http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html Cancer blog from medicineworld.org adds a personal touch to the stories related to cancer. This cancer blog brings you stories of hope, stories of survivors and latest news and research related to cancer. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/blogs/cancer-cells.jpg http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html 82 90 http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/morphine-may-stimulate-cancer-growth.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/morphine-may-stimulate-cancer-growth.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Eventhough morphine has been the gold-standard therapy for postoperative and chronic cancer pain for two centuries, a growing body of evidence is showing that opiate-based painkillers can stimulate the growth and spread of cancer cells. Two new studies advance that argument and demonstrate how shielding lung cancer cells from opiates reduces cell proliferation, invasion and migration in both cell-culture and mouse models........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/catching-circulating-cancer-cells.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/catching-circulating-cancer-cells.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Just as fly paper captures insects, an innovative new device with nano-sized features developed by scientists at UCLA is able to grab cancer cells in the blood that have broken off from a tumor. These cells, known as circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, can provide critical information for examining and diagnosing cancer metastasis, determining patient prognosis, and monitoring the effectiveness of therapies........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/a-powerful-combination-punch-against-breast-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/a-powerful-combination-punch-against-breast-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT A powerful new breast cancer therapy could result from packaging one of the newer drugs that inhibits cancer's hallmark wild growth with another that blocks a primordial survival technique in which the cancer cell eats part of itself, scientists say. While they are powerful killers of some breast cancer cells, new drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors, or HDAC inhibitors, also increase self-digestion, or autophagy, in surviving, mega-stressed cells, Medical College of Georgia Cancer Center scientists reported during the Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics International Conference this week in Boston. The conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/protein-might-prevent-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/protein-might-prevent-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT One difficulty with fighting cancer cells is that they are similar in a number of respects to the body's stem cells. By focusing on the differences, scientists at Karolinska Institutet have found a new way of tackling colon cancer. The study is presented in the prestigious journal Cell. Molecular signal pathways that stimulate the division of stem cells are generally the same as those active in tumour growth. This limits the possibility of treating cancer as the drugs that kill cancer cells also often adversely affect the body's healthy cells, especially stem cells. A newly released study from Karolinska Institutet, conducted in collaboration with an international team of researchers led by Professor Jonas Frisen, is now focusing on an exception that can make it possible to treat a form of colon cancer........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/better-cancer-treatment.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/better-cancer-treatment.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Scientists at Queen's University have found a link between two genes involved in cancer formation in humans, by examining the genes in worms. The groundbreaking discovery provides a foundation for how tumor-forming genes interact, and may offer a drug target for cancer therapy. "When cancer hijacks a healthy system, it can create tumors by causing cells to divide when they shouldn't," says Ian Chin-Sang, a developmental biologist at Queen's and lead researcher on the study. "Certain genes control the normal movement and growth of cells, and by studying how these genes interact, we can understand what is abnormal when cancer is present"........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-imaging-techniques-pave-way-for-cancer-drugs.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-imaging-techniques-pave-way-for-cancer-drugs.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT A recently devised method of imaging the chemical communication and warfare between microorganisms could lead to new antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral and anti-cancer drugs, said a Texas AgriLife Research scientist. "Translating metabolic exchange with imaging mass spectrometry," was published Nov. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology, a prominent scientific journal. The article describes a technique developed by a collaborative team that includes Dr. Paul Straight, AgriLife Research scientist in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at Texas AandM University in College Station, Dr. Pieter Dorrestein, Yu-Liang Yang and Yuquan Xu, all at the University of California, San Diego........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/prostate-biopsy-is-not-always-necessary.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/prostate-biopsy-is-not-always-necessary.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that some elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in men appears to be caused by a hormone normally occurring in the body, and are not necessarily a predictor of the need for a prostate biopsy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/predictive-value-of-lung-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/predictive-value-of-lung-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT A rapid decline in metabolic activity on a PET scan after radiation treatment for non-small cell lung cancer is correlated with good local tumor control, as per a research studypresented by scientists at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at the 51st ASTRO Annual Meeting. In addition, the scientists also observed that the higher the metabolic activity and tumor size on a PET scan before therapy, the more likely a patient is to die from lung cancer........