Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

Clinical trial shows reduction in mortality for children with severe Langerhans cell histiocytosis

A new international study finds that introducing an increased intensity of chemotherapy in children with severe Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) can reduce the mortality rate for this disorder by as much as 20 percent when the patient demonstrates a rapid response to such treatment.

3 Mar 2008

Arsenic used to label antibodies for the detection of tumors

Arsenic linked to a drug that binds to the blood vessels of cancerous tumors provides a powerful imaging agent that could one day allow physicians to detect hard-to-find tumors and more closely monitor cancer's response to therapy, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

3 Mar 2008

Killing cancer tumors with Salmonella bacteria

Neil Forbes of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a four-year grant of more than $1 million from the National Institutes of Health to research killing cancer tumors with Salmonella bacteria.

1 Mar 2008

New global study of targeted therapies for breast cancer

Two targeted medications designed to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer are being tested in a new study involving 8,000 participants in 50 countries across six continents -- a clinical trial that investigators hope will provide a new model for global cancer research.

1 Mar 2008

Zebrafish help understand hearing loss

A small striped fish is helping scientists understand what makes people susceptible to a common form of hearing loss, although, in this case, it's not the fish's ears that are of interest.

1 Mar 2008

Protein protects lung cancer cells from efforts to fix or kill them

A protein that helps lung cancer cells thrive appears to do so by blocking healthy cells' ability to fix themselves when radiation or chemicals such as nicotine damage their DNA, according to a University of Florida study to be published Friday (Feb. 29) in the journal Molecular Cell.

28 Feb 2008

Gene expression differences between Europeans and Africans affect response to drugs, infections

Differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry can affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.

28 Feb 2008

Blocking a signaling protein kills prostate cancer cells

Researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia have shown that they can effectively kill prostate cancer cells in both the laboratory and in experimental animal models by blocking a signaling protein that is key to the cancer's growth.

28 Feb 2008

Thalidomide shows promise for treatment of recurrent ovarian cancer

Thalidomide, a drug blamed in the 1950s for causing birth defects, is now showing promise as a safe and effective treatment for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, according to a study led by a University of Minnesota Cancer Center researcher.

28 Feb 2008

Discovery of family of genes linked to the development of liver cancer

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Stony Brook University Medical Center has identified a family of genes linked to the development of liver cancer.

28 Feb 2008

Hormones produced by the heart eliminate pancreatic cancer in mice

Hormones produced by the heart eliminated human pancreatic cancer in more than three-quarters of the mice treated with the hormones and eliminated human breast cancer in two-thirds of the mice, according to researcher David Vesely, a doctor at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa and a professor at the University of South Florida (USF).

27 Feb 2008

Study looks at breast-cancer drug called Abraxane for bladder cancer

As many as half of patients with superficial bladder cancer do not respond to the standard first-line chemotherapy placed into the bladder, according to current multi-center outcomes data.

27 Feb 2008

Protein that stimulates blood vessel growth worsens ovarian cancer

A protein that stimulates blood vessel growth worsens ovarian cancer, but its production can be stifled by a tiny bit of RNA wrapped in a fatty nanoparticle, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

27 Feb 2008

Faster chemo technique increases survival in children with neuroblastoma

Chemotherapy given with shorter intervals between treatments than conventional chemotherapy increases survival rates by two thirds in children with high-risk neuroblastoma , according to a study published in the Lancet Oncology * today (Tuesday).

27 Feb 2008

Drug for anemic cancer patients raises risk of death

Millions of cancer patients take drugs to boost their red blood cells and health when they become anemic after chemotherapy.

27 Feb 2008

The impact of breast cancer on financial status of patients and their families

Canadian women diagnosed with early breast cancer lose, on average, more than a quarter of their typical income during the first 12 months after their diagnosis, according to a study published online February 26 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

27 Feb 2008

OHSU Cancer Institute research gives hope for chemo holidays for men with advanced prostate cancer

Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers, in a first-of-its-kind study, have found that even men with advanced prostate cancer can take a much-needed safe break, or holiday, from chemotherapy.

27 Feb 2008

Small protein discovered that specifically recognizes tumors responding to chemotherapy

A technique that specifically "tags" tumors responding to chemotherapy may offer a new strategy for determining a cancer treatment's effectiveness within days of starting treatment, according to a new study by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators.

26 Feb 2008

ImClone Systems enrols first patient in clinical trial of IMC-1121B to treat liver cancer

ImClone Systems Incorporated has announced that it has enrolled the first patient in a disease-directed Phase II clinical trial of IMC-1121B to treat patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer).

26 Feb 2008

Brain tumour gene link found

Cancer Research UK funded scientists have discovered a mutation in a DNA repair gene which may increase the risk of developing meningioma , a rare type of brain tumour , according to new research published in the latest edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

26 Feb 2008