Category Archives: Cancer Treatment

Technologies revealed that streamline breast cancer treatment

Jersey Shore and Ocean Medical Center now offer accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) for breast cancer treatment using the CONTURA ® Multi-Lumen Balloon (MLB) Catheter. This unique method of radiation treatment delivery involves the placement of a deflated balloon in the lumpectomy cavity post-surgery through a small incision. The balloon is then filled with saline and temporarily left in place for up to 10 days during treatment. …

Protein links liver cancer with obesity, alcoholism, hepatitis

In a new study, University of Iowa researchers have identified an unexpected molecular link between liver cancer, cellular stress, and these health problems that increase the risk of developing this cancer. The study, published Dec. 19 in the journal PLOS Genetics, shows that a protein called CHOP, which had previously been thought to generally protect against cancer, actually promotes liver cancer in mice and may do the same in humans. "Obesity, alcoholism, and viral hepatitis are all known independently to cause cellular stress and to induce expression of CHOP," says Thomas Rutkowski, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology in the UI Carver College of Medicine and senior study author…

Fatigue, a common side effect of breast cancer treatment, evaluated in novel patient study

"Understanding who is at risk for post-treatment fatigue, and why, is the first critical step in the development of personalized, targeted interventions for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer-related fatigue," said Arash Asher, MD, director of cancer rehabilitation and survivorship at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and the medical center’s primary investigator on the study. …

Advances in nanotechnology’s fight against cancer

A new research review co-authored by a UCLA professor provides one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of research on nanomedicine-based approaches to treating cancer and offers insight into how researchers can best position nanomedicine-based cancer treatments for FDA approval. …

First cancer operation room with navigator is created

The system, presented at Gregorio Marañón Hospital, permits real-time interaction with the body of the patient (with its different tissues and cancer) as well as the radiotherapy applicator used to radiate the area affected by the tumor. This innovation will be used in the surgery of cancers treated with intraoperative radiotherapy in the hope of achieving greater precision in the radiation of potentially cancerous tissues after the removal of the tumor. The installation of this new equipment has entailed a complete remodeling of the operating room. …

Computer-controlled table could direct radiotherapy to tumors while sparing vital organs

Sophisticated computer modelling could be used to slowly move the table — known as a couch — and a radiation source in three dimensions to direct radiation precisely to the patient’s tumor, researchers have suggested. At the moment, a radiotherapy table can be angled during treatment, but there is no way to synchronise its rotation with a moving radiation beam. But with some modifications, an upgraded system could move both the patient and the beam while reducing the radiation dose of healthy tissue…

Different parents, different children: bladder cancers arise from different stem cells

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Stem Cells shows it’s the latter: the progenitor cells that create MI bladder cancer are different than the progenitor cells that create NMI bladder cancer. Though these two cancers grow at the same site, they are different diseases…

Freezing semen doubles chances of fatherhood for men after treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma

In the first study to investigate the impact on fatherhood of freezing semen prior to cancer treatment, researchers questioned 902 male survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma in five European countries (France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland) and found that among the 334 who wanted to have children, the availability of frozen semen doubled their chances of doing so when compared with men who had not frozen their semen. Dr Marleen van der Kaaij (MD), who carried out the work while she was a PhD student at the University Medical Centre in Groningen (The Netherlands), said: "Our study shows that cryopreservation of semen before cancer treatment has a large impact: one in five children born after Hodgkin lymphoma treatment was born using cryopreserved semen. …

Patient satisfaction with clinical services can affect treatment outcomes

Seven hundred patients treated for colorectal cancer at three Cancer Treatment Centers of America hospitals completed service quality questionnaires measuring their levels of satisfaction with hospital operations and services, physicians and staff, and contained patient endorsements. Overall patient experience was measured by asking, “Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your overall experience with the institution?” Survey responses were correlated with median patient survival time from survey completion…