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/women-with-denser-breasts.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/women-with-denser-breasts.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT A newly released study finds that women treated for breast cancer are at higher risk of cancer recurrence if they have dense breasts. Reported in the December 15, 2009 issue of Cancer, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study's results indicate that patients with breast cancer with dense breasts appears to benefit from additional therapies following surgery, such as radiation........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-synthetic-molecules-trigger-immune-response.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-synthetic-molecules-trigger-immune-response.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Scientists at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body's immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their findings, published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/religion-and-medicine.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/religion-and-medicine.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Do pediatric oncologists feel that religion is a bridge or a barrier to their work? Or do they feel it can be either, depending on whether their patients are recovering or deteriorating? A novel Brandeis University study examines these questions in the current issue of Social Problems Through in-depth interviews with 30 pediatricians and pediatric oncologists at elite medical centers, the authors discovered that physicians tend to view religion and spirituality pragmatically, considering them resources in family decision-making and in end of life situations, and barriers when they conflict with medical decisions, said main author Brandeis sociologist Wendy Cadge........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/green-tea-may-prevent-oral-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/green-tea-may-prevent-oral-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-cancerous condition known as oral leukoplakia, as per scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The scientists observed that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/weight-training-for-breast-cancer-survivors.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/weight-training-for-breast-cancer-survivors.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, as per new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift weights, as per a newly released study reported in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/size-and-shape-of-the-blood-vessels.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/size-and-shape-of-the-blood-vessels.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT A diagnosis of prostate cancer raises the question for patients and their physicians as to how the tumor will behave. Will it grow quickly and aggressively and require continuous therapy, or slowly, allowing treatment and its risks to be safely delayed? The answer may lie in the size and shape of the blood vessels that are visible within the cancer, as per research led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/space-industry-technology-to-treat-breast-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/space-industry-technology-to-treat-breast-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Scientists at Rush University Medical Center and Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on a study to determine if an imaging technique used by NASA to inspect the space shuttle can be used to predict tissue damage often experienced by patients with breast cancer undergoing radiation treatment. The study is examining the utility of three-dimensional thermal tomography in radiation oncology........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/nano-scale-drug-delivery-for-chemotherapy.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/nano-scale-drug-delivery-for-chemotherapy.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single therapy. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient. Nano-delivery systems have become increasingly attractive to scientists because of their ability to efficiently get into tumors. Since blood vessels supplying tumors are more porous, or leaky, than normal vessels, the nanoformulation can more easily enter and accumulate within tumor cells. This means that higher doses of the drug can be delivered, increasing its cancer-killing abilities while decreasing the side effects linked to systematic chemotherapy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/drug-radiation-eliminates-lung-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/drug-radiation-eliminates-lung-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have eliminated non-small cell lung (NSCL) cancer in mice by using an investigative drug called BEZ235 in combination with low-dose radiation. In a study appearing in the recent issue of Cancer Research, UT Southwestern scientists observed that if they administered BEZ235 before they damaged the DNA of tumor cells with otherwise nontoxic radiation, the drug blocked the pro-survival actions of a protein called PI3K, which normally springs into action to keep tumor cells alive while they repair DNA damage........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/blocking-heat-shock-protein-to-fight-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/blocking-heat-shock-protein-to-fight-cancer.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:02:28 GMT Like yoga for office drones, cells do have coping strategies for stress. Heat, lack of nutrients, oxygen radicals all can wreak havoc on the delicate internal components of a cell, potentially damaging it beyond repair. Proteins called HSPs (heat shock proteins) allow cells to survive stress-induced damage. Researchers have long studied how HSPs work in order to harness their therapeutic potential........ ]]>