Tag Archives: disease

Blood test for ‘nicked’ protein predicts prostate cancer treatment response

The study evaluated two groups of 31 men with prostate cancer that had spread and whose blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were still rising despite low testosterone levels. Investigators gave each man either enzalutamide (Xtandi) or abiraterone (Zytiga) and tracked whether their PSA levels continued to rise, an indication that the drugs were not working. In the enzalutamide group, none of 12 patients whose blood samples tested positive for AR-V7 responded to the drug, compared with 10 responders among 19 men who had no AR-V7 detected. In the abiraterone group, none of six AR-V7-positive patients responded, compared with 17 responders among 25 patients lacking AR-V7. …

Better classification to improve treatments for breast cancer — ScienceDaily

Cancer arises due to genetic changes which cause normal cells to develop into tumors. As we learn more about breast cancer, we are seeing that it is not one single disease — the mutations in the genes that cause different cancers are not alike, and this is why tumors respond differently to treatment and grow at different rates. Currently, there are two key markers that clinicians use to predict response to treatments. Spotting the trends in tumor genetics and creating a system to diagnose tumor types is a primary objective of cancer scientists. …

Knowledge is power: Men who are uneducated about their prostate cancer have difficulty making good treatment choices

UCLA researchers found that men who aren’t well educated about their disease have a much more difficult time making treatment decisions, called decisional conflict, a challenge that could negatively impact the quality of their care and their long-term outcomes. …

Ovarian cancer: Know your body, know your risk — ScienceDaily

“There is no effective surveillance technique for the detection of early stage ovarian cancer, so the only effective way to prevent it and save lives is to identify women at risk,” said David A. Fishman, MD, Director of the Mount Sinai Ovarian Cancer Risk Assessment Program and Professor and Fellowship Director in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He recommends that women with a family history of ovarian and breast cancers get a formal genetic evaluation by a board-certified genetic counselor. For women who have tested positive for a BRCA mutation or are identified to be at a high risk for developing ovarian cancer, preventive surgery should be considered to remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes before ovarian cancer can develop. …

Symptoms after breast cancer surgery need to be treated on an individual basis — ScienceDaily

The authors state that it is crucial for good aftercare to understand and document a patient’s symptoms and target the treatment accordingly. Special attention will have to be paid to the risk of certain groups of patients: younger, premenopausal women suffer notably more from the effects of breast cancer than older women. In any case, women about to be given treatment for breast cancer should be given detailed information about late sequelae. source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140826085730.htm

Repurposing anti-depressant medication to target medulloblastoma

The multi-institutional group, led by scientists at Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute (CBDI) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, publish their results in the journal’s online edition on Aug. 24. The researchers suggest their laboratory findings in mouse models of the disease could lead to a more targeted and effective molecular therapy that would also reduce the harmful side effects of current treatments, which include chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. “Although current treatments improve survival rates, patients suffer severe side effects and relapse tumors carry mutations that resist treatment,” said lead investigator Q. …

Study identifies protein that helps prevent active tuberculosis in infected patients

The discovery could help doctors identify people who are at the greatest risk for the highly contagious and potentially fatal lung disease, and it could point the way toward new treatment strategies for TB. The study, conducted in partnership with researchers from Harvard University School of Public Health and the University of Michigan School of Medicine, was published in the Aug. 20 online edition of the journal Science Translational Medicine…

Scientists learn more about rare skin cancer that killed Bob Marley

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered that acral melanomas — the rare type of skin cancer that caused reggae musician Bob Marley’s death — are genetically distinct from other more common types of skin cancer, according to a study published in the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. Acral melanoma most often affects the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, nail-beds and other hairless parts of the skin. Unlike other more common types of melanoma, it’s not caused by UV damage from the sun. The team, from the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute at The University of Manchester, sequenced the tumours of five patients with acral melanoma and combined this with data from three other patients. …

Rates of heart disease, stroke continue to decline in Europe

The research, which provides an update for 2014 on the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Europe, shows that death rates from CVD (diseases of the heart and blood vessels) vary enormously. For some eastern European countries, including Russia and Ukraine, the death rate from coronary heart disease for 55-60 year olds is greater than the equivalent rate in France for people 20 years older. The age adjusted CVD death rates for men and women of all ages were six-fold higher in Russia than in France. In 2010 in Russia 915 men and 517 women died per 100,000 of the population, whereas the equivalent rates in France were 150 and 87 per 100,000 respectively. …