Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News from National Cancer Institute

Most cancer patients would like to talk with their doctors about financial concerns

Most cancer patients would like to talk about the cost of their care with their doctors, but often don't because they fear the discussion could compromise the quality of their treatment, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report. Yet many patients...

Skin cancer linked to reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease

People who have non-melanoma skin cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to research carried out by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (home to the Albert Einstein Cancer Center). Thei...

Study identifies possible new acute leukemia marker treatment target

A study has identified microRNA-155 as a new independent prognostic marker and treatment target in patients with acute myeloid leukemia that has normal-looking chromosomes under the microscope (that is, cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia,...

Penn Medicine researchers identify four new genetic risk factors for testicular cancer

A new study looking at the genomes of more than 13,000 men identified four new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed type in young men today. The findings from this first-of-its-kind meta...

Cancer Staging

A fact sheet that explains the process of grouping cancer cases in categories (stages) based on the size of the tumor and the extent of the cancer in the body.

Dual targeting of metastatic breast cancer improves survival rates

A new study from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center showed that targeting both hormone receptors (HRs) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients significantly increa...

Tumor Grade

A fact sheet that discusses tumor grade and its role in prognosis. Explains concepts like normal cell biology and cell differentiation.

A New Delivery for Cancer Drugs

  The protein tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) is a powerful weapon in the arsenal to control cancer. Unfortunately, as is the case with many potent cancer therapies, the use of TNF-alpha as an anti-cancer therapy has been severely limited. �...

Study shows advantage to nanotech delivery of therapy for breast cancer brain metastases

Breast cancer brain metastases present a challenge to clinicians because there are few systemic therapies capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier to control the disease. An international team, led by scientists at the University of North Carolina...

Johns Hopkins study finds blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive

Researchers at Johns Hopkins (home of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center) have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant si...

Case Western researchers develop a novel method to disrupt a cancer growth signaling pathway

A common cancer pathway causing tumor growth is now being targeted by a number of new cancer drugs and shows promising results. A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (home of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center)...

Experimental drug beneficial in NIH trial to treat a rare sarcoma

Patients with advanced alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), a rare cancer, achieved some control of their disease using an experimental anti-cancer drug called cediranib. The results from this largest clinical trial on ASPS to date were published in th...

Anuradha Budhu

Anuradha Budhu, Ph.D., heads a research team at the National Cancer Institute that recently  uncovered an imbalance between saturated and unsaturated fats (such as palmitic or fatty acids) that occur in patients with a common liver cancer called hep...

Study establishes basis for genomic classification of endometrial cancers; proper categorization is important for choosing the best treatment

A comprehensive genomic analysis of nearly 400 endometrial tumors suggests that certain molecular characteristics – such as the frequency of mutations – could complement current pathology methods and help distinguish between principal types of en...

TCGA researchers identify potential drug targets, markers for leukemia risk; New study reveals relatively few mutations in AML genomes

Investigators for The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have detailed and broadly classified the genomic alterations that frequently underlie the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a deadly cancer of the blood and bone marrow. The...

Women with Breast Cancer Micrometastases in Their Sentinel Lymph Nodes May Not Need Axillary Dissection

Results from a randomized clinical trial showed that women with breast cancer and only micrometastases in their sentinel lymph nodes who received axillary lymph node dissection had more side effects but no improvement in disease-free survival compare...

Delays in diagnosis worsen outlook for minority, uninsured pediatric retinoblastoma patients, study finds

When the eye cancer retinoblastoma is diagnosed in racial and ethnic minority children whose families don't have private health insurance, it often takes a more invasive, potentially life-threatening course than in other children, probably because of...

Powerful, more accurate, genetic analysis tool opens new gene-regulation realms

Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have developed a novel and powerful technique to identify the targets for a group of enzymes called RNA cytosine methyltransferases (RMTs) in human RNA. They applied their tec...

Radioactive bacteria target metastatic pancreatic cancer

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (home of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center) have developed a therapy for pancreatic cancer that uses Listeria bacteria to selectively infect tumor cells and deliver radioisotope...

Genetic Testing for Hereditary Cancer Syndromes

A fact sheet about genetic testing for inherited cancer risk, including types of tests, who should consider testing, how to understand test results, and who has access to a person’s test results. Also contains information about at-home or direct-to...

A drug target that stimulates development of healthy stem cells

Scientists have overcome a major impediment to the development of effective stem cell therapies by studying mice that lack CD47, a protein found on the surface of both healthy and cancer cells. They discovered that cells obtained from the lungs of CD...

Researchers find nanodiamonds could improve effectiveness of breast cancer treatment

UCLA researchers and collaborators have developed a potentially more effective treatment for "triple-negative" breast cancer that uses nanoscale, diamond-like particles called nanodiamonds. Nanodiamonds are between 4 and 6 nanometers in diameter and...

A novel surface marker helps scientists ‘fish out’ mammary gland stem cells

In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) used a mouse model to identify a novel cell surface marker on mammary gland stem cells. Using that marker, the team was able...

Testing lung cancer drugs and therapies in mice

National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigators have designed a genetically engineered mouse for use in the study of human lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). SCC is a type of non-small cell lung carcinoma, one of the most common types of lung cancer,...

UNC researchers engineer 'protein switch' to dissect role of cancer’s key players

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have “rationally rewired” some of the cell’s smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These “protein switches” can be...