health - "cancer"

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Karen L. Wooley, Ph.D., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences, is a step closer to delivering cancer-killing drugs to pediatric brain tumors, similar to the tumor that Senator Ted Kennedy is suffering from.

In the past 10 years, researchers in genome stability have observed that many kinds of cancers are associated with areas where human chromosomes break. More recently, scientists have discovered that slow or altered replication causes chromosomal breaking. But why does DNA replication stall?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genentech Inc has warned doctors about a type of anemia seen in patients treated with the company's blockbuster cancer drug Avastin in combination with Pfizer Inc's Sutent in a clinical trial, U.S. regulators said in a notice issued on Monday.

Metabolic pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that 25-hydroxycholesterol (25-OH), the endogenous activator of the liver X receptor (LXR), significantly reduced the biosynthesis of phosphatidylethanolamine via CDP-ethanolamine (Kennedy) pathway at the step catalyzed by CTP: phosphoethanolamine cytidylyltransferase (Pcyt2). In the mouse embryonic fibroblasts C3H10T1/2, the LXR synthetic agonist TO901317 lowered Pcyt2 promoter-luciferase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, 25-OH and TO901317 reduced mouse Pcyt2 mRNA and protein levels by 35–60%. The inhibitory effects of oxysterols and TO901317 on the Pcyt2 promoter function, mRNA and protein expression were conserved in the human breast cancer cells MCF-7. These studies identify the Pcyt2 gene as a novel target whereby LXR agonists may indirectly modulate inflammatory responses and atherosclerosis. (Source: Research Letters in Biochemistry)

Genentech Inc has warned doctors about a type of anemia seen in patients treated with the company's blockbuster cancer drug Avastin in combination with Pfizer Inc's Sutent in a clinical trial, U.S. regulators said in a notice issued on Monday.

TV host Trisha Goddard says she is determined to complete her chemotherapy sessions for breast cancer.

A survey finds some GPs are treating serious skin cancer, contrary to guidance advising hospital referal.

Cancer is a disease characterized by important metabolic alterations. Not only these adaptative changes give higher proliferative capacity to cancer cells, but they also contribute to higher resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. The research group led by Dr. José Carlos Fernández-Checa in the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques de Barcelona of the CSIC (IIBB-CSIC), a centre linked to the Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), is centred in the mitochondrion and its role in programmed cell death or apoptosis.read more

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's health and consumer chiefs urged holidaymakers on Monday to take extra measures to protect themselves from the sun this summer in a bid to curb rising levels of skin cancer, notably among children.

'You know what? I think you're going to be one of those women who just sails through this!' So says my oncologist -- my God, I have an oncologist -- with a practised, satisfied tone.