Cancer
Ovarian tissue transplant may restore fertility
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Even after highly concentrated cancer treatment of the ovaries, long-term ovarian function and fertility can be restored by repeated ovarian transplant with tissue taken from the patient before treatment, researchers in Korea and the US report in the current issue Fertility and Sterility.
In frozen ovarian tissue, a lack of oxygen after ovarian grafting causes a substantial loss of follicles, shortening the life span of the tissue, so repeated transplantation may be required, Dr. S. Samuel Kim at the University of Kansas, Kansas City, and his co-investigators note.
Until now, the authors note, no successful pregnancies after transplantation have been reported.
Declines in US breast cancer rates not uniform
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Between 2001 and 2004, new cases of breast cancer declined more than 8 percent in the United States. However, new research suggests that the decline was significantly less pronounced among poor women and among women living in rural areas.
“We looked closely at the previously reported decline in breast cancer observed in 2002-2003 using one of the largest databases available and found that the decline was faster in urban and affluent areas than rural or poorer areas,” Dr. Christina Clarke, from the Northern California Cancer Center in Fremont told Reuters Health.
In their study, reported online in the journal BMC Medicine, Clarke’s team looked at trends in the occurrence of breast cancer in US women by urban and rural status as well as poverty status for the period of 1997 to 2004.
Researchers Draft 3-D Protein Map to Aid Stroke, Cancer Research
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A new three-dimensional computer protein map is helping researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) unravel the biological pathways that control brain-cell death after a stroke.
The new map will help identify new drug targets and test compounds to slow brain-cell death, halt brain cancer and improve pain control, the study authors said. The findings are published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Starting with known cell coordinates, biological structures and other data, UAB researchers focused on a protein called acid-sensing ion channel-1, or ASIC-1. This protein acts as a gateway on the surface of brain cells called neurons. The researchers generated a 3-D computer map of ASIC-1, which greatly simplifies the testing of any drug or compound designed to protect neurons, regulate their molecular interactions or isolate brain tumors.
Wildlife faces cancer threat
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While cancer touches the lives of many humans, it is also a major threat to wild animal populations as well, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
A newly published paper in the July edition of Nature Reviews Cancer compiles information on cancer in wildlife and suggests that cancer poses a conservation threat to certain species. The WCS authors highlight the critical need to protect both animals and people through increased health monitoring.
“Cancer is one of the leading health concerns for humans, accounting for more than 10 percent of human deaths,” said Dr. Denise McAloose, lead author and Chief Pathologist for WCS’s Global Health program. “But we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates.”
Green tea may slow prostate tumor growth
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Antioxidant compounds in green tea may help slow the growth and progression of prostate cancer, a preliminary study suggests.
Researchers found that among 26 men with prostate cancer, short-term treatment with the green tea compound epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) lowered the patients’ blood levels of several proteins linked to prostate cancer progression.
EGCG is the main polyphenol in green tea; polyphenols are antioxidant compounds that, research suggests, may help prevent the cell damage that promotes cancer development and progression.
Biomarkers Predict Brain Tumor’s Response to Therapy
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A report in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, highlights a new biomarker that may be useful in identifying patients with recurrent glioblastoma, or brain tumors, who would respond better to anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy, specifically cediranib.
Cediranib is a highly potent inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor tyrosine kinases. It is an investigational, oral agent that is administered once daily. Using a form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that looked at the mechanism of action of this agent, the researchers were able to determine, even as early as after a single dose of cediranib, those patients who benefited from the agent and those who did not.
“We found that results from an advanced MRI scan taken just a day after starting treatment correlated with survival. Combining MRI with blood biomarkers did an even better job of identifying patients who best responded to treatment,” said researcher A. Gregory Sorensen, M.D., associate professor of radiology and health sciences and technology at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital. “If this approach is validated in larger studies, we could use these tools to keep patients on therapies that their tumors respond to, and shift non-responders to other therapies much earlier.”
“Virtual colonoscopy” may be an option, study shows
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So-called virtual colonoscopies—done using souped-up x-rays—detect tumors and precancerous lesions almost as well as standard colonoscopies using a camera threaded through the colon, Italian researchers reported on Tuesday.
The virtual procedure, done using computed tomography scans, might offer an alternative for people who are embarrassed or afraid to have a standard colonoscopy and encourage them to be examined, Dr Daniele Regge of the Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment in Turin, Italy, and colleagues said.
Their study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, adds to a growing body of evidence showing the CT procedures are safe and almost as good as standard colonoscopies.
Hebrew University research leads to advanced trials of new cancer treatment
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Research by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor has led to the development of a product that has been shown in clinical trials to be successful in halting the growth of various types of cancer cells.
The research, conducted by Prof. Avraham Hochberg of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the university, has won for him first prize among faculty members for this year’s Kaye Innovations Awards, which was presented on June 9 during the annual Hebrew University Board of Governors meeting.
Prof. Hochberg was successful in isolating the H19 gene in humans and determining that it is significantly expressed in over 33 different forms of cancer, including superficial bladder carcinoma and pancreatic, ovarian and metastatic liver cancer, while laying dormant and non-expressed in non-cancerous cells.
Doctor Works to Reduce Cancer Burden in Africa
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In 2010, cancer will be the single leading cause of death worldwide, overtaking chronic illnesses such as heart disease and stroke. Already cancer causes more deaths than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Almost three-quarters of new cases will occur in developing countries, with more than a million cases in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020, according to World Health Organization projections.
Scot Remick, M.D., director of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University, is leading U.S. efforts to help prepare for the growing cancer burden in Third World nations. He heads the International Working Group of the National Cancer Institute’s AIDS Malignancy Consortium, which has been instrumental in training doctors and building clinical trials for AIDS-related diseases in Uganda and Kenya.
“Most people don’t realize that by 2010 cancer will be the single greatest cause of mortality worldwide,” said Remick after returning from the May-June meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, where he chaired an education session on the topic. “Anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of cancers are due to transmissible causes, and healthcare professionals in the industrialized world are likely to underestimate the role of infectious agents – even though they constitute a significant burden.”
Antidepressant curbs cancer-related mental ills
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People with cancer often suffer mental impairment, but it seems this can be alleviated by treatment with Paxil, an SSRI-type antidepressant, according to results of a National Cancer Institute-supported study.
The findings were reported this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Orlando.
“Cancer and its treatment impact important areas of cognitive function such as attention and memory, which are essential to patients’ effective psychosocial functioning and quality of life,” Dr. Pascal Jean-Pierre, from the University of Rochester, New York and colleagues point out in a meeting paper.
New Therapy Enlists Immune System to Boost Cure Rate in a Childhood Cancer
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A multicenter research team has announced encouraging results for an experimental therapy using elements of the body’s immune system to improve cure rates for children with neuroblastoma, a challenging cancer of the nervous system.
John M. Maris, M.D., chief of Oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, co-authored the phase 3 clinical trial, which was led by Alice Yu, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, San Diego. Maris chairs the committee supervising the trial for the Children’s Oncology Group, a cooperative organization that pools resources from leading medical centers to study and devise new treatments for pediatric cancers.
Neuroblastoma, a cancer of the peripheral nervous system, usually appears as a solid tumor in the chest or abdomen. Neuroblastoma accounts for 7 percent of all childhood cancers, but due to its often aggressive nature, causes 15 percent of all childhood cancer deaths.
Many at-risk women don’t follow mammogram schedule
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Women who have been treated for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) tend to stop following the recommended guidelines for mammography screening over time, despite the fact that they still have a higher-than-average risk for recurrence and development of a new DCIS in the other breast.
This finding, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is drawn from a study of more than 3,000 women who underwent breast-conserving surgery for DCIS between 1990 and 2001. Breast-conserving surgery is a procedure in which only the abnormal cells, or tumor, plus a margin - an area of normal cells surrounding the abnormal cells - are removed.
DCIS is a noninvasive condition in which abnormal cells are found in the lining of a breast duct. These abnormal cells have not yet spread outside the duct to other tissues in the breast. Some physicians consider this a “precancerous condition,” while others classify it as very early-stage breast cancer.
Meat intake/prep not linked to breast cancer
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A large study has found no link between eating meat—total meat, red meat, processed meat, or meat cooked at high temperatures—and the risk of breast cancer in older women.
Some studies have found that women who eat a lot of red and processed meat are more likely to develop breast cancer than other women; but other studies have found no such link. Saturated fat, found mainly in animal products, has been tied to higher breast cancer risk in some studies, but not in others.
The current findings stem from 120,755 postmenopausal women who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. The women provided information on what they ate and how often they ate certain foods when they entered the study between 1995 and 1996. They also provided information on meat-cooking methods.
Heart disease risk persists in Hodgkin’s survivors
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Survivors of Hodgkin’s disease are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, a Swedish study confirms. The risk is particularly high for patients treated for Hodgkin’s disease before the age of 40 years and with a family history of heart disease.
In the International Journal of Cancer, the investigators note that “previous studies have shown increased cardiovascular mortality as late side effects (in) Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients.” The aim of the current study, Dr. Anne Andersson of Umea University and colleagues explain, was to stratify heart disease risk factors for surveillance.
Hodgkin’s disease, also known as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is a cancer of the lymphatic system, a part of the immune system. Compared with some other types of lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma usually responds to treatment and most patients can be cured. Because it frequently affects children and young adults, there is a prolonged period in which long-term side effects can develop.
Abnormal cells in cervix raise cancer risk
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A woman’s age and the type of treatment she gets may play a big role in the risk that abnormal cells on the cervix will return or develop into cervical cancer, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The said older women and women treated with a freezing procedure known as cryotherapy have the highest risks of having the abnormal cells come back or progress to cervical cancer.
How severe the abnormal changes in cells were in the first place also plays a role.
“We now have a much more clear idea of the risks of recurrent abnormal cells and invasive cervical cancer over time after treatment of these cells,” said Joy Melnikow of the University of California Davis, whose study appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
