http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—A unique sub-type of bowel cancer has been discovered which has a worse outcome than other types of colon cancer and is resistant to certain targeted treatments, according to research published today in Nature Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-bowel-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:39:15 EST news285226747 Proteins that control cell growth are often mutated in cancer, and their aberrant signaling drives the wild proliferation of cells that gives rise to tumors. One such protein, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fuels a wide variety of cancers—including a highly malignant brain cancer known as glioblastoma. Yet drugs devised to block its signaling tend to work only for a short while, until the cancer cells adapt to evade the therapy. So far, much of the research examining such drug resistance has focused on how mutations of other proteins in cancer cells allow them to resist drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-hijacking-healthy-cellular-circuits.html Cancer Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:26:19 EST news284657171 Molecular driven therapeutic targets have resulted in a paradigm shift in the treatment of advanced lung adenocarcinoma. However, in early non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), surgical resection remains the treatment of choice with adjuvant chemotherapy. In a recent study published in the April 2013 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology, researchers identified patterns of mutations in early stage node negative lung adenocarcinoma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-pathologists-patterns-mutations-future-trials.html Cancer Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:47:00 EST news283175205 Locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck is a potentially curable disease in nearly every patient at the time of diagnosis, yet despite the most aggressive efforts, up to 30-50 percent of patients may ultimately succumb to the disease. For diseases where outcomes are so uncertain, medical science frequently addresses the need by intensifying therapy. In the case of head and neck cancer, one of the great questions of the current day is whether or not addition of multiple drugs to radiation therapy is superior to the current standard of care therapy with one drug and radiation. In particular, physicians have wondered if the addition of the more tolerable targeted biologic therapy to chemotherapy results in improved patient outcomes. Unfortunately, the data suggests that it does not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-combination-therapies-advanced-neck-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:00:33 EST news281883626 (Medical Xpress)—A new drug combination shows promise in reducing the risk for patients with advanced oral precancerous lesions to develop squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The results of the study, which included preclinical and clinical analyses, were published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-drug-combination-neck-cancer-high-risk.html Cancer Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:10:01 EST news280504253 Shutting down a specific pathway in cancer cells appears to improve the ability of common drugs to wipe those cells out, according to new research from scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center, published in the January issue of Cancer Discovery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-scientists-boost-common-cancer-drugs.html Cancer Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:13:04 EST news277402360 (HealthDay)—Adults with low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) have increased mortality, regardless of the presence of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-link-vitamin-d-mortality-impacted.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:20:06 EST news270398076 Despite years of research, glioblastoma, the most common and deadly brain cancer in adults, continues to outsmart treatments targeted to inhibit tumor growth. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-modification-tumor-suppressor-affects-sensitivity.html Cancer Mon, 13 Aug 2012 16:12:10 EST news264093122 (HealthDay) -- For patients with advanced lung adenocarcinomas, KRAS mutations predict shorter survival, according to a study published online July 18 in Cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-kras-mutations-shorter-survival-lung.html Cancer Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:20:01 EST news262543107 Many lung cancers are driven by mutations in the epidermal growth-factor receptor (EGFR), and so it makes sense that many successful modern treatments block EGFR activity. Unfortunately, cancers inevitably evolve around EGFR inhibition, and patients with lung cancers eventually relapse. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Cancer Research details a signaling pathway, known as 'the canonical Wnt pathway', that lung cancer cells use to escape from EGFR-targeted therapy – and suggests that by disrupting this pathway, we could lengthen the usefulness of existing EGFR inhibition therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-pathway-egfr-inhibitors-lung-cancer.html Cancer Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:20:03 EST news260180382 (HealthDay) -- In stable kidney transplant recipients, kidney function, as determined by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), is independently associated with cardiovascular (CVD) events and death, according to research published online May 17 in the American Journal of Transplantation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-post-transplant-egfr-impacts-cardio-independently.html Cardiology Wed, 30 May 2012 16:30:01 EST news257612037 Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer should only receive treatment with the drug erlotinib before receiving standard chemotherapy if their tumor is known to harbor EGFR mutations, researchers report at the 3rd European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-analysis-erlotinib-advanced-non-small-cell.html Cancer Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:14:35 EST news253966439 Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia have found that a protein associated with other cancers appears to also be important in head and neck cancer, and may consequently serve as a good target for new treatments. The findings will be reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012 on Sunday, April 1. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-protein-aurora-a-survival-neck-cancer.html Cancer Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:40:20 EST news252510005 Multicentric carcinogenesis with the same genetic mutation appears to occur in lung adenocarcinoma, according to data presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer: Biology, Therapy and Personalized Medicine, held Jan. 8-11, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-genetic-composition-multicentric-lung-tumors.html Cancer Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:56:54 EST news245347005 Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, in collaboration with colleagues in Boston and South Korea, say they have identified a novel gene mutation that causes at least one form of glioblastoma (GBM), the most common type of malignant brain tumor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-drugs-brain-tumor.html Cancer Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:40:01 EST news240847563 High epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression was a good predictor of which lung cancer patients would survive longer when cetuximab (Erbitux) was added to first-line chemotherapy, according to research presented at the 14th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Amsterdam, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-high-egfr-predictor-survival-cetuximab.html Cancer Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:51:10 EST news229060256 A simple blood test may help prevent a serious complication associated with a contrast agent commonly used in MRI exams, according to a study published in the July issue of Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-contrast-agent-guidelines-debilitating-disorder.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 17 May 2011 03:54:58 EST news224823148 (Medical Xpress) -- Some of the most effective and expensive cancer drugs, dubbed "smart drugs" for their ability to stop tumors by targeting key drivers of cancer cell growth, are not effective in some patients. In two related studies, Yale School of Medicine researchers examined one such driver, the EGF receptor (EGFR), and found that a decoy receptor might be limiting the amount of drug that gets to the intended target. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-cancer-smart-drugs.html Cancer Wed, 11 May 2011 05:39:02 EST news224311055