"While it is established that tobacco smoke is a risk factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma [the most common cancer arising from the upper part of the throat behind the nose and near the base of skull], its role in influencing survival of patients with established cancers is not known," said Fang-Yun Xie, M.D., professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in Guangzhou, China. …
Researchers also found that frail health was associated with a greater risk for adult childhood cancer survivors of death and chronic disease. Being frail was defined by the presence of at least three of the following — weakness, self-reported exhaustion, physical inactivity, low muscle mass and slow walking speed. …
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. …
The researchers compared genetic data from fossils of Neanderthals and another group of ancient human ancestors called Denisovans to data from modern-day cancer patients. They found evidence of Neanderthal and Denisovan viruses in the modern human DNA, suggesting that the viruses originated in our common ancestors more than half a million years ago. This latest finding, reported in Current Biology, will enable scientists to further investigate possible links between ancient viruses and modern diseases including HIV and cancer, and was supported by the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council (MRC). Around 8% of human DNA is made up of ‘endogenous retroviruses’ (ERVs), DNA sequences from viruses which pass from generation to generation…
Combining the drug gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) with conventional chemotherapy may improve the outcome of bone marrow transplantation for some children battling high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The results appear in the current edition of the journal Cancer…
CPET is a non-invasive measurement of the cardiovascular and respiratory system during exercise to assess exercise capacity and cardiopulmonary fitness. According to the researchers, the role of exercise training or ‘prehabilitation’ for optimising preoperative physiological function to counter catabolic effects of surgery has received little attention in cancer patients…
The study shows the importance of translating complex scientific information, like recent findings in breast cancer risk research, into information that the average person can understand, and hopefully act upon. …
All information about the human genome is stored in the DNA sequence in the cell nucleus, and was mapped in the early 2000s. …
"This line of work dates back to the 1980s when the University of Wisconsin groups led by Drs. Charles Elson and Michael Gould discovered the anti-tumor activity of monoterpenes and soon after, sesqui- and di-terpenes." said Dr. Huanbiao Mo, senior author and professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences. These compounds, widely present in fruits, vegetables and grains, were found to be much more effective in suppressing the growth of tumor cells than that of normal cells. …
Martin Widschwendter from the University College London Women’s Cancer Department and colleagues, the authors of the work, systematically compared methylation patterns in endometrial cancers and normal endometrium. Using a new bioinformatics tool, they identified HAND2 as a differential methylation hotspot in endometrial cancer. By comparing with other already known factors, HAND2 methylation is by far the most common molecular alteration in endometrial cancer. The researchers found that HAND2 methylation is already increased in premalignant endometrial lesions (cancer-prone, abnormal-looking tissue) compared to normal endometrium, and that a high level of methylation predicted a poor response to progesterone treatment (which stops the growth of some pre-cancerous endometrial lesions). …