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A system that allows precise targeting of radiotherapy using real-time X-ray images has allowed French doctors to increase the dose of radiation they administered to lung and liver cancers while minimizing harm to nearby healthy tissue, researchers report at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Burns, Ore., are taking a careful look at how grazing cattle affect sage-grouse habitat on high desert rangelands.

A new 4-dimensional software program promises to improve the treatment of lung cancer by allowing doctors to take the movement of breathing into account when administering radiotherapy, researchers announced today at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Some lung tumors shift their position as patients inhale and exhale. The amount of movement depends on where they are in the lung. For example, lesions in the lower lobes may move up to 4 cm.

Reston, Va.—According to research published in the May issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, molecular imaging can help physicians identify aortic dissection—an often fatal blood vessel condition—and help guide treatment. Aortic dissection occurs when a tear in the wall of the aorta causes blood to flow between the layers of the wall of the aorta and force the layers apart.

A new meta-analysis reported at the second European Lung Cancer Conference shows that patients with both non-small-cell lung cancer and small-cell lung cancer benefit in terms of overall survival when treated with hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy.

Patients treated with hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy regimens are given their treatments more frequently, and over a shorter period of time. The benefit of doing this has been in question as different randomized trials have given contradictory results.

The first trial of an important new combination therapy of treatment with the chemotherapy drug pemetrexed concurrent with radiation in lung cancer has delivered promising results, French researchers report at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference.

The results of the Phase I trial suggest that pemetrexed, unlike some other modern chemotherapy drugs, is well-enough tolerated to allow it to be administered at high dose with concurrent radiotherapy, increasing the effectiveness of the treatment.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research shows for the first time that molecules called microRNA can silence genes that protect the genome from cancer-causing mutations.

The study, led by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, shows that microRNA-155 (miR-155) can inhibit the activity of genes that normally correct the damage when the wrong bases are paired in DNA.

Scientists from NOAA and Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi were astounded to find that seamounts, mountains that rise from the seafloor, rank as some of the most common ocean habitats in the world. Their findings are published in a new study and reverse previous beliefs about the prevalence of seamounts, which are treasure troves of marine biodiversity.

Kidney transplant recipients are known to have a higher risk of cancer, compared to the general population, due to the need to take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection. Results published today from a significant, long-term study suggest that no single medication appears to increase this cancer risk.

Fine-tuning radiotherapy to take into account which parts of a patient's tumor are growing fastest could improve control of cancer while subjecting patients to lower doses of radiation, Dutch researchers reported today at the 2nd European Lung Cancer Conference.

STANFORD, Calif. - For the first time, researchers have used a healthy person's complete genome sequence to predict his risk for dozens of diseases and how he will respond to several common medications. The risk analysis, from the Stanford University School of Medicine, also incorporates more-traditional information such as a patient's age and gender and other clinical measurements. The resulting, easy-to-use, cumulative risk report will likely catapult the use of such data out of the lab and into the waiting room of average physicians within the next decade, say the scientists.

Scientists at Stanford and Harvard Universities collaborated to assess the clinical usefulness of analyzing a patient's full genome for disease risks and unusual drug responses. The work brings closer to reality the concept that whole-genome sequencing might one day play a clinical role.

The analysis, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appears in the May 1, 2010 issue of Lancet.

Healthy people with high blood pressure who excrete a slight excess of protein in the urine raise their risk of developing kidney and heart complications. According to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN), more attention should focus on the potential health effects of urinary protein excretion in individuals with high blood pressure (hypertension).

Drugs taken by kidney transplant recipients to prevent organ rejection carry similar risks of cancer, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that no single medication is to blame for the higher incidence of cancer seen among patients who have undergone transplantation.