http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—In about half of all prostate tumours, there are two genetic areas that are fused with one another. When this is not the case, the exact way cancer cells originate in prostate tumours was not clear until now. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, in cooperation with a team of international researchers, were able to show that the genesis of this fusion-negative prostate cancer has epigenetic causes: methyl groups are distributed differently over the DNA in the cancer cells than in healthy cells. Thanks to this knowledge, physicians may be able to achieve greater specificity in treating prostate tumours in future. In addition, the aberrant DNA methylations can be used as a potential biomarker for identifying prostate cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-epigenetic-prostate-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 05 Sep 2012 08:10:15 EST news266051403 Cellular change thought to happen only in late-stage cancers to help tumors spread also occurs in early-stage lung cancer as a way to bypass growth controls, say researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida. The finding, reported in the July 11 issue of Science Translational Medicine, represents a new understanding of the extent of transformation that lung cancer — and likely many other tumor types — undergo early in disease development, the scientists say. They add that the discovery also points to a potential strategy to halt this process, known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-early-lung-cancer-unchecked.html Cancer Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:00:05 EST news261230582 Under normal circumstances, the tau protein is a hard-working participant in memory and normal brain functioning. But as is becoming increasingly evident, in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, tau not only ceases to play a productive role in brain health, but actually undergoes a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation to become a misshapen villain that destroys brain cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-antibodies-alzheimer-disease.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:00:15 EST news252239723 A recent study conducted at Marshall University may eventually help scientists develop new treatments for prostate cancer, the most common malignancy in American men. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-treatments-prostate-cancer.html Cancer Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:36:38 EST news251548587 Most research that focuses on tobacco examines health risks associated with smoking, says Peter Benson, PhD, a sociocultural anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-impact-tobacco-industry.html Health Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:33:47 EST news248362417 Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have discovered that the immune response regulator IKBKE (serine/threonine kinase) plays two roles in tobacco-related non-small cell lung cancers. Tobacco carcinogens induce IKBKE and, in turn, IKBKE induces chemotherapy resistance. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-important-role-tobacco-related-lung-cancers.html Cancer Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:55:37 EST news248014519 A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine by NYU Cancer Institute researchers, shows how the cancer causing gene Notch, in combination with a mutated Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) protein complex, work together to cause T- cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-culprit-t-cell-acute-lymphoblastic-leukemia.html Cancer Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:20:01 EST news245586542 Findings from preclinical studies in a skin cancer model showed that next-generation BRAF inhibitors used alone, or first-generation BRAF inhibitors used in combination with an epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor, may have the potential to prevent drug-induced skin lesions in BRAF mutation-positive patients treated for melanoma. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-approaches-side-effects-braf-mutation-positive.html Cancer Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:22:02 EST news240427310 Researchers from the NYU Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated cancer center at NYU Langone Medical Center, have identified a cell cycle-regulated mechanism behind the transformation of normal cells into cancerous cells. The study shows the significant role that protein networks can play in a cell leading to the development of cancer. The study results, published in the October 21 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, suggest that inhibