Body

Two proteins previously found to contribute to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, have divergent roles. But a new study, led by researchers at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, shows that a common pathway links them.

The discovery reveals a small set of target genes that could be used to measure the health of motor neurons, and provides a useful tool for development of new pharmaceuticals to treat the devastating disorder, which currently has no treatment or cure.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Over the last two decades, scientists have come to understand that the genetic code held within DNA represents only part of the blueprint of life. The rest comes from specific patterns of chemical tags that overlay the DNA structure, determining how tightly the DNA is packaged and how accessible certain genes are to be switched on or off.

STANFORD, Calif. — The older we get, the weaker our immune systems tend to become, leaving us vulnerable to infectious diseases and cancer and eroding our ability to benefit from vaccination. Now Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have found that blocking the action of a single protein whose levels in our immune cells creep steadily upward with age can restore those cells' response to a vaccine.

Vienna, Austria, 30 September 2012 – Two new studies presented at the ESMO 2012 Congress in Vienna, Austria show how improvements in breast cancer treatments are making it possible for more women to conserve their breasts following therapy, but raise concerns about whether enough women are being offered these approaches.

VIENNA, Austria, 30 September 2012 – New insights on the global fight to prevent cancers were presented during the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. The studies highlight the challenges of overcoming misunderstandings about how important lifestyle factors are in reducing cancer risk.

VIENNA, Austria, 30 September 2012 – Several new first-in-man studies for drugs targeted against a range of cancers were released at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna.

Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 – Treatment with the drug sorafenib as a third or fourth line therapy does not result in improved overall survival among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to findings released at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna. However, a post-hoc biomarker analysis of the trial data that was also presented suggests that patients with EGFR-mutant tumors may benefit.

VIENNA, Austria, 29 September 2012 –- New trial data showing improvements in the treatment of esophageal and gastrointestinal cancers were released today at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna.

Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of gefitinib versus placebo in esophageal cancer progressing after chemotherapy

Vienna, Austria, 29 September 2012 –- Governments around the world are leaving hundreds of millions of cancer patients to suffer needlessly because of their failure to ensure adequate access to pain-relieving drugs, an unprecedented new international survey reveals.

Combined treatment with two drugs targeting different points in the same growth-factor pathway delayed the development of treatment resistance in patients with BRAF-positive metastatic malignant melanoma. The results of a phase I/II study of treatment with the kinase inhibitors dabrafenib and trametinib will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine and are being released online to coincide with a presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Vienna.

Julio M. Pow-Sang, M.D., chair of Moffitt Cancer Center's Department of Genitourinary Oncology, and colleagues have published two prostate cancer articles in the September issue of JNCCN – The Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The articles review and clarify recent updates made to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's (NCCN) guidelines for the screening and treatment of prostate cancer.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sept. 28, 2012 — Knowing how tumors evolve can lead to new treatments that could help prevent cancer from recurring, according to a study published today by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Scottsdale Healthcare.

TGen researchers tracked several years of tumor evolution in a 47-year-old male patient with maxillary sinus carcinoma (MSC), a rare cancer of the sinus cavities beneath the cheeks that often requires surgical removal that is disfiguring. Fewer than half of MSC patients live more than 5 years after diagnosis.

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. – September 28, 2012 – Scientists at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography have made the first observation of a predator avoidance behavior by a species of phytoplankton, a microscopic marine plant. Susanne Menden-Deuer, associate professor of oceanography, and doctoral student Elizabeth Harvey made the unexpected observation while studying the interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton.

Their discovery will be published in the September 28 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

Washington, DC, September 28, 2012 – Screening practices for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in intensive care units (ICUs) vary widely from hospital to hospital, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

University of Notre Dame entomologists are part of a team of researchers that recently discovered a potentially dangerous new malaria-transmitting mosquito. The as yet unnamed, and previously unreported, mosquito breeds in the western areas of Kenya and has an unknown DNA match to any of the existing malaria-transmitting species.