Cancer Research

SCHLIEREN, Switzerland, LAUSANNE, Switzerland and SAN DIEGO, October 6 /PRNewswire/ --
Oncalis AG (Oncalis), a privately-owned Swiss biotechnology company, and ChemDiv Inc. (ChemDiv), a privately-owned, California-based discovery services company announced that they entered into an exclusive agreement for a license to Oncalis a family of PI3K inhibitors. ONC-201, the first development candidate from this family, is a potent and selective orally-bioavailable member of a new class of drugs targeting PI3-kinase. ONC-201 has demonstrated highly promising anti-cancer efficacy in pre-clinical…

New research suggests that the identification and examination of key cell signaling events required for initiation and progression of cancer might be best accomplished at the single cell level. The research in Cancer Cell may lead to better diagnosis and treatment of some complex cancers.
Recent advances in flow cytometry, a technique that allows detailed examination of individual cells, have enabled simultaneous measurement of cell type and signaling pathways. Lead study authors Dr. Garry P. Nolan from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Dr. Mignon L. Loh from the UCSF Children's…

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2008 with one half to Harald zur Hausen for his discovery of "human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer" and the other half jointly to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for their discovery of "human immunodeficiency virus."
Harald zur Hausen went against current dogma and postulated that oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. He realized that HPV-DNA could exist in a non-productive state in the…

LONDON, October 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading brand communications agency, Ogilvy Group UK, this week launches a campaign for its client Cancer Research UK to tie in with Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) which runs from 1st to 31st October.
To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/breastawarenessguy/35265/
The campaign - entitled "Breast Awareness Guy" - aims to encourage donations of at least £2 per month to Cancer Research UK. The campaign consists of a short viral film which will be sent out via email and seeded around the Internet. The film - also…

Researchers at the University of Toronto have shown that the EBNA1 protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) disrupts structures in the nucleus of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells, thereby interfering with cellular processes that normally prevent cancer development. The study, published October 3rd in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, describes a novel mechanism by which viral proteins contribute to carcinogenesis.
EBV is a common herpesvirus whose latent infection is strongly associated with several types of cancer including NPC, a tumor that is endemic in several parts of the world.…

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today that Genentech Inc. has reported a case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in a 70-year old patient who had received Raptiva(R) (efalizumab) for more than four years of treatment of chronic plaque psoriasis. Genentech markets Raptiva(R) in the United States.
In accordance with regulatory requirements, Merck Serono has informed regulatory agencies in its marketing territories outside the U.S. and Japan about this serious adverse event. Study investigators…

NEWBURY, England, October 2 /PRNewswire/ --
- New Drug Xarelto(R) (Rivaroxaban), Which has Been Shown to be Significantly More Effective Than Current Standard, Gets UK Licence
A new drug launched today could help in the fight against what experts and campaigners are calling a 'major patient safety issue'(1) - the prevention of hospital-acquired DVT (deep vein thrombosis). Xarelto, a once-daily tablet which has been shown to be significantly more effective than the existing standard treatment, injectable enoxaparin(2)-(3), could help prevent unnecessary deaths from hospital-acquired DVT in…

HALIFAX, Canada, October 1 /PRNewswire/ -- ImmunoVaccine Technologies' (IVT) patented depot vaccine formulation, DepoVax(TM) is showing positive pre-clinical results, with single-dose efficacy achieved in therapeutic cancer and several infectious disease vaccine models. The results of this research will be presented October 4th at the Ehrlich II conference in Germany. Collaborators from the University of Miami will also be reporting on the capabilities of IVT's depot formulations for delivery of DNA and SiRNA in vivo.
DepoVax(TM) provides a unique single-dose capability, and is based on a…

RICHMOND, California, October 1 /PRNewswire/ --
Lumiphore, Inc., a biotechnology leader in the development of new proprietary fluorescent metal-lanthanide technology for use in high-value applications, announced that it has signed an exclusive agreement with Biophor Diagnostics, Inc., Redwood City, California to apply Lumiphore products in diagnostic tests for drugs of abuse.
Under the agreement, Biophor Diagnostics holds the exclusive worldwide rights to Lumi4(TM) technology in current and future diagnostic tests of this type. Lumi4(TM) fluorescent metal-reporter compounds bring increased…

When a cell's chromosomes lose their ends, the cell usually kills itself to stem the genetic damage - University of Utah biologists say their discovery about how those cells evade suicide and start down the path to cancer may lead to new treatments.
A new study of fruit flies is the first to show in animals that losing just one telomere, the end of a chromosome, can lead to many abnormalities in a cell's chromosomes, which are strands of DNA that carry genes.
"The essential point is that loss of a single telomere may be a primary event that puts a cell on the road to cancer," says Kent…