Category Archives: Cancer

Prostate cancer researchers develop personalized genetic test to accurately predict recurrence risk — ScienceDaily

The findings are published online in Lancet Oncology. Study co-leads Dr. Robert Bristow, a clinician-scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and Dr. Paul Boutros, an investigator at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, report that the gene test provides a much-needed quick and accurate tool to determine with greater precision the men who will do well with local treatment only (surgery or radiation), and those who will need extra treatment (chemotherapy and hormone therapy) to ensure the cancer is completely eradicated. …

Sorting bloodborne cancer cells to better predict spread of disease — ScienceDaily

The catalysts behind the formation of these deadly metastatic tumors are believed to be cancer cells that are launched into the bloodstream from the original site of the cancer. Researchers are very interested in leveraging these circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, which have the potential to allow the properties of a tumor to be better understood without a biopsy, and may also help physicians recognize how aggressive a tumor is and whether it is likely to cause metastatic disease. …

Long-term testosterone therapy does not increase risk of prostate cancer — ScienceDaily

Lead investigator Ahmad Haider, MD, PhD, urologist, Bremerhaven, Germany, states, “Although considerable evidence exists indicating no relationship between testosterone and increased risk of developing PCa, decades of physician training with the notion that testosterone is fuel for PCa made it difficult to dispel such fallacy and the myth continued to persist. …

More breast cancer patients opting for mastectomy — ScienceDaily

The rates of increase were steepest among women with lymph node-negative and in situ (contained) disease. This is a reversal of trends seen since the 1990s when breast conservation surgery (BCS) was found to produce equivalent cancer outcomes and was endorsed as a standard of excellence by a National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference. The Vanderbilt University study, led by Kristy Kummerow, M.D., and Mary Hooks, M.D., MBA, was published online in the Nov. …

Possibilities for personalized vaccines — ScienceDaily

“One of the biggest hurdles in cancer immunotherapy is the discovery of appropriate cancer targets that can be recognised by T-cells,” said Singh, who is scientific coordinator of the EU-funded GAPVAC phase I trial which is testing personalised vaccines in glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive brain cancer. “In the GAPVAC trial we will treat glioblastoma patients with vaccines that are ideal for each patient because they contain personalised antigens.”1 For all patients in the GAPVAC study, researchers will identify genes expressed in the tumour, peptides presented on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) receptor (i.e…

New ways to drain cancer’s ‘fuel tank’ discovered — ScienceDaily

Cancer stem cells are particularly difficult to eradicate and are at the heart of why it is so hard to more effectively treat cancer patients, as the post-treatment survival of cancer stem cells drives tumor recurrence, the systemic spread of cancer and, ultimately, treatment failure. The researchers, based at the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences and the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute — both part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre — investigated the role of mitochondria which produce and release energy within cells…

New model of follow up for breast cancer patients — ScienceDaily

International guidelines recommend annual follow-up mammograms for every woman after treatment for early breast cancer, regardless of the risk of her cancer returning. There is also no strong evidence to support annual mammography compared with other possible mammography schedules. …