In patients with metastatic breast cancer, immune cells from a genetically matched donor can attack and shrink tumors, researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. This is the first time researchers have clearly demonstrated this type of immune response, known as a graft-versus-tumor effect, acting against breast cancer.
“Graft-versus-tumor effects have been shown to be useful in treating cance
Currently, there is no vaccine available that is able to cure cancer. The success of an antitumor vaccine will depend on its ability to induce robust and sustained tumor-specific immune responses. There is evidence to suggest that antitumor vaccination can induce such responses and even tumor regression. However, to date these regressions have not been long-lasting. Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Switzerland have developed a lentiviral vaccine which following injection int
As more is learned about how cancer develops, scientists have begun designing new drugs that directly target cancer cells, leaving healthy ones intact. Having fewer side effects, some of these drugs work by blocking growth signaling processes within cancer cells, while others enlist the body’s immune system to recognize and mount an attack against the cancer cell. But regardless of how they work, most of these drugs are designed to treat a specific cancer and cannot be used to treat other tumor type
An experimental cancer drug named bevacizumab (trade name Avastin) is the first “anti-angiogenesis” drug to prove that it can shrink tumors and extend survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to a national clinical trial led by researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Bevacizumab is known as an anti-angiogenesis drug because it blocks the formation of blood vessels in tumors (a process called angiogenesis) and thus inhibits their growth.
Patien
Researchers at the Breast Care Center at Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital have developed a new test to predict which breast cancer tumors will respond to chemotherapy, potentially reducing unnecessary treatment for women with breast cancer, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.
Using novel DNA array technology, the study identified differences in the gene patterns from tumor samples that predict which patients
Study results presented at the 39th annual meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) by Chandra P. Belani, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh and co-director, Lung Cancer Program, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), demonstrate that a new therapeutic radiation strategy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) – the most common form of the disease – leads to improved survival for lung cancer patients with locally advanced disease.
n the study
University of Pittsburgh researchers report results of first U.S. comparison study at the American Transplant Congress
A new organ preservation solution offers comparable results to a solution currently in widespread use but it is more cost-effective and has several logistical advantages that makes it more practical for keeping donated livers viable before being transplanted, conclude University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) researchers who performed the first U.S. study to comp
Most breast cancer patients with more than 10 nodes that are affected by the cancer have a poor prognosis, yet some survive long-term. Physicians now believe that certain genes in the breast cancer tissue, removed at diagnosis, can help them predict which patients will survive.
With this information, doctors can recommend the most appropriate therapy for an individual patient, for example sparing a woman with a poor prognosis the rigors that accompany aggressive chemotherapy, and enabling h
Research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that the accurate diagnosis of early stage endometrial cancer requires that the abdominal lymph nodes always be removed and checked for signs of cancer. The recommendation extends even to women with tumors that seem to have the smallest risk of spread. The study will be presented June 2 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Ill.
The study indicates that by examining the lymph nodes i
Assisted reproduction can safely help HIV positive men to become fathers without infecting their partners, according to new research from French fertility experts.
But, the news is not so good for HIV positive women. Assisted reproduction techniques do not seem to provide the same success for them, the researchers reported today (Thursday 29 May) in Europe’s leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1].
Dr Jeanine Ohl and her Strasbourg-based team carried out various
Scientists are using new imaging technology to help them perform “virtual biopsies,” – biological profiles of specific tumors that may help predict a patient’s response to treatment and probability of long-term survival. This whole new realm of imaging is called functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), a process that offers insight into a tumor’s character, not just its superficial structure.
Using functional MRI, Dr. Michael Knopp, a radiologist and a member of The Ohio State
A new approach to providing medication for adult diabetics (type 2 diabetes) that is not dependent on insulin has been developed by a doctoral student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For his work, which he did for his Ph.D. thesis in pharmacology, Arie Gruzman was awarded one of this year’s Kaye Innovation Awards at the Hebrew University.
Unlike other conventional drugs that require active insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and that often fail to overcome a companion problem of
Virologists at Jefferson Medical College may have discovered a new way by which HIV, the AIDS virus, can evade both anti-viral drugs and vaccines.
Researchers had reported last summer that a protein called CEM15 is a natural inhibitor of HIV, acting as a brake on HIV’s replication. They also showed that an HIV-encoded protein, Vif, or Virion infectivity factor, counteracts CEM15. Vif, in effect, is a shield to protect HIV from a host cell’s defenses.
But how CEM15 worked was somet
BU invention could ’sweeten’ diabetes therapy within five years
C.J. Zhong hopes that within the next three to five years diabetics the world could see their quality of life enhanced by his tiny invention-a chip-sized pump with no moving parts. The device is also expected to find its way into myriad industrial and environmental applications, where it could mean huge savings in manufacturing and monitoring processes.
Zhong’s patent on the low-power, electrically
As SARS and other new diseases cross geographical boundaries with increasing rapidity, the need for Binghamton University’s new master of science in biomedical anthropology becomes ever more apparent.
The program, the first of its kind in the world, will offer a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the transmission and spread of infections, cellular and molecular mechanisms of disease, and the interaction of biological and socio-cultural factors that shape health outcomes.
Th
A new study in the Institute of Physics journal Physics in Medicine and Biology, reveals that the new generation of digital mobile phones can interfere with many types of heart pacemaker. The pacemakers can confuse the signals generated by mobile phones for the heart’’s own electrical signals, causing the pacemaker to malfunction. The authors of the paper, based in the US and Italy, say that newer pacemakers fitted with a ceramic filter are immune and recommend that all manufacturers use th
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