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 new type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan could improve care for a type of cancer called myeloma and reduce reliance on bone marrow biopsies, which can be painful for patients and often fail to show doctors how far the disease has spread. The research is published today in the journal Radiology and was carried out by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. It received funding from Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Facility in Imaging, with additional funding from the EPSRC. The new whole-body, diffusion-weighted MRI scans showed the spread of cancer throughout the bone marrow of patients with myeloma — one of the most common forms of blood cancer — more accurately than standard tests…
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140128153944.htm
Sophisticated computer modelling could be used to slowly move the table — known as a couch — and a radiation source in three dimensions to direct radiation precisely to the patient’s tumor, researchers have suggested. At the moment, a radiotherapy table can be angled during treatment, but there is no way to synchronise its rotation with a moving radiation beam. But with some modifications, an upgraded system could move both the patient and the beam while reducing the radiation dose of healthy tissue…
Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, found that combining two separate molecularly targeted therapies could stop processes driving growth in a cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma, a major cause of cancer death in children. The drugs, called AZD8055 and AZD6244, block two different signalling pathways involved in cancer growth — acting like road-blocks on two separate routes that cancers could otherwise use to evade treatment. The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, was funded by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), with additional funding from Cancer Research UK, The Royal Marsden Hospital Charitable Fund and the Chris Lucas Trust. Rhabdomyosarcoma tumours can form anywhere in the body and resemble primitive muscle tissue…