Cancer Research

Changing the sugars attached to a hormone produced in the pituitary gland increased fertility levels in mice nearly 50 percent, a research group at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found. The change appears to alter a reproductive "thermostat," unveiling part of an intricate regulatory system that may one day be used to enhance human fertility. Sugars are the most common addition to hormones and other proteins after they have been assembled from instructions in DNA. Nearly all proteins in the blood and on the surface of cells have sugars attached. Scientists believe…

New data from an international, multicenter Phase III clinical trial has found that the experimental targeted therapy everolimus (RAD001) significantly delays cancer progression in patients with metastatic kidney cancer whose disease had worsened on other treatments. The study was led by Robert Motzer, MD, an attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), who will present the findings on May 31 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. “This study has given us a new and clearly useful tool for treating renal cell tumors, and everolimus is an…

LONDON, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- - Phase II Data Presented at ASCO Showed Acceptable Tolerability Profile, with Low Incidence of Grade 3 and 4 Neuropathy Eisai Europe Ltd. The investigational chemotherapeutic agent eribulin mesylate (E7389) demonstrated activity in a heavily pretreated population of women with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer, according to results of a multi-center Phase II clinical trial. The study also suggests that eribulin mesylate has a manageable tolerability profile, with a low incidence of Grade 3 (severe) and no Grade 4 (disabling or life-threatening)…

LONDON, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Eisai Europe Ltd announced today that results from 9 clinical data abstracts about compounds in the company's oncology pipeline, product portfolio and preclinical oncology research have been accepted for presentation at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), taking place in Chicago from May 30 to June 3, 2008. A wide variety of abstracts on Eisai investigational compounds will showcase research focused on metastatic breast cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, mesothelioma, pancreatic cancer and other types of cancer, as…

Physics can explain the cycle of the earth around the sun, but what drives cellular cycles? Two of the most important cycles in cells are the series of events that take place when cells divide, and circadian rhythms - the cycle of day-night events that even bacteria participate in. Unlike a planet, a cell's cycle can't be described by simple physical laws, nor does it have a CPU like a computer to keep time and and control the order of events. So how do cells control their cycles? Researchers have been trying to reverse engineer cell cycles, and two recent successes give a fascinating…

Identifying gene ancestry is crucial for computational genomics because genes passed down from a common ancestor tend to perform similar functions in the cell. Scientists exploit this similarity in tasks like predicting gene function, mapping human chromosomal regions to corresponding regions in model organisms, and reconstructing the regulatory circuitry that turns genes on and off. Although computational biologists have developed methods to identify genes that share a common ancestor, current methods often lead to spurious conclusions when applied genes encode multi-domain proteins. Domains…

BASEL, Switzerland, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Patients with breast or colorectal cancer, two of the world's most common cancers, can expect further treatment advances with Avastin(R) (bevacizumab) and Herceptin(R) (trastuzumab) following new data that is being presented at the 44th American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago at the end of May. Around 30,000 medical experts will attend the meeting which is the premier event for cancer therapy worldwide. The Roche data will show that Avastin and Herceptin are continuing to offer further hope of improving survival in…

Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and breast cancer. UVB exposure triggers photosynthesis of vitamin D3 in the body. This form of vitamin D also is available through diet and supplements. Approximately 1,150,000 cases and 410,000 deaths from breast cancer occur annually worldwide, including 215,000 new cases and 41,000…

REHOVOT, Israel and JERSEY CITY, New Jersey, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosetta Genomics (Nasdaq: ROSG), today announced it will release first quarter financial results on May 21, 2008, before the U.S. markets open. Rosetta Genomics will host a conference call with a simultaneous webcast to discuss these results at 4:30 p.m. ET on May 21. To access the live conference call, U.S. and Canadian participants may dial +1-866-966-5335; international participants may dial +44-20-3023-4460. To access the 24-hour audio replay, U.S. and Canadian participants may dial +1-866-583-1035; international…

Scientists with UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and the Department of Urology have showed that lowering intake of the type of fat common in a Western diet helps prevent prostate cancer in mice, the first finding of its kind in a mouse model that closely mimics human cancer, researchers said. The study, which appears in the April 15, 2008 issue of the journal Cancer Research, focused on fat from corn oil, which is made up primarily of omega-6 fatty acids, or the polyunsaturated fat commonly found in the Western diet. Omega-6 fats are found in high levels in baked and fried goods, said William…