In a new study from Norway published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, both coffee consumption and cigarette smoking are shown to potentially protect against primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This is a chronic liver disease caused by chronic inflammation of the bile ducts. The findings are of great interest against a backdrop of increasing knowledge on coffee as a possible protective agent in other liver diseases. …
In an article published online today in the journal Urologic Oncology, urologist Ralph de Vere White and medical oncologist Primo Lara, Jr. of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center describe a framework for urology and medical oncology interactions to enhance patient care, improve outcomes and yield clinical research advances…
The research, led by Dong-Joo (Ellen) Cheon, PhD, found that the 10-gene biomarker panel may identify the aggressiveness of a patient’s disease, help predict survival outcomes and result in novel therapeutic strategies tailored to patients with the most adverse survival outcomes. When a patient’s tumor is identified as having elevated levels of these 10 specific genes, doctors may be able to better predict which treatments would be most effective, said Cheon, whose research was published in Clinical Cancer Research. That is an important advance because ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer and is often diagnosed in later, more aggressive stages, resulting in poor prognosis and survival. These outcomes differ due to development of tumors that become resistant to chemotherapy. …
In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Navdeep Chandel and colleagues from Northwestern University report the effects of a SOD1 pharmacological inhibitor on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. The inhibitor, called ATN-224, stunted the growth of human NSCLC cells in culture and induced their death. The researchers also found that ATN-224 inhibited other antioxidant proteins, which caused high levels of hydrogen peroxide inside the cells. The ability of cancer cells to produce hydrogen peroxide was required for ATN-224-dependent effects, because hydrogen peroxide activated cell death pathways. …
To assess the association between high Cbl levels and risk of cancer of any type, Johan Arendt, BSc, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and the Department of Clinical Biochemistry of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues used Danish Medical registries to review the records of 333,667 patients without cancer who had been referred for Cbl testing and to estimate the incidence of cancer in this population from 1998 to 2010. The researchers excluded patients who had a cancer diagnosis before the date of plasma measurement and those who were receiving Cbl therapy. They found that the risk of cancer overall increased with higher Cbl levels, especially during the first year after measurement and for those with levels > 800pmol/L. …
With a New York University Cancer Institute colleague, the researchers report in an upcoming Clinical Chemistry (now online) that the mixture of free-floating blood proteins created by the enzyme carboxypeptidase N accurately predicted the presence of early-stage breast cancer tissue in mice and in a small population of human patients. "In this paper we link the catalytic activity of carboxypeptidase N to tumor progression in clinical samples from breast cancer patients and a breast cancer animal model," said biomedical engineer Tony Hu, Ph.D., who led the project. "Our results indicate that circulating peptides generated by CPN can serve as clear signatures of early disease onset and progression." The technology is not yet available to the public, and may not be for years. More extensive clinical tests are needed, and those tests are expected to begin in early 2014…
A study published today in the online edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and carried out by Erwin Wagner’s team, Director of the BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme and holder of an ERC Advanced Grant, shows how the immune system ‘attacks’ liver cells during hepatitis by using the AP-1 gene JunB. Latifa Bakiri, one of the study’s authors and a researcher in Wagner’s laboratory details: "The activation of the JunB/AP-1 gene in a subset of immune cells, called NK cells, increases the production of interferon-gamma that attacks liver cells while the organ is suffering from hepatitis." With this discovery, the study’s authors propose a new mechanism by which AP-1 acts as a double-edged sword in the liver: it’s a first line of defence against viruses that cause the disease, but also encourages liver damage depending on the diet or genetics of the patient. …
This study included 751 Kaiser Permanente patients with prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy, an operation that includes removal of the prostate and surrounding tissue. The researchers explored the association between the patients’ body mass index and prostate cancer mortality, adjusted for tumor aggressiveness and other characteristics…
In research to be presented to the 2013 European Cancer Congress (ECC2013), Professor John Yarnold will say that, until now, there has been contradictory evidence as to whether gaps between radiotherapy treatments, for instance overnight or at weekends, makes any difference to the overall effectiveness of radiotherapy on breast cancer, and, if it does make a difference, why that could be. "Traditionally, breast cancer has not been regarded as a fast growing cancer, unlike some other cancer types, but our research now suggests that a significant part of the daily radiotherapy curative dose is ‘used up’ in compensating for tumour growth overnight and over weekends. We have estimated that the amount of radiotherapy dose that is used up in this way corresponds to approximately 0.60 Gray (Gy) per day," says Prof Yarnold, who is Professor of Clinical Oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Honorary Consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (London, UK). "This is the first numerical estimate to suggest that the duration of a course of radiotherapy has an effect on local cancer cure for patients with early breast cancer…
But unlike in women, neither soy protein nor a common antidepressant provides relief for men, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Hot flashes occur in approximately 80 percent of men who are undergoing hormone manipulation as treatment for prostate cancer. Hormone therapy reduces the levels of male hormones, called androgens, to prevent them from reaching prostate cancer cells and stimulating their growth. "Changing hormone levels cause hot flashes in both women and men, so we hoped that using soy supplements and/or an antidepressant would help reduce them in men as it does in many women," said Mara Vitolins, Dr…