Fibrous tissue long suspected of making pancreatic cancer worse actually supports an immune attack that slows tumor progression but cannot overcome it, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in the journal Cancer Cell. “This supportive tissue that’s...
Although doctors have long known that people with Down syndrome have a heightened risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) during childhood, they haven’t been able to explain why. In a new study published online in Nature Genetics, Lane et al tracked the genetic chain of events...
Patients with cancer of the throat and who are positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV) have a good prognosis, but until now the effect of being HPV-positive on the prognosis of tumors located elsewhere in the head and neck was unknown. A new study presented at the 33rd Conference of the...
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project found mutations in the tumor-suppressor gene TP53 in 90% of osteosarcomas, suggesting the alteration plays a key role early in development of the bone cancer. The study by Chen et al was...
The majority of current and former smokers would welcome screenings for lung cancer if their insurance covered the spiral computed tomography (CT) scans, according to research from Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Medical University of South Carolina. The study by Delmerico et al was published ...
Women with ovarian and other gynecologic cancers live significantly longer when they receive care at hospitals that treat a large number of patients with these conditions, according to research on more than 850,000 women. The findings, based on information from the nation’s largest cancer...
Analysis of data from the UK NHS Breast Screening Programme has shown significant variations in the outcomes of treatment for women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) between UK hospitals. Dr. Jeremy Thomas, a consultant pathologist at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, told the 9th...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) is recommending that newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients be screened for Lynch syndrome, previously called hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. The NCCN’s proactive position should greatly help identify individuals and their...
A phase I study by Wagle et al of a combination of everolimus and pazopanib in patients with advanced solid tumors has identified a patient with bladder cancer who had a 14-month complete response. The patient had two concurrent mutations in mTOR, the target of everolimus (Afinitor), which may have ...
A study by Ong et al has found that people who had nonmelanoma skin cancer were at an increased risk for subsequently developing melanoma and a spectrum of 29 other cancer types. The risk was especially high among people who develop nonmelanoma skin cancer before the age of 25. The findings are...
A large population-based study by Landgren et al has found that African Americans are more likely to have a higher prevalence of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a precursor to the development of multiple myeloma, compared with whites or Hispanics. The study is published...
New study findings show that patients with head and neck cancer receiving daily humidification of the mouth and throat during radiation therapy had reduced symptoms of muscositis and spent nearly 50% fewer days in the hospital to manage their treatment side effects. The study by Macann et al was...
New research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and Georgia Regents University has found that a protein that regulates an inflammatory pathway does not turn off in breast cancer, resulting in an increase in cancer stem cells. This finding may provide a potential target for...
While new and better treatments have improved the odds of survival for patients diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer, that progress has been largely confined to non-Hispanic whites and Asians and those under age 65, according to a new study published in Cancer Causes and Control. Sineshaw et ...
Using high-throughput screening of already FDA-approved chemotherapeutic agents in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) cell lines, researchers have discovered that GIST cells display a high sensitivity to transcriptional and topoisomerase II inhibitors. The finding could bring new treatments to...
Cancer experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College are collaborating to understand the link between obesity and cancer. Most recently, their research has yielded an interesting association: Obesity prior to diagnosis is associated with a fivefold increase...
More data have emerged that discount the potential for benefit with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors in esophageal cancer. The latest comes from the RTOG 0436 randomized phase III trial in patients with nonoperable esophageal cancer, the results of which were presented at the 2014 ...
The drug metformin, which is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, has been tested in clinical trials as a tumor suppressor in different cancers due to its role in activating the AMPK signaling pathway. However, a new study by Liu et al published in Proceedings of the National Academy of...
A detailed study of tissue samples from more than 200 patients with multiple myeloma has found that an individual patient’s tumor can harbor populations of cancer cells equipped with different mutations. The result could have therapeutic ramifications for future patients, according to study...
In the ESRA-CII trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Berry et al, patient use of a Web-based self-care program featuring tailored education and communication coaching resulted in significantly reduced symptom distress compared with symptom/quality-of-life tracking alone in patients ...
Re-examination of data from four large studies of the benefits and harms of mammography screening shows that the benefits are more consistent across these studies than previously understood and that all the studies indicate a substantial reduction in breast cancer mortality with screening,...
Women with HER2-positive breast cancer who had the highest levels of immune cells in their tumors gained the most benefit from presurgery treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab (Herceptin), according to results presented today at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract S1-05)....
In patients with indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) refractory to both rituximab (Rituxan) and an alkylating agent, monotherapy with the selective oral PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib produced a high response rate, with responses persisting for 1 year in the average patient, according to...
The intensity of transplant-related chemotherapy and radiation has effects on cognition, according to a study presented at the 55th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition (Abstract 913). Full-intensity hematopoietic stem cell transplant was associated with cognitive...
