Clinical Oncology Week articles from December 2008

Clinical Oncology Week archives from December 2008

A postcode lottery still exists for cancer patients with 'exceptional circumstances'.(Clinical report)
December 1, 2008... A study of patients, at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, has shown that the decision to fund patient care depends more on where the patient lives, than the patient's health circumstances, raising public concern regarding a "postcode lottery"...

Study finds association between male birth defect and certain genetic mutations.
December 1, 2008... A small percentage of males born with cryptorchidism (failure of one or both testicles to descend into the scrotum), the most frequent congenital birth defect in male children, are more likely to have genetic mutations, including for a syndrome...

Study helps identify beachgoers at increased risk of skin cancer.
December 1, 2008... Identifying the sun-protection practices and risk profiles of beachgoers may help determine those who would benefit from targeted interventions intended to reduce the risk of skin cancer, according to a study in the November issue of Archives...

Provista Life Sciences PLS Announces Initiation of the BT Test Validation Study in the United Kingdom.
December 1, 2008... Provista Life Sciences LLC (PLS) announced that the National Health System's Ethical Committee approval has been granted to proceed with a validation study of its Biomarker Translation Test (BT Test) in the United Kingdom (UK). The BT Test, a...

Research from Keio University, Department of Surgery broadens understanding of cancer gene therapy.(Report)
December 1, 2008... Scientists discuss in 'Heat shock protein 27, a novel regulator of 5-fluorouracil resistance in colon cancer' new findings in cancer gene therapy. "The resistance of colon cancer to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a critical issue, and the cause of...

Cancer survival rates impact type of Web communities used by patients.
December 1, 2008... Online support communities for high survival rate cancers contain a greater amount of emotional support content than online support communities for cancers with low survival rates, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Health...

Stomach ulcer bug causes bad breath.
December 8, 2008... Bacteria that cause stomach ulcers and cancer could also be giving us bad breath, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology. For the first time, scientists have found Helicobacter pylori living...

North Dakota State University, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences publishes research in cancer gene therapy.
December 8, 2008... A new study, 'KLF6 induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells through up-regulation of ATF3,' is now available. According to a study from the United States, "KLF6 (Kruppel-like factor 6) is a zinc finger transcription factor and a tumor...

Researchers from Charite University, Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine discuss findings in cancer gene therapy.
December 8, 2008... New investigation results, 'Novel jet-injection technology for nonviral intratumoral gene transfer in patients with melanoma and breast cancer,' are detailed in a study published in Clinical Cancer Research. "This phase I clinical trial...

Study findings from University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center broaden understanding of cancer gene therapy.
December 8, 2008... Data detailed in 'SH-5, an AKT inhibitor potentiates apoptosis and inhibits invasion through the suppression of anti-apoptotic, proliferative and metastatic gene products regulated by IkappaBalpha kinase activation' have been presented....

Data on cancer vaccines published by researchers at Methodist Hospital.
December 8, 2008... Data detailed in 'Vaccination of renal cell cancer patients with modified vaccinia ankara delivering tumor antigen 5T4 (TroVax) administered with interleukin 2: a phase II trial' have been presented. According to recent research published in...

New discovery may enhance MRI scans, lead to portable MRI machines.
December 8, 2008... Researchers in Ohio and France have solved a longstanding scientific mystery involving magnetic resonance -- the physical phenomenon that allows MRI instruments in modern hospitals to image tissues deep within the human body. Their discovery, a...

Top-up system has hidden costs that have not been accounted for.
December 15, 2008... The "cost" of top-up payments to the NHS are not confined to the cost of the drug and require the NHS to make some long overdue changes or risk financial failure, argue two editorials published in Clinical Oncology, by Elsevier (see also...

Drop in cancer deaths tied primarily to gains in behavior and screening.(Report)
December 15, 2008... Improvements in behavior and screening have contributed greatly to the 13 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1990, with better cancer treatments playing a supporting role, according to new research from David Cutler of Harvard University...

New suicide study results reported from T. Suzuki et al.
December 15, 2008... According to recent research from Osaka, Japan, "The combined use of adenovirus (Ad) vectors expressing herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSVtk) and ganciclovir (GCV) offers a potential therapeutic strategy against cancer. However,...

