Majority of the cases of advanced staging head and neck cancer need chemotherapy employing drug cisplatin which is an inert platinum agent that hampers cancer development. A sizeable populace of patients fails in responding favorably to this form of treatment; however oncologists are not able to give prescription of unconventional agents as they are unaware of which patients would be responding to platinum treatment and which ones would not show any response to it. But, new-fangled study conducted at the Fox Chase Cancer Center indicates that ERCC-1 enzyme levels which aid in restoring cisplastin-linked DNA harm could provide an analytical indicator or marker of survival in case of head and neck cancer cases. The study outcomes could ultimately prove helpful in guiding therapy selection  [...]

Investigators of a study have reported that they are inching nearer to their goal of creating a blood test which could help in earlier and effective breast cancer diagnosis. During the course of this latest study, researchers employed data taken from the large WHI or Women Health Initiative. They uncovered that the levels of marker EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) could shoot up in the blood samples of females before even seventeen months of their breast cancer diagnosis. Epidermal growth factor receptor is a marker that plays a vital role in the development and metastasis of breast cancer cells. Study author, Dr. Christopher Li stated that on its own, epidermal growth factor receptor failed in proving to be beneficial as a marker for breast cancer identification. Dr. Li who  [...]

Lately, Tennis star Martina Navratilova made a heartening revelation about her on-going fight with DCIS breast cancer type. Having won Wimbledon Singles for 9 times, the champ expressed the reports as a tragedy with as much marring effects as that of the 9/11 attacks. After getting news of her diagnosis with breast cancer type DCIS during February, Navratilova stated that she wept inconsolably. The over fifty year old tennis legend who has taken retirement from competitive tennis just 3 years back was in a state of utter disbelief and the news was nothing short of a bolt from the blue. Navratilova unequivocally spoke about feeling completely inundated with grief and her life being way beyond her control. She stated that in her impressive lengthy tennis career spanning decades, she  [...]

Investigators from Canada have made a denudation of an earlier concealed path to combat leukemia and other cancerous cells. The discovery could make a positive transformation in the manner in which leukemia treatment is carried out. This novel gateway could even benefit patients with other forms of cancers. Dr. Dindial Ramotar, a scientist at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and lead author of the study explained the uncovering of a novel gateway that is present in human-beings which permits cancer-combatant agent like Bleomycin in entering the system so that reaching and attacking the leukemia cells was possible. Dr. Ramotar, prof. at esteemed Université de Montréal started conducting tests on his conjecture nearly ten years back employing baker’s yeast that has astonishing similarity  [...]

The Mayo Clinic campus area has been the site where testing of the latest cohort of virtual biopsy probes employed in colonoscopy are being conducted. Researchers Michael Wallace, prof. of medicine, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Florida (lead author) along with associates showed that it could shortly be feasible to employ such an apparatus for ascertaining if a colon polyp is benignant and not excising it for biopsy purpose. Presently, removal of all colon polyps are done at the time of colonoscopy and forwarded for microscopic evaluation to the pathological laboratory which adjoins time, costing and a certain level of operative risk to the method. Investigators reported that more sophisticated of the duo pieces of equipments, the probe-based Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy or pCLE  [...]

Cancer is a mysterious disease that inflicts thousands or more people each year. Some are everyday people that you may pass on the street. Many people think cancer is a disease that mainly affects the elderly or poor but this is not the case. It doesn’t matter if you are poor, rich, old or young cancer can strike anyone include the famous. Celebrity cancer deaths are every bit as common and likely as those of anyone else. The only real difference is that these deaths are often more publicized than the deaths of average or less known people. Another difference may be that although cancer may strike anyone at any time many celebrities are in a better financial state to deal with the cost of the necessary treatments that occur with the diagnosis of these diseases. There are many different  [...]

Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Inst. have made a milestone identification of a major move in the organic process of programmable cell fatality, additionally known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is vital to the biology in human beings due to its key role in removal of unnecessary and at times lethal cells from the system, thus safeguarding one from the cancer developing. The downside is that it could additionally be the causal factor for the growth of degenerative ailments when there is erroneous annihilation of normal cells. The study is central to the enhancement of medicines that could activate apoptosis thus obliterating cancerous cells with greater efficacy. It may perhaps also be employed in the development of composites which could halt the apoptosis which lead to degenerative ailments. The  [...]

Incredible steps have been made in the fields of cancer treatment particularly bowel and breast cancers. Undoubtedly, the finest advancement has been the rolling out of the colorectal cancer screening programme. This would be immensely beneficial in bowel cancer diagnosis for spotting bowel cancer in its preliminary stages in those individuals that are asymptomatic. This would help in making the treatment more effectual. Detection of polyps is also possible through the bowel cancer screening procedure. The polyps are not malignant, but could gradually become cancerous over spans of time. These could be taken out with ease which helps in lowering the risk of development of bowel cancer. The new-fangled narrow band imaging (NBI) technique is an enhanced bowel cancer diagnosis procedure. It  [...]

Research conducted at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI), Springfield, substantiate that the release and activate system has for the foremost instance effectively placed TRAIL, a cancer-combatant protein, direct inside the solid tumors and on command, switched it on. The treatment enhanced the thirty-day endurance time period of mice having mammary tumors from zero to hundred percent. Forbes, the brain child behind this finding who has done his chemical engineering from Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst, excitedly mentioned that this was foremost stage and time, but it was possible to have a controlled release to the tumors and it was doable to bring about the manufacture of cytotoxic protein and obliterate tumors from inside. He added that with more detailed research, a fine-tuning  [...]

Scientists at the University of Alabama, Birmingham have found that limiting glucose intake, the prevalent dietetic sugar, could prolong the existence of normal lung cells and accelerate the fatality of premalignant lung cells thus lowering cancer proliferation in humans. The study is believed to have widespread prospective in age-associated science inclusive of the method in which curbing calorie ingestion could facilitate prolonged existence and aid in averting ailments such as cancer which have been associated to growing old. These outcomes additionally corroborate the prospective advantages to health by restricting the ingestion of calories. The study suggests that lowering calorie ingestion prolongs the lifetime of normal human cells and assists the body’s innate capacity to annihilate  [...]

Scientists from the Univ. Of Rochester Medical Center have evolved a new-fangled animal model that reveals 4 widely employed chemotherapy drugs which impede the formation of novel brain cells and that this situation could be reverted partly by the use of the IGF-1 growth factor. This study holds relevance for the sections of those individuals who have survived cancers but regrettably endure an aggravating plummet in cognitive functioning subsequent to chemotherapy sessions, a condition also called as the chemo brain. The key researcher of the study, Robert Gross, M.D., Ph. D., proudly mentioned that their team were the pioneers in citing that the investigational insulin similar growth factor, IGF-1 could prove advantageous in treating the lately identified condition, Chemo brain. With  [...]

Simple inculcation of certain foods into one’s daily diet could prove immensely beneficial in warding off several cancers. Pistachios These ‘good-for-you’ nuts when consumed about two ounces on a daily basis could lower the risk of developing lung cancer and other  forms of cancers with no major variations in one’s BMI or body mass index. It is an identified fact that vitamin E offers a level of safeguard against certain types of cancers. Higher ingestion of gamma-tocopherol – a type of vitamin E could lower lung cancer risk. Pistachios are a great means of getting one’s dose of gamma-tocopherol. Pistachios are also identified to be highly beneficial for cardiovascular health as it lowers cholesterol and provides anti-oxidants that are classically present in food products  [...]

A pioneering novel, remedial ice cream created by Fonterra and The University of Auckland appears to hold immense potential for warding off some of the disagreeable side effects experienced during chemotherapy. The ice cream dubbed as ReCharge, is being tested in the second phase of the clinical studies held in New Zealand for evaluating its efficacy against CID or Chemotherapy induced Diarrhoea and anaemia. This ‘sweet dish with a twist’ could additionally lower weight reduction and harm done to the immune system when undergoing chemotherapy. About 7 cities in New Zealand where the Oncology centres are located are partaking in the trial. About two hundred entrants have been recruited for the trial wherein each of them would be consuming about hundred grams container of strawberry  [...]

A crucial identification of a peptide - a series of amino acids that could particularly detect and infiltrate malignant tumors though not healthy tissues has been discovered by the scientists from UCSB, Santa Barbara. This new-fangled peptide known as iRGD, was additionally found to transport analytic particles and drugs inside the tumor and could drastically improve cancer diagnosis and management. This study was developed on the past findings of Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., an eminent Burnham professor from UCSB and who also helmed the present research. Dr. Ruoslahti’s past findings of ‘vascular pin codes’ that revealed blood vessels present in diverse tissues inclusive of the sickly tissues all possess their own unique monikers. These monikers could be spotted and employed  [...]

A potent blend of imaging techniques performed 6-8 weeks subsequent to the patient completing chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer could be beneficial in identifying patients that have responded to treatment and those that would need follow-up for surgery. In the previous two decades, chemoradiotherapy – merging chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments – have turned increasingly significant in aiding organ preservation during head and neck cancer treatment, according to the background data present in the report appearing in the November edition of Archives of Otolaryngology- Head & Neck Surgery – one of the JAMA journals. The authors have written that such non-operative strategies have given favourable outcomes at the primary tumor location and cervical lymph nodes leading  [...]