Cancer Research

CALGARY, Canada, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSX: ONC, NASDAQ: ONCY) announced today that its 2008 Annual and Special Meeting of the Shareholders will be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. (ET) at the Yale Club of New York City, 50 Vanderbilt Ave, New York. Following the business portion of the meeting, Dr. Brad Thompson, President and CEO of Oncolytics, will discuss recent progress in developing REOLYSIN(R) as a potential cancer therapeutic. A live audio webcast of the presentation will begin at approximately 9:15 a.m. (ET) at: http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/…

Whole-organ maps that superimpose genetic information over the terrain of cancerous bladders chart the molecular journey from normal cell to invasive cancer, an international research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports online ain Laboratory Investigation. By geographically relating an organ’s varied tissues – normal, precancerous and malignant – to their underlying genetic variation or regulation, the team also identified a crucial new category of genes that launches the process of cancer development. “These ‘forerunner genes’ are the…

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- - Longest Continuous-Treatment Prospective Study of a Biological Therapy for Psoriasis Final results of the first three-year prospective efficacy and safety study in moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis were recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology(1). They demonstrate the sustained safety and efficacy obtained with Raptiva(R) (efalizumab) in the long-term three-year therapy of this chronic autoimmune disease. The data show that Raptiva(R) therapy had a sustained effect in those patients who responded to the initial 12-week…

MALMO, Sweden, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- iClin Solutions, a supplier of intelligent solutions for cancer treatment, today announced the launch of Electro Chemo Therapy - ECT - and the first treatment using the Cliniporator in Sweden. The treatment was performed at the Department of Oncology at Lund University Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Julie Gehl from Herlev Hospital in Denmark. The Cliniporator is used to fight cutaneous and sub-cuteaneous metastasies by increasing the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs, offering a very good alternative to traditional radiation therapy and surgery. "We…

Cross-sectional studies, which collect information at a single point in time, generally find that young Americans report having more lifetime alcohol problems than older Americans, despite having had less time to develop these problems. But these studies are hampered by the fact that people of different ages may remember or report problems to different degrees. A new examination of data, collected on similarly aged groups one decade apart, has found substantial increases in drinking and alcohol dependence among women – particularly white and Hispanic women – beginning with those born in the…

A process of self-digestion called autophagy prompts the maturation of red blood cells. Without a protein called Nix, the cells would not effectively rid themselves of organelles called mitochondria and consequently become short-lived, leading to anemia, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “It’s changed our thinking on autophagy,” said Dr. Jin Wang, assistant professor of immunology at BCM and senior author of the report in Nature. During autophagy, the cell forms an envelope or vesicle around components of the cell that need to be degraded and removed. The vesicle…

'Clone' is an odd term culturally. Thanks to science fiction on one side and ethical hysteria on the other, people tend to overstate the meaning of it. Back before genomes, to 'clone a gene' was to basically discover it - it meant you found the stretch of DNA encoding that gene - but now we know where almost all of the genes are. So 'cloning' in this context does not mean 'discovery' and it certainly doesn't mean Sith Lords spitting out an army of warriors to take over the universe - it means taking known genes (in tiny pieces in the genome) and isolating the spliced versions into a format…

TORONTO, Canada, May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A biosimilar protein that can be used to treat neutropenia (a side effect of cancer chemotherapy) is to be developed by Apotex Inc. of Canada in collaboration with Intas Biopharmaceuticals Limited (IBPL) of India. Neukine(R), a recombinant granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is already manufactured and marketed in India and other countries by IBPL. Kwizda Pharma of Austria had been working with IBPL to develop G-CSF for the European market for some time. Effective immediately, Kwizda Pharma has transferred all of its rights in IBPL's G-CSF to…

Researchers at McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) have performed the world’s first totally automated administration of an anesthetic. Nicknamed “McSleepy,” the new system developed by the researchers administers drugs for general anesthesia and monitors their separate effects completely automatically, with no manual intervention. The anesthetic technique was used on a patient who underwent a partial nephrectomy, a procedure that removes a kidney tumor while leaving the non-cancerous part of the kidney intact, over a period of 3 hours and 30 minutes. To…

In a series of mate choice experiments with Phintella vittata (the Chinese jumping spider), a group researchers has found that female spiders would rather mate with males that reflect ultraviolet B (UVB) rays than those that do not. This is the first evidence of an animal using UVB rays to communicate with other members of its species. “It has long been recognized that solar UVB has direct deleterious effects on a wide range of living organisms; for example, it can cause skin cancer and damage the retinal tissues of the eyes of mammals,” said Daiqin Li of National University of Singapore,…