http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html Cancer blog from medicineworld.org adds a personal touch to the stories related to cancer. This cancer blog brings you stories of hope, stories of survivors and latest news and research related to cancer. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/blogs/cancer-cells.jpg http://medicineworld.org/cancer/cancer-blog.html 82 90 http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-synthetic-molecules-trigger-immune-response.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/new-synthetic-molecules-trigger-immune-response.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Scientists at Yale University have developed synthetic molecules capable of enhancing the body's immune response to HIV and HIV-infected cells, as well as to prostate cancer cells. Their findings, published online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could lead to novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/religion-and-medicine.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/religion-and-medicine.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Do pediatric oncologists feel that religion is a bridge or a barrier to their work? Or do they feel it can be either, depending on whether their patients are recovering or deteriorating? A novel Brandeis University study examines these questions in the current issue of Social Problems Through in-depth interviews with 30 pediatricians and pediatric oncologists at elite medical centers, the authors discovered that physicians tend to view religion and spirituality pragmatically, considering them resources in family decision-making and in end of life situations, and barriers when they conflict with medical decisions, said main author Brandeis sociologist Wendy Cadge........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/green-tea-may-prevent-oral-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/green-tea-may-prevent-oral-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Green tea extract has shown promise as cancer prevention agent for oral cancer in patients with a pre-cancerous condition known as oral leukoplakia, as per scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. The study, published online in Cancer Prevention Research, is the first to examine green tea as a chemopreventative agent in this high-risk patient population. The scientists observed that more than half of the oral leukoplakia patients who took the extract had a clinical response........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/weight-training-for-breast-cancer-survivors.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/weight-training-for-breast-cancer-survivors.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, as per new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift weights, as per a newly released study reported in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/size-and-shape-of-the-blood-vessels.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/size-and-shape-of-the-blood-vessels.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT A diagnosis of prostate cancer raises the question for patients and their physicians as to how the tumor will behave. Will it grow quickly and aggressively and require continuous therapy, or slowly, allowing treatment and its risks to be safely delayed? The answer may lie in the size and shape of the blood vessels that are visible within the cancer, as per research led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute in collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/space-industry-technology-to-treat-breast-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/space-industry-technology-to-treat-breast-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Scientists at Rush University Medical Center and Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on a study to determine if an imaging technique used by NASA to inspect the space shuttle can be used to predict tissue damage often experienced by patients with breast cancer undergoing radiation treatment. The study is examining the utility of three-dimensional thermal tomography in radiation oncology........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/nano-scale-drug-delivery-for-chemotherapy.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/11-2009/nano-scale-drug-delivery-for-chemotherapy.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single therapy. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient. Nano-delivery systems have become increasingly attractive to scientists because of their ability to efficiently get into tumors. Since blood vessels supplying tumors are more porous, or leaky, than normal vessels, the nanoformulation can more easily enter and accumulate within tumor cells. This means that higher doses of the drug can be delivered, increasing its cancer-killing abilities while decreasing the side effects linked to systematic chemotherapy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/drug-radiation-eliminates-lung-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/drug-radiation-eliminates-lung-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have eliminated non-small cell lung (NSCL) cancer in mice by using an investigative drug called BEZ235 in combination with low-dose radiation. In a study appearing in the recent issue of Cancer Research, UT Southwestern scientists observed that if they administered BEZ235 before they damaged the DNA of tumor cells with otherwise nontoxic radiation, the drug blocked the pro-survival actions of a protein called PI3K, which normally springs into action to keep tumor cells alive while they repair DNA damage........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/blocking-heat-shock-protein-to-fight-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/blocking-heat-shock-protein-to-fight-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Like yoga for office drones, cells do have coping strategies for stress. Heat, lack of nutrients, oxygen radicals all can wreak havoc on the delicate internal components of a cell, potentially damaging it beyond repair. Proteins called HSPs (heat shock proteins) allow cells to survive stress-induced damage. Researchers have long studied how HSPs work in order to harness their therapeutic potential........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/exercise-for-lymphoma-patients.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/exercise-for-lymphoma-patients.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT A healthy dose of exercise is good medicine, even for lymphoma patients receiving chemotherapy, University of Alberta scientists have found. The Healthy Exercise for Lymphoma Patients (HELP) trial, a three-year study led by Kerry Courneya, Canada Research Chair in physical activity and cancer in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, observed that a regimen of aerobic exercise training produced significant improvements in physical functioning and overall quality of life benefits in patients with lymphoma........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/cancer-diagnosis-using-sensor-biochips.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/cancer-diagnosis-using-sensor-biochips.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT It is very difficult to predict whether a cancer drug will help an individual patient: only around one third of drugs will work directly in a given patient. Scientists at the Heinz Nixdorf Chair for Medical Electronics at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have developed a new test process for cancer drugs. With the help of microchips, they can establish in the laboratory whether a patient's tumor cells will react to a given drug. This chip could help in future with the rapid identification of the most effective medicine for the individual patient........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/melanoma-treatment-options.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/melanoma-treatment-options.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT A targeted chemotherapy for the therapy of skin cancer is one step closer, after a team of University of Alberta scientists successfully synthesized a natural substance that shows exceptional potential to specifically treat this often fatal disease. U of A chemistry professor Dennis Hall said after three years of work, his research team has successfully produced the substance called Palmerolide A........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/screening-for-breast-cancer-and-prostate-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/screening-for-breast-cancer-and-prostate-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Twenty years of screening for breast and prostate cancer - the most diagnosed cancer for women and men - have not brought the anticipated decline in deaths from these diseases, argue experts from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in an opinion piece reported in the "Journal of the American Medical Association"........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/exercise-after-your-radiation-therapy.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/exercise-after-your-radiation-therapy.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Exercise is a key factor in improving both memory and mood after whole-brain radiation therapys in rodents, as per data presented by Duke University researchers at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. "This is the first demonstration that exercise can prevent a decline in memory after whole-brain radiation therapy," said lead researcher and graduate student Sarah Wong-Goodrich of the Duke Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Whole-brain radiation is sometimes used to treat brain cancers in humans........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/new-chromosomal-abnormality-identified-in-leukemia.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/new-chromosomal-abnormality-identified-in-leukemia.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Scientists identified a new chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that appears to work in concert with another mutation to give rise to cancer. This latest anomaly is especially common in children with Down syndrome. The findings have already resulted in new diagnostic tests and potential tools for tracking a patient's response to therapy. The research, led by researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, also highlights a new potential ALL therapy. Clinicians are already planning trials of an experimental medicine targeting one of the altered genes........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/effective-treatment-against-cancer.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/effective-treatment-against-cancer.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Drugs made using unusual metals could form an effective therapy against colon and ovary cancer, including malignant cells that have developed immunity to other drugs, as per research at the University of Warwick and the University of Leeds. The study, reported in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, showed that a range of compounds containing the two transition metals Ruthenium and Osmium, which are found in the same part of the periodic table as precious metals like platinum and gold, cause significant cell death in ovarian and colon cancer cells........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/girls-aware-of-hpv-vaccines-benefits.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/girls-aware-of-hpv-vaccines-benefits.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Contrary to concerns that the human papillomavirus vaccine might promote promiscuity, a national survey of girls and young women observed that the majority of respondents did not believe the HPV vaccine protected them against other sexually transmitted infections. The study, conducted by University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Chicago researchers, appears online and in the recent issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health....... ]]> http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/transcendental-meditation-reduces-stress.html http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/10-2009/transcendental-meditation-reduces-stress.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:56:41 GMT Women with breast cancer reduced stress and improved their mental health and emotional well being through the Transcendental Meditation technique, as per a newly released study reported in the current issue of the peer-evaluated Integrative Cancer Therapies (Vol. 8, No. 3: September 2009). "A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Quality of Life in Older Breast Cancer Patients" was a collaboration between the Center for Healthy Aging at Saint Joseph Hospital; the Institute for Health Services, Research and Policy Studies at Northwestern University; the Department of Psychology at Indiana State University; and the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management........ ]]>