Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Chewing gum after bowel surgery gets you out of hospital sooner

According to a team of doctors at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, patients who chew gum following intestinal surgery leave hospital sooner.

21 Feb 2006

Inflammatory reaction drives hormone resistance in cancer

In the journal Cell, researchers report new evidence to explain why prostate cancer and other hormone-dependent cancers may become resistant to hormone therapies.

21 Feb 2006

New device to boost supply and quality of blood platelets

Cancer and open-heart surgery patients, disaster victims, organ or bone marrow transplant recipients, and others who require life-saving blood platelet transfusions will benefit from equipment invented by a researcher at the University of British Columbia's Centre for Blood Research (CBR).

21 Feb 2006

Most patients have kidney removed, despite organ-sparing surgery option

A less aggressive type of surgery designed to spare healthy organ tissue is used infrequently to treat early-stage kidney cancer, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

21 Feb 2006

Oddly shaped DNA can cause DNA breaks in mammalian cells

When otherwise normal DNA adopts an unusual shape called Z-DNA, it can lead to the kind of genetic instability associated with cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

21 Feb 2006

Mangafodipir appears to increase the cancer-killing ability of some chemotherapy drugs

A contrast agent currently used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), called mangafodipir, may increase the cancer-killing ability of some chemotherapy drugs while protecting normal cells, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

21 Feb 2006

$Calcium and Vitamin D helps reduce risk of hip fractures in older women$

Calcium and Vitamin D helps reduce risk of hip fractures in older women

Taking calcium and Vitamin D slightly decreased the risk of hip fractures in older women, but not the risk for other types of fractures or for colorectal cancer, according to the latest findings from the federally funded Women's Health Initiative. Additionally, the supplements slightly increased the incidence of kidney stones.

21 Feb 2006

Effects of cancer treatment among children of survivors

Can the high doses of chemotherapy and radiation that young cancer patients receive cause inherited health problems for their children? Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center member, John Boice, Sc.D., and an international team of colleagues have just been awarded a $4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to try to find out.

21 Feb 2006

New mechanism that regulates K-Ras - protein that plays an important role in cancer

Researchers have discovered a protein widely known to cause the out-of-control growth of cells can actually be manipulated to induce those cells to commit suicide, providing a novel target for the development of anti-cancer drugs, according to the results of a new study led by New York University School of Medicine researchers.

21 Feb 2006

Interleukin-15 encourages CD8+ T cells to proliferate and reduces their tolerance to tumor antigens

Certain types of white blood cells assist the body in destroying cancerous tumors. Among these are CD8+ T cells. The T is for thymus, the gland near the base of the throat that both raises up and weeds out blood cells involved in immune responses.

20 Feb 2006

Nicotine patch and group support may be the best combination for helping women in public housing to stop smoking

This strategy helped nearly 50 percent of women smokers in an Augusta public housing unit quit smoking by the end of a six-week program while less than 8 percent of women in a comparison group had kicked the habit, says Dr. Jeanette Andrews, nursing professor at the Medical College of Georgia and principal investigator

20 Feb 2006

New system accurately predicts mortality of older Americans

Researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center have created an index that is 81 percent accurate in predicting the likelihood of death within four years for people 50 and older.

20 Feb 2006

Calcium plus vitamin-D supplementation does an older body good

The older the woman, the more likely it is that consistent use of calcium and vitamin-D supplements will play a role in reducing her risk for osteoporosis, according to the results of a large national clinical trial conducted as part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).

20 Feb 2006

Socioeconomic factors predominantly explain racial and ethnic disparities in prostate cancer outcomes

Socioeconomic factors predominantly explain racial and ethnic disparities in prostate cancer outcomes, according to a new study.

19 Feb 2006

Monoclonal antibody targets key tumor growth factor

Monoclonal antibody targets key tumor growth factor; Successfully causes brain tumor regression and improves animal survival

19 Feb 2006

Fat chance of getting consistent advice on diets

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial, which involved nearly 49,000 women aged 50 to 79, over an eight year period, has confirmed that fat balance and fat quality are the key factors to be considered when people are aiming for good health and a lower risk of disease.

19 Feb 2006

Estrogen-progestin menopausal hormone therapy associated with high risk of both lobular and tubular breast cancer

Estrogen-progestin menopausal hormone therapy is associated with a more than two-fold higher relative risk of developing lobular cancer or tubular cancer than of developing ductal cancer.

19 Feb 2006

Protein levels predict bone marrow transplant survival

Researchers say that protein levels can predict which bone marrow transplant patients are likely develop a deadly complication a week after the procedure and well before any symptoms occur.

19 Feb 2006

Cathepsin inhibitors as cancer therapies

In the March 1 issue, Drs. Johanna Joyce (MSKCC), Douglas Hanahan (UCSF) and colleagues lend new insight into how broad-spectrum cysteine cathepsin inhibitors combat pancreatic cancer, and provide new data to help refine the design of more precisely targeted anti-cathepsin therapies.

17 Feb 2006

Hospitalization of a spouse can harm the wellbeing of his or her partner

In the largest study ever to quantify caregiver burden and the widower effect, researchers found that for people aged 65 and older, hospitalization of a spouse can harm the wellbeing of his or her partner and significantly contribute to that partner's death.

17 Feb 2006