Study results from H. Akbulut et al provide new insights into vaccines.
December 15, 2008... "Our laboratory has created an Ad-sig-TAA/ecdCD40L vaccine platform designed to activate dendritic cells (DCs). Two subcutaneous (s.c.) injections of the TAA/ecdCD40L protein following the s.c. injection of the Ad-sig-TAA/ecdCD40L vector...

Data on cancer vaccines published by researchers at National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
December 15, 2008... Data detailed in 'Burden of potentially human papillomavirus-associated cancers of the oropharynx and oral cavity in the US, 1998-2003' have been presented. According to recent research published in the journal Cancer, "As human papillomavirus...

CSHL scientists discover a new way in which epigenetic information is inherited.
December 15, 2008... Hereditary information flows from parents to offspring not just through DNA but also through the millions of proteins and other molecules that cling to it. These modifications of DNA, known as "epigenetic marks," act both as a switch and a dial...

Scientists at CSHL uncover new RNA processing mechanism and a new class of small RNAs.
December 15, 2008... A very small fraction of our genetic material--about 2%-- performs the crucial task scientists once thought was the sole purpose of the genome: to serve as a blueprint for the production of proteins, the molecules that make cells work and...

Plants display 'molecular amnesia'.
December 15, 2008... This release is available in French (see also McGill University). Plant researchers from McGill University and the University of California, Berkeley, have announced a major breakthrough in a developmental process called epigenetics. They...

State policies have little effect on reducing minors' indoor tanning use.
December 22, 2008... A new analysis finds that state policies meant to limit minors' indoor tanning use have had little effect. Published in the January 15, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that...

Economic cost of cancer mortality is high in US, regardless of how cost is measured.
December 22, 2008... The economic cost of death due to cancer is high in the United States, regardless of whether researchers estimate the economic impact in lost work productivity or in a more global measure using the value of one year of life, according to two...

Secondhand smoke raises odds of fertility problems in women.
December 22, 2008... If you need another reason to quit smoking, consider that it may diminish your chances of being a parent or grandparent. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that women exposed to second hand smoke, either as...

New life sciences study findings recently were reported by researchers at Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Organic Chemistry.
December 22, 2008... New investigation results, 'Structure and function of the Pre-mRNA splicing machine,' are detailed in a study published in Structure. According to recent research from Rehovot, Israel, "Most eukaryotic pre-mRNAs contain non-coding sequences...

Studies by M. Khanna and co-authors describe new findings in adamantinoma.(Report)
December 22, 2008... "Objectives The aim of this study was to correlate the imaging features with surgical histology for tibial osteofibrous dysplasia (OFD), osteofibrous dysplasia-like adamantinoma (OFD/LA) and classical adamantinoma and to determine the...

Shared survival mechanism explains why 'good' nerve cells last and 'bad' cancer cells flourish.(Report)
December 29, 2008... Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine (see also University of North...

Studies from C. Magnon et al add new findings in the area of cancer gene therapy.
December 29, 2008... "Given as a prophylactic treatment, a single muscle electrogene transfer of plasmid coding canstatin fused to human serum albumin (CanHSA), slowed down the development of two xenografted human carcinomas from mammary (MDA-MB231) and prostate...

Studies from Kanazawa University in the area of cancer gene therapy published.
December 29, 2008... According to recent research published in the journal Cancer Science, "Suicide gene therapy combined with chemokines provides significant antitumor efficacy. Coexpression of suicide gene and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) increases...

Studies from University of Texas in the area of cancer gene therapy described.
December 29, 2008... "We have reported earlier that a bystander effect is seen in cancer cells that are resistant to high concentrations of the interferon-alpha protein (Intron A) when treated with adenoviral-mediated interferon-alpha (Ad-IFN-alpha). We now provide...

Study data from Hebrew University update understanding of cancer gene therapy.
December 29, 2008... According to a study from Jerusalem, Israel, "Newcastle disease virus (NDV), an avian paramyxovirus, has a potential oncolytic effect that may be of significance in the treatment of a variety of cancer diseases. An attenuated lentogenic isolate...

Call Stephen Michnick a gene grammarian.
December 29, 2008... This release is available in French (see also University of Montreal). Montreal, December 16, 2008 u While life on Earth didn't originate from a blueprint, Stephen Michnick is helping the scientific community uncover the basic architecture...