Tag Archives: medical

Research shows gap in care for childhood cancer survivors

As technologies and treatments advance, the number of childhood cancer survivors is growing. In fact, it is estimated that there are more than 350,000 survivors in the U.S. As these children grow into adulthood and their care is transitioned to adult medicine providers, Suh’s study has shown that many internists don’t feel prepared to provide the care and monitoring necessary for these patients. …

Moderate doses of radiation therapy to unaffected breast may prevent second breast cancers

"Over the past decades, we’ve had great success in treating breast cancer, and the 15-year survival rate is now 77 percent," said study leader David J. Brenner, PhD, director of CUMC’s Center for Radiological Research and the Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics. "Unfortunately, breast cancer survivors have a several times higher risk of developing cancer in their other breast, compared with healthy women of the same age." "While drugs such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors can reduce the risk somewhat, at least for women with estrogen receptor-positive tumors, the long-term risks of a second breast cancer in the unaffected breast remain high. …

Study could aid in development of ‘liquid biopsy’ screening, diagnostic tests for bladder cancer

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common non-skin cancer. But there is no good screening test for it, and there has been limited progress in characterizing how aggressive an individual’s bladder cancer will be. Loyola researchers studied microscopic droplets, called exosomes, that are shed by cancer cells and are found in urine. Understanding the biology of exosomes could lead to the development of a screening test, which would require a simple urine sample, said lead researcher Gopal Gupta, MD…

Scientists find estrogen promotes blood-forming stem cell function

The research, published in Nature, raises several intriguing possibilities for further investigation that might lead to improved treatments for blood cancers and increased safety and effectiveness of chemotherapy. Before the finding, blood-forming stem cells were thought to be regulated similarly in both males and females, according to the paper’s senior author, Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of CRI, Professor of Pediatrics, and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center…

Longer screening intervals possible with HPV-based tests

Cervical screening programs have until recently relied on cytology to identify women at risk for developing cervical cancer. However, it has long been known that testing screening with human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA tests has a higher sensitivity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), the lesion that the program intends to find since it can progress to cervical cancer if left untreated. Until now, it has been unclear whether HPV-based screening results in overdiagnosis of lesions that would not have progressed to cancer. …