Melanoma News and Research

Latest Melanoma News and Research

Some viral-vector vaccines may cause more harm than good

Leading efforts to create an HIV vaccine have hinged on the use of viruses as carriers for selected elements of the HIV virus. Recently, however, evidence has emerged that some of these so-called viral vector systems may undermine the immune system and should not be used for vaccine development.

16 Nov 2007

CD200 stifles anti-tumor immunity

The prognosis for individuals with metastatic melanoma (MM) is not good. Therapeutic strategies to enhance the immune response have some clinical benefit; however, most patients eventually succumb to progressive disease, in part because their immune cells known as dendritic cells (DCs) fail to sustain an effective antitumor T cell immune response.

16 Nov 2007

PET scans useful for some cancer treatment, but how do patients fare?

Positron emission tomography or PET scans can help clinicians diagnose and treat some cancers, but it is not clear yet whether the imaging technology helps people with cancer live longer and healthier lives, according to a comprehensive review by the U.K. National Health Service.

14 Nov 2007

Real-time 3-D analysis of breast cancer biopsies

A sophisticated microscope that offers a “real-time” 3-D analysis of tissue samples might, in the future, reduce the number of needle biopsies traditionally needed from women suspected of having breast cancer, according to recent research published at Georgetown University Medical Center's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

14 Nov 2007

Synthetic compound promotes death of lung-cancer cells, tumors

Human lung-cancer tumors grown in mice have been shown to regress or disappear when treated with a synthetic compound that mimics the action of a naturally occurring "death-promoting" protein found in cells, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.

13 Nov 2007

UK study looks at obesity in women

The study shows that overweight and obese women in the UK are at a higher risk of developing and dying from cancer.

6 Nov 2007

Emerging cancer therapies and novel targets

What are the cancer drugs of tomorrow and how will they be developed? At the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, researchers will present some answers to these and other pressing questions regarding emerging cancer therapeutics.

25 Oct 2007

T-cell exhaustion

A new study of immune cells battling a chronic viral infection shows that the cells, called T cells, become exhausted by the fight in specific ways, undergoing profound changes that make them progressively less effective over time.

19 Oct 2007

Improvements in cancer survival in Northern Ireland

There have been improvements in cancer survival in Northern Ireland between 1993 and 2004, according to a new report from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR), launched at Queen’s today.

4 Oct 2007

New strategies with greater antitumorous efficacy

One of the biggest problems in the current treatment of cancer is that the agents that are efficacious in the destruction of tumorous cells are, at the same time, extremely toxic for the rest of the healthy cells and tissues of the patient.

3 Oct 2007

Daisy compound used to attack cancer stem cells

A new, easily ingested form of a compound that has already shown it can attack the roots of leukemia in laboratory studies is moving into human clinical trials, according to a new article by University of Rochester investigators in the journal, Blood.

2 Oct 2007

Oncolytics Biotech reports positive interim results of UK phase Ia/Ib trials

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. has announced that an oral presentation covering interim results from a U.K. Phase Ia/Ib combination REOLYSIN and radiation clinical trial for patients with advanced or metastatic cancers is scheduled to be presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) conference on October 2, 2007 in Birmingham, U.K.

29 Sep 2007

Less invasive lymph node biopsy method could spare thousands unnecessary operations

Barcelona, Spain: Using an ultrasound-guided fine needle to biopsy lymph nodes could spare thousands of melanoma patients every year worldwide from having to undergo unnecessary and sometimes unpleasant surgery to verify whether their cancer has spread, new research indicates.

27 Sep 2007

The cancer burden in the developing world

Only a few years ago cancer was considered to be a disease of westernised, developed countries, but now the burden is increasingly falling on less developed countries, a leading epidemiologist told ECCO 14, the European Cancer Conference.

25 Sep 2007

LL37 peptide provides a new potential target for autoimmune disease

A human peptide that acts as a natural antibiotic against invading microbes can also bind to the body's own DNA and trigger an immune response in the absence of an infection, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in an early online publication in Nature.

17 Sep 2007