Category Archives: Cancer

New treatment designed to save more eyes from cancer

Treatments for retinoblastoma have progressed dramatically in recent years, one being a procedure called ophthalmic artery infusion chemotherapy. A tiny catheter is inserted into an artery that provides blood flow (and chemotherapy) directly to the eye and tumor. Originally introduced in the late 1980s, direct ophthalmic artery infusion significantly increases treatment effectiveness while reducing side effects. Unfortunately, many children with retinoblastoma are not good candidates for conventional ophthalmic artery infusion — in particular younger, smaller patients with advanced disease, according to Todd Abruzzo, MD, director of Interventional Neuroradiology at Cincinnati Children’s. …

Cushing’s syndrome: Researchers characterize new tumor syndrome

The ARMC5 gene was discovered by independent workgroups studying benign tumors — so-called adrenal adenomas — in connection with Cushing’s syndrome. In this disease, the body produces too much of the hormone cortisol. Now, for the first time, a mutation of ARMC5 has been characterized as the cause behind the growth of meningeal tumors. …

Oral drug reduces formation of precancerous polyps in colon

The study is featured on the cover of the current issue of Cancer Research; it was published online ahead of print in September. The journal’s editors characterized the study’s findings as “striking.” Inflammatory cells in the colon, or polyps, are very common after the age of 50. The average 60-year-old has an estimated 25 percent chance of having polyps. Most polyps are benign, but some will develop into colon cancer. …

Body position in breast cancer radiation treatment matters, experts say — ScienceDaily

Dr. Julia White of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute has helped develop a modified treatment board that allows patients to lie comfortably on their stomachs while the breast tissue falls away from the chest wall, allowing the radiation to target the cancer. Traditionally, women who undergo radiation therapy lie on their backs in the supine position. …

Common anesthetic can reduce chronic pain after mastectomy — ScienceDaily

“Unfortunately, chronic pain is a condition that many breast cancer patients endure after mastectomy,” said Mohamed Tiouririne, M.D., lead author and associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. “Our findings indicate that intravenous (I.V.) lidocaine can protect mastectomy patients from developing chronic pain, possibly due to the anti-inflammatory effects associated with the medication.” In the study, 61 women who underwent mastectomy were randomly divided into two groups…

Side effects of cancer prevention surgery can be helped with a single-day education program, study finds

The program taught women how to manage some of the physical and emotional difficulties that can follow ovary-removing surgery and helped many participants resume satisfying sexual activity and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, the investigators found. The study, published today in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, underscores the need to inform women about the aftereffects of this type of surgery and, critically, let them know that such problems can be dealt with successfully. “For women who inherit genetic mutations that put them at increased risk for ovarian cancer, oophorectomy — surgical removal of the ovaries — can sharply lower that risk…

Body position in breast cancer radiation treatment matters, experts say

Dr. Julia White of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute has helped develop a modified treatment board that allows patients to lie comfortably on their stomachs while the breast tissue falls away from the chest wall, allowing the radiation to target the cancer…

Obesity accelerates aging of the liver, researchers find using novel biological aging clock

Although it had long been suspected that obesity ages a person faster, it hadn’t been possible to prove the theory, said study first author Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. …