University of Minnesota cancer researchers found that children who received radiation treatment for cancer face an increased risk for brain and spinal column tumors later in life. The study will be published in the Nov. 1, 2006, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Providence, RI ?V Breast cancer awareness month may have passed, but researchers remain focused on the disease with a new study showing that a unique estrogen receptor found in breast cancer tumors is a predictor of tumor size and metastases. The study, led by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School, is published in the November 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.
The Commonwealth Government will add two drugs for the treatment of breast cancer to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). From 1 December, exemestane (Aromasin?) and letrozole (Femara?) will be listed for the treatment of hormone-dependent early breast cancer in post-menopausal women.
Smokers will soon be confronted with a new set of graphic warnings on their cigarette packets, with seven gruesome pictures to be added to those already on display. From today, tobacco manufacturers can introduce a second set of seven images on cigarette packs, and all cigarette packs must be printed with this second set by 1 March 2007.
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has opened a new clinical study using a vaccine strain of the measles virus to attack recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, a largely untreatable brain tumor. This is the second of several pending molecular medicine studies in patients using measles to kill cancer.
A meta-analysis published in the October issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings indicts oral contraceptives as putting premenopausal women at significantly increased risk for breast cancer, especially women who use them prior to having a child.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have for the first time described how multiple copies of a gene are responsible for metastases in early-stage breast cancer and poor prognosis for patients. In a study published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the gene, called uPAR, offers a promising target for therapeutic drugs to stop or slow the progression of the disease and could serve as a screening tool for assessing which types of drugs a patient will respond to.
A light-emitting patch invented by British scientists could lead to home treatment for skin cancer patients.
Researchers have shown that targeted overexpression of heat shock protein 25 prevents radiation-induced damage to salivary glands, a common consequence of treatment for head and neck cancer. The related report by Lee et al., “Radioprotective effect of HSP25 on submandibular glands of rats,” appears in the November issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
Scientists in Hong Kong have identified a protein that can help suppress the growth of prostate cancer cells, the third most common cancer in men worldwide, and the finding might pave the way for the making of a new drug but not so soon.