UAB Uses New 'Triggered Imaging' To Keep Tumor In Target Sight
11/22/2011
A new type of "triggered imaging" technology enables University of Alabama at Birmingham physicians to better target tumors during radiosurgery and lessens the risk of injury to surrounding lung tissue. Radiosurgery is a focused, highly targeted, high dose of radiation treatment typically taking three to five sessions, as opposed to 25 to 30 sessions for conventional radiation therapy...
Drug companies currently developing therapeutic cancer vaccines may be determining the cancers they target based on the number of annual cases, not the number of deaths they cause. This approach may limit the patient benefits of such drugs, according to a new University of Michigan report...
Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines Cost Lives
11/22/2011
New breast cancer screening guidelines by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health (CTFOPH), which recommend against annual screening of women ages 40-49 and extending time between screens for older women, ignore results of landmark randomized control trials which show that regular screening significantly reduces breast cancer deaths in these women...
Life-Threatening Condition In Preemies Linked To Blood Type
11/22/2011
Many premature infants suffer a life-threatening destruction of intestinal tissue called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Now a Loyola University Medical Center study has identified a major risk factor for NEC: Preemies with the AB blood type who develop NEC are nearly three times as likely to die from it as preemies with other blood types...
Racial, Gender Gaps In Use Of Colonoscopy Erased By Colon Cancer Screening Campaign
11/22/2011
Since the 1970s, U.S. mortality rates due to colorectal cancer have declined overall, yet among blacks and Hispanics, the death rates rose. Evidence suggests that underuse of colonoscopy screening among these groups is one reason for the large disparities. In 2003, New York City launched a multifaceted campaign to improve colonoscopy rates among racial and ethnic minorities and women...
Genetic Rearrangements Drive 5 To 7 Percent Of Breast Cancers
11/22/2011
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered two cancer-spurring gene rearrangements that may trigger 5 to 7 percent of all breast cancers...
Breast Tenderness With Combo Hormone Therapy May Signal Breast Cancer
11/22/2011
The debate about using menopausal hormone therapies to relieve symptoms in post-menopausal women has been ongoing...
Mutation Offers Protection From Severe Malaria
11/22/2011
Why do people with a hereditary mutation of the red blood pigment hemoglobin (as is the case with sickle-cell anemia prevalent in Africa) not contract severe malaria? Scientists in the group headed by Prof. Michael Lanzer of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Heidelberg University Hospital have now solved this mystery...
No Breast Cancer Screening For Women Aged 40-49, New Canadian Guidelines
11/21/2011
Women aged forty to forty-nine should not undergo routine mammography screening for breast cancer, according to new guidelines issued by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, which were published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)...
Brain Cancer Vaccine Shows Positive Results
11/21/2011
Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDX) announced today that its immunotherapeutic vaccine called Rindopepimut showed positive results in prolonging survival in patients with newly diagnosed EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma (GB), one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer...