Working Night Shifts May Result In Higher Risk Of Breast Cancer
5/28/2012
A long-term study featured in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine reveals that working more than two night shifts per week poses a greater risk of breast cancer. The risk appears cumulatively higher in those who describe themselves as 'early birds' or 'morning people' than 'owls' or 'night birds'...
When Should PSA Screening Stop? Doctors Cannot Agree
5/28/2012
Prostate cancer is a slow-growing disease, and doctors are forever facing multiple barriers to discontinuing routine PSA screening. So, perhaps it is not surprising that consensus in the medical community on when to discontinue PSA screening is hard to achieve. Put simply, doctors are unable to agree completely when an old man should no longer be screened for prostate cancer...
Cancer Risk May Be Lowered By Fat Removal Procedures
5/28/2012
Surgically removing abdominal fat from obese mice reduces their risk of ultraviolet-light induce skin cancer, say researchers. However, whether this applies to humans is still unknown. UV-induced skin cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the United States and affects over 2 million individuals each year. The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...
New Clues About Cancer Cell Metabolism Emerge
5/28/2012
For almost a century, researchers have known that cancer cells have peculiar appetites, devouring glucose in ways that normal cells do not. But glucose uptake may tell only part of cancer's metabolic story...
Anti-Psychotic Drug Pushes Cancer Stem Cells Over The Edge
5/28/2012
An anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia appears to get rid of cancer stem cells by helping them differentiate into less threatening cell types...
Cancer Stem Cells Self-Renewal Capacity Is Independent Of Their Ability To Initiate Leukemia
5/28/2012
In leukemia, specialized cells called cancer stem cells are thought to proliferate to generate tumor cells. These cancer stem cells are rare in the tumor population and have unique properties from other tumor cells, including increased resistance to conventional drug therapy...
Marked For Destruction: Newly Developed Compound Triggers Cancer Cell Death
5/28/2012
The BCL-2 protein family plays a large role in determining whether cancer cells survive in response to therapy or undergo a form of cell death known as apoptosis. Cells are pressured toward apoptosis by expression of pro-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins...
The Cells' Petrol Pump Is Finally Identified
5/28/2012
Researchers from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, describe how mitochondria, the cell's power plants, are supplied with fuel Our cells breathe and digest, as does the organism as a whole. They indeed use oxygen to draw the energy contained in the nutrients they ingest, before discarding the waste, as carbon dioxide and water. Glucose is a preferred nutrient for the cells...
Peritonitis May Be A Deadly Condition For Some Kidney Failure Patients
5/28/2012
An infection called peritonitis commonly arises in the weeks before many dialysis patients die, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings suggest that peritonitis may be a deadly condition for some kidney failure patients...
A Change In Fate: Lymphatic Vessels Reprogrammed To Blood Vessels
5/28/2012
Blood circulation requires the vascular system, the vast network of arteries and veins through which blood is pumped. In a parallel network, known as the lymphatic system, lymph fluid, which contains a mixture of immune cells, bacteria, fat, and other debris, is circulated through specialized lymphatic vessels...