Archive for: February 2007

The health of Gypsies and Travellers is significantly worse than that of other vulnerable groups, reveals research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is not known how many Gypsies and Travellers there are in Britain, but estimates put the number at around 300,000.

Drinking a nice warm cup of green tea has long been touted for its healthful benefits, both real and anecdotal. But now researchers have found that a component of green tea, combined with low doses of a COX-2 inhibitor, could slow the spread of human prostate cancer.

Androgen deprivation therapy -- one of the most common treatments for prostate cancer -- may increase the risk of death from heart disease in patients over age 65, according to a new study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital and other institutions.

A researcher in the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center has found a way to identify which men need a second prostate biopsy because they may be harboring life-threatening prostate cancer even though they were given a clean bill of health after their first biopsy.

A large Danish study rebuts the accepted idea that differences in an estrogen gene (ESR1) affect the risk of heart attack and stroke in response to hormone replacement therapy. However, the study -- published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association -- found that the gene may be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Imagine a cancer treatment tailored to the cells in a patient's body, each person receiving a unique treatment program. This is what Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grantee Thomas Ruth and his colleagues hope to accomplish within the next decade. Using the TRIUMF particle accelerator based in Vancouver, British Columbia, they are taking vast amounts of radioactive material and separating the particular atoms they need for therapy

A new class of targeted anti-cancer drugs that blocks the human epidermal growth factor (HER) receptor family shows promise in prolonging the lives of patients with recurrent prostate cancer, a new Cedars-Sinai study shows.

Results of a study, published in the October, 2005 issue of The Journal ofUrology, demonstrated that men with high PSA levels prior to prostate removal surgery were significantly more likely to have advanced clinical stages of cancer, evidence of higher grade cancers in surgically removed tissue, and spread of cancer cells beyond the prostate. In addition, increasing PSA was significantly associated with increased risk of cancer recurrence after surgery, even in men with lower PSA levels prior to surgery.

A featured paper in the Feb. 14 issue of Nature Cancer Gene Therapy demonstrates that cancer cells in the liver are excellent targets for gene therapy using adenoviral vectors, based upon a fundamental new understanding of the differences between cancerous and normal liver cells. The findings signal a new way to treat cancers that have spread to the liver, such as metastatic cancers of the colon and breast.

A study led by Boston researchers provides the first demonstration of a practical method of screening tumors for cancer-related gene abnormalities that might be treated with "targeted" drugs. The findings may help relieve a bottleneck between scientists' expanding knowledge of the genetic mutations associated with cancer and the still nascent ability of doctors to use that knowledge to benefit patients.