General Cancer Research
2011
Blood Pressure Drugs May Lengthen Lives of Melanoma Patients
Beta-blocker drugs, commonly used to treat high blood pressure, may also play a major role in slowing the progression of certain serious cancers, based on a new study.
September 21, 2011
BAP1 Mutation Linked To Higher Risk of Mesothelioma and Melanoma of the Eye
Researchers have discovered that individuals carrying a mutation in the BAP1 gene are at greater risk of developing mesothelioma and uveal melanoma.
September 6, 2011
Skin Cancer Vaccine May Be Available Within 1-Year
An Australian scientist is on the verge of creating the world's first skin cancer vaccine.
August 1, 2011
Researchers Improve Method For Finding Genetic Mistakes That Fuel Cancer
A dramatically better computer tool for finding the genetic missteps that fuel cancer has
been developed by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University
Pediatric Cancer Genome Project Investigators.
June 10, 2011
Evidence Backs Melanoma-Parkinson's Association
People with Parkinson's disease are twice as likely as those without the neurological disorder to get a diagnosis of the skin cancer melanoma, a new review of the evidence concludes.
June 6, 2011
2010
Drug Shortages Roiling Oncology Practices, Impinging on Patient Care
An ongoing shortage of some crucial chemotherapy drugs is driving up the cost of the products and forcing oncologists to scramble for supplies or to find therapeutically equivalent alternatives, if there are any.
December 16, 2010
Brief Decline In Quality Of Life Seen After Brain Radiotherapy
Adjuvant whole-brain radiotherapy following surgical or radiosurgical resection of brain metastases provided no survival benefit and modestly reduced health-related quality of life when compared with close MRI observation alone in a randomized study of 359 patients.
December 15, 2010
Ultraviolet Light - Major Risk Factor In Skin Cancer
A team of researchers have reported sun's ultraviolet radiation plays a key role in proliferation and survival of skin cancer cells.
December 10, 2010
Skin Formation Study Suggests Strategies To Fight Skin Cancer
In a study published in the journal Development Cell, researchers demonstrate that a pair of enzymes called HDACs are critical to the proper formation of mammalian skin.
December 8, 2010
Cancer Risk From CT Scans May Be Lower Than Thought
Radiation-induced cancer is a big fear as the use of CT scans for all kinds of medical diagnoses increases. Clearly, unnecessary radiation should be avoided. But a new study suggests that the cancer risk may have been overestimated.
December 1, 2010
Scientists Turn a New Leaf To Discover a Compound in Daffodils That Targets Brain Cancer
A new research study published in the November 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal offers hope that a natural compound in daffodil bulbs, called narciclasine, may be a powerful therapeutic against biologically aggressive forms of human brain cancers.
November 1, 2010
Update 2 - Delcath Cancer System Could Get OK Mid-2011--CFO
Declath Systems Inc expects to finish an application for U.S. review of its cancer drug delivery system in the fourth quarter, which would put it on track for approval by mid-2011.
September 28, 2011
Kansas Research Team Uses Particles to Battle Cancer
A team at Kansas State University is exploring the use of nano-particle induced hyperthermia to battle cancer cells in pre-clinical trials.
June 28, 2010
bioMerieux and GlaxoSmithKlane Enter into Alliance to Develop Molecular Theranostic Test for Cancer Treatment Selection
The two companies signed an agreement to develop a novel molecular test for cancer to aid oncologists in choosing the appropriate treatment for metastatic melanoma.
May 11, 2010
Shutting Out Soft Tissue Cancers in the Cold
"Cryotherapy, an interventional radiology treatment to freeze cancer tumors, may become the treatment of the future for cancer that has metastasized in soft tissues
(such as ovarian cancer) and in bone tumors."
March 16, 2010
Gene Test Aid to Cancer Treatment
To predict how well chemotherapy will work. "Starting with 829 genes in breast cancer cells, the team [Cancer Research UK] whittled down the possibilities to six genes which had an impact on whether a drug worked. They then showed that these genes could be used to predict the effectiveness of a drug called paclitaxel in patients." To try out in other cancers.
March 1, 2010
Cancer Detection Blood Test Hope
"Personalized blood tests which could track whether cancer treatment is working or if the disease has come back have been developed by US researchers."
February 19, 2010
2009
New Stem Cell Lines Open to Research
From NIH.
December 2, 2009
Experimental Cancer Vaccine Goes into Clinical Trials
"Cornell University researchers have produced the first batch of a cancer vaccine known as NY-ESO-1 recombinant protein that will be used in clinical trials for patients facing either ovarian cancer or melanoma.... [I]t has been the central focus of a global network of laboratory and clinical scientists...."
September 1, 2009
New Technology to Mass Produce Artificial Skin Offers Hope for Burn Victims, Cancer Patients
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft science institute "created the technique to make the artificial skin, which is more affordable than similar ones in use now. It relies on computers that control the solution in which the skin grows.... 'Burn victims and skin cancer patients stand to benefit the most from the new skin,'" from Dr. M. Eidelman of Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Vincent's Medical Center.
July 16, 2009
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SNP Link to Several Cancers [but Protect Against Melanoma]
Iceland's K. Stefansson of deCODE and others of the international team "linked common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 5 to five different types of cancer while at the same time conferring protection against melanoma." TERT-CLPTM1L in the chromosome 5p15 region. In Nature Genetics.
January 28, 2009
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2008
Genomic Screen Captures Genes that Prevent Spread of Cancer
Dr. M. Green et al. of Howard Hughes Med. Inst. “developed a systematic method for screening the genomes of cancer cells to detect likely metastasis suppressors.” Tested method “in cell lines developed from mice with metastatic melanoma and identified 22 genes which, when ‘knocked down’ with RNA interference, allowed tumors to metastasize but had no effect on the growth of the original tumors.”
November 3, 2008
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In Long-Awaited Maps of Cancer, The Breakthrough Is the Problem
3 major studies. “… [T]he picture is enormously complicated. For example, scientists had expected to identify certain key genes that were frequently mutated. They found the opposite: a large number of mutated genes, but each mutated in a smaller fraction of the tumors.”
September 5, 2008
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Gene Trawl Shows Curing Cancer Harder than Thought
“The findings suggest that popular new targeted therapies may not work broadly, because they affect only one mutated gene, while cancer is caused by dozens. A better approach would be to find the pathways — networks of genes — that control a tumor's uncontrolled growth.”
September 4, 2008
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Genetic Mutations Linked to Deadly Cancers. Findings of 3 Studies Focus on Brain and Pancreatic Tumors.
“The findings suggest that most solid tumors, particularly those of the brain and pancreas, won't respond to treatments that target a single gene.”
September 4, 2008
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Numerous Undiscovered Gene Alterations in Pancreatic and Brain Cancers Detected
“The best hope for new therapies may lie in the discovery of agents that target the physiologic effects of the altered pathways and processes, rather than their individual genetic components."
September 4, 2008
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Trouble at the Office. Comprehensive Discussion of Issues Between Drug Companies and FDA on Clinical Trials and Criteria for Cancer Drugs
Importance of “surrogate endpoints” as alternatives to overall survival data. Some history on the failure of the FDA to approve Genasense for melanoma and the new current trial.
September 12, 2008
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