Tag Archives: king

Clear new evidence for mind-body connection demonstrated in study — ScienceDaily

A group working out of Alberta Health Services’ Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology has demonstrated that telomeres — protein complexes at the end of chromosomes — maintain their length in breast cancer survivors who practise meditation or are involved in support groups, while they shorten in a comparison group without any intervention. Although the disease-regulating properties of telomeres aren’t fully understood, shortened telomeres are associated with several disease states, as well as cell aging, while longer telomeres are thought to be protective against disease. “We already know that psychosocial interventions like mindfulness meditation will help you feel better mentally, but now for the first time we have evidence that they can also influence key aspects of your biology,” says Dr. Linda E. …

Lactose intolerants at lower risk of certain cancers: Study

“We found that people with lactose intolerance, who typically consume low amounts of milk and other dairy products, have a reduced risk of lung, breast and ovarian cancers,” says Jianguang Ji, Associate Professor at Lund University and researcher at the Center for Primary Care Research in Malm�. “The risk of cancer was not reduced in relatives of people with lactose intolerance, which indicates that protection against these cancers is related to diet. However, it would be wrong to conclude that milk is a risk factor for these cancers,” emphasises Jianguang Ji. There are large differences in the incidence of breast and ovarian cancers between different countries…

‘Invisible tattoos’ could improve body confidence after breast cancer radiotherapy — ScienceDaily

Research suggests that the permanent pin prick marks made on the skin of women having radiotherapy reminds them of their diagnosis for years to come, reducing body confidence and self-esteem. It’s also more difficult to spot these tattoos in dark-skinned women, potentially leading to inconsistencies in the area being treated. The NIHR-funded researchers, based at The Royal Marsden hospital in London, asked 42 breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy to rate how they felt about their body, before the treatment and one month later. Half the women were offered fluorescent tattoos, only visible under UV light, while the other half had conventional dark ink tattoos. …

Ethnic minorities less aware of cancer symptoms, more likely to identify barriers to seeking medical help

Researchers looked at nearly 50,000 responses to the Cancer Research UK Cancer Awareness Measure from people across England. They found that ethnic minority groups were consistently less aware of cancer symptoms. People with a black ethnic background were half as likely as white people to recognise that unexplained bleeding could be a symptom of cancer; while South Asians were a quarter as likely as white people to recognise that an unexplained lump or swelling could be a cancer symptom…

Viewing cancer on the move: New device yields close-up look at metastasis

The inventors, from the university’s Whiting School of Engineering and its Institute for NanoBioTechnology (INBT), published details and images from their new system recently in the journal Cancer Research. Their article reported on successful tests that captured video of human breast cancer cells as they burrowed through reconstituted body tissue material and made their way into an artificial blood vessel. “There’s still so much we don’t know about exactly how tumor cells migrate through the body, partly because, even using our best imaging technology, we haven’t been able to see precisely how these individual cells move into blood vessels,” said Andrew D. …

A matter of life and death: Cell death proteins key to fighting disease

The research teams from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute worked together to discover the three-dimensional structure of a key cell death protein called Bak and reveal the first steps in how it causes cell death. Their studies were published in Molecular Cell and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Programmed cell death, known as apoptosis, occurs naturally when the body has to remove unwanted cells. Chemical signals tell the cell to die by activating the apoptosis proteins Bak and Bax, which break down the ‘energy factory’ of the cell, known as the mitochondria. …

Decoding the emergence of metastatic cancer stem cells

“Cells have genetic circuits that are used to switch certain behaviors on and off,” said biophysicist Eshel Ben-Jacob, a senior investigator at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics and co-author of a new study in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. “Though some of the circuits for metastasis have been mapped, this is the first study to examine how cancer uses two of those circuits, in concert, to produce not just cancer stem cells, but also dangerous packs of hybrid stem-like-cells that travel in groups to colonize other parts of the body.” Metastasis — the spread of cancer between organs — causes more than 90 percent of cancer deaths, but not all tumor cells can metastasize…

New molecular imaging technology could improve bladder-cancer detection — ScienceDaily

The researchers identified a protein known as CD47 as a molecular imaging target to distinguish bladder cancer from benign tissues. In the future, this technique could improve bladder cancer detection, guide more precise cancer surgery and reduce unnecessary biopsies, therefore increasing cancer patients’ quality of life. The work is described in a paper that will be published Oct. 29 in Science Translational Medicine…

Clinical practice guidelines address multimodality treatment for esophageal cancer

The guidelines, published in the November 2014 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, include nine evidence-based recommendations that address issues related to multimodality care, including neoadjuvant therapy (chemotherapy and radiation therapy given prior to surgery). The goal of this therapy is to reduce the extent of cancer before an operation to maximize the chance of obtaining a cure. “Despite the widespread enthusiasm for multimodality therapy and the myriad of its aspects, currently available data for each component of care are not truly definitive,” said Guideline Task Force Chair, Alex G. Little, MD, from the University of Arizona in Tucson. …