EurekAlert! - Medicine/Health

Public Release: 22-May-2013

Cell Reports
Study details genes that control whether tumors adapt or die when faced with p53 activating drugs
When turned on, the gene p53 turns off cancer. However, when existing drugs boost p53, only a few tumors die -- the rest resist the challenge. A study published in the journal Cell Reports shows how: tumors that live even in the face of p53 reactivation create more of the protein p21 than the protein PUMA; tumors that die have more PUMA than p21. And, for the first time, the current study shows a handful of genes that control this ratio.

Public Release: 21-May-2013

Cancer Discovery
Changing cancer's environment to halt its spread
By studying the roles two proteins, thrombospondin-1 and prosaposin, play in discouraging cancer metastasis, a trans-Atlantic research team has identified a five-amino acid fragment of prosaposin that significantly reduces metastatic spread in mouse models of prostate, breast and lung cancer. The findings suggest that a prosaposin-based drug could potentially block metastasis in a variety of cancers.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Norwegian Cancer Society, Norwegian Research Council, and others

Public Release: 17-May-2013

Journal of the American College of Surgeons
More than one-third of Texas women still receive unnecessary breast biopsy surgery
Many women in Texas who are found to have an abnormality on routine mammogram or discover a lump in one of their breasts end up having an old-fashioned surgical biopsy to find out whether the breast abnormality is malignant. Since 2001, national expert panels have recommended that the first course of action for women with breast lumps or masses should be minimally invasive biopsy.

National Institutes of Health, Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas

Public Release: 15-May-2013

2013 ASCO Annual Meeting
PARP inhibitor shows activity in pancreatic, prostate cancers among patients carrying BRCA mutations
In the largest clinical trial to date to examine the efficacy of PARP inhibitor therapy in BRCA 1/2 carriers with diseases other than breast and ovarian cancer, the oral drug olaparib was found to be effective against advanced pancreatic and prostate cancers. Results of the study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will be presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago in early June.

Public Release: 15-May-2013

Journal of General Internal Medicine
Despite new recommendations, women in 40s continue to get routine mammograms at same rate
Women in their 40s continue to undergo routine breast cancer screenings despite national guidelines recommending otherwise, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

Public Release: 14-May-2013

Clinical Breast Cancer
Cognitive training improves executive function in breast cancer survivors
Women whose breast cancer had been treated with chemotherapy demonstrated improved executive function, such as cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency and processing speed after using exercises developed by Lumosity, the leading online cognitive training program. The study also found significant improvement in self-reported measures of everyday executive function and observed some transfer to verbal memory.

NIH/National Institute of Health New Innovator Award

Public Release: 14-May-2013

Radiology
Digital mammography cancer detection rates may vary significantly
Digital direct radiography is significantly more effective than computed radiography at detecting breast cancer, according to a new study.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Public Release: 9-May-2013

Diabetes Care
Popular diabetes drug does not improve survival rates after cancer: Study
Despite previous scientific studies that suggest diabetes drug metformin has anti-cancer properties, a new, first-of-its-kind study from Women's College Hospital has found the drug may not actually improve survival rates after breast cancer in certain patients.

Public Release: 9-May-2013

Genome Biology
Your immune system: On surveillance in the war against cancer
Predicting outcomes for cancer patients based on tumor-immune system interactions is an emerging clinical approach, and new research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is advancing the field when it comes to the most deadly types of breast cancer.

Public Release: 9-May-2013

Cell Reports
Research reveals cancer-suppressing protein 'multitasks'
The understanding of how a powerful protein called p53 protects against cancer development has been upended by a discovery by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers.

Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Cancer Council Victoria, Lady Tata Memorial Trust, Beatriu de Pin�s Fellowship, Victorian Government

Public Release: 8-May-2013

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Fun and friends help ease the pain of breast cancer
Breast cancer patients who say they have people with whom they have a good time, or have "positive social interactions" with, are better able to deal with pain and other physical symptoms, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published today in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 7-May-2013

Science Signaling
Duke researchers describe how breast cancer cells acquire drug resistance
A seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment with the targeted therapy lapatinib has revealed a previously unknown molecular network that regulates cell death. The discovery provides new avenues to overcome drug resistance, according to researchers at Duke Cancer Institute.

National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Cancer Institute, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Public Release: 7-May-2013

Cell Death & Disease
Study: MicroRNA cooperation mutes breast cancer oncogenes
"Imagine you have a microRNA that regulates genes A and B. Then you have another microRNA that regulates genes B and C. You amplify each microRNA to a degree that doesn't effect gene A or C, but their combined effect regulates gene B," says Bolin Liu, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Public Release: 7-May-2013

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Initiation of breast cancer treatment varies by race; patient-doctor communication is key
Black women with breast cancer were found to be three times more likely than their white counterparts to delay treatment more than 90 days -- a delay associated with increased deaths from the disease. But many women chose to forgo treatment altogether, and the study, published in the May issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, suggests that low satisfaction regarding communication between black women and their doctors is a significant reason why they opt out.

American Cancer Society, Komen for the Cure, NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 7-May-2013

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
Exercise-related changes in estrogen metabolism may lower breast cancer risk
Physical activity may reduce breast cancer risk by altering estrogen metabolism. Women who did aerobic exercises had an increased ratio of "good" to "bad" metabolites of estrogen.

Public Release: 5-May-2013

Nature Cell Biology
Discovery helps show how breast cancer spreads
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are more likely than others to develop aggressive tumors that spread. The finding opens the door to drug treatments that prevent metastasis.

National Institutes of Health, Susan G. Komen for the Cure