http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. German scientist Otto H. Warburg's theory on the origin of cancer earned him the Nobel Prize in 1931, but the biochemical basis for his theory remained elusive. http://www.physorg.com/news150954448.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:47:28 EST news150954448 Using new technologies that make it easier to sequence the human genome, researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a series of genes that become fused when their chromosomes trade places with each other. These recurrent gene fusions are thought to be the driving mechanism that causes certain cancers to develop. http://www.physorg.com/news150904093.html Medicine & Health Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:48:13 EST news150904093 Higher-than-normal levels of insulin place postmenopausal women at increased risk of breast cancer, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report. Their findings, published in the January 7 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggest that interventions that target insulin and its signaling pathways may decrease breast cancer risk in these women. http://www.physorg.com/news150781398.html Medicine & Health Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:43:18 EST news150781398 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo. The findings, appearing online this week in the journal Nature, highlight critical steps in the origin of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), says senior author Speck, who is also an Investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn. http://www.physorg.com/news150731605.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:53:25 EST news150731605 A new study sheds light on a little understood biological process called quiescence, which enables blood-forming stem cells to exist in a dormant or inactive state in which they are not growing or dividing. According to the study's findings, researchers identified the genetic pathway used to maintain a cell's quiescence, a state that allows bone marrow cells to escape the lethal effects of standard cancer treatments. http://www.physorg.com/news150726406.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:26:46 EST news150726406 Molecules of sugar sitting on the surface of cancer cells are keys to the development of a new vaccine aimed at both treating and stopping the spread of certain types of cancers called carcinomas, which include prostate, breast, ovarian and lung, among others. Armed with a new two-year grant for $600,000 from the Gateway for Cancer Research, an Illinois-based philanthropic foundation, immunologist Alessandra Franco, M.D., Ph.D., and her co-workers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego are hoping to develop a low-cost immunotherapy for prostate carcinoma that may also have use against a variety of other carcinomas as well. http://www.physorg.com/news150657878.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:24:38 EST news150657878 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using cancer cells that were originally isolated from an anaplastic large cell lymphoma patient, two researchers, including a faculty member of The University of Texas at Austin's College of Pharmacy, have identified a novel regulatory mechanism in inflammatory signaling of immune cells that may prove beneficial in treating cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150652358.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:52:38 EST news150652358 Bladder cancer is much more likely to be deadly for women and African-Americans, but the reasons long believed to explain the phenomenon account for only part of the differences for such patients compared to their white and male counterparts, according to results published in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150646734.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:18:54 EST news150646734 Researchers from the University of Granada and the University of Barcelona have shown that treatment with maslinic acid, a triterpenoid compound isolated from olive-skin pomace, results in a significant inhibition of cell proliferation and causes apoptotic death in colon-cancer cells. Maslinic acid is a novel natural compound and it is able to induce apoptosis or programmed death in human HT29 colon-cancer cells via the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. Scientifics suggest this could be a useful new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of colon carcinoma. http://www.physorg.com/news150636441.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:27:21 EST news150636441 The combination of estrogen plus progestin, which women stopped taking in droves following the news that it may increase their risk of breast cancer, may decrease their risk of colorectal cancer, according to a report published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. http://www.physorg.com/news150616082.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:48:02 EST news150616082 A study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential. http://www.physorg.com/news150615914.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:45:14 EST news150615914 Scientists have identified mutations in a gene that predict a high likelihood of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Although the researchers caution that further research is needed to determine how changes in the gene, called IKZF1 or IKAROS, lead to leukemia relapse, the findings are likely to provide the basis for future diagnostic tests to assess the risk of treatment failure. By using a molecular test to identify this genetic marker in ALL patients, physicians should be better able to assign patients to appropriate therapies. http://www.physorg.com/news150571442.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:24:02 EST news150571442 Human calmodulin-like protein (CLP) is found in many cell types including breast, thyroid, prostate, kidney, and skin. The protein can regulate many cell activities and has a highly specific expression. Gaining an understanding about the expression of CLP in oral epithelial cells and its possible downregulation (or lack of production) in cancer may be a potentially valuable marker in early detection of oral cancer. A new study in the Journal of Prosthodontics found that CLP is expressed in normal human oral muscosal cells and that downregulation of this protein may be an indicator of malignancy or cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150557236.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:27:16 EST news150557236 The molecular details of Aromatase, the key enzyme required for the body to make estrogen, are no longer a mystery thanks to the structural biology work done by the Ghosh lab at the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (HWI) in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Debashis Ghosh's solution of the three-dimensional structure of aromatase is the first time that scientists have been able to visualize the mechanism of synthesizing estrogen. http://www.physorg.com/news150556571.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:16:11 EST news150556571 About 1100 people each year die in the UK from lung cancer related to indoor radon, but current government protection policies focus mainly on the small number of homes with high radon levels and neglect the 95% of radon related deaths caused by lower levels of radon, according to a study published on bmj.com today. http://www.physorg.com/news150541340.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:02:20 EST news150541340 During the past 20 years, researchers have identified thousands of cell protein interactions, with the ultimate goal of inventorying all that occur within cells of various organisms - a comprehensive catalogue known as the interactome. Such information will be critical to understanding the basic mechanics of cellular life, and how malfunctions in these processes contribute to cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150482969.html Medicine & Health Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:49:29 EST news150482969 Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. In the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a treatment for cancer. This finding emerged through a search for existing drugs that might slow or stop cancer progression. http://www.physorg.com/news150389159.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:45:59 EST news150389159 Cancer and cell biology experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have identified a new tumor suppressor that may help scientists develop more targeted drug therapies to combat lung cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150389078.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:44:38 EST news150389078 Few things are as tiresome as house hunting and moving. Unfortunately, metastatic cancer cells have the relocation process down pat. Tripping nimbly from one abode to another, these migrating cancer cells often prove far more deadly than the original tumor. Although little has been known about how these rogue cells choose where to put down roots, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now learned just how nefarious they are. http://www.physorg.com/news150383375.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:09:35 EST news150383375 One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing normal healthy cells. http://www.physorg.com/news150383139.html Biology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:05:39 EST news150383139 A team of researchers at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. http://www.physorg.com/news150382922.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:02:02 EST news150382922 A new study reveals critical molecular mechanisms associated with the development and progression of human neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in young children. The research, published by Cell Press in the January 6th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, may lead to development of future strategies for treatment of this aggressive and unpredictable cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news150382749.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:59:09 EST news150382749 A new epidemiological study has found that among women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy, obese women are at an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women of normal weight. Published in the February 15, 2009 issue of Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the research indicates that obesity may contribute to the development of ovarian cancer through a hormonal mechanism. http://www.physorg.com/news150346593.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:56:33 EST news150346593 Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a versatile mouse model of glioblastoma -the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans -that closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise naturally. http://www.physorg.com/news150297782.html Medicine & Health Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:23:02 EST news150297782 A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.physorg.com/news150122642.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:44:02 EST news150122642 In a study to determine the diagnostic value of molecular imaging in nodal staging of patients with thyroid cancer, researchers were able for the first time to accurately distinguish between cancerous cells in regional lymph nodes and normal residual thyroid tissue directly after surgery. http://www.physorg.com/news150115125.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:38:45 EST news150115125 In a first of its kind study, a first-degree family history of prostate cancer has no impact on the treatment outcomes of prostate cancer patients treated with brachytherapy (also called seed implants), and patients with this type of family history have clinical and pathologic characteristics similar to men with no family history at all, according to a January 1 study in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology. http://www.physorg.com/news150115064.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:37:44 EST news150115064 A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells. Their findings, to be published in the January 1 issue of the journal Nature, explain how advanced cancer cells usurp components of the host innate immune system to generate an inflammatory microenvironment hospitable for the metastatic spread of lung cancer. The discovery could lead to a therapy to limit metastasis of this most common lethal form of cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news149951977.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:19:37 EST news149951977 Women who took beta carotene or vitamin C or E or a combination of the supplements had a similar risk of cancer as women who did not take the supplements, according to data from a randomized controlled trial in the December 30 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news149924804.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:46:44 EST news149924804 (PhysOrg.com) -- When researchers look inside human cancer cells for the whereabouts of an important tumor-suppressor, they often catch the protein playing hooky, lolling around in cellular broth instead of muscling its way out to the cells' membranes and foiling cancer growth. http://www.physorg.com/news149924576.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:42:56 EST news149924576