"In testing on laboratory mice, our technique resulted in significant improvement in breast cancer tumor reduction as compared to conventional treatment techniques," says Dr. Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill. …
Yet a century after Boveri, scientists still aren’t exactly sure if aneuploidy and other kinds of related chromosomal mayhem drive tumorigenesis or if they are simple bystanders. An answer to this longstanding conundrum has now emerged from a new computational study by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Stephen J. Elledge and colleagues at Harvard Medical School who present evidence that aneuploidy patterns of chromosome deletion or amplification that are recurrent among tumors actually represent a driving force during tumor evolution and are very frequent in cancer. Elledge’s study, published October 31, 2013 in the journal Cell, looked at sequencing data from 8,200 tumors of all types, comprising a total of 1.2 million mutations. …
"Think of it like damming a river. Bevacizumab can block the main flow, but then once a tumor’s need builds up behind this dam, water starts to flow around the blockage in the form of streams and tributaries. That’s like these other growth factors — eventually a tumor becomes able to use these tributaries of VEGF-C, VEGF-D and placental growth factor to supply itself with the ‘water’ it needs," says Christopher Lieu, MD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and assistant professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine…
Other papers in the September Neurosurgery report on a stent-assisted approach for difficult-to-treat brain aneurysms and a new software program to help in identifying and protecting critical areas during brain tumor surgery. BMP Linked to Increased Risk of Benign Tumors Dr. Nandan Lad of Duke University Medical Center and colleagues analyzed the risk of cancers and benign tumors in nearly 4,700 patients receiving BMP as part of spinal fusion surgery. …
"Until now the only ways of obtaining similar data on the blood vessels in patients’ tumors were either taking a biopsy, which is a surgical procedure that can harm the patients and often cannot be repeated, or PET scanning, which provides limited information and exposes patients to a dose of radiation," says Kyrre Emblem, PhD, of the Martinos Center, lead and corresponding author of the report. "VAI can acquire all of this information in a single MR exam that takes less than two minutes and can be safely repeated many times." Previous studies in animals and in human patients have shown that the ability of anti-angiogenesis drugs to improve survival in cancer therapy stems from their ability to "normalize" the abnormal, leaky blood vessels that usually develop in a tumor, improving the perfusion of blood throughout a tumor and the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation. …
"This is a proof of concept study using human cells," said Sergei Rudchenko, Ph.D., director of flow cytometry at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City and a senior author of the study. …
The findings confirm the biological action of the drug called MGN1703 and suggest it may be possible to identify which gastrointestinal cancer patients will benefit most from the treatment, reported Prof Hans-Joachim Schmoll from Martin Luther University, Halle, Germany. MGN1703 is a small DNA molecule recognised by a receptor –called toll-like receptor 9– that is expressed in certain immune system cells. The drug is designed to broadly activate all components of the innate immune system to stimulate the destruction of cancer cells…
The team comprised Professor James Goh, Associate Professor Toh Siew Lok and Dr Pamela Tan from the Department of Bioengineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering, and Associate Professor Saminathan Suresh Nathan from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, who carried out their study using osteosarcoma, which is the most prevalent form of paediatric primary bone cancer. Reconstructing tumours in the laboratory has been a hot topic for research as current methods of testing have not been sufficient to yield concrete results. Dr Tan, who has been researching on the 3-D model for her PhD thesis, said: "Despite the urgent need to develop cancer therapeutics, little progress has been made due to the lack of good pre-clinical drug testing models. …
Feeding newborn babies small amounts of carefully regulated formula before a mother’s milk comes in does not disrupt the child’s ability to breastfeed – and may ultimately improve breastfeeding success in the future, the New York Times reported. In a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers examined 38 newborns who had lost 5 percent or more of their body weight in the first few days after birth.  Each infant was randomly assigned to either breastfeed alone or breastfeed along with a formula supplement – administered through a syringe to avoid so-called “nipple confusion” between the mother’s nipple and the bottle’s nipple. This concept is up for debate among mothers and pediatricians.  The supplement was given after a feeding, to boost the child’s hunger for the next breastfeeding. After the first week of observation, all of the babies were still breastfeeding, but nine of the 19 infants who began exclusively with breastfeeding were now using formula.  After three months, 79 percent of the babies who had been given an early formula supplement were breastfeeding exclusively, compared to 42 percent of those who had begun with just breastfeeding. Many mothers and doctors encourage women to exclusively breastfeed their children, but this new study suggests small amounts of formula may help struggling newborns get the nutrition they need in the early stages of life. “Most babies don’t need formula,” said the lead author, Dr. Valerie J. Flaherman, a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Children’s Hospital. “But some kids are at risk for weight loss, and this could be an option.” Click for more from the New York Times.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/13/small-amounts-formula-may-promote-breastfeeding-in-some-babies/