Tag Archives: california

Possible explanation for link between exercise, improved prostate cancer outcomes

Men who engage in higher levels of physical activity have been reported to have a lower risk of prostate cancer recurrence and mortality compared with men who participate in little or no physical activity. The biological mechanisms underlying this association are not known. "Prior research has shown that men with prostate tumors containing more regularly shaped blood vessels have a more favorable prognosis compared with men with prostate tumors containing mostly irregularly shaped blood vessels," said Erin Van Blarigan, Sc.D., assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. "In this study, we found that men who reported walking at a brisk pace had more regularly shaped blood vessels in their prostate tumors compared with men who reported walking at a less brisk pace…

Cancer genomics hub adds childhood cancer data

A UCSC team led by bioinformatics expert David Haussler established CGHub in 2012 to manage primary sequence data from all of NCI’s cancer genomics research programs. These programs, which aim to improve cancer treatment by identifying the genetic drivers of cancer, require massive amounts of data to be shared among researchers throughout the country. …

New technique improves accuracy, ease of cancer diagnosis

The technique, which uses a deformability cytometer to analyze individual cells, could reduce the need for more cumbersome diagnostic procedures and the associated costs, while improving accuracy over current methods. The initial clinical study, which analyzed pleural fluid samples from more than 100 patients, was published in the current issue of peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine. Pleural fluid, a natural lubricant of the lungs as they expand and contract during breathing, is normally present in spaces surrounding the lungs. …

Blacks have less access to cancer specialists, treatment

The study, published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, noted there was no difference in risk of death when black patients received the same treatments, such as chemotherapy and surgery, as non-Hispanic white patients. "Other studies have looked at racial disparities in treatment and still others have focused on racial differences in survival rates of cancer patients, but our research attempted to go further by demonstrating the impact of race-based inequalities in cancer treatment on survival rates of black colorectal cancer patients," said James D. Murphy, MD, MS, assistant professor and chief of the Radiation Oncology Gastrointestinal Tumor Service at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. The researchers analyzed data from 11,216 patients over the age of 66 with stage IV colorectal cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database…

Study improves detection of biomarkers to predict lung cancer

One of the biggest challenges in oncological medicine is to detect lung cancer earlier enough to allow treatment because now the location of these tumors implies a metastasis in about 75% of cases. This research has confirmed that the presence of a protein called C4d "is associated with a mortality increase of people whose tumors contain it, and also the levels of this marker are reduced after surgical removal of the cancer," said Carlos Camps, also a researcher of the University General Hospital of Valencia Research Foundation. This protein "may be a biomarker for early detection and treatment of lung cancer because it would diagnose those people at increased risk for this disease, but no symptoms," adds the scientist Eloisa Jantus- Lewintre, co-author of the work and belonging to General Hospital Foundation…