Group items tagged

A protein that slashes the survival rates of head and neck cancer sufferers has been discovered - leaving scientists feeling positive that it could be vital for future treatment to help prevent cancer tumours developing.

"...many men who are treated for prostate cancer picked up by PSA screening have tumors they never would have noticed otherwise. These men would suffer more from prostate cancer treatment than they would from the cancer itself."

In the study, the team classified breast cancer into at least 10 different subtypes: each characterized by common genetic features that link to survival. This suggests we need to rethink what we call breast cancer and start looking at it as at least 10 different diseases, each with its own molecular fingerprint and pattern of weak spots.

A gene has been linked to at least three cancers in different tissues in the body, US researchers say. Their findings, reported in the journal Science, showed a fifth of melanomas (skin cancer), Ewing's sarcomas (bone) and glioblastomas (brain) had a defective copy of the gene STAG2.

But incidence of cancers linked to obesity increasing, researchers find.

Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers, according to scientists. Ecstasy is known to kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they said in Investigational New Drugs journal.

Why? Males can't get cervical cancer. But they do contribute to it by spreading HPV to women through sexual activity. So vaccinating boys and young men against the virus will help prevent its transmission to women. Vaccination will also help prevent some of the 7,000 HPV-related cancers that occur in men each year....

Offit gives Vioxx as a case in point. Vioxx, approved in 1999, was a huge hit for treating arthritis pain. It's a more refined version of the drugs in the same class as aspirin and ibuprofen, without causing the stomach bleeding that can make them dangerous. Tests showed it could raise the risk of heart attacks and Vioxx's maker pulled it off the market. "So which is more dangerous: Vioxx or vitamins? Indeed, both have dangers," Offit writes. "The better question is, why does everybody know that Vioxx can cause heart disease and nobody knows that megavitamins can cause cancer? The answer is that we have chosen not to know."

Check to see if information on virtual colonoscopy is in regular colonoscopy entry. Similar articles: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/acor-ccs021712.php http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-02/rson-vce021712.php

This is a sobering thought.

"The United States spends more than the rest of the world on health care and leads the world in the quality and quantity of its health research, but that doesn't add up to better health outcomes," said Dr. Christopher Murray, IHME Director and one of the lead authors on the study. "The country has done a good job of preventing premature deaths from stroke, but when it comes to lung cancer, preterm birth complications, and a range of other causes, the country isn't keeping pace with high-income countries in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere."