Cancer News and Research

Latest Cancer News and Research

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients soon to be underway

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients are soon to be underway in the wake of a successful Phase I study, which has demonstrated that the new drug blocks its target gene in exactly the way it is designed to do.

28 Sep 2004

Trial shows which brain cancer patients benefit from temozolomide

An international team of scientists and cancer specialists has identified which patients with the deadly form of brain tumours called glioblastomas are likely to live longer if they are treated with temozolomide, and which patients are likely to get only marginal, if any, benefit.

28 Sep 2004

Researchers reveal potential new role for Glivec/Imatinib

Imatinib – or Glivec as it also known – looks as if it may become an effective treatment for yet another type of cancer.

28 Sep 2004

Arsenic trioxide - invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia

Arsenic trioxide – a highly poisonous substance best known as an effective weed killer or pesticide and notorious for being a favourite ‘weapon’ of choice in murder mystery novels, is being re-invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia.

28 Sep 2004

New guidelines for the treatment of patients with stroke and TIA

New guidelines launched today aim to help primary care teams deliver effective treatment and secondary prevention to stroke patients.

28 Sep 2004

Specially adapted MRI improves brain tumour removal

A specially adapted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner can help physicians remove brain tumors and all of the residual cancer during one surgical procedure

28 Sep 2004

Men are likely to joke and laugh their way through being ill

When it comes to discussing the serious things in life, like being ill, men are likely to joke and laugh their way through it according to new research launched today at the British Pharmaceutical Conference.

28 Sep 2004

New hope for patients suffering hormone therapy resitant prostate cancer

New hope was offered today to men with advanced prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone therapy – a persistent problem in prostate cancer treatment.

27 Sep 2004

Active ingredients of soya may help beat breast cancer

Researchers are investigating whether it is possible to turn the active ingredients of soya into a useful medicine that may help to beat breast cancer, the British Pharmaceutical Conference heard today.

27 Sep 2004

Don't choose tomatoes based on colour

If a tomato is bright red, round and reasonably large, it should be a tasty tomato, right? Wrong!

27 Sep 2004

Functions of the c-myb gene which leukemia cells depend on for proliferation

Today the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publishes a paper by Temple University researchers that details one of the functions of the c-myb gene (which leukemia cells depend on for proliferation), the formation of white blood cells.

27 Sep 2004

Group therapy does not improve survival in early-stage breast cancer patients

A new study shows that cognitive-existential group therapy (CEGT), a psychosocial intervention designed to improve the mood and attitude of patients with breast cancer, does not improve survival of women with early-stage disease.

27 Sep 2004

Discovery of key molecular step which allows cancer cells to move to different parts of the body

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have figured out a key molecular step by which a cancer cell can unhook itself from the mesh weave of other cancer cells in a tumor, and move away to a different part of the body - the process, known as metastasis, that makes cancer so dangerous.

27 Sep 2004

Chemotherapy improves survival and reduces the risk of recurrence in women with stage I ovarian cancer

A new study finds chemotherapy improves survival and reduces the risk of recurrence in women with stage I ovarian cancer (cancer that has not spread beyond the ovary). But it remains unclear which patients would most benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and what the optimal treatment regimen would entail.

27 Sep 2004

Prostate cancer treatment leads to declines in sexual and urinary function

Treatment for prostate cancer leads to significant five-year declines in sexual and urinary function, according to a new study. However, general and other specific health-related quality of life factors, such as bowel function, are not affected.

27 Sep 2004

Researchers reduce the toxicity of water-soluble buckyballs by a factor of more than ten million

Researchers at Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) have demonstrated a simple way to reduce the toxicity of water-soluble buckyballs by a factor of more than ten million.

26 Sep 2004

50,000 women whose sisters had breast cancer needed for nationwide study

Women who know the angry, helpless feeling of watching a sister face breast cancer have gained a new, active, and personal way to fight the disease with the nationwide launch of The Sister Study.

26 Sep 2004

Study is the first to show that lowering the levels of lipid in nerve terminals affects the efficiency of neurotransmission

Yale researchers demonstrate the crucial role of a membrane lipid called phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns (4,5)P2) in the communication of information between synapses in the brain, according to a study published this week in Nature.

26 Sep 2004

Arsenic could be toxic at much lower levels than previously thought

Arsenic could be toxic at much lower levels than previously thought, suggesting that the new EPA drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion might still be too high, according to a team of researchers at Dartmouth Medical School.

26 Sep 2004