News by Subject Medicine & Health

More people die of lung cancer than any other type of cancer, and two new studies from CHEST 2017 reveal disparities in lung cancer screening and care that may impact detection, as well as mortality and survival rates in the disease.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics finds a genetic change called ALK-fusion in a patient sample of a melanoma subtype called mucosal melanoma. When researchers treated a tumor grown from this sample with the drugs crizotinib and ceritinib -- both FDA approved to treat ALK-positive lung cancer -- the tumor responded dramatically.

Delivering news about end-of-life issues is one of the most difficult tasks clinicians encounter in medical practice. Researchers from the Texas Medical Center on behalf of the ETHICS study investigators, in Houston, Texas, aimed to assess how prepared health-care providers feel in communicating end-of-life issues and determining if proper training had been given to health-care providers.

As cells with a propensity for cancer break down food for energy, they reach a fork in the road: They can either continue energy production as healthy cells, or shift to the energy production profile of cancer cells. In a new study, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers map out the molecular events that direct cells' energy metabolism down the cancerous path. Their findings could lead to ways to interrupt the process.

Brazilian scientists investigate tumoral development caused by benzo[a]pyrene, a hydrocarbon present in cigarette smoke, automotive exhaust, burnt wood fumes and barbecued meat. Culture of human lung cells was exposed to the agent for a week; the preventive role of nicotinamide riboside halted the damaging effects derived from alterations in genetic expression and cell metabolism.

Pediatric patients with head and neck cancer can be treated with proton beam therapy (PBT) instead of traditional photon radiation, and it will result in similar outcomes with less impact on quality of life.

Most premature deaths from cancer, or other NCDs, are preventable or curable if health systems respond more effectively to the needs of their population.