Cancer Research

GENEVA, September 4 /PRNewswire/ -- - Merck Serono and Ablynx to Equally Contribute to Discover and Develop Nanobodies(R) Against two Targets in Oncology and Immunology and Equally Share the Resulting Profits Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ablynx (Euronext Brussels: ABLX), to co-discover and co-develop Nanobodies(R) against two targets in oncology and immunology. The agreement includes an upfront cash payment to Ablynx of EUR10 million. Nanobodies(R) are a new class of therapeutic proteins that contain…

Down Syndrome (DS) belongs to the group of conditions called 'aneuploidies', defined by an abnormal loss or gain of genetic material, i.e. fragments of chromosomes or whole chromosomes. Aneuploidies cause congenital anomalies that are a prime cause of infant death in Europe and the USA, and are currently on the increase with advancing maternal age in European countries. The number of people with DS in Europe exceeds half a million. The condition is more common than muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis, but the development of new therapeutic concepts is hindered by the fact that unlike…

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 3 /PRNewswire/ -- - Merck Serono Now Has Exclusive Worldwide Development and Commercialisation Rights to atacicept, Including in North America Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and ZymoGenetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZGEN), Seattle, United States, today announced a restructuring of their partnership. With respect to the ongoing development of atacicept, an investigational drug for the treatment of various autoimmune diseases and B-cell malignancies, ZymoGenetics has exercised its contractual right to convert to a worldwide royalty license. By…

MUNICH, Germany, September 3 /PRNewswire/ -- A sub-analysis of the TRITON-TIMI 38 clinical trial showed that treatment with prasugrel compared with clopidogrel significantly reduced the risk of new or recurrent heart attacks (7.4 percent vs. 9.7 percent, p0.0001), regardless of whether the events occurred around the time of an artery-opening procedure known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or if they occurred spontaneously during the longer-term maintenance phase. The analysis was presented today at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Munich, Germany. The sub-analysis…

MUNICH, Germany, September 3 /PRNewswire/ -- - ACAPULCO study showed that 10 mg Prasugrel Maintenance Dose Achieved Higher Platelet Inhibition than 150 mg Clopidogrel Maintenance Dose Among patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) who are administered a 900 mg loading dose of clopidogrel, does a maintenance dose of 150 mg of clopidogrel or 10 mg of prasugrel better inhibit platelets from aggregating together and forming blood clots? The answer: a 10 mg maintenance dose of prasugrel, according to the results of a randomized, double-blind, crossover study. Results of this study, known as…

Today there is rapidly growing interest in 'intelligent' computer-based methods that use various classes of measurement signals, from different patient samples, for instance, to create a model for classifying new observations. This type of method is the basis for many technical applications, such as recognition of human speech, images, and fingerprints, and is now also beginning to attract new fields such as health care. These 'intelligent' computer-based methods for classifying patient samples have been evaluated by Swedish researchers at Uppsala University with the help of two methods that…

A man's height is a marker for risk of prostate cancer development but is more strongly linked to progression of the cancer, say a group of British researchers who conducted their own study and also reviewed 58 other published studies. In the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 12 researchers at four universities in England who studied more than 9,000 men with and without prostate cancer estimated that the risk of developing the disease rises by about six percent for every 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) in height a man is over the shortest group of men in the…

Researchers from Oregon State University say they have resolved a controversy that cellular biologists have been arguing over for nearly 50 years, with findings that may aid research on everything from birth defects and genetic diseases to the most classic "cell division" issue of them all – cancer. The exact mechanism that controls how chromosomes in a cell replicate and then divide into two cells, a process fundamental to life, has never been completely pinned down, researchers say. You can find the basics in any high school biology textbook, but the devil is in the details. "Researchers…

CALGARY, Canada, September 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ("Oncolytics") (TSX:ONC, NASDAQ:ONCY) announced today that following U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review, the Company is initiating a U.S. Phase 2 clinical trial using intravenous administration of REOLYSIN(R) in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with K-RAS or EGFR-activated tumours. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Miguel Villalona-Calero, Professor Division of Hematology/Oncology and Department of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology at The Ohio State…

BURGESS HILL, England, September 1 /PRNewswire/ -- With some 20,000 UK children with Type 1 diabetes(i) about to start the new school year, new guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) looks set to revolutionise the way children manage their diabetes, granting more freedom and control for their condition, by greater access to insulin pump therapy. The new recommendations finally acknowledge key research(ii) supported by Roche, that shows the positive impact of pumps on quality of life for sufferers and their families. Roche, a world leader in diabetes…