Chemotherapy News and Research

Latest Chemotherapy News and Research

New anti-cancer drug made from corn lillies kills brain tumor stem cells

A drug that shuts down a critical cell-signaling pathway in the most common and aggressive type of adult brain cancer successfully kills cancer stem cells thought to fuel tumor growth and help cancers evade drug and radiation therapy, a Johns Hopkins study shows.

30 Aug 2007

Binghamton University researchers investigate evolving malaria resistance

Funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York, hope to understand how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum evolved resistance to the once-effective medication chloroquine.

30 Aug 2007

Flaxseed for hot flashes

Data from a new Mayo Clinic study suggest that dietary therapy using flaxseed can decrease hot flashes in postmenopausal women who do not take estrogen.

30 Aug 2007

Autophagy-induced signals are essential for normal development

A cannibalistic process called autophagy spurs dying embryonic stem cells to send "eat me" and "come get me" signals to have their corpses purged, a last gasp that paves the way for normal mammalian development, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

30 Aug 2007

How does Listeria monocytogenes survive with nothing to live on?

Try going for a couple of weeks without food and see what shape you're in, or if you're around at all by then. Let some dangerous bacteria do the same thing and there's a chance they may do more than survive; they can grow stronger and remain as virulent as ever.

29 Aug 2007

New discovery helps explain the mechanics of hearing

A 30-year scientific debate about how specialized cells in the inner ear amplify sound in mammals appears to have been settled more in favor of bouncing cell bodies rather than vibrating, hair-like cilia, according to St. Jude investigators.

28 Aug 2007

IDM Pharma receives not approvable letter for Mifamurtide for treatment of osteosarcoma

IDM Pharma, Inc. ( NASDAQ:IDMI ) announced today that it received a not approvable letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after completing the review of the new drug application (NDA) for the investigational drug mifamurtide (L-MTP-PE), formerly known as Junovan, for the treatment of non-metastatic osteosarcoma, a rare and often fatal bone tumor that typically affects children and young adults.

28 Aug 2007

New mathematical models for circadian rhythm

The internal clock in living beings that regulates sleeping and waking patterns -- usually called the circadian clock -- has often befuddled scientists due to its mysterious time delays.

28 Aug 2007

Avastin approved in Europe for advanced lung cancer

Avastin (bevacizumab), Roche's innovative anti-cancer drug, was approved today in Europe for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy.

26 Aug 2007

Blocking angiogenesis signaling from inside cell may lead to serious health problems

Angiogenesis inhibitors that block a tumor's development of an independent blood supply have been touted as effective cancer fighters that result in fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.

24 Aug 2007

Rapamycin study is first stage in development of new treatment

Rapamycin isn't your ordinary potential anti-cancer drug…It had a long and somewhat exotic history before undergoing preclinical (laboratory-based) studies at St. Jude as part of a national Pediatric Preclinical Testing Program (PPTP) investigation of its anticancer activity.

23 Aug 2007

Multifunctional nanoparticles for combining ultrasonic tumor imaging and targeted chemotherapy

A new targeted drug delivery method, which combines two nanoparticles into one larger one, uses ultrasound to image tumors and release the anticancer drug doxorubicin from "nanobubbles" into the same tumors.

22 Aug 2007

Cranberries, chemo and ovarian cancer

Compounds in cranberries may help improve the effectiveness of platinum drugs that are used in chemotherapy to fight ovarian cancer, researchers have found in a laboratory study that will be reported at the 234 th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

22 Aug 2007

Tumors use enzyme to recruit regulatory T-cells and suppress immune response

One way tumors fly under the radar of the immune system is by using IDO, an enzyme used by fetuses to help avoid rejection, to recruit powerful regulatory T cells that turn down the immune response, researchers say.

17 Aug 2007

We need to treat cancer like an infectious disease

Among the many medical miracles produced by science over the years, vaccines and antibiotics have undoubtedly saved the most lives.

17 Aug 2007

Drug topotecan shows promise against Wilms tumor

St. Jude researchers have shown that the drug topotecan holds promise as a treatment for the recurrent form of a kidney cancer called Wilms tumor, a solid tumor of the kidney that arises from immature kidney cells, and the fifth most common tumor among children.

17 Aug 2007

Prophylactic cranial irradiation in small cell lung cancer significantly increases survival

Prophylactic cranial irradiation after chemotherapy significantly reduces the risk of brain metastasis and doubles one-year survival in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), according to the results of the multicenter phase III randomized EORTC trial 08993-22993, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

17 Aug 2007