A diagnosis of breast cancer has taken on a new meaning in the past 10 years, as research has produced a host of new therapies and detection techniques, significantly improving long-term survival for women who have been fighting the disease.
A study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that in women whose initial breast biopsies revealed certain rare, yet benign breast conditions, more extensive follow-up surgical biopsies found cancer up to 25 percent of the time. Most of the cancers were invasive, meaning the tumors had penetrated normal breast tissue and would require treatment.
American researchers have found that giving a combination of imantanib and a drug that induces cell death was better at inhibiting the growth of Ewing’s sarcoma in mice than either therapy on its own, according to research presented at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague on Friday.
Scientists have found a way of using a protein made by prostate cancer to target and kill the cancer cells themselves. In preliminary studies the new therapy affected only the prostate, without causing damage to other healthy tissues, and now it is being tested in a phase I clinical trial, according to research presented at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague on Friday.
Researchers in the UK and the United States have found that a drug composed of an antibody carrying a highly toxic anti-cancer agent is well tolerated by patients at much higher doses than have been used before, according to research presented at the 18th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Prague on Friday.
University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health researchers have determined that firefighters are significantly more likely to develop four different types of cancer than workers in other fields. Their findings suggest that the protective equipment firefighters have used in the past didn’t do a good job in protecting them against cancer-causing agents they encounter in their profession, the researchers say.
Researchers at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America found that antioxidant therapies such as green tea extract, melatonin, high-potency multivitamins, vitamin C and vitamin E do not interfere with radiation treatment.
Too much of a signaling protein called insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) may fan the flames of cancer, while too little of the protein may cause short stature, dementia and osteoporosis. New research investigates how the growth hormone/IGF system is affected by the important tumor suppressor gene p53. This interplay of two signaling pathways reinforces questions about the long-term risks of prescribing growth hormone, while suggesting a future new avenue for cancer therapy.
Overall, the use of drugs that reduce stomach acid, such as H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors, do not increase the risk of cancer of the esophagus or stomach, but it is informed that cancer risk is probably due to underlying conditions.
Prostate cancer patients who have a temporary rise in their prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels after radiation therapy – called a PSA bounce – are not at an increased risk of their cancer coming back any more than those who don?t have a temporary rise, according to the largest study of its kind presented November 8, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology?s 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.