A study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has found that overweight or obese men with prostate cancer whose tumors were positive for the TMPRSS2:ERG genetic mutation had more than a 50% increased risk of dying...
Results of a Johns Hopkins study may explain why cyclophosphamide prevents graft-vs-host disease in people who receive bone marrow transplants. The experiments point to an immune system cell that evades the toxic effects of cyclophosphamide and protects patients from a lethal form of graft-vs-host...
Researchers seeking to determine why breast cancers are more deadly in young women found that although only a minority of young women experience long delays between the time they detect a breast abnormality and the time they receive a diagnosis, delays in seeking care are more common in women with...
Most patients with estrogen receptor–positive metastatic breast cancer who initially respond to endocrine treatments will eventually develop resistance to the therapies. A study by Ido Wolf, MD, Head of the Oncology Department at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, and colleagues...
Teenagers and young adults are at increased risk of suicide after being diagnosed with cancer, according to a study published today in Annals of Oncology. A study of nearly 8 million Swedes aged 15 and over found that among the 12,669 young people diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15 and...
Vaccines currently available to prevent the two most common strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), HPV 16 and 18, responsible for about 70% of cervical cancers, may not be protective in African American women, according to a study by Cathrine Hoyo, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor in the Obstetrics...
Men with short-ended chromosomes in the immune cells in their blood were at increased risk for aggressive prostate cancer compared with men with long-ended chromosomes in blood immune cells, according to results presented at the 12th Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer...
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a new drug candidate for an inherited form of cancer with no known cure. The new study showed the drug candidate—known as FRAX97—slowed the proliferation and progression of tumor cells in animal models of neurofibromatosis...
Researchers have discovered why multiple myeloma frequently recurs after an initially effective treatment that can keep the disease at bay for up to several years. The study, published in Cancer Cell, was a collaboration between researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Mayo Clinic in...
Jane Carrie Weeks, MD, MSc, a prominent researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, internationally known for building the discipline of outcomes research in oncology and admired by colleagues as an outstanding mentor, died September 10 after a long illness. She was "one of the true intellectual...
Today, as many as 23 million children and teens are obese or overweight, and it is estimated that more than one-third of U.S. adults (more than 72 million people) are obese, according to a statement released by ASCO to help raise awareness of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month....
The more alcohol young women drink before motherhood, the greater their risk of future breast cancer, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Previous studies have looked at breast cancer risk and alcohol consumption later in life or at the effect of...
Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in men and the leading cause of cancer deaths in white, African American, and Hispanic men, according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, it remains unclear why, despite treatment, some prostate cancers progress and may become...
Poor oral health, including gum disease and dental problems, is a newly recognized independent risk factor for oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, which causes between 40% and 80% of oropharyngeal cancers, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research. Researchers from the...
For the two-thirds of lung cancer patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease, tumor size is not used currently to predict overall survival times. However, a new study led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center has shown that even in advanced stages total tumor size can have ...
Despite taking a tailored risk assessment tool that factors in family history and personal habits, nearly 20% of women did not believe their breast cancer risk, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. The findings, published in Patient Education and...
Scientists have long believed that healthy brain cells, once damaged by radiation designed to kill brain tumors, cannot regenerate. But new research in mice suggests that neural stem cells, the body's source of new brain cells, are resistant to radiation, and can be roused from a hibernation-like...
According to a new study published in the journal Cancer, the survival outcome of patients with Burkitt lymphoma has improved substantially over the past decade, with notable exceptions. To help doctors and researchers better understand who responds well to treatment and who does not, the study...
Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) have discovered a novel mechanism responsible for the loss of a critical tumor-suppressor gene in rhabdomyosarcoma and other...
Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have revealed the process by which pancreatitis—chronic inflammation of the pancreas—morphs into pancreatic cancer. They say their findings point to ways to identify pancreatitis patients at risk of pancreatic cancer and to potential drug therapies...
A team of researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center has identified 18 new genes responsible for driving glioblastoma multiforme, the most common—and most aggressive—form of brain cancer in adults. The study was published online...
Many factors play into why women diagnosed with breast cancer often choose overly aggressive treatment even when there is little evidence to show clinical benefit: the shock and fear of suddenly being confronted with a major health threat, the impression of having to make treatment decisions...
Blocking dietary sugar and its activity in tumor cells may reduce cancer risk and progression, according to researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The study, conducted in fruit flies and published in the August issue of Cell, provides insight as to why...
Surgery is not always necessary for women with a type of breast tissue abnormality associated with a higher risk of cancer, according to a new study published online in Radiology. Researchers said that periodic imaging and clinical exam are effective in these patients when radiology and pathology...
This afternoon, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) hosted a congressional briefing to highlight the significance of federally funded biomedical research in improving our understanding of cancer health disparities and developing targeted interventions to eliminate them. The...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking additional information to help the agency make informed decisions about menthol in cigarettes. Despite decades of work to reduce tobacco use in the United States, it continues to be the...