Tag Archives: cancer treatment

Low-grade prostate cancers may not become aggressive with time — adds support for ‘watch and wait’ approach

Researchers found that after the introduction of widespread prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, the proportion of patients diagnosed with advanced-stage cancers dropped by more than six-fold in 22 years, but the proportion diagnosed with high Gleason grade cancers did not change substantially. This suggests that low-grade prostate cancers do not progress to higher grade over time. Cancer stage refers to the extent or spread of the disease, and cancer grade, called Gleason grade for prostate cancer, refers to the aggressiveness of the disease…

Nanodrug targeting breast cancer cells from the inside adds weapon: Immune system attack

The research team developing the drug — led by scientists at the Nanomedicine Research Center, part of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — conducted the study in laboratory mice with implanted human breast cancer cells. Mice receiving the drug lived significantly longer than untreated counterparts and those receiving only certain components of the drug, according to a recent article in the Journal of Controlled Release. Researchers from the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai, the Division of Surgical Oncology at UCLA, and the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA also participated in the study. …

Study shows who survives Burkitt lymphoma

A new study in the journal Cancer that tracked survival during the last decade of more than 2,200 adults with a highly aggressive form of lymphoma finds that with notable exceptions, medicine has made substantial progress in treating them successfully. To help doctors and researchers better understand who responds well to treatment and who doesn’t, the study authors used their findings to create a stratified risk score of patient prognosis. Burkitt lymphoma is not a common lymphoma but it is especially aggressive. …

Study suggests pattern in lung cancer pathology may predict cancer recurrence after surgery

According to the study’s authors, the findings offer the first scientific evidence that may not only help surgeons identify which patients are more likely to benefit from less radical lung-sparing surgery, but which patients will benefit from more extensive surgery, potentially reducing the risk of lung cancer recurrence by 75 percent. The study will be published in the August 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute…

Oxygen – key to most life – decelerates many cancer tumors when combined with radiation therapy

In research examining tissue oxygenation levels and predicting radiation response, UT Southwestern scientists led by Dr. Ralph Mason reported in the June 27 online issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine that countering hypoxic and aggressive tumors with an "oxygen challenge" — inhaling oxygen while monitoring tumor response — coincides with a greater delay in tumor growth in an irradiated animal model…

Missing piece of pediatric cancer puzzle found

In a study published in the July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found a missing piece of the pediatric cancer puzzle. Changxian Shen, PhD, senior research associate at the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Peter Houghton, PhD, director of the center, may have identified one mechanism behind the early development of some pediatric solid tumors — as well as a target for future pediatric cancer therapies…

Comprehensive list of gene variants developed for cancer cells from nine tissue types

The NCI-60 cancer cell panel represents nine different types of cancer: breast, ovary, prostate, colon, lung, kidney, brain, leukemia, and melanoma. In this study, the investigators sequenced the whole exomes, or DNA coding regions, of each of NCI-60 cell lines, to define novel cancer variants and aberrant patterns of gene expression in tumor cells and to relate such patterns and variants to those that occur during the development of cancer…

Physicists offer novel insight into experimental cancer treatment

Magnetic hyperthermia is viewed as an attractive approach for the treatment of certain cancers as it has no known side effects compared to more conventional therapies such as chemotherapy. It is particularly suitable for the treatment of prostate cancer and brain tumours. However, until now there has been no clear theoretical understanding of how it actually works. …

Strong pregnancy outcomes for survivors of childhood cancer

"Most women think that if they had cancer as a child, then they’ll never have children. It turns out that many of them can get pregnant. It just might be a little harder," said senior author Lisa Diller, MD, chief medical officer of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s and medical director of the David B…