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European advocacy and support groups working with patients who have some of the rarest cancers have agreed to form a collaborative association. Sarcoma Patients EuroNet (SPAEN) will start work in January 2009 with the aim of extending information services, patient support and advocacy so that patients across the whole of Europe can benefit.

Veridex, LLC announced today that the technology used in the CellSearch® System to measure circulating tumor cells (CTCs) was ranked as the top medical innovation for 2009 by the Cleveland Clinic, a leading multispecialty academic medical center. The ranking is based on technologies likely to have a significant impact on health care next year.

UroToday.com - Can we meaningfully separate inflammatory pseudotumor (a term used since 1937 1 from inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT, a term introduced in 1990 for lung lesions 2 and from sarcoma? The oldest large series of 38 such cases in the urinary bladder divided most of them into 17 pseudotumors and 13 sarcomas 3.

AFP - An Australian scientist who developed a vaccine for cervical cancer is set to outline a breakthrough which could pave the way for a skin cancer vaccine, reports said Sunday.

The link between the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test and the detection of prostate cancer is well-established. In new findings released publicly for the first time today, Australian and New Zealand researchers have demonstrated how two serial measures of PSA can be used to accurately predict a patient's prognosis when prostate cancer returns after attempted cure.

(Massachusetts General Hospital) Microvesicles - tiny membrane-covered sacs - released from glioblastoma cells contain molecules that may provide data that can guide treatment of the deadly brain tumor. Massachusetts General hospital researchers have found tumor-associated RNA and proteins in membrane microvesicles called exosomes in blood samples from glioblastoma patients. Detailed analysis of exosome contents identified factors that could facilitate a tumor's growth through delivery of genetic information or proteins, or signify its vulnerability to particular medications.

(American Association for cancer Research) Data from a large-scale prevention trial presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research show no protective effect from vitamin E on prostate cancer or vitamin C supplementation on total cancer.

(American Association for cancer Research) Pilot study results suggest that difluoromethylornithine can modulate biomarkers of cell proliferation in patients with Barrett's esophagus and mucosal dysplasia.

Reuters - Men who took vitamin E or vitamin C supplements were no more or less likely to develop cancer than men given a placebo, indicating these antioxidants have no cancer-prevention value, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

Reuters - Tiny sacs released from tumor cells and circulating in the blood carry genetic information about the tumor, offering a new way to track and treat the cancer, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.