Tag Archives: medical

Immune booster combined with checkpoint blocker improves survival in metastatic melanoma

Patients in the clinical trial who got the combined therapies also had fewer serious adverse side effects than those who received only ipilimumab, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The group treated with both ipilimumab and the immune stimulant, called sargramostim, had a one-year survival rate of 68.9 percent vs. 52.9 percent in the ipilimumab-only group. In both groups, however, the median progression-free survival (the length of time before the cancer began to grow) was similar – 3.1 months…

Radiation a risk factor for brain tumors in young people, study finds

Researchers analyzed records of 35 patients who were diagnosed with meningiomas before age 30. Five had been exposed to ionizing radiation earlier in their lives. They include two patients who received radiation for leukemia at ages 5 and 6; one who received radiation at age 3 for a brain tumor known as a medulloblastoma; and one who received radiation for an earlier skull base tumor that appeared to be a meningioma. …

Cancer cell fingerprints in blood may speed up childhood cancer diagnosis

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, found unique molecular fingerprints for 11 types of children’s tumours, which could be used to develop blood tests to diagnose these cancers. This may eventually lead to a quicker, more accurate way to diagnose tumours, and could also reduce the need for children to undergo surgery to get a diagnosis one day. The research was funded by Sparks, the children’s medical research charity, and Cancer Research UK. Each year almost 1,600 children are diagnosed with cancer in the UK…

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 prostate cancer screening guideline recommends not using PSA test — ScienceDaily

“Some people believe men should be screened for prostate cancer with the PSA test but the evidence indicates otherwise,” states Dr. Neil Bell, member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and chair of the prostate cancer guideline working group. “These recommendations balance the possible benefits of PSA screening with the potential harms of false positives, overdiagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.” For men with prostate cancer diagnosed through PSA screening, between 11.3% and 19.8% will receive a false-positive diagnosis, and 40% to 56% will be affected by overdiagnosis leading to invasive treatment…

Most Internet sources on prostate cancer disagree with expert panel’s recommendation — ScienceDaily

In an Internet search for the phrase “prostate cancer screening” on three main U.S. search engines, study researchers found that most sites appearing on the first results page recommended a patient-individualized approach to screening…

Most Internet sources on prostate cancer disagree with expert panel’s recommendation

In an Internet search for the phrase “prostate cancer screening” on three main U.S. search engines, study researchers found that most sites appearing on the first results page recommended a patient-individualized approach to screening. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men besides skin cancer, affecting one in seven American men over their lifetime according to the American Cancer Society.1 Screening, which is routine testing in the absence of symptoms, can detect prostate cancer early…

Why targeted drug doesn’t benefit patients with early-stage lung cancer

Oncologists use erlotinib to treat lung cancers that have a mutation in a gene called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The gene mutation causes EGFR to run like it has a stuck accelerator, and erlotinib blocks the overactive molecule. The study shows that while erlotinib effectively causes tumors to shrink — suggesting that the drug is helping — this drug also increases the aggressiveness of the tumor so that growth is accelerated when therapy ends. This study finds that this is due to a secondary and previously unknown effect of inhibiting EGFR…