Cancer Research

Honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month, doctors and scientists have turned toward the examination of simpler techniques for outwitting cancer growth and progression. The next cancer treatment may not be a new gamut of drugs aimed to block cancer cell metabolism, bacteria bred to eat cancer or mutant immunoglobulin that will cure us of our tumors; it may simply be cold treatment to freeze cancer tissues. Cryoablation, the use of extreme cold in an isolated area, has been identified as a possible cancer treatment by The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group and is the center of a National…

Normal-weight women who carry out lots of vigorous exercise are approximately 30% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who don't exercise vigorously, according to a study of more than thirty thousand postmenopausal American women reported in Breast Cancer Research.  So a sedentary lifestyle can be a risk factor for the disease – even in women who are not overweight. While an Investigator at the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Michael F. Leitzmann led a team of researchers who followed the 32,269 women for eleven years and found that…

Viruses aren't just disease agents any more.  Scientists now know they can be used in therapies for cancer but concerns over the safety of  'oncolytic viruses' remain because they can also damage healthy tissues. But Mayo Clinic researchers say they have discovered a way of controlling the viruses behind potential cancer therapeutics by engineering the virus's genetic sequence, using microRNAs to restrict them to specific tissues. The microRNAs destabilize the virus's genome, making it impossible for the virus to run amok. The discovery is reported in the current issue of Nature…

Approximately 180,000 new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States and about 40 percent of those diagnosed will undergo surgery as part of their treatment.   Every patient assumes it will go well but patients operated on by surgeons who do not routinely remove cancer from the lungs may be at a higher risk for complications, according to a study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center. "Our study found that hospitals that do higher volumes of these types of surgeries have correspondingly lower mortality rates than those who do fewer of the…

The leading cause of death in all cancer patients continues to be the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy, a form of treatment in which chemicals are used to kill cells.   A study by UC Riverside biochemists that focuses on cancer cells reports that ingesting apigenin,  a naturally occurring dietary agent found in vegetables and fruit , improves cancer cells' response to chemotherapy. Xuan Liu, a professor of biochemistry, and Xin Cai, a postdoctoral researcher working in her lab, found that apigenin localizes tumor suppressor p53, a protein, in the cell nucleus – a necessary…

While conducting a study about a link between breast size and heart cancer, Helena Jernström, an oncologist at Lund University in southern Sweden, discovered a gene that that about half of women possess is involved in breast cancer - and so is coffee. The researchers found that coffee intake and the CYP1A2*1F genotype predict breast size in young women. They studied healthy premenopausal, non-hormone women and among those who drink 3+ cups per day of coffee , smaller breast size was associated only with C-allele carriers (Pinteraction=0.02), which they stated is consistent with reports that…

INGELHEIM and BIBERACH, Germany, October 17 /PRNewswire/ -- - Boehringer Ingelheim Oncology Pipeline Advances: Two Leading Compounds are Entering Phase III Trials - Boehringer Ingelheim's Investigational Compound in Development for the Treatment of Pre-Menopausal Women Suffering From Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) Will Report on Phase III Results in 2009 Boehringer Ingelheim announced that patients and physicians may have several innovative type 2 diabetes treatment alternatives available in the coming years. At its Second International Research & Development Press Conference,…

Yale Cancer Center researchers have identified a genetic biomarker that may help to determine why some people are at an increased risk of developing lung cancer. The findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, could help identify smokers who should be carefully screened for lung cancer. “Only 10% of smokers will develop lung cancer in their lifetime and genetic testing to determine the population of smokers who are most predisposed to develop the disease is needed to help guide better evaluation for these people,” explained Joanne B. Weidhaas, MD, PhD, assistant professor of…

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 14 /PRNewswire/ -- - Five Research Teams Selected to Receive Funding for Preclinical and Clinical Research Projects in Parkinson's Disease-Related Cognitive Deficits and Mood Disorders The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF) awarded a total of $2 million to five research teams to speed development of effective therapies for the under-addressed cognitive and mood-related symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). The award was made possible by leadership funding from Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The research grants…

LONDON, October 14 /PRNewswire/ -- - Eminent Scientist Declares Innovative Technologies can Halve Crude Oil Price Whilst Protecting Global Environment Kenneth Hsu Consulting (KHC) is pleased to announce a Press & Investor Conference at The Geological Society of London on 30th October 2008 at 10am (doors open 9.45am) to present the company's technological inventions, to alleviate the global water, energy, environmental, climate and economic crises. Wasteful exploitation of Earth's resources and continuing ecological devastation, has brought the global environment and world economy to a…