Cancer Research

Though well-known cancers like breast and prostate cancer are still the most common, America has gotten really good at diagnosing rare cancers, according to a new study.  This is a significant achievement, because rare cancers can be challenging to diagnose, often resulting in numerous physician visits, misdiagnoses, and substantial delays in diagnosis. Rare cancers have become an area of priority for some researchers and public health advocates because treatment options are often more limited and less effective than for more common cancers. Yet because they are rare there is less…

Since cancer tumors are thought to depend on  large amounts of glutamine to achieve rapid growth, some have speculated that glutamine deprivation is a therapeutic approach. A new study casts doubt on that.  Numerous studies have indicated that tumore cannot survive without glutamine, and this has fueld the idea that preventing “glutamine addiction” could be a potential therapeutic strategy. A study now concludes that while glutamine deprivation will halt the proliferation of certain tumor cells, most of them will not be killed, raising questions of whether such a therapeutic…

Telomeres, repeated sequences of DNA that shorten every time a cell divides, have been linked to an increased cancer risk. The length of the telomere “caps” of DNA that protect the tips of chromosomes may provide an avenue for future therapy. The researchers presenting at American Association for Cancer Research analyzed blood samples and health data on more than 28,000 Chinese people enrolled in the Singapore Chinese Health Study, which has followed the health outcomes of participants since 1993. As of the end of 2015, 4,060 participants had developed cancer. Participants were divided into…

If you read the claims of environmental groups, trace levels of chemicals are the source of most cancers, even if they are well below harmful levels, due to vague claims of "bioaccumulation." If you read the recent claims of the EPA, air pollution is causing acute deaths, even though the United States has some of the cleanest air in the world and no one can find any deaths it has caused during the entire existence of the EPA. What to believe? Try science. Instead of being caused by corporations, the overwhelmingly majority of cancerous mutations are caused by DNA. Most of the rest are caused…

A new observational study claims that cheese increases breast cancer risk, while yogurt can lower it. Since both are dairy, that means they would be suggesting a dairy process causes or prevents cancer. The case control study has numerous confounders that will not be noticed by most journalists so media outlets looking for context beware. The case-control study by Roswell Park Cancer Institute scholars examined the association between the types and quantity of dairy foods consumed among 1,941 women diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,237 control participants in the Roswell Park Data Bank and…

Young patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common type of pediatric cancer, are likely to report that they adhered to their anti-cancer medication better than they really did. And so do their parents. Studies show that over 95 percent of prescribed doses must be taken to be effective but a new analysis instead finds that that 84 percent of patients or their parents over-reported adherence to a regimen of the oral maintenance therapy6-mercaptopurine (6MP), which is prescribed for two years after chemotherapy for patients to achieve durable remissions. Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, of…

Newborns with the common virus in the herpes family known as congenital cytomegalovirus have an increased risk of developing acute lymphocytic leukemia, according to a new analysis. The authors say the risk is even greater in Hispanic children, who are already at the highest risk for developing ALL. Up to 80 percent of Americans are infected with congenital cytomegalovirus, which is normally dormant, but during pregnancy the virus can flare up and be transmitted to the fetus, causing serious consequences such as birth defects and hearing loss in newborns.Some have suspected that infection…

Women taking tamoxifen for breast cancer were less likely to continue taking the drug if they suffered nausea and vomiting - yet so were women given a placebo who experienced the same symptoms. This is evidence that drugs are being unfairly blamed for natural symptoms.  It's a chemophobia culture. People embrace homeopathy, naturopathy and various alternative techniques because they aren't required to have elaborate disclosures of side effects like real medicines have. And there is a culture war against drug companies, so if symptoms occur it may be easy to blame Big Pharma or Big…

Currently, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and other biomarkers are used for diagnosing and monitoring prostate cancer. However, biomarkers to selectively identify patients with high risk of recurrence, those who might benefit from intervention, and those who can safely choose active surveillance, are lacking. A new study in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a biomarker, PITX2 DNA methylation, which is capable of distinguishing cancerous tissue from non-cancerous tissue and predicting the risk of cancer recurrence using only small amounts of tissue obtained from core needle…

There is no clear cut-off age to stop breast cancer screening, according to a new analysis which adds support for guidelines that encourage screening decisions based on individual patients and their health status. But which puts doctors, hospitals and insurance companies at risk in a defensive medicine environment where there are unlimited potential damages if an attorney gets a cancer patient in front of a jury. Mammography is the standard imaging exam for breast cancer screening. Guidelines on what age to stop breast cancer screening have been a source of controversy and confusion in recent…