Tag Archives: medical

Fear of missing bowel cancer may be exposing patients to unnecessary risks

Professor Geir Hoff and colleagues in Norway, argue that we need more evidence about the malignant potential of benign lesions to be sure that the risks of removing them do not outweigh the benefits of screening. Bowel cancer screening has increased the detection of benign polyps (fleshy growths on the lining of the colon or rectum). The most common polyps found during screening are adenomas and guidelines recommend that they are removed. However, data show that less than 5% of adenomas develop into colorectal cancer, suggesting that 95% of procedures may be exposing patients to unnecessary risks…

Recommended treatment for bone metastases not widely used

“Palliative radiotherapy, comprising l or more fractions (i.e., treatments) of daily radiation, is the mainstay of treatment for painful bone metastases. In 2005, a U.S.-based randomized trial demonstrated no difference in pain relief between single- and multiple-fraction radiotherapy for uncomplicated bone metastases, confirming results from international trials,” according to background information in the article appearing in the October 9 issue of JAMA…

After almost a century, a question answered; genes protect themselves against being silenced

As explicated today in the journal Nature, methylation in fact enforces gene silencing, and it is levels of a newly identified form of RNA produced by individual genes that determines whether they are turned off by the addition of a methyl (CH3) group by the enzyme DNA methylase 1 (DNMT1). The study, led by HSCI Principal Faculty member Daniel Tenen, MD, found that during transcription of DNA to RNA, a gene produces a small amount of what the investigators named "extracoding RNA," which stays in the nucleus and binds to DNMT1, blocking its ability to methylate, or silence the gene. The discovery of RNA’s new function has therapeutic potential as an on-off switch for gene expression…

When more medicine isn’t always better: High costs of unnecessary radiation for terminal cancer patients

"Increased use of single fraction treatment would achieve the Holy Grail of health reform, which is real improvements in patient care at substantial cost savings," said the new study’s lead author, Justin E. Bekelman, MD, an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center…

Rising trend in genome mapping delivers targeted breast cancer treatment

Even more promising, clinical research trials at a few select institutions around the country, including Cleveland’s University Hospitals Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center, are part of a development in a rising trend toward targeted treatments as a result of genomic profiling of tumors. …

Breast cancer rates stable among active component service women

As in the general U.S. population, with the exception of skin cancer, breast cancer is the most frequent cancer diagnosis among women. During the 13-year surveillance period from 2000 to 2012, 1,092 female active component members were diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the study published in the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, a peer-reviewed journal on illnesses and diseases affecting service members from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC). Of those diagnoses, 244 (22.3 percent) of were ductal cinoma in situ (DCIS) cases. …

Less can be more when removing lymph nodes during breast cancer surgery

In the Oct. 2 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, lead author Dr. Roshni Rao, associate professor of surgery at UT Southwestern, and other investigators from the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center reviewed studies on patient outcomes of women who had received various forms of surgical treatment, ranging from removal of one lymph node to prevent the spread of breast cancer to removing the entire network of lymph nodes spanning the armpits…

Genomic differences found in types of cervical cancer

The study, published August 23, 2013 in the online version of the journal Cancer by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), is the first to compare the spectrum of cancer-related gene mutations in the two main subtypes of cervical cancer — adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. In tests on 80 cervical tumor samples, the investigators found high rates of mutations in two genes: PIK3CA and KRAS. While PIK3CA mutations appeared in both subtypes, KRAS mutations were found only in adenocarcinomas. By linking their findings to data on patients’ treatment and survival, researchers found that PIK3CA mutations are associated with a shorter survival period: patients whose tumors carried these mutations lived a median of 67 months after diagnosis compared with 90 months for patients whose tumors lacked the mutations…

Liquid biopsy could improve cancer diagnosis, treatment

The device, believed to be the first to pair these functions, uses the advanced electronics material graphene oxide. In clinics, such a device could one day help doctors diagnose cancers, give more accurate prognoses and test treatment options on cultured cells without subjecting patients to traditional biopsies. "If we can get these technologies to work, it will advance new cancer drugs and revolutionize the treatment of cancer patients," said Dr…