http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A new oral targeted drug, idelalisib (GS-1101), has the potential to stave off the need for additional treatments for relapsed or treatment-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to a study led in part by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators. In a phase 1 clinical trial, the drug produced rapid and long-lasting tumor shrinkage in about two-thirds of patients, stalling disease progression for 17 months, on average. The activity of the drug is noteworthy, given that the patients had an average of five prior therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-protein-targeting-drug-early-trial-patients.html Cancer Fri, 17 May 2013 08:50:01 EST news287996211 If something is really important, it's best not to rely on it. This basic principle is followed equally by human engineers – for example, the NASA space shuttle has three main engines – and by nature. Thus it could be expected that each of the four subtly different forms of class I phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) works in much the same manner. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-backup-pi3k-delta-tumour-surveillance.html Cancer Wed, 30 Jan 2013 09:40:01 EST news278760372 Although a large majority of head and neck cancers have a deregulation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, data recently published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, indicated that deregulation of this pathway does not necessarily signify that the tumor is dependent on it for survival and progression. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-common-genetic-neck-cancers-key.html Cancer Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:00:01 EST news278676552 Many different genetic alterations were detected in tumor cells left behind after patients with triple-negative breast cancer were treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery (neoadjuvant chemotherapy), according to data presented at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The investigators hope this knowledge will help move toward early personalized treatment to combat this aggressive subtype of breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-diverse-genetic-triple-negative-breast-cancers.html Cancer Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:20:23 EST news274095045 Early changes in liver function detected by novel techniques can identify severe infection (sepsis) hours after onset and so could have important implications for the treatment of patients who are critically ill, according to a groundbreaking study by European researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-early-liver-function-life-threatening-infection.html Medical research Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:00:08 EST news272046624 Cancer patients with mutations or variations in two genes -– PIK3CA and PTEN -– who have failed to respond to several, standard treatments, respond significantly better to anti-cancer drugs that inhibit these genes' pathways of action, according to research presented at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-patients-aberrations-genes-drugs-blocking.html Cancer Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:27:28 EST news271535236 (HealthDay)—Noncanonical Hedgehog (Hh) signaling is activated in tamoxifen-resistant tumors, and the phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) pathway plays a key role protecting Hh signaling molecules, according to a study published in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-hedgehog-pathway-key-tamoxifen-resistant-breast.html Cancer Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:40:01 EST news271441074 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a new signal transduction pathway specifically devoted to the regulation of alternative RNA splicing, a process that allows a single gene to produce or code multiple types of protein variants. The discovery, published in the June 27, 2012 issue of Molecular Cell, suggests the new pathway might be a fruitful target for new cancer drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-enzyme-therapeutic-cancer-drugs.html Cancer Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:20:18 EST news259497122 A new study describes a therapeutic approach to halting cancer progression by exploiting a previously unrecognized "addiction" of leukemia cells to specific signaling molecules. The research, published by Cell Press online on April 16th in the journal Cancer Cell, identifies non-classical oncogenes critical for tumor development and survival, and describes a potentially less toxic strategy that selectively targets these molecules. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-therapy-exploits-addiction-leukemia-cells.html Cancer Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:45:03 EST news253802693 Four proteins involved in translation, the final step of general protein production, are associated with poor prognosis in hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer when they are dysregulated, researchers reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-pi3kmtor-pathway-proteins-tied-poor.html Cancer Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:32:10 EST news252502306 Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is the most lethal form of breast cancer . It spreads easily through the lymphatic and blood vessels, forming metastasis which can lead to multi-organ failure. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell Communication and Signaling demonstrates how IBC cells use IL-8, secreted as part of the anti-inflammatory response by a specific set of white blood cells (monocytes), to increase fibronectin expression. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-metastatic-breast-cancer-hitches-free.html Immunology Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:30:01 EST news248073643 Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have shown that a mutation in the lipid kinase PI3K, which occurs in about 30% of human breast cancers, itself evokes different forms of breast cancer. While this kinase has long been associated with cancer, and is a target for anti-tumor therapy, it is now shown to be causal for multiple types of breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-breast-cancer-mutant-pi3k-recapitulates.html Cancer Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:47:27 EST news229686432 Adding Afinitor to Herceptin, the main treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer, helps some women with disease that has been resistant to previous Herceptin-based therapies, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-agent-addition-herceptin-positive-effect.html Cancer Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:06:41 EST news229363588