http://www.cancer-blog.org/ New Article Alert From From Cancer blog Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT en-us http://www.cancer-blog.org/images/blogs/new-article-alert-61900.jpg http://www.cancer-blog.org/ 135 90 http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/death-division-or-cancer.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/death-division-or-cancer.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Each day, a staggering number of cells perform a feat that still amazes scientists with its complexity: they divide to produce perfect replicas of each other. The process is called mitosis, and an inability to control it is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Little is known about the biochemical processes that control mitosis, but now scientists from Fox Chase Cancer Center and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, have discovered a novel activity, called the mitotic checkpoint factor 2 (MCF2). This appears to be integral in preventing cells that are unable to equally separate their chromosomes from dividing. The identities of the proteins involved in MCF2 remain to be determined, however, their findings offer insight into a fundamental question of biology, which may also help to increase the efficiency of cancer drugs that disrupt DNA replication, like gemcitabine, or drugs that prevent mitosis, like paclitaxel........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/predicting-prostate-cancer-treatment-failure.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/predicting-prostate-cancer-treatment-failure.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) plus diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) can accurately diagnose residual or recurrent prostate cancer in patients treated with high-intensity focused ultrasonic ablation, a new study shows. The study included 27 patients who had increased levels of prostate specific antigen after being treated with high-intensity focused ultrasonic (HIFU) ablation; 18 of these patients had local tumor progression seen at biopsy. DCE-MRI and DWI had about a 72% accuracy rate in determining which patients needed additional therapy because they had residual or recurrent cancer, said Chan Kyo Kim, MD, lead author of the study. The study observed that DWI had fewer false positives than DCE-MRI, but DCE-MRI had fewer false negatives........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/drug-fends-off-kidney-cancer-progression.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/drug-fends-off-kidney-cancer-progression.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT New data from an international, multicenter Phase III clinical trial has observed that the experimental targeted treatment everolimus (RAD001) significantly delays cancer progression in patients with metastatic kidney cancer whose disease had worsened on other therapys. The study was led by Robert Motzer, MD, an attending doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), who will present the findings on May 31 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/researchers-control-growth-rate-of-blood-vessels.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/researchers-control-growth-rate-of-blood-vessels.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Scientists have discovered a way to control the growth rate of replacement tissue and the formation of new blood vessels, which solves one of the vexing problems of growing replacement tissue to treat injuries and trauma in humans. The procedure could be used in bone grafts, tissue replacement, dental procedures or for diabetics or elderly patients who experience wound healing problems, said William Giannobile, professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and College of Engineering, and corresponding author of the paper. Peter Ma, U-M professor with appointments in engineering and dentistry, is co-author and principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health project........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/women-in-discontinued-hormone-treatment-trial.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/women-in-discontinued-hormone-treatment-trial.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT A follow up study of participants in the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) clinical trial led by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher has observed that women who were taking the combined hormone treatment of estrogen plus progestin may have an increased risk of cancer since the intervention was stopped, in comparison to participants in the trials placebo group........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/oncoproteins-destroy-vital-tumor-suppressor.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/oncoproteins-destroy-vital-tumor-suppressor.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Two previously unconnected cancer-promoting proteins team up to ambush a critical tumor suppressor by evicting it from the cell's nucleus and then marking it for death by a protein-shredding mechanism, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Feb. 10 issue of Nature Cell Biology........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/lnk-between-cancer-down-syndrome.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/lnk-between-cancer-down-syndrome.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Theres new hope for breast cancer research, and its coming from a very unlikely place. Scientists at the Texas AandM University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences recently published articles in the journals Molecular and Cellular Biology and Carcinogenesis indicating that a protein long suspected to play a role in Down Syndrome may also contribute to treating this devastating disease........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/how-to-switch-off-cancer-cell-genes.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/how-to-switch-off-cancer-cell-genes.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT A new study led by scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) identifies how genes are silenced in cancer cells through distinct changes in the density of nucleosomes within the cells. The findings, reported in the Nov. 13 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, will enable scientists to explore new therapies to switch the genes back on and may lead to novel therapys for human cancers, says study lead author Peter A. Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc., director of the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Distinguished Professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/folic-acid-lowers-blood-arsenic-levels.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/folic-acid-lowers-blood-arsenic-levels.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT A new study conducted in Bangladesh finds that folic acid supplements can dramatically lower blood arsenic levels in individuals chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic is a toxic element that is naturally present in some soils and water. Arsenic-contaminated drinking water is currently a significant public health problem in at least 70 countries, including several developing countries and also parts of the United States. Chronic arsenic exposure is linked to increased risk for skin, liver and bladder cancers, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease, and other adverse health outcomes. The study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/new-strategies-with-greater-antitumorous-efficacy.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/10-2007/new-strategies-with-greater-antitumorous-efficacy.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT One of the biggest problems in the current therapy 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. To address the problem the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) is seeking more specific therapys and studying the differences between tumorous cells and healthy ones........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/8-2007/light-activated-molecules-to-kill-cancer-cells.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/8-2007/light-activated-molecules-to-kill-cancer-cells.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT A key challenge facing doctors as they treat patients suffering from cancer or other diseases resulting from genetic mutations is that the drugs at their disposal often dont discriminate between healthy cells and dangerous ones -- think of the brute-force approach of chemotherapy, for instance. To address this challenge, Florida State University scientists are investigating techniques for using certain molecules that, when exposed to light, will kill only the harmful cells........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2007/lung-cancer-chemotherapy-before-surgery.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2007/lung-cancer-chemotherapy-before-surgery.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Combining pre-operative chemotherapy and surgery increases the average chance of survival at five years by approximately 6% compared with surgery alone. This conclusion was drawn by a team of Cochrane Researchers from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit in London after they identified 12 eligible randomised controlled trials. Data from seven of these trials were available from trial reports and were combined in a meta-analysis. The seven trials involved a total of 988 patients........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2007/impact-of-false-positive-cancer-tests.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/7-2007/impact-of-false-positive-cancer-tests.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT According to a new study in Value in Health, women coping with the strain of being mistakenly diagnosed with breast cancer have not been adequately studied in the past. The focus of the study is a new survey that accurately assesses the negative effects of false diagnosis and provides useful information to health care practitioners and researchers........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/target-tumor-microenvironment-to-stop.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/target-tumor-microenvironment-to-stop.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers led by Daniel Nolan and Assistant Professor Vivek Mittal have found that bone marrow (BM) derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a critical role in the early stages of tumor progression and that eliminating EPCs stops cancer growth. Using sophisticated high-resolution microscopy and flow cytometry, they zeroed in on the earliest stages of cancer progression and identified the role of EPCs in generating blood vessels that allow cancers to grow. If we selectively blocked the EPCs, tumors were unable to make blood vessels and could not sustain their own growth, said Vivek Mittal, CSHL Assistant Professor........ ]]> http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/prostate-cancer-risk-in-brca2-carriers.html http://www.cancer-blog.org/blogs/permalinks/6-2007/prostate-cancer-risk-in-brca2-carriers.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:01:37 GMT Carriers of a BRCA2 variation specific to Iceland are more likely to develop aggressive and lethal prostate cancer than noncarriers, as per a research studypublished online June 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Mutations in the BRCA2 gene are linked to increased prostate cancer risk, but it has been unclear whether they are correlation to progression of the disease........ ]]>