Biologics do not increase cancer risk for rheumatoid arthritis patients
3/28/2014
New research suggests that biological therapies (biologics) do not increase the risk of recurrent cancer compared to conventional disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The study, which will be presented at Rheumatology 2014, analysed data from almost 19,000 patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
Kif15: The acrobatic motor protein that could pave the way for new cancer therapies
3/28/2014
Researchers at Warwick Medical School have shown for the first time how a protein motor, Kif15, uses acrobatic flexibility to navigate within the mitotic spindle. Understanding how it works could prove vital for the development of targeted cancer therapies.
New era of lung cancer treatment heralded by immunotherapy data
3/28/2014
A new era of lung cancer therapy is close to dawning, using drugs that can prevent tumour cells from evading the immune system, experts have said at the 4th European Lung Cancer Congress.
Health concerns swirl around electronic cigarettes
3/28/2014
With sales of electronic cigarettes, or "e-cigarettes," on the rise and expected to hit $1.5 billion this year, concerns over potential health risks of using the trendy devices are also gaining momentum and political clout.
The acrobatic motor protein Kif15 could pave the way for new cancer therapies
3/28/2014
Researchers at Warwick Medical School have shown for the first time how a protein motor, Kif15, uses acrobatic flexibility to navigate within the mitotic spindle. Understanding how it works could prove vital for the development of targeted cancer therapies.
Improved prediction of survival after chemo for liver tumors offered by 3-D MRI scans
3/28/2014
In a series of studies involving 140 American men and women with liver tumors, researchers at Johns Hopkins have used specialized 3-D MRI scans to precisely measure living and dying tumor tissue to quickly show whether highly toxic chemotherapy - delivered directly through a tumor's blood supply - is working.
Neighboring cells alerted to protect themselves by dying cells in fruit fly
3/28/2014
Cells usually self-destruct when irreparable glitches occur in their DNA. Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, helps insure that cells with damaged DNA do not grow and replicate to produce more mutated cells. Apoptosis thereby helps protect and insure the survival of the organism.At the GSA Drosophila Research Conference, TinTin Su, Ph.D.
Epigenetic machinery hijacked by some breast cancer tumors to evade drug therapy
3/28/2014
A breast cancer therapy that blocks estrogen synthesis to activate cancer-killing genes sometimes loses its effectiveness because the cancer takes over epigenetic mechanisms, including permanent DNA modifications in the patient's tumor, once again allowing tumor growth, according to an international team headed by the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).
Scientists unravel nerve-cell death in rare children's disease
3/28/2014
A team of scientists, led by Stuart Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Neuroscience and Aging Research Center at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), recently discovered why cerebellar granule cell neurons in patients suffering from ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) were unable to repair DNA damage and thus died.
Although the targeted cancer treatment drug crizotinib is very effective in causing rapid regression of a particular form of lung cancer, patients' tumors inevitably become resistant to the drug.