints: Questions Obama, Romney not likely to answer in debates; Disturbing news on tests for ovarian cancer

New evidence that women are more likely to be harmed than helped by screening tests for ovarian cancer is disturbing. The tests do nothing to prevent healthy women from dying from the usually fatal disease. Yet they often lead doctors to perform needless surgeries that cause serious complications in many patients.

13 Sep 2012

Transcept completes enrollment in TO-2061 Phase 2 trial for obsessive compulsive disorder

Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has completed enrollment in its Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating TO-2061 added as adjunctive therapy for patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who have not adequately responded to first-line treatment with an approved OCD medication.

12 Sep 2012

CPF to kick off 'Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month'

Each year around the world, as many as 48,000 people are diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and 40,000 people die – the same number of people who are lost to breast cancer annually. Pulmonary fibrosis is a devastating disease that robs people of their ability to breathe. To help raise awareness about this unknown deadly disease, the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) is kicking off "Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month" this September.

10 Sep 2012

Mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage

Radiation therapy is one of the most widely used cancer treatments, but it often damages normal tissue and can lead to debilitating conditions. A class of drugs known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage in mice by protecting normal stem cells that are crucial for tissue repair, according to a preclinical study published by Cell Press in the September issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

7 Sep 2012

PCI after lung cancer treatment reduces risk of brain metastases in stage III NSCLC patients

Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with surgery and/or radiation therapy have a significantly reduced risk of developing brain metastases if they also receive prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI); however, this study did not show an improvement in overall survival with PCI, according to research presented at the 2012 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology.

7 Sep 2012

Anova Cancer Care to participate in CyberKnife research study

Anova Cancer Care has been chosen to participate in a landmark national prostate cancer study. The goal of the two-year study is to determine the best treatments for prostate cancer. The study will look specifically at prostate cancer radiosurgery.

29 Aug 2012

Patients tend to have worse outcomes when GBM appears in more than one location

When aggressive, malignant tumors appear in more than one location in the brain, patient survival tends to be significantly shorter than when the disease starts as a single tumor, even though patients in both groups undergo virtually identical treatments, according to research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Research Institute.

27 Aug 2012

Radiating fears over diabetes in childhood cancer survivors

People who undergo pancreatic irradiation during childhood cancer therapy are at an increased risk for developing diabetes later in life, report researchers.

24 Aug 2012

Diabetes risk may be higher in childhood cancer survivors who received radiotherapy

Childhood cancer survivors who underwent radiotherapy treatment that exposed their pancreas to radiation may be at higher risk of developing diabetes in later life, according to an Article published Online First in The Lancet Oncology.

23 Aug 2012

Segasist Technologies launches crowd funding campaign to bring Reconcillio software on cloud

Segasist Technologies, a Canadian software company developing next-generation image contouring platforms for biomedical applications, has launched a crowd funding campaign to bring its software Reconcillio on cloud.

22 Aug 2012

Radiation therapy alone no longer the best choice for early follicular lymphoma

A University of Rochester Medical Center study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, challenges treatment guidelines for early stage follicular lymphoma, concluding that six different therapies can bring a remission, particularly if the patient is carefully examined and staged at diagnosis.

22 Aug 2012

Research explores impact of radiotherapy in older women with low risk of breast cancer recurrence

A Rhode Island Hospital radiation oncologist says in a new editorial that research exploring the impact of radiotherapy in older women with low risk of breast cancer recurrence has little effect on actual clinical decisions.

22 Aug 2012

Radiosensitivity molecular signature can lead to better radiation therapy decisions for breast cancer

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center, working with colleagues in Sweden, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico, have validated a radiosensitivity molecular signature that can lead to better radiation therapy decisions for treating patients with breast cancer.

16 Aug 2012

Cancer patients with xerostomia can benefit from regenerative research

Biologists, surgical oncologists and regenerative medicine specialists from Rice University, the University of Delaware and the Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., have begun a four-year program aimed at using cells to grow whole salivary glands that can replace those destroyed by cancer radiation therapy.

16 Aug 2012

Radiation Therapy News and Research

Further Reading

ASTRO's Annual Meeting to be held in Boston from Oct. 28-31

UK scientists make breakthrough in new method of brain tumour diagnosis

Harris Health System celebrates completion of Smith Clinic

University of Central Florida professor receives NIH’s New Innovator award

FDG–PET/CT improves staging and modifies radiotherapy management

Four new studies on the treatment of early breast cancer

Viewpoints: Questions Obama, Romney not likely to answer in debates; Disturbing news on tests for ovarian cancer

Transcept completes enrollment in TO-2061 Phase 2 trial for obsessive compulsive disorder

CPF to kick off 'Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month'

Mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors can prevent radiation-induced tissue damage

PCI after lung cancer treatment reduces risk of brain metastases in stage III NSCLC patients

Anova Cancer Care to participate in CyberKnife research study

Patients tend to have worse outcomes when GBM appears in more than one location

Radiating fears over diabetes in childhood cancer survivors

Diabetes risk may be higher in childhood cancer survivors who received radiotherapy

Segasist Technologies launches crowd funding campaign to bring Reconcillio software on cloud

Radiation therapy alone no longer the best choice for early follicular lymphoma

Research explores impact of radiotherapy in older women with low risk of breast cancer recurrence

Radiosensitivity molecular signature can lead to better radiation therapy decisions for breast cancer

Cancer patients with xerostomia can benefit from regenerative research

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

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