Cancer Research
jenwong |
Cancer cells are, well, cancer cells; cells that grow uncontrollably in the host, and ignore all patterns and signals that govern the structural integrity of tissue and organs.
Much research in the last several decades have defined molecular features attributed to cancer cells, and more importantly what specifically can kill them. Decades of work goes by with the discovery of drugs that change the lives of many individuals and families touched by this disease. Yet despite the euphoria of success, scientists come face to face with a troubling problem of cancer cell resistance to treatment.…
36% of post-menopausal women who are treated for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer quit using drugs that help prevent the disease from recurring after four years.
Why? The first study to actually ask the women themselves reports those women quit early because of the medications' side effects, which are more severe and widespread than previously known. A new Northwestern Medicine survey reveals a big gap between what women tell their doctors about side effects and what they actually experience.
The symptom most likely to cause women to stop using the drugs was joint pain. Other side effects…
A mathematical model could guide treatment decisions for advanced prostate cancer, in part by helping doctors predict how individual patients will respond to therapy based on the biology of their tumors.
These decisions would apply to treatment of cancer that has already spread beyond the prostate gland or that has recurred after initial treatments, such as surgery or radiation. Patients with this more advanced prostate cancer receive a therapy called androgen ablation, which inhibits production of testosterone – the culprit that allows a tumor to keep growing.
Prostate cancer is diagnosed in…
Hank |
A problem began to come into existence a few decades ago and in the polarized climate enabled by instant access to partisan spin, it's only going to get worse.
The problem isn't always that people are anti-science, though documenting the numerous instances of global warming deniers on one side and anti-science hippies on the other is always fun, it may be that people accept science too much - and there is a backlash on the way because people don't always understand that accepting science isn't always going to mean things don't change when new information comes to light.
For most aspects of…
Chanda |
Solar ultraviolet {UV} radiation is largely comprised of UVB (280-320 nm) and UVA (320-400 nm) wavelengths. UVB radiation has been associated with sunburn, immunosuppression, photoaging, skin cancers and DNA lesions. The latter include cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and 6,4 pyrimidine pyrimidone. UVA radiation which represents 95% of the total UV received at ground level, is less energetic than UVB. It has also been associated with immunosuppression, photoaging, and mutagenesis [1].
According to the albino hairless mouse model, both UVB and UVA can be involved in the development of cutaneous…
As I review journals and articles dealing with clinical trials I have found the most glaring problem that, I am sure, no one will address. Namely; quoting data "from the book."
So, what am I talking about? Specifically about researchers, I mean the real researchers, not "re-inventing the wheel" but being satisfied just pulling the data from a "trusted" source and running with it.
Best explanation I can give uses an example. In a clinical trial looking at the impact of ascorbic acid on tumor growth, the researching group, (medical team), noted the milligrams of dose given, adjustment for…
G.D.W. |
In the following TED-talk, cancer researcher Jay Bradner talks about the work in going on in his lab. How they approach understanding the way cancer works, how they proceed in designing potential drugs, and... how they share their findings for free with whoever wants to know. He explains how making a proto-drug freely available has helped in spurring a fast development for a potential treatment for a rare type of cancer (and which, incidentally, might prove useful in the fight against other cancers as well), currently entering human trials. So, instead of carefully…
While the incidence of colon cancer has not dropped since 1978, deaths have. Earlier diagnosis, better treatment?
Perhaps healthier hot dogs. 2011 data from the SEER Cancer Statistics Review from the National Cancer Institute shows colon cancer is still out there but the addition of ascorbate (vitamin C) or its close relative, erythorbate, and the reduced amount of nitrite added in hot dogs, mandated in 1978, was recently linked to the decreased death rate.
"It was proposed that N-nitroso compounds in hot dogs and other processed meats can cause colon cancer," said…
Researchers have created a protein 'switch' that instructs cancer cells to produce their own anti-cancer medication and lab tests showed it can activate a powerful cell-killing drug when the device detects a marker linked to cancer.
The goal in cancer treatment is to some day cause cancer cells to self-destruct and spare healthy tissue, damage to all tissue being the downside to current treatments like chemotherapy.
In the protein switch strategy, a doctor would instead administer a “prodrug,” meaning an inactive form of a cancer-fighting drug. When a cancer marker is…
Cancer patients quickly find themselves learning a new language and, keen to trust in science and medicine, they sometimes don't take time to fully understand their treatment options, and the risks and benefits of each choice, because they know doctors are busy.
A commentary in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute outlines 10 things health care professionals can do to improve the way they communicate information about treatment risks to patients and that means patients can keep these in mind when talking with their doctors.
1. Insist on plain language. If you don't understand…