Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Carbon nanotube amplification strategies for highly sensitive immunodetection of cancer biomarkers

In an attempt to increase the sensitivity of cancer biomarker detection and to decrease the need for large samples from which to detect those molecules, a multi-institutional research team has shown that a "forest" of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be used to detect lower levels of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) than is possible using the current commercial assay.

25 Sep 2006

Black people with bladder cancer more likely to die of the disease than white

Black patients with bladder cancer are 35 percent more likely to die of the disease than white patients, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

21 Sep 2006

Direct observations of DNA provides new insights into how genetic material is copied and repaired

"We can monitor the process directly, and that gives us a different perspective," said Roberto Galletto, a postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis and first author on a paper published Sept. 20 on the Web site of the journal Nature.

21 Sep 2006

New target for cancer therapy identified by Australian researchers

A new target for cancer therapy has been identified by Monash University scientists investigating the cell signalling pathways that turn on a gene involved in cancer development.

21 Sep 2006

Fatty fish provides significant protection against renal cancer

If you want to avoid cancer of the kidneys, a new major study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that eating salmon or other kinds of fatty fish a few times a month would be one good way to go about it.

21 Sep 2006

p120 catenin protein can stop metastasis or promote it

A protein known to be a key component of the glue that holds cells together also is involved in breaking them apart and promoting their movement when tumors begin to spread to other parts of the body, researchers at Mayo Clinic have found.

20 Sep 2006

Researchers discover clues to the cause of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Researchers' discovery of clues to the cause of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) - a form of pediatric cancer that has a very poor prognosis - could lead to the development of new targeted therapies for this extremely difficult disease.

20 Sep 2006

M. D. Anderson targets asthma and allergic diseases

A new research alliance focuses on a molecular master switch suspected of igniting the inflammatory immune response that drives asthma and other allergic diseases.

20 Sep 2006

GSK seeks regulatory approval in U.S., Europe for Tykerb

GlaxoSmithKline on Monday said it has submitted its experimental breast cancer drug Tykerb, which is taken orally, for FDA approval and plans to file for approval in Europe in the fourth quarter of this year, Reuters reports.

20 Sep 2006

BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois adds coverage for MammoSite

BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois after meeting with experts last week has decided to cover the partial-breast radiation therapy known as MammoSite for patients with early stage breast cancer, officials for the insurer said, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

20 Sep 2006

Jury dismisses lawsuit against Wyeth in first Pempro case

A jury in a U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Ark., on Friday dismissed negligence charges in the first of about 5,000 lawsuits filed over Prempro, a combination hormone replacement therapy manufactured by Wyeth, and found the drug's design was not defective, Reuters reports.

20 Sep 2006

Many Australian physicians not applying for permission to import Mifepristone

Many Australian physicians are not applying for permission to supply mifepristone to women in the country and instead are prescribing women a combination of methotrexate -- a drug licensed to treat cancer patients -- and misoprostol to induce a medical abortion.

20 Sep 2006

Aromatase inhibitors improve survival of advanced breast cancer patients compared to tamoxifen

Aromatase inhibitors improve the survival of advanced breast cancer patients compared to standard hormone therapies like tamoxifen, a researchers report in the September 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

19 Sep 2006

Having breast implants does not increase mortality risk

A study conducted among 24,600 women by two Universiti Laval Faculty of Medicine researchers and their colleagues from the Canadian Public Health Agency and Cancer Care Ontario concludes that having breast implants does not increase mortality risk.

19 Sep 2006

Curcumin useful in the fight against colorectal cancer

Looking for a cancer cure? Try the spice rack. In the last few years, that tactic has proved productive for researchers investigating turmeric, a curry spice used for centuries in Indian traditional medicine.

19 Sep 2006

Earlier detection and treatment of kidney cancer not decreasing mortality

The number of cases of kidney cancer has been rising over the last two decades, and new research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that this increase is driven largely by the detection of small, presumably curable, kidney masses.

19 Sep 2006

Women should eat more fatty fish - lowers risk for renal cell carcinoma

Preliminary research suggests that higher consumption of fatty fish in women is linked with a lower risk of renal cell carcinoma, a common form of kidney cancer, according to a study in the September 20 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

19 Sep 2006

Chemotherapy, nutrition and metallic flavors

About two million cancer patients currently receiving certain drug therapies and chemotherapy find foods and beverages to have a foul metallic flavor, according to a medical study. In general, more than 40 percent of hospitalized patients suffer from malnutrition due to taste and smell dysfunction.

19 Sep 2006

Nanocantilever biosensors detect multiple genes

Using nanoscale cantilevers in a microfluidics device, a team of European researchers has developed a portable biosensor capable of detecting specific genetic sequences.

19 Sep 2006

Detecting cancer with silica nanoparticles

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha is a widely accepted biomarker for cancer, but the minute amounts of this protein circulating in blood makes detecting the molecule and measuring its concentration accurately a technological challenge.

19 Sep 2006