Prostate Cancer With Faulty BRCA2 Gene Spreads More Quickly
4/10/2013

A new study finds that prostate cancer spreads more quickly and is more likely to be fatal in men who have inherited a faulty BRCA2 gene. The researchers say such patients should be treated straight away with surgery or radiotherapy rather than just be monitored...

Risk Posed By Lung Nodules Identified And Stratified By New Software
4/10/2013

A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Mayo Clinic has developed a new software tool to noninvasively characterize pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a common type of cancerous nodule in the lungs. Results from a pilot study of the computer-aided nodule assessment and risk yield (CANARY) are published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology...

Drug Designed To Restore Cell Suicide In HPV-Related Head And Neck Cancer
4/10/2013

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism by which the human papilloma virus (HPV) causes head and neck cancer, and they have designed a drug to block that mechanism. Though further research is needed, the new agent might offer a safer treatment for these tumors when combined with a tapered dose of standard chemotherapy...

Researchers Exploring 'Nano-Sized Extracellular Vesicles' For Identification, Monitoring And Treatment Of Brain Tumors
4/10/2013

The recent discovery of circulating "nano-sized extracellular vesicles" (EVs) carrying proteins and nucleic acids derived from brain tumors may lead to exciting new avenues for brain cancer diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, according to a special article in the April issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons...

'Fast fMRI' Protocol Could Aid In Planning Surgery For Epilepsy And Brain Tumors
4/10/2013

A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique may provide neurosurgeons with a non-invasive tool to help in mapping critical areas of the brain before surgery, reports a study in the April issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...

Unique Mechanism Identified By Which Glioblastoma Cells Develop Resistance To Drugs That Target EGFR Signaling
4/10/2013

Proteins that control cell growth are often mutated in cancer, and their aberrant signaling drives the wild proliferation of cells that gives rise to tumors. One such protein, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fuels a wide variety of cancers - including a highly malignant brain cancer known as glioblastoma...

Male Smokers With Low Levels Of Serum Bilirubin At Greater Risk For Lung Cancer
4/10/2013

Elevated levels of bilirubin in the blood get attention in the clinic because they often indicate that something has gone wrong with the liver. Now researchers have found that male smokers with low levels of the yellow-tinged chemical are at higher risk for lung cancer and dying from the disease...

Selecting Patients With Advanced Colorectal Cancer And Liver Metastasis For Surgery
4/10/2013

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...

Researchers Identify Abnormally Expressed LincRNAs In Breast Cancer Patients
4/10/2013

Once considered part of the "junk" of our genome, much of the DNA between protein-coding genes is now known to be transcribed. New findings by scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center have identified several dozen transcripts known as lincRNAs, or long intergenic non-coding RNAs, that are dysregulated in breast cancer...

Combined HER2 Targeted Therapy Without Chemotherapy Will Likely Benefit Certain Breast Cancer Patients
4/10/2013

Is the era of targeted therapy for breast cancer at hand? It could be, said experts at the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine - at least for a certain population of women...