http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. German scientist Otto H. Warburg's theory on the origin of cancer earned him the Nobel Prize in 1931, but the biochemical basis for his theory remained elusive. http://phys.org/news150954448.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:47:28 EST news150954448 Molecules of sugar sitting on the surface of cancer cells are keys to the development of a new vaccine aimed at both treating and stopping the spread of certain types of cancers called carcinomas, which include prostate, breast, ovarian and lung, among others. Armed with a new two-year grant for $600,000 from the Gateway for Cancer Research, an Illinois-based philanthropic foundation, immunologist Alessandra Franco, M.D., Ph.D., and her co-workers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego are hoping to develop a low-cost immunotherapy for prostate carcinoma that may also have use against a variety of other carcinomas as well. http://phys.org/news150657878.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:24:38 EST news150657878 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using cancer cells that were originally isolated from an anaplastic large cell lymphoma patient, two researchers, including a faculty member of The University of Texas at Austin's College of Pharmacy, have identified a novel regulatory mechanism in inflammatory signaling of immune cells that may prove beneficial in treating cancer. http://phys.org/news150652358.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:52:38 EST news150652358 Human calmodulin-like protein (CLP) is found in many cell types including breast, thyroid, prostate, kidney, and skin. The protein can regulate many cell activities and has a highly specific expression. Gaining an understanding about the expression of CLP in oral epithelial cells and its possible downregulation (or lack of production) in cancer may be a potentially valuable marker in early detection of oral cancer. A new study in the Journal of Prosthodontics found that CLP is expressed in normal human oral muscosal cells and that downregulation of this protein may be an indicator of malignancy or cancer. http://phys.org/news150557236.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:27:16 EST news150557236 Digitalis-based drugs like digoxin have been used for centuries to treat patients with irregular heart rhythms and heart failure and are still in use today. In the Dec. 16 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine now report that this same class of drugs may hold new promise as a treatment for cancer. This finding emerged through a search for existing drugs that might slow or stop cancer progression. http://phys.org/news150389159.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:45:59 EST news150389159 Few things are as tiresome as house hunting and moving. Unfortunately, metastatic cancer cells have the relocation process down pat. Tripping nimbly from one abode to another, these migrating cancer cells often prove far more deadly than the original tumor. Although little has been known about how these rogue cells choose where to put down roots, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now learned just how nefarious they are. http://phys.org/news150383375.html Medicine & Health Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:09:35 EST news150383375 A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://phys.org/news150122642.html Medicine & Health Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:44:02 EST news150122642 A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells. Their findings, to be published in the January 1 issue of the journal Nature, explain how advanced cancer cells usurp components of the host innate immune system to generate an inflammatory microenvironment hospitable for the metastatic spread of lung cancer. The discovery could lead to a therapy to limit metastasis of this most common lethal form of cancer. http://phys.org/news149951977.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:19:37 EST news149951977 (PhysOrg.com) -- Women should go for the broccoli when the relish tray comes around during holiday celebrations this season. http://phys.org/news149258384.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:39:44 EST news149258384 Researchers at the University of Rochester have designed a gene that produces a thousand times more protein in cancer cells than in healthy cells. http://phys.org/news148750203.html Medicine & Health Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:30:03 EST news148750203 University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have identified a promising new target in the battle against colorectal cancer — a biochemical pathway critical to the spread of tumors to new locations in the body. If this "survival pathway" can be successfully blocked under clinical conditions, the result would be a much-needed new therapy for colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. http://phys.org/news148584164.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:22:44 EST news148584164 Researchers in Pennsylvania are reporting for the first time that nanoparticles 1/5,000 the diameter of a human hair encapsulating an experimental anticancer agent, kill human melanoma and drug-resistant breast cancer cells growing in laboratory cultures. The discovery could lead to the development of a new generation of anti-cancer drugs that are safer and more effective than conventional chemotherapy agents, the scientists suggest. The research is scheduled for the Dec. 10 issue of ACS' Nano Letters. http://phys.org/news148573402.html Nanotechnology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:23:22 EST news148573402 A breakthrough technique that allows scientists to view individually-labeled tumor cells as they move about in real time in a live mouse may enable scientists to develop microenvironment-specific drugs against cancer, researchers report at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco. http://phys.org/news148571378.