Cancer Research

Is cancer curable?

James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA’s double-helix structure recently called for a  back to basics approach  in dealing with cancer.  In previous post threads I’ve discussed cancer’s complexity and in particular the confounding and scary implications of  s ...

Blog Post - Rafe Furst - Nov 22 2010 - 12:05pm

Making A Personalized Colorectal Cancer Vaccine- From The Patient's Tumor

Researchers have hit on a new way to create a personalized vaccine- an immune response against their own tumors using the tumor itself. This dendritic cell (DC) vaccine was used after surgical resection of metastatic tumors to try to prevent the growth of ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 24 2010 - 1:58pm

Extraordinary Measures To Fight Cancer

“Extraordinary measures” is a heart-wrenching movie about a parent’s quest to save the lives of two dying children with Pompe disease. Starring Brandon Fraser (John Crowley) as the venture capitalist fathering the two children, and Harrison Ford (Robert St ...

Article - Jennifer Wong - Jan 19 2013 - 3:33pm

Protein P53 And Its Complex Role In Tumor Development

In a new study, cancer biologists show that restoring the protein p53's function in mice with early lung cancer has no effect in tumor development but restoring p53 function later may prevent more advanced tumors from spreading throughout the body.  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 26 2010 - 4:00am

In the 'Medicine needs to be more evidence-based' department, we have brachytherapy

The National Cancer Institute says 200,000 American women will get breast cancer this year and 20% will die from the disease. A lumpectomy is a common treatment but up to 40 percent of women see the cancer return, a number that is reduced to about 10 perce ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Dec 11 2010 - 12:40pm

Skin Cancer Up- But Indoor Tanning Used By 20% Of Women, 6% Of Men

Skin cancer is the most common form of malignancy in the United States and the American Cancer Society has estimated that 1 million new cases of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer were diagnosed in 2009, while 8,650 deaths were attributable to melanoma ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 20 2010 - 7:45pm

Cancer’s Inconvenient Truths

Inconvenience #1: Genetics represents < 10% of the risk but most of the science ...

Blog Post - Rafe Furst - Sep 9 2011 - 12:29am

Photodynamic Therapy For Cancer?

Metastasis is when tumor cells move from the primary tumor to distant tissues- it is metastasis of the primary tumor that kills most cancer patients. One of the least studied routes of metastasis is the lymphatic system, though many tumors produce factors ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 9 2011 - 5:38pm

Cancer-Derived Blood Vessels- Feeding Their Way To Host Destruction

Cancer can be described as a cellular disease, which is thought to arise from misbehaving cells that divide uncontrollably in vivo. Our basic understanding of why this occurs is because these “cancer cells” have lost its ability to respond appropriately to ...

Article - Jennifer Wong - Nov 12 2012 - 5:14pm

"Large Spectrum" Cancer Suppressor Gene Discovered

Portuguese researchers have discovered a "broad spectrum" cancer suppressor gene called LRP1B which acts by removing proteins crucial for cancer development from the tumor environment. The fact that LRP1B does not act on the tumor itself (in this ...

Article - Catarina Amorim - Mar 23 2011 - 9:12am