Tag Archives: professor

Tobacco myths persist 50 years after US Surgeon General warned Americans of smoking dangers

"Since 1964, smoking rates have dropped by more than half as a result of successful education, legislative and smoking cessation efforts," said Lewis Foxhall, M.D., vice president for health policy at MD Anderson. "Still, lung cancer remains the number one cancer killer and the leading preventable cause of death in the United States." With the approaching 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General’s Report, Foxhall and other MD Anderson experts urge the public to take a proactive stance against this pervasive health issue by gaining insight on current tobacco issues including information that disproves the following myths. Tobacco Myth #1: Almost no one smokes any more. …

Study finds more accurate method to diagnose pancreatic cancer

"Pancreatic cancer can be difficult to diagnose because of subtle differences that distinguish between healthy tissue, cancerous tissue and tissue that is atypical, or suspicious," said Lester Layfield, MD, professor and chair of the MU School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences. "Our goal was to find a way to make a more accurate and reproducible diagnosis." Because of the pancreas’ location within the body, no routine screening methods, such as mammography for breast cancer, exist for detecting pancreatic cancer. If a physician suspects a patient may have pancreatic cancer, a biopsy of the pancreatic tissue is taken through a minimally invasive technique called endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration…

Chemists develop new way to kill cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy drug

A new study from MIT and the University of Toronto offers a possible way to overcome that resistance. The researchers found that when cisplatin was delivered to cellular structures called mitochondria, DNA in this organelle was damaged, leading to cancer cell death. …

Drug combination therapy causes cancer cells to ‘eat themselves’

"It is still too premature to estimate when a clinical trial will open to further test this drug combination therapy, but we are now in the planning phase and encouraged by the results of these laboratory experiments," says Andrew Poklepovic, M.D., oncologist and member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center and assistant professor in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care at VCU School of Medicine. …

Mutations linked to breast cancer treatment resistance

The study appears online in Nature Genetics. The discovery stems from a program at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center called Mi-ONCOSEQ in which patients with advanced cancer have their DNA and RNA sequenced to identify all types of genetic mutations that could play a role in the cancer. Researchers use the findings to help direct therapies they think will work best. But they also use the data to find new genetic links. …