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:49:38 EST news148571378 Cancer cells and nervous system neurons may not look or act alike, but both use strikingly similar ways to survive, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. http://phys.org/news148565559.html Biology Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:12:39 EST news148565559 Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found a gene they say is inactivated in two aggressive cancers – malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer, and glioblastoma multiforme, a lethal brain tumor. They add that because this gene, known as PTPRD, has recently been found to be inactivated in several other cancers as well, their discovery suggests that PTPRD may play a tumor suppressor role in a wide variety of different cancers. http://phys.org/news148543933.html Medicine & Health Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:12:13 EST news148543933 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a new tactic in the fight against cancer, Cornell researcher Michael King has developed what he calls a lethal "lint brush" for the blood -- a tiny, implantable device that captures and kills cancer cells in the bloodstream before they spread through the body. http://phys.org/news148236650.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:50:50 EST news148236650 Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that a chemical known as endoxifen appears to be the primary metabolite responsible for the effectiveness of tamoxifen in treating breast cancer, and that it works against cancer in an entirely unexpected way. http://phys.org/news148225168.html Medicine & Health Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:39:28 EST news148225168 Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute researchers have found that an experimental drug successfully blocks an enzyme that causes some bone marrow cancers. http://phys.org/news148049243.html Medicine & Health Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:47:23 EST news148049243 A protein that shields tumor cells from cell death and exerts resistance to chemotherapy has an Achilles heel, a vulnerability that can be exploited to target and kill the very tumor cells it usually protects, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago show in a new study published in the Dec. 9 issue of Cancer Cell. http://phys.org/news147965138.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:25:38 EST news147965138 To decipher how cancer develops, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators say researchers must take a closer look at the packaging. http://phys.org/news147632761.html Biology Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:06:01 EST news147632761 While studying the mechanics of blood clots, researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center discovered a new enzyme that not only affects the blood, but seems to play a primary role in how cancer tumors expand and spread throughout the body. The research appeared in recent issues of the journal Blood and the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. http://phys.org/news147544696.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:38:16 EST news147544696 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most promising new ideas about the causes of cancer, known as the cancer stem-cell model, must be reassessed because it is based largely on evidence from a laboratory test that is surprisingly flawed when applied to some cancers, University of Michigan researchers have concluded. http://phys.org/news147532400.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:13:20 EST news147532400 (PhysOrg.com) -- An anti-cancer compound found in broccoli and cabbage works by lowering the activity of an enzyme associated with rapidly advancing breast cancer, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study appearing this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news147530697.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:44:57 EST news147530697 Cells shut down and stop dividing when their DNA is damaged, in a process known as cellular senescence, so as to prevent damaged DNA from leading to unregulated cell division and therefore cancer. However, a new study, published in this week's issue of PLoS Biology, has found that when these cells shut down they also spew proteins into their surrounding environment. This causes inflammation and sets up conditions that support the development of age-related diseases including, ironically, cancer. The new research includes the first comprehensive molecular description of a paradoxical process that prevents cancer in younger people, but promotes age-related cancers and other maladies later in life. http://phys.org/news147422865.html Biology Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:47:45 EST news147422865 Once-promising drugs that were abandoned in the fight against breast cancer still could be effective in obese patients, new research suggests. http://phys.org/news147374919.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:28:39 EST news147374919 Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified distinctive genetic changes in the cancer cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that cause relapse. The finding offers a pathway to designing treatments for ALL relapse in children and, ultimately, in adults. http://phys.org/news147015318.html Medicine & Health Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:35:18 EST news147015318 In human relationships, a certain "spark" often governs whether we prefer one person to another, and critical first impressions can occur within seconds. A team lead by Johns Hopkins researchers has found that cell-to-cell "friendships" operate in much the same way and that dysfunctional bonding is linked to the spread of cancer. http://phys.org/news146841407.html Biology Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:16:47 EST news146841407 If you're a cancer cell, you want a protein called Bcl-2 on your side because it decides if you live or die. It's usually a trusted bodyguard, protecting cancer cells from programmed death and allowing them to grow and form tumors. But sometimes it turns into their assassin. http://phys.org/news146833281.html Medicine & Health Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:01:21 EST news146833281 Keeping germs from cooperating can delay the evolution of drug resistance more effectively than killing germs one by one with traditional drugs such as antibiotics, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson. http://phys.org/news146399724.html Biology Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:35:24 EST news146399724 A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news146314669.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:57:49 EST news146314669