Tag Archives: white

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…

Body position in breast cancer radiation treatment matters, experts say

Dr. Julia White of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute has helped develop a modified treatment board that allows patients to lie comfortably on their stomachs while the breast tissue falls away from the chest wall, allowing the radiation to target the cancer…

Many women receive unnecessary pap tests

Performing these unnecessary tests can result in stress for the patient, increased costs, and inefficient use of both provider and patient time, concludes a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “During this time of health care reform, we could probably use our resources more wisely,” said corresponding author Deanna Kepka, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the University of Utah’s College of Nursing and Huntsman Cancer Institute.”Other conditions and screenings should probably merit the attention of primary care providers, including obesity and cancer,” she said, “especially in light of the newer 2012 cancer screening guidelines.” Kepka and her co-authors, who performed the study while at the National Cancer Institute, analyzed data from the 2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) of women ages 30 and older…

‘Virtual breast’ could improve cancer detection

That results in lots of needless worry for women and their families — not to mention the time, discomfort and expense of additional tests, including ultrasounds and biopsies. Recently, a different type of test, ultrasound elastography, has been used to pinpoint possible tumors throughout the body, including in the breast. “It uses imaging to measure the stiffness of tissue, and cancer tissues are stiff,” says Jingfeng Jiang, a biomedical engineer at Michigan Technological University. Those images can be breathtakingly clear: Jiang shows one elastogram in which the tumor is as different from normal breast tissue as a yolk is from the white in a fried egg. …

Research reveals mechanism behind cell protein remodeling

According to the National Cancer Institute, more than a third of all human cancers are driven by mutations in the Ras family of genes. When Ras is activated, it promotes tumor growth but also activates autophagy which helps to sustain that growth. These cancers remodel proteins using the cellular self-cannibalization process known as autophagy to capture and degrade intracellular proteins and protein-containing organelles…

Making an IMPACT: Donation keeps innovative trials going

The effort is known as the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Translation (IMPACT). The aim — as illustrated in the acronym — is to enhance the way cancer discoveries are translated from the laboratory bench to patient bedside and back again. …

Pathways that direct immune system to turn ‘on’ or ‘off’ found

This research focused on the immune system’s dendritic cells (DCs), crucial cells that initiate and regulate immune responses. For example, the dendritic cells activate T lymphocytes to fight an infection or cancer. Curiously, they are also known to suppress the immune response. Determining when DCs turn the immune response “on” or “off” is a major question in immunology. …

Even mild traumatic brain injury may cause brain damage

For the study, 44 people with a mild traumatic brain injury and nine people with a moderate traumatic brain injury were compared to 33 people with no brain injury. All of the participants took tests of their thinking and memory skills. At the same time, they had diffusion tensor imaging scans, a type of MRI scan that is more sensitive than traditional MRI for detecting damage to brain cells and helps map fiber tracts that connect brain regions. The people with brain injuries had their scans an average of six days after the injury. …