Tag Archives: centre

Scientists pioneer new drug regimen that reduces toxicities for renal cancer patients

The seven-year study began in 2007 and the findings revolutionized the standard protocol for patient management in NCCS with an attenuated-dose regimen of sunitinib for patients with mRCC. The new treatment regimen for sunitinib has been accepted by oncologists in Singapore. For the patients, this would mean an estimated 30 per cent reduction in fees because of the lower dosage. …

Improved treatment for cancer patients: Topical steroid cream — ScienceDaily

Radiotherapy uses X-rays to destroy cancer cells but this can often lead to a severe skin reaction involving redness, pain and blistering similar to sunburn. The trial of this cream — mometasone furoate–was so successful that the patients in the research will now be offered this instead of the existing treatment. Breast cancer patients were recruited from hospitals all over the North West for the trial, based at the Rosemere Cancer Centre at the Royal Preston Hospital. …

Improved treatment for cancer patients: Topical steroid cream

Radiotherapy uses X-rays to destroy cancer cells but this can often lead to a severe skin reaction involving redness, pain and blistering similar to sunburn. The trial of this cream — mometasone furoate–was so successful that the patients in the research will now be offered this instead of the existing treatment. Breast cancer patients were recruited from hospitals all over the North West for the trial, based at the Rosemere Cancer Centre at the Royal Preston Hospital. Dr Andrew Hindley of Rosemere Cancer Centre: “We believe that this treatment should be considered the standard of care when a radiation therapy schedule is administered to an anatomical site where severe dermatitis would be predicted.” The patients were offered either diprobase cream or mometasone furoate to be administered daily from the start of radiation therapy for 5 weeks and for at least a fortnight afterwards. …

Why bowel cancer sometimes outsmarts treatment

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered that bowel cancer may not be restricted to starting its journey in the stem cells in the lining of the intestines as previously thought. The researchers, based at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, studied a hereditary faulty gene which can cause bowel cancer in middle age. The faulty gene causes normal cells to behave like immortal stem cells and develop tumours of their own- challenging the theory that normal cells have a fixed fate and limited lifespan. The cells lining the bowel are continuously replaced — new ‘daughter’ cells are produced by immortal stem cells to replace those that have worn out. …

New ways to drain cancer’s ‘fuel tank’ discovered — ScienceDaily

Cancer stem cells are particularly difficult to eradicate and are at the heart of why it is so hard to more effectively treat cancer patients, as the post-treatment survival of cancer stem cells drives tumor recurrence, the systemic spread of cancer and, ultimately, treatment failure. The researchers, based at the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences and the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute — both part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre — investigated the role of mitochondria which produce and release energy within cells…

Genetic architecture of kidney cancer uncovered by research

The research, by an international team led by scientists from the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre in Montreal, underscores the importance of investigating possible sources of exposure to aristolochic acid. The compound, found in plants of the Aristolochia genus, also has been suspected of causing a kidney disease known as Balkan endemic nephropathy, affecting people along the tributaries of the Danube River in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Aristolochia clematitis, or European birthwort, is a common plant throughout the Balkans. Results of the study, which focused on the most common form of kidney cancer — clear-cell renal cell carcinoma — are reported in Nature Communications…

Simple blood test could be used as tool for early cancer diagnosis

A simple blood test could identify those with hypercalcaemia, prompting doctors to investigate further. The research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, analysed the electronic records of 54,000 patients who had elevated levels of calcium and looked at how many of them went on to receive a cancer diagnosis. Dr Fergus Hamilton, who led the research from the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol, said: “All previous studies on hypercalcaemia and cancer had been carried out with patients who had already been diagnosed with cancer — hypercalcaemia was seen as a late effect of the cancer. “We wanted to look at the issue from a different perspective and find out if high calcium levels in blood could be used as an early indicator of cancer and therefore in the diagnosis of cancer.” Analysis of the data from 54,000 patients found that in men, even mild hypercalcaemia (2.6-2.8 mmol l−1) conferred a risk of cancer in one year of 11.5 per cent. …

RNA sequence could help doctors to tailor unique prostate cancer treatment programs — ScienceDaily

Colin Collins and Alexander Wyatt, and other researchers from the Vancouver Prostate Centre at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, matched 25 patients’ treatment outcomes with the RNA sequence of their prostate cancer tumors. They suggest that similarities between the RNA of some of the patients’ tumors could open up new avenues of treatment. Prostate cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, but can be effectively managed…