Tag Archives: american

HPV vaccination rates alarmingly low among young women in Southern US

The study, published online in the journal Vaccine, examined the association between geographic region and HPV vaccine uptake and completion rates among women ages18-26 in 12 states. It is the first study of its kind to include initiation and completion rates and assess data across multiple years. …

Heart disease risk appears associated with breast cancer radiation

Several reports have suggested links between breast cancer radiation and long-term cardiovascular-related deaths, according to the study background. Researchers examined the radiation treatment plans of 48 patients with stage 0 through IIA breast cancer who were treated after 2005 at the New York University Department of Radiation Oncology. They calculated the association between radiation treatment factors, such as mean cardiac dose, cardiac risk, treatment side, body positioning and coronary events. …

Measuring segments of genetic material may help predict, monitor recurrence of thyroid cancer

MicroRNAs are copies of very short segments of genetic material that modulate gene expression. Researchers have found that dysregulation of microRNAs may play a role in the development of cancer, and microRNA profiles or "signatures" may be used to classify different types of thyroid tumors. By studying tumor tissue from patients with papillary thyroid cancer, the most common endocrine malignancy, PhD candidate James Lee, MBBS, FRACS, of the Kolling Institute of Medical Research and University of Sydney in Australia, under supervision from Professor Stan Sidhu, and his colleagues found that high levels of two specific microRNAs (microRNA-222 and -146b) within tumors indicated that cancer was more likely to recur after patients’ tumors were surgically removed. …

Multiple, distinct Y chromosomes associated with significant excess risk of prostate cancer

The study identified multiple, distinct Y chromosomes associated with a significant excess risk of prostate cancer, said Lisa Cannon-Albright, Ph.D., Professor and Chief of the Division of Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr. Cannon-Albright, who headed the study and presented the results today, said that her lab plans to search these Y chromosomes for the genetic mutations that can predispose a man to develop prostate cancer, the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in the U.S. …

Study finds drug helps against pancreatic cancer

The drug Zybrestat selectively targets and collapses tumor blood vessels, depriving the tumor of oxygen and making its cells die. In experiments involving a mouse model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, Einstein scientists found that infusing mice with Zybrestat three times per week for four weeks resulted in significant antitumor activity compared with control mice given a placebo. The findings were presented in Boston at the American Association for Cancer Research-National Cancer Institute-European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics…

Data reaffirms test’s ability to identify benign thyroid nodules

This multi-site study co-led by Bryan R. Haugen, MD, professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine provides the first long-term look at how these patients fared, and its findings reaffirm the performance of the Afirma Gene Expression Classifier (GEC). Haugen said "Each year, tens of thousands of patients with thyroid nodules have surgery to remove all or part of their thyroids…

Stealth nanoparticles lower drug-resistant tumors’ defenses

Paula T. Hammond and colleagues at the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research at MIT note that triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive disease that is difficult to treat with standard-of-care therapy, and patients’ prognoses are poor. These cancer cells evade treatment by ramping up the production of certain proteins that protect tumors from chemotherapy drugs…

Coffee consumption reduces risk of liver cancer, analysis suggests

"Our research confirms past claims that coffee is good for your health, and particularly the liver," said Carlo La Vecchia, MD, study author from the department of epidemiology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," and department of clinical sciences and community health, Università degli Studi di Milan, Italy. "The favorable effect of coffee on liver cancer might be mediated by coffee’s proven prevention of diabetes, a known risk factor for the disease, or for its beneficial effects on cirrhosis and liver enzymes." Researchers performed a meta-analysis of articles published from 1996 through September 2012, ultimately studying 16 high-quality studies and a total of 3,153 cases. This research fills an important gap as the last meta-analysis was published in 2007, and since then there has been data published on more than 900 cases of HCC…