Tag Archives: access

To sleep, perchance to dream of a cure

And once the sleep was lost, there was no getting its positive effect back by allowing extra rest later. In “Recovery Sleep Does Not Mitigate the Effects of Prior Sleep Loss on Paclitaxel-Induced Mechanical Hypersensitivity in Sprague-Dawley Rats,” a preclinical study published in Biological Research for Nursing, restricted sleep among rats led to worse reactions to PAC, associated with painful, debilitating peripheral neuropathy of the hands and feet that may persist long after therapy is completed. According to the study, “How poor sleep sets the stage for adverse outcomes among people diagnosed with cancer is not entirely understood…

GPs should be more open when referring patients for cancer investigations, study says

They found that patients were rarely involved in the decision to be referred for investigation and that reasons for referral tended to be couched in non-specific terms rather than ‘cancer investigation’, even when the patient was on a cancer-specific pathway. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) referral guidelines emphasise that the patient should be involved in the decision-making process and be informed of the reasons for referral…

Promising drug doubled positive effect in hormone-receptor positive breast cancer, study finds

An investigational drug discovered and being developed by Pfizer Inc., palbociclib targets a key family of proteins (CDK4/6) responsible for cell growth by preventing them from dividing. Results of the multi-year phase 2 study showed a significant increase in PFS for patients with advanced breast cancer that was estrogen receptor positive (ER+), HER2-negative (HER2-), who were given a combination of the standard anti-estrogen treatment, letrozole, and palbociclib compared to letrozole alone. “We’re essentially putting the brakes on cell proliferation and causing these tumor cells to stop growing,” said Dr. …

High-definition scopes accurately assess polyps, physicians say

The benign hyperplastic polyp appears very pale and bland on imaging. Their 522-patient study, published in the December issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, found that physicians correctly evaluated whether a polyp was precancerous or benign using high-definition optical lenses during a colonoscopy…

New technology directly reprograms skin fibroblasts for a new role

The new technique cuts out a cellular middleman. Study senior author Xiaowei “George” Xu, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, explains, “Through direct reprogramming, we do not have to go through the pluripotent stem cell stage, but directly convert fibroblasts to melanocytes. …

Breast density helps better predict breast cancer risk — ScienceDaily

The study, “Volumetric Breast Density Improves Breast Cancer Risk Prediction,” was presented during the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. “There is increasing interest in implementing personalized breast cancer screening strategies instead of guidelines based on a woman’s age. However, most risk models do not include breast density, which is an important indicator of a woman’s breast cancer risk,” said Jennifer Harvey, MD, professor of radiology at the UVA School of Medicine…

Two drugs before surgery help women with triple-negative breast cancer, research shows — ScienceDaily

“We found that adding either carboplatin or bevacizumab to standard preoperative chemotherapy increased pathologic complete response rates for women with basal-like cancers — that is, it increased the proportion of women who had no residual cancer detected at surgery. At the same time, we found that while carboplatin had a similar effect in the smaller group of triple-negative patients with nonbasal-like cancers, adding bevacizumab actually decreased response rates for women with nonbasal-like cancers,” says William M. Sikov, MD, associate chief of clinical research with the Program in Women’s Oncology at Women & Infants and associate professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University…

Too much, too little, just right: Balance of proteins keeps cancer in check — ScienceDaily

“The p53 protein is necessary for tumor suppression,” said Xinbin Chen, professor at the UC Davis Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. “When Rbm38 suppresses p53, organisms develop tumors. Knocking out Rbm38 increases p53, which we thought might be a good thing. But too much p53 suppresses cell-cycle progression, causing cell death, premature aging and even cancer.” The relationship between p53 and Rbm38 can best be described as a loop: p53 regulates Rbm38 expression, while Rbm38 suppresses p53. …

Detection of enterovirus infection in insulin producing cells in patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes

The discovery provides possibility for both antiviral treatment and vaccine of type 1 Diabetes, according to a press release from The University of Oslo. Type 1 Diabetes affects young people and children. Unlike type 2, type 1 cannot be treated by diet changes and exercise Insulin is needed. Only 29 % of the patients reach the recommended goals for treatment to prevent disabling late diabetes complications. …

Personalized therapy for cancer: Additional applications for FL118

In a study of preclinical models of colorectal cancer, the researchers identified an underlying mechanism for the activation of p53 by FL118. The agent activates the p53 tumor-suppressor protein largely independent of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent DNA damage-mediated p53 activation. ATM-dependent activation of p53 is usually induced by many — if not all — types of DNA-damage drugs, including camptothecin compounds such as irinotecan and topotecan, leading the authors to conclude that FL118’s mechanisms of action are distinct among camptothecin analogues. “While FL118 is an analogue of irinotecan and topotecan, two FDA-approved cancer drugs that are also based on the naturally occurring compound camptothecin, our findings add further evidence that FL118 has novel mechanisms of action that may make it especially potent against solid tumors and especially effective as a well-tolerated, targeted therapy,” said Dr. …