Tag Archives: world

One dose of HPV vaccine may be enough to prevent cervical cancer

"The latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination coverage indicates that in 2012, only 53.8 percent of girls between 13 and 17 years old initiated HPV vaccination, and only 33.4 percent of them received all three doses," said Mahboobeh Safaeian, Ph.D., an investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md. "We wanted to evaluate whether two doses, or even one dose, of the HPV 16/18 L1 VLP vaccine [Cervarix] could induce a robust and sustainable response by the immune system," she added. "We found that both HPV 16 and HPV 18 antibody levels in women who received one dose remained stable four years after vaccination…

Experimental drug shows promise in lung cancer

The preliminary results of a phase 1B study were presented by Dr. Edward Garon, director of thoracic oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, on Tuesday October 29 at the 15th World Conference on Lung Cancer. The summit was held by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, in Sydney, Australia…

Overlooked lymph nodes in rib cage have prognostic power for mesothelioma patients

The findings were presented October 28 at the 15th World Conference on Lung Cancer. Physicians look to lymph nodes to stage essentially all cancers, including mesothelioma. The presence or absence of metastatic cancer cells in lymph nodes affects prognosis and also typically dictates the optimal treatment strategy. But posterior intercostal lymph nodes, which are located between the ribs near the spine, have not been previously used to stage or guide treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma or any other cancer. …

Diabetes drug with chemo, radiation may improve outcomes for lung cancer

The preclinical and clinical results, which have set the stage for a first-of-its-kind prospective study, point to metformin as an effective radiosensitizer — adrug that makes tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy — to treat stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Because of poor local response and five-year survival rates around 15 percent in late-stage NSCLC patients, well-tolerated, combination therapies are greatly needed. The abstract is being presented by Ildiko Csiki, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. Metformin, the most-widely used drug for type-2 diabetes, has been shown to have anti-cancer effects on a number of cancers, including prostate and colon…

Tailored doses of cytostatic improve survival rate after stem cell transplantation

The results, which are presented in the scientific journal The Lancet, are based on a clinical study conducted at 16 hospitals around the world. Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare immune deficiency in children that causes recurrent, often difficult-to-treat bacterial and fungal infections and non-bacterial inflammations of the inner organs, which sometimes develop into tumour-like nodules of inflammatory tissue known as granuloma. …

Coffee consumption reduces risk of liver cancer, analysis suggests

"Our research confirms past claims that coffee is good for your health, and particularly the liver," said Carlo La Vecchia, MD, study author from the department of epidemiology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," and department of clinical sciences and community health, Università degli Studi di Milan, Italy. "The favorable effect of coffee on liver cancer might be mediated by coffee’s proven prevention of diabetes, a known risk factor for the disease, or for its beneficial effects on cirrhosis and liver enzymes." Researchers performed a meta-analysis of articles published from 1996 through September 2012, ultimately studying 16 high-quality studies and a total of 3,153 cases. This research fills an important gap as the last meta-analysis was published in 2007, and since then there has been data published on more than 900 cases of HCC…

Coffee consumption reduces risk of liver cancer

"Our research confirms past claims that coffee is good for your health, and particularly the liver," said Carlo La Vecchia, MD, study author from the department of epidemiology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," and department of clinical sciences and community health, Università degli Studi di Milan, Italy. "The favorable effect of coffee on liver cancer might be mediated by coffee’s proven prevention of diabetes, a known risk factor for the disease, or for its beneficial effects on cirrhosis and liver enzymes." Researchers performed a meta-analysis of articles published from 1996 through September 2012, ultimately studying 16 high-quality studies and a total of 3,153 cases. This research fills an important gap as the last meta-analysis was published in 2007, and since then there has been data published on more than 900 cases of HCC. …

Men-only hepatitis B mutation explains higher cancer rates

"This is the first mutation found that can explain the gender disparity in incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma," says Bum-Joon Kim of Seoul National University, Korea, an author on the study. In the study, the researchers randomly collected and analyzed serum samples from 292 patients with chronic HBV infection who visited one of 3 hospitals in Korea from 2003-2005. Previous studies had suggested that a gene mutation known as W4P/R was associated with higher incidence of liver cancer and cirrhosis. They developed an assay to specifically identify HBV with the W4P/R mutation…

New more effective antimicrobials might rise from old

Writing in the October 7 Early Edition of PNAS, Lars Eckmann, MD, professor of medicine, and colleagues describe creating more than 650 new compounds by slightly altering structural elements of metronidazole and other 5-nitromidazoles (5-NI), a half-century-old class of antimicrobial drugs used to combat everything from an ulcer-causing stomach bacterium to a gut-churning protozoan found in contaminated water. "The basic building blocks of 5-NI drugs are the same for all. We decorated around them, adding extra molecular pieces to change their shapes and sizes," said Eckmann, who published the paper with colleagues at UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Australia…

Cutting off all points of escape for melanoma cells

They found that resistant melanomas acquired a mutation in the MEK2 gene and multiple copies of the mutant BRAF oncogene, simultaneously decreasing the sensitivity to both drug targets. Their findings also uncovered a new potential target for melanoma therapy, a protein called S6K. Additionally, early studies in a laboratory model for melanoma show that a triple combination of drug inhibitors halted the growth of resistant tumors. "Melanoma tumors are particularly adept at rewiring themselves so that anticancer drugs lose their effectiveness, and we must continue to outthink the disease in order to block off all points at which it can evade therapy," said Jessie Villanueva, Ph.D., assistant professor in Wistar’s NCI-designated Cancer Center and member of The Wistar Institute Melanoma Research Center. …