Body

Among various genetic mutations for individuals with Lynch syndrome, a hereditary cancer syndrome that carries a high risk of colon cancer and an above-normal risk of other cancers, researchers have identified mutations associated with a lower cancer risk and mutations associated with an increased risk for ovarian and endometrial cancer, according to a study in the June 8 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on cancer. The study is being published early online to coincide with the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2011 Annual Meeting.

A news study finds that the worse a woman's skin wrinkles are during the first few years of menopause, the lower her bone density is. The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

"In postmenopausal women the appearance of the skin may offer a glimpse of the skeletal well-being, a relationship not previously described," said Lubna Pal, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.

Estrogen therapy improves low bone density due to anorexia nervosa in teenage girls with the disease when given as a patch or as a low oral dose that is physiological (close to the form or amount of estrogen the body makes naturally). These results of a new study are being presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

People who have had gastric bypass surgery or other bariatric weight-loss surgery have an even higher increased risk of breaking bones than previously found. These study findings will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

"A negative effect on bone health that may increase the risk of fractures is an important consideration for people considering bariatric surgery and those who have undergone bariatric surgery," said lead author Kelly Nakamura, a medical student at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.

Men with prostate cancer are at higher risk of developing diabetes or diabetes risk factors if they receive androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to block the production or action of male hormones that can fuel the growth of this cancer. The results of this new study on the second-most common cancer in men are being presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

Overexposure to stress hormones in the womb can program the potential for adverse health effects in those children and the next generation, but effects vary depending on whether the mother or father transmits them, a new animal study suggests. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

Low testosterone levels and symptoms of male sexual dysfunction due to obesity may be reversible with weight loss after bariatric surgery, a new study finds. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

"Morbidly obese men have a high prevalence of hypotestosteronenemia, or low testosterone, and of sexual dysfunction," said study co-author Jean-Paul Thissen, MD, PhD, a professor at the University of Louvain in Brussels. "It is reassuring that these problems are potentially curable by weight loss."

(Hamilton, ON) June 4, 2011 - Additional radiation treatment improves disease free survival lessening the chance of cancer recurring in women with early breast cancer who have had breast conserving surgery (lumpectomy), interim results of a new study found. The results will be presented Monday, June 6 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Today's major announcement at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting that the drug exemestane significantly reduces the risk of breast cancer in high-risk, postmenopausal women is the result of an international, randomized double-blind phase III clinical trial in which University at Buffalo researchers and hundreds of Western New York women played a critical role.

The findings will be published online June 4 at 11:30 a.m. EST in the New England Journal of Medicine.

CHICAGO -- ASCO Abstract #10504. Contrary to what many oncologists had thought, a tumor suppressor protein known as PTEN does not reduce the effectiveness of the breast cancer drug Herceptin, according to a study by Mayo Clinic and North Central Cancer Research Group (NCCTG) investigators.

It's long been known that cancer cells eat a lot of sugar to stay alive. In fact, where normal, noncancerous cells generate energy from using some sugar and a lot of oxygen, cancerous cells use virtually no oxygen and a lot of sugar. Many genes have been implicated in this process and now, reporting in the May 27 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that this so-called Warburg effect is controlled.

BOSTON--A duo of drugs, each targeting a prime survival strategy of tumors, can be safely administered and are potentially more effective than either drug alone for advanced, inoperable melanomas, according to a phase 1 clinical trial led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators.

The findings (abstract 8511), will be presented in an oral session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday, June 4, 3 p.m. CT, Arie Crown Theater, McCormick Place.

CHICAGO --- When people finish treatment for cancer, they want to bounce back to their former vital selves as quickly as possible. But a new Northwestern Medicine study -- one of the largest survivor studies ever conducted – shows many survivors still suffer moderate to severe problems with pain, fatigue, sleep, memory and concentration three to five years after treatment has ended.

(CHICAGO) – For patients with advanced melanoma, which is the most lethal type of skin cancer, the results of a large clinical trial show that a vaccine combined with the immune-boosting drug Interleukin-2 can improve response rate and progression-free survival.

The findings of the study were published in the June 2 issue of New England Journal of Medicine. This marks the first vaccine study in the disease and one of the first in all cancers to show clinical benefit in a randomized Phase III clinical trial.

AURORA, Colo. (June 3, 2011) – A drug that targets a specific type of lung cancer shows a dramatic response in more than half of the people who take it. The drug, called crizotinib, has been in clinical trials since 2006, and the results from the largest group of patients to take it within the first of these clinical trials are being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).