Tag Archives: france

Long term results of trial for patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer

Prof. Bernard Nordlinger of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ambroise Paré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université de Versailles, Boulogne- Billancourt, France, and member of the EORTC Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group says, "Surgery is currently the only potentially curative treatment for resectable liver metastases, yet only 15-20% of patients with hepatic metastases are initially eligible for a radical surgical treatment. Furthermore, less than one half of patients who do receive such treatment achieve 5-year survival after resection. This is likely due to the presence of residual disease, so it is thought that adjuvant chemotherapy could help these patients." EORTC intergroup trial 40983 recruited 364 patients between the ages of 18-80 years with colorectal cancer and up to four liver metastases. …

New therapeutic target that prevents cell division

The Cell Division & Cancer Group, led by Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) researcher Marcos Malumbres, has managed to decode a new mechanism that regulates cell division, in which the key molecule involved, Greatwall − also known as Mastl− could be a new therapeutic target for oncology treatments. The study is published today in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). GREATWALL: A KEY PLAYER OF THE CELL DIVISION PUZZLE The control of cell division or mitosis depends on many proteins, amongst them, Aurora and Polo. Currently, many pharmaceutical companies have shown interest in these molecules, for which inhibitors have already been developed, some of which are currently undergoing clinical trials in oncology…

Organized screening for prostate cancer does more harm than good

Prof Boniol, Research Director at the International Prevention Research Institute (iPRI) and Professor at the Strathclyde Institute for Global Public Health at iPRI, Lyon, France, will tell the congress that the total harm men experience in terms of impotence and incontinence, and the side-effects from prostate cancer treatments, severely affects their quality of life, and should further discourage the use of PSA testing for prostate cancer screening. Prof Boniol will say: "The test measures PSA protein levels, which are produced by the prostate gland, in a man’s blood, and may help detect early cancer…

Three of four cases of bladder cancer display mutations in the same gene

The study was led by Francisco X. Real, head of the Epithelial Carcinogenesis Group at CNIO, together with Nuria Malats, the head of the Genetic & Molecular Epidemiology Group at CNIO, as well as other European groups, especially Yves Allory, a pathologist at the Mondor Hospital (Créteil, Paris, France), who is on a sabbatical year with Real and Malats’s groups at CNIO, and Ellen Zwarthoff’s group at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. The results are published in the online version of the journal European Urology. …

Health of older women in developed countries continues to improve: Gap with developing countries grows

The WHO study, one of a collection of articles in a special issue of the journal devoted to women’s health beyond reproduction, found that the leading causes of death of women aged 50 years and older worldwide are cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) and cancers, but that in developing countries these deaths occur at earlier ages than in the rich world. The study is one of the first to analyse the causes of death of women aged 50 years and older from a wide range of countries. Its findings suggest that prevention, detection and treatment of noncommunicable diseases are currently inadequate in many countries. "Given the substantial reduction in maternal mortality and the increase in the number of older women over the last 10 years, health systems in low- and middle-income countries must adjust accordingly, otherwise this trend will continue to increase," said Dr John Beard, director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Department of Ageing and Life Course and one of the authors of the study…

Immune-boosting colorectal cancer drug shows promise

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…