Genetic News

A combination therapy of gemcitabine, capecitabine and bevacizumab improves outcomes in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, according to a multi-center study led by researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. Read the rest of this entry »

Colon cancer patients who have the normal version of a particular gene are more likely to benefit from a combination treatment that includes adding the targeted therapy Erbitux to chemotherapy. Read the rest of this entry »

Drugs used widely to treat anemia in cancer patients may actually speed progression of the cancer in certain individuals, but researchers report they may found a way to determine who those individuals are. Read the rest of this entry »

Chemotherapy may be more effective on melanoma tumors if a protein frequently found in the growth can first be disabled, a new study reports. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer - which historically carries a grim prognosis - nearly doubled their overall survival when the cancer drug Gemzar was used after surgery, new research shows. Read the rest of this entry »

A widely prescribed pain reliever may one day have value in helping to prevent lung cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

The long-awaited results of a trial of the biologic drug Erbitux on patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer show it prolonged survival by about five weeks when combined with chemotherapy. Read the rest of this entry »

Two of the more common and unpleasant side effects of treatment for head and neck cancer patients may be relieved by the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. Read the rest of this entry »

People who survived Hodgkin lymphoma as children have an increased risk of developing and dying from another cancer or cardiovascular disease as adults, according to a new report. Read the rest of this entry »

Adding the drug Avastin to chemotherapy lengthened progression-free survival in women with advanced breast cancer, new research shows. Read the rest of this entry »

Chemotherapy may reduce fertility in breast cancer survivors, according to a study led by researchers at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Read the rest of this entry »

Testing thyroid nodules for the presence of a lectin molecule called galectin-3 could help improve identification of nodules with cancer and reduce the number of unnecessary surgeries, according to an Italian study. Read the rest of this entry »

Compared to a decade ago, kidney cancer patients in the United States are much more likely to be diagnosed with smaller tumors in the earliest, most treatable stage of the disease, resulting in a slightly higher survival rate. Read the rest of this entry »

Using regenerative medical techniques, it may be possible to create replacement bladders for people who’ve had their bladder removed due to cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

A therapeutic vaccine to treat prostate cancer appears safe and may be effective, according to the results of an early trial. Read the rest of this entry »

A panel of 15 genes may help determine which patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer will experience a recurrence and, therefore, benefit the most from chemotherapy, a new study shows. Read the rest of this entry »

A common genetic variant increases the risk of lung cancer, even in nonsmokers, researchers report. Read the rest of this entry »

Geneticists of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) are the first to determine the DNA sequence of a woman. She is also the first European whose DNA sequence has been determined. This has been announced by the researchers this morning, during a special press conference at ‘Bessensap’, a yearly meeting of scientists and the press in the Netherlands. Read the rest of this entry »

Dozens of studies show collagen repair is possible and demonstrate why three types of available skin treatments are effective: topical retinoic acid, carbon dioxide laser resurfacing and injections of cross-linked hyaluronic acid. Read the rest of this entry »

The ability to drive somatic, or fully differentiated, human cells back to a pluripotent or “stem cell” state would overcome many of the significant scientific and social challenges to the use of embryo-derived stem cells and help realize the promise of regenerative medicine. Read the rest of this entry »