Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are classified into functional and nonfunctional tumors by hormone secretion and clinical symptoms. Functional PNETs are mainly represented by insulinoma, which secrete insulin independent of glucose and cause hypoglycemia. The major genetic alterations in insulinomas are still unknown. …
Precision medicine constitutes a different method of identifying best treatment options for patients. Instead of prescribing therapy based solely on the organ where the cancer originated, clinicians utilize genomic analysis for a more comprehensive approach. Through a rapid gene sequencing test, the tiniest details of a tumor biopsy are uncovered, sometimes revealing one or more mutations in the patient’s genes. It is the mutations themselves that can be targeted with new or existing drugs. …
Clinical Cancer Advances 2013: ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer reveals how marked expansion in our knowledge and understanding of cancer is already improving treatment while also pointing the way towards even more effective approaches in the future. Published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the ASCO report covers a broad range of cancer types and highlights a selection of the most recent achievements across the entire continuum of cancer care, from prevention and screening to treatment and survivorship. "For patients today, these results can be critical. Scientifically, they demonstrate how our long term investment in science and technology can yield practical advances now and in the near future," said ASCO President Clifford A…
In an article published online today in the journal Urologic Oncology, urologist Ralph de Vere White and medical oncologist Primo Lara, Jr. of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center describe a framework for urology and medical oncology interactions to enhance patient care, improve outcomes and yield clinical research advances…
The (REiNS) Collaboration was formed to achieve consensus regarding the design of clinical trials for treatments of NF and related disorders, with a focus on developing a standard set of appropriate and meaningful outcome measures. "This supplement presents the initial progress of several of the working groups and includes the first series of consensus recommendations for NF clinical trial endpoints by the REiNS International Collaboration," according to an introduction by Dr Scott R. …
The new findings explain partially why cancer cells, unlike normal cells, fail to die as a result of DNA damaging insults, and how this mechanism causes new genetic mutations in cancer cells. This new information directly benefits cancer research. Now that scientists understand the repair mechanism, they are better equipped to develop drug therapies that specifically target cancerous cells. …
Cell-cycle Cells in all organisms grow and divide into two daughter cells by an ordered sequence of events called "cell cycle." Basically , the cells have to complete four main processes during the cell cycle : growth ( G1 and G2 phases ) , doubling the DNA ( S phase ) , segregate chromosomes ( M phase , mitosis) and divide ( cytokinesis ) . …
Women with a break in their insurance coverage had a 3.5-fold higher likelihood of nonconcordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for radiation therapy and chemotherapy compared with women with uninterrupted coverage. "We found that women who had no insurance at some point during treatment, women with lower incomes compared with those in the highest income categories, and women who held more debt at the time of diagnosis were less likely to receive all of the recommended breast cancer treatments," said Jean A…
Two of the first three chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who participated in the study, which started in the summer of 2010, remain in remission, with tests revealing reprogrammed cells still circulating in their bodies, on guard to combat tumor cells that may reappear in the future. Additional highlights of the new research results include an 89 percent complete response rate among adult and pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). "In a very short time, we’ve learned so much about how CTL019 works and how powerful it can be," said the research team’s leader, Carl H…
Dobek is part of a research team, headed by Dr. Kerri Winters-Stone, that found that the bone benefit from one year of such training could be maintained, even with less exercise, up to a year later, which could help prevent bone fractures in the long run. …