Medical News Today: Oncology News

A discovery by researchers at UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) will enable better methods to grow stem cells for use in cancer research and regenerative medicine...

Looking to gain further understanding about the impact of cancer on patients and families, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is expanding its Quality and Outcomes in Cancer Care (QOCC) Research Program by welcoming nationally-recognized population science researcher Sharon Manne, PhD. Dr...

For the first time, Salt Inducible Kinase 2 (SIK2) has been found to play a critical role in cell division and to regulate the response of some ovarian cancers to chemotherapy. Findings were reported by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the August issue of Cancer Cell...

Cancer's economic impact is greater than any other cause of death worldwide, according to a study carried out by The American Cancer Society and LIVESTRONG®. The study reveals that cancer costs the world economy nearly US$3 trillion every year. The joint study also looked into the economic burdens of other non-communicable and communicable diseases...

Scientists at the Medical Research Council (MRC) have developed a new method to investigate how human testes develop in baby boys before they are born. MRC researchers obtained ethical approval to take testicular tissue from fetuses donated after termination. This tissue was then grafted into mice and cells developed normally, as if inside a womb, over a six week period...

A link between the level of active DNA repair genes in melanoma tumours and the effectiveness of chemotherapy for skin cancer patients has been established for the first time by a team of scientists...

Cancer Research Technology has signed a deal to provide biotech company ValiRx plc with the global rights to develop a promising compound to treat hormone-resistant prostate cancer. The compound, now called VAL 201, has been shown in pre-clinical tests in mice to stop growth of tumours which have been unresponsive to hormone treatments...

Clinical trials using patients' own immune cells to target tumors have yielded promising results. However, this approach usually works only if the patients also receive large doses of drugs designed to help immune cells multiply rapidly, and those drugs have life-threatening side effects...

A large study focused on documenting the strength and fitness of childhood brain tumor survivors has found that many face health challenges as they age. The study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators showed that although most participants were young adults in their 20s, many functioned like people in their 60s, making them less likely to live independently or attend college...

The boom in cancer biomarker investments over the past 25 years has not translated into major clinical success. The reasons for biomarker failures include problems with study design and interpretation, as well as statistical deficiencies, according to an article published online August 12 in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute...

A protein known to be involved in a rare hereditary cancer syndrome may have a role in the regulation of liver stem cells and the development of liver cancer...

Dr. Jean-Philippe Gratton, Director of the Endothelial cell biology research unit at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal (IRCM), identifies a new intracellular mechanism responsible for modulating vascular permeability: the nitrosylation of beta-catenin protein by nitric oxide...

A team of investigators led by a physician-scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown for the first time that the small protein SUMO can team up with the replication protein A (RPA) complex to facilitate DNA repair. The study is published in the Aug. 13 edition of the journal Molecular Cell...

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common form of brain cancer; being an extremely serious type of the disease as currently, on diagnosis, the chances of survival of the patient is less than a year. In fact, its cause is not known nor the manner to prevent it...

An ingredient in the venom of the "deathstalker" scorpion could help gene therapy become an effective treatment for brain cancer, scientists are reporting. The substance allows therapeutic genes - genes that treat disease - to reach more brain cancer cells than current approaches, according to the study in ACS Nano, a monthly journal...

Current gym dogma holds that to build muscle size you need to lift heavy weights. However, a new study conducted at McMaster University has shown that a similar degree of muscle building can be achieved by using lighter weights. The secret is to pump iron until you reach muscle fatigue. The findings are published in PLoS ONE...

A Brighton researcher has won half a million pounds funding from the Medical Research Council to determine whether one of the world's biggest cancer killers is caused by tummy bugs. Dr Brian Jones, senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of Brighton, will study a possible link between bowel cancer and bacteria in the gut...

Thomas J. Walsh, M.D., Director of the Transplantation-Oncology Infectious Diseases Program of Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, has been selected as the 2010 laureate of the sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award for his translational research on antifungal pharmacology and therapeutics...

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has received a $7.9 million federal grant to acquire a superconducting 950 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) magnet that will help researchers unravel the mysteries of molecules and develop new agents to treat cancer, AIDS and other diseases...

Currently, new treatment facilities for radiation therapy with ions are built all over the world. These particles destroy cancer cells and have a better ability to spare the surrounding healthy tissue than other techniques. Today, accelerated hydrogen and carbon ions are mainly used to treat inoperable tumors in organs like the brain and bone marrow, which are sensitive to radiation therapy...