Medical News Today: Colorectal Cancer News

Certara™, a leading provider of software and scientific consulting services to improve productivity and decision-making from drug discovery through drug development, announced that its Pharsight Consulting Services has developed a mathematical model of tumor growth inhibition, which when combined with baseline prognostic factors, predicts treatment effect with bevacizumab...

Researchers have uncovered mutations in the phosphatase Wip1 that enable cancer cells to foil the tumor suppressor p53, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. The results could provide a new target for the treatment of certain cancers. Like a battlefield surgeon who has to decide which casualties can be saved, p53 performs triage on cells with injured DNA...

A common cancer pathway causing tumor growth is now being targeted by a number of new cancer drugs and shows promising results. A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have developed a novel method to disrupt this growth signaling pathway, with findings that suggest a new treatment for breast, colon, melanoma and other cancers...

A new study is the first to report a significant positive association between long sleep duration and the development of colorectal cancer, especially among individuals who are overweight or snore regularly. The results raise the possibility that obstructive sleep apnea may contribute to cancer risk...

Smoking increases the risk of developing colon cancer in both males and females, however, the risk is higher among women smokers, according to a new study. The research was conducted by a team of experts from the University of Tromsø in Norway and was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention...

Screening rates increase even more when doctors discuss details of screening tests, Kaiser Permanente study finds Patients who visited their doctor for any reason were nearly six times more likely to be screened for colon cancer compared to those who didn't visit their doctor, according to a study funded by the National Cancer Institute and published online today in the Amer...

A unique new study led by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researchers Guo-Min Li and Libya Gu, in collaboration with Dr. Wei Yang at National Institutes of Health, reveals a novel mechanism explaining the previously unknown root cause of some forms of colorectal cancers...

Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and their collaborators have tailor-made a new chemical compound that blocks a protein that has been linked to poor responses to treatment in cancer patients. The development of the compound, called WEHI-539, is an important step towards the design of a potential new anti-cancer agent...

Interferons have antitumor activity and have been used to treat a variety of malignancies, including colorectal and ovarian cancers. However, their effectiveness varies...

Incomplete diagnostic investigation and failure to get the best treatment are the most likely reasons why survival for bowel cancer patients is lower in the UK than in other comparable countries, according to new research published in the journal Acta Oncologica...

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, report in a new study that average-risk screening adenoma detection rates (ADR) are significantly higher than current guidelines suggest for both men and women. The study found that the overall average-risk screening ADR was 33.7 percent for both genders combined. Women had a 25...

Research on a soy-based treatment for colorectal cancer, a promising agent in ovarian cancer, and a new drug target for advanced prostate cancer was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2013 Annual Meeting. The meeting took place in Washington, DC...

Two studies funded by NASA and presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 help explain why space radiation may increase the risk of colorectal cancer in humans...

New results from a clinical trial conducted in Shanghai, China, indicate that adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to standard chemotherapy enables some patients with otherwise inoperable liver metastases due to colorectal cancer have their metastases surgically removed. Such surgery can be curative, and is generally critical to long-term survival...

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Once colorectal cancer has spread to other parts of the body, only 11 percent of patients will survive five years from the date of their diagnosis. Most colorectal cancers are adenocarcinomas - cancers that begin in cells that make and release mucus and other fluids...

In 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) halted reimbursement for so-called "virtual colonoscopy" for routine colon-cancer screening in asymptomatic patients, in part due to concerns over how this procedure, computed tomography colonography (CTC), was being used in the elderly population...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have determined that the overexpression of microRNA-155 (miR-155), a short, single strand of ribonucleic acid encoded by the miR-155 host gene, promotes the growth of blood vessels in tumors, tumor inflammation, and metastasis. As a therapeutic target, miR-155 could potentially provide a new avenue of treatment when targeted with drugs to suppress its activity...

In co-operation with the European Society of Digestive Oncology (ESDO) Modern multidisciplinary approaches to the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) have led to dramatic improvements in patient survival, and brought the possibility of achieving a cure within reach for some late-stage patients...

First study to report that proteins found in soybeans, could inhibit growth of colon, liver and lung cancers, published in Food Research International. Soybean meal is a bi-product following oil extraction from soybean seeds...

In recognition of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy has published a special issue for March on colorectal cancer. The issue includes a practical guide for approaching and managing serrated colon polyps, one of the most common types of polyps, and a study on reducing postpolypectomy bleeding with prophylactic clip closure...