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Working as part of a multi-institutional collaboration, scientists at Washington University School of medicine in St. Louis have assembled the most complete catalog to date of the genetic changes underlying the most common form of lung cancer. The research, published Oct. 23 in Nature, helps lay the foundation for more personalized diagnosis and treatment of a disease that is the leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths.

Scientists announced the results of the largest genomic study to date of lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. Led by researchers from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Dana-Farber cancer Institute, and other research institutions nationwide, the collaborative study unearthed a variety of genetic alterations in patient tumors and pinpointed 26 frequently altered genes more than doubling the number already linked to the disease.

US scientists working on the largest study ever to map the genetic changes involved in lung adenocarcinoma have identified 26 genes that are frequently mutated in this most common form of lung cancer, further increasing opportunities for individualized diagnosis and treatment of the country's leading cause of cancer deaths.

(ECCO-the European cancer Organisation) Preliminary trials of a new multi-kinase inhibitor have indicated it has impressive tumor shrinkage activity in patients with a difficult to treat type of thyroid cancer. The results have put the drug's development on a fast track, prompting the accelerated initiation of a large phase III trial.

(ECCO-the European cancer Organisation) European researchers have found that metastatic colorectal cancer patients with a mutation in the BRAF gene do not respond to anti-EGFR therapy with cetuximab and panitumumab. The finding could help doctors better identify which patients are likely to benefit from such treatment, which is commonly used as last-effort therapy but only works in a fraction of patients.

Reuters - Scientists have uncovered a second gene mutation that determines which patients will respond to the bowel cancer drugs Erbitux and Vectibix, opening the way to still more targeted treatment.

The leading cause of death in all cancer patients continues to be the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy, a form of treatment in which chemicals are used to kill cells. Now a study by UC Riverside biochemists that focuses on cancer cells reports that ingesting apigenin - a naturally occurring dietary agent found in vegetables and fruit - improves cancer cells' response to chemotherapy.

Preliminary trials of a new multi-kinase inhibitor have indicated it has impressive tumour shrinkage activity in patients with a difficult to treat type of thyroid cancer. The results have put the drug's development on a fast track, prompting the accelerated initiation of a large phase III trial. The compound, XL184, targets cell growth and migration, as well as blood vessel growth (angiogenesis), through inhibition of MET kinase, VEGFR and RET kinase.

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) -- America has grown complacent in its war on cancer, so it must redouble its efforts to defeat this often-deadly disease. And the leadership for this campaign must come directly from the White House.

The Helmholtz Association will invest around ?20 million over the next five years to put together a large-scale, long-term cohort study. The goal of the study will be to illuminate the causes of common health problems like cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia, as well as to identify risk factors and effective methods of prevention. The Helmholtz Association's Senate reached the decision yesterday, 22nd October.