EurekAlert! - Cancer

Adding ultrasound screening to mammography brings benefits, risks

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Brown University) Results from a major clinical trial show that adding a screening ultrasound examination to routine mammography reveals more breast cancers than mammography alone -- but also increases the rates of false positive findings. The American College of Radiology Imaging Net-work, whose biostatistics center is located at Brown University, conducted the study and reported the results in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Chemical compound prevents cancer in lab

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Oklahoma) A chemical compound derived from vitamin A prevents cancer from forming and is being developed by the National Cancer Institute as a daily preventive pill.

OHSU Cancer Institute researchers pinpoint how smoking causes cancer

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Oregon Health & Science University) Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have pinpointed the protein that can lead to genetic changes that cause lung cancer. Researchers discovered the production of a protein, FANCD2, is slowed when lung cells are exposed to cigarette smoke. Low levels of FANCD2 leads to DNA damage, triggering cancer. Cigarette smoke curbs the production of 'caretaker' proteins, like FANCD2, which prevent cancer by fixing damages in DNA and causing faulty cells to die.

Vitamin D protects cells from stress that can lead to cancer

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Rochester Medical Center) By inducing a specific gene to increase expression of a key enzyme, vitamin D protects healthy prostate cells from the damage and injuries that can lead to cancer, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers report.

Surviving breast cancer 'is not enough,' warns Breast Cancer Campaign

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(BioMed Central) Women are living longer after breast cancer but simply surviving is not enough, Pamela Goldberg, Chief Executive, Breast Cancer Campaign, said today.

UT Southwestern researcher: Supplemental breast ultrasound boosts cancer detection

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(UT Southwestern Medical Center) Among women at high-risk of developing breast cancer, breast ultrasound combined with mammography may detect more cancers than mammography alone, according to results of a multicenter trial that included UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

Girls, young women can cut risk of early breast cancer through regular exercise

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Washington University School of Medicine) Mothers, here's another reason to encourage your daughters to be physically active: Girls and young women who exercise regularly between the ages of 12 and 35 have a substantially lower risk of breast cancer before menopause compared to those who are less active, new research shows.

Blacks not receiving chemotherapy for rectal cancer, despite seeing cancer specialists

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Michigan Health System) Black patients and white patients are seeing rectal cancer specialists at similar rates, but blacks are still less likely to receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Adding ultrasound to mammography may improve breast cancer detection in high-risk women

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(JAMA and Archives Journals) The addition of an ultrasound examination to mammography for women at high-risk of breast cancer resulted in a higher rate of cancer detection, but also increased the number of false-positive results, according to a study in the May 14 issue of JAMA.

Other highlights in the May 13 JNCI

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Journal of the National Cancer Institute) Also in the May 13 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute are an analysis of the timing of risk for familial breast cancer, a study on the impact of exercise and premenopausal breast cancer, information on disparities and access to medical oncologists for rectal cancer patients, a proposed set of clinical trial guidelines for liver cancer, and a study looking at the impact of sphicterotomy on cholagniocarcinoma.

PET imaging may not improve diagnostic accuracy in early head and neck cancer

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Journal of the National Cancer Institute) Positron emission tomography with a radioactive tracer (18F-FDG PET) may not improve the detection of small metastases in patients with head and neck cancer who have no clinical evidence of disease in neighboring lymph nodes, according to a meta-analysis published online May 13 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Glypican-3 gene function in regulating body size helps inform novel cancer treatments

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) In a leading study that has implications for the development of novel therapies for a number of breast, lung and ovarian cancers that have lost the expression of a gene called glypican-3, Sunnybrook researchers have discovered how the loss of the GPC3 gene induces overgrowth through certain growth factors such as Sonic Hedgehog which stimulate cancer growth.

2nd ESMO symposium on soft tissue carcinomas and GIST

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(European Society for Medical Oncology) Experts in treating a rare group of cancers that affect tissues such as muscle, fat, nerves and the gastrointestinal wall are meeting in Milan, Italy, on May 13-14 to discuss the latest information on how these diseases develop and potential new avenues for therapy.

St. Jude study shows how T cell's machinery dials down autoimmunity

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) A St. Jude Children's Research Hospital study shows that T cells, the body's master immune regulators, do not use simple on/off switches to govern the cellular machinery that regulates their development and function.

Arsenic-based therapy shown to help eradicate leukemia-initiating cells

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) In a paradoxical discovery, a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has found that a tumor suppressor protein known as PML appears to be the factor that enables leukemia initiating cells to maintain their quiescence -- the inert state that protects them from being destroyed by cancer therapies.

End-stage dementia patients deserve the same access to palliative care as people with cancer

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Wiley-Blackwell) Researchers have come up with eight key recommendations to improve care for end-stage dementia patients after reviewing 29 studies from the USA, UK, Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. "We must act now to stop people with dementia from suffering from protracted, potentially uncomfortable and undignified deaths" says Jan Draper, professor of nursing.

HPV linked to better survival in tonsil, tongue cancer, U-M study finds

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Michigan Health System) Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a series of markers that indicate which patients are more likely to survive cancers of the base of the tongue and tonsils. Most notably, they found that cancers linked to HPV, or human papillomavirus, are the most responsive to current chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Human aging gene found in flies

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have found a fast and effective way to investigate important aspects of human aging. Researchers at the University of Oxford and the Open University have discovered a gene in fruit flies that means flies can now be used to study the effects aging has on DNA. They demonstrate the value of this model in helping us to understand the aging process.

Engineer to spearhead research into cell metabolism and medical injuries

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Leicester) A University of Leicester engineer has won a share of grants totalling over £1m to target lung injury and cancer.

Exciting new data will be released at Digestive Disease Week

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(American Gastroenterological Association) Join leading researchers and clinicians in the field of gastrointestinal medicine as they discuss the latest research in gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.

6-month follow-up diagnostic mammograms recommended for women with probably benign lesions

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(American Roentgen Ray Society) Radiologists can, with confidence, recommend a six-month follow-up diagnostic mammogram rather than an immediate biopsy for patients with "probably benign" breast lesions, a new study emphasizes.

New cancer gene found

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Oklahoma) Researchers at the OU Cancer Institute have identified a new gene that causes cancer. The ground-breaking research appears in Nature's cancer journal Oncogene.

Skin flaps deliver cancer-fighting therapy, ASPS study reveals

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(American Society of Plastic Surgeons) Using gene therapy, plastic surgeons have delivered cancer fighting proteins through skin flaps placed on cancerous tumors on rats with a 79 percent reduction in tumor volume, according to a study in the May issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Previously unseen switch regulates breast cancer response to estrogen

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(Emory University) A tiny modification called methylation on estrogen receptors prolongs the life of these growth-driving molecules in breast cancer cells. Most breast cancers contain estrogen receptors, which enable them to grow in the presence of the hormone estrogen. Their presence can determine whether tumors will respond to the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen. The finding will help researchers sort out how mutations change the estrogen receptor's function and allow some breast cancers to resist tamoxifen.

Virus mimics human protein to hijack cell division machinery

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

(University of Wisconsin-Madison) Viruses are masters of deception, duping their host's cells into helping them grow and spread. A new study has found that human cytomegalovirus can mimic a common regulatory protein to hijack normal cell growth machinery, disrupting a cell's primary anti-cancer mechanism.