Body

PHILADELPHIA — An investigational DNA methylation test could alter the screening landscape for colorectal cancer, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Therapy, held here Oct. 27-30, 2010.

PHILADELPHIA — For the first time, researchers have found a link between long telomeres and an increased risk for colorectal cancer, according to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Therapy, held here Oct. 27-30, 2010.

PHILADELPHIA — A variant site linked to poor outcome in advanced colorectal cancer has now been found to predict improved prognosis in early stages of cancer, according to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Therapy, held Oct. 27-30, 2010.

PHILADELPHIA — University of Pittsburgh researchers have devised a three-dimensional system in laboratory culture that mimics the growth patterns of colon cancer stem cells in patients. Their findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Therapy, held Oct. 27-30, 2010.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In a study of mice with lymphoma, MIT biologists have discovered that a small number of cancer cells escape chemotherapy by hiding out in the thymus, an organ where immune cells mature. Within the thymus, the cancer cells are bathed in growth factors that protect them from the drugs' effects. Those cells are likely the source of relapsed tumors, said Michael Hemann, MIT assistant professor of biology, who led the study.

Many times, cancer patients respond very well to chemotherapy initially only to have their disease return, sometimes years later. Now researchers reporting in the October 29th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have new insight into the factors that allow some lingering tumor cells to resist treatment and to seed that kind of resurgence.

White blood cells called neutrophils are part of the body's first line of defense against bacterial infection. Neutrophils are recruited from the bloodstream to infected tissues where they release powerful chemicals that kill bacteria and amplify the immune response. These cells function as first responders at the scene of infection and often have a short life span. As a result, new neutrophils are produced continuously from stem cells in the bone marrow. Previous research has suggested that regulation of neutrophil production is a complex and carefully controlled process.

Countless people clung to life in the branches of trees hemming the shorelines during the deadly 2004 tsunami that killed more than 230,000 coastal residents in Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of the disaster, land change scientist Chandra Giri from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) decided to explore to what degree those unique trees – which make up valuable forest ecosystems called mangroves -- safeguard lives, property and beaches during hurricanes, tsunamis and floods.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found a way to "cage" genetic off switches in such a way that they can be activated when exposed to UV light. Their technology gives scientists a more precise way to control and study gene function in localized areas of developing organisms.

The 2005 ethics rules that govern relationships between researchers within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other industrial companies have significantly reduced the prevalence of such collaborations without affecting standard measures of research productivity, according to a study in the November issue of Academic Medicine. However, this report from the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) also finds that NIH scientists and administrators believe the new rules are too restrictive.

STANFORD, Calif. — The immune system may play a critical role in ensuring the success of certain types of cancer therapies, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The research showed treatments that disable cancer-promoting genes called oncogenes are much more successful in eradicating tumors in the presence of a signaling molecule secreted by kind of immune cell called a T helper cell.

Men with prostate cancer who take anticoagulants like aspirin in addition to radiation therapy or surgery may be able to cut their risk of dying of the disease by more than half, according to a large study presented on November 3, 2010, at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego. The study involved more than 5,000 men with localized cancer whose disease had not spread beyond the prostate gland.

Men treated for prostate cancer who were diagnosed after the start of routine screening had a significantly reduced risk of the disease spreading to other parts of the body (metastases) within 10 years of treatment, compared to men who were treated prior to the use of routine screening, according to the first study-of-its-kind presented November 1, 2010, at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Succimer, a drug used for treating lead poisoning, does not effectively remove mercury from the body, according to research supported by the National Institutes of Health. Some families have turned to succimer as an alternative therapy for treating autism.

There is an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer (CRC) among men, but not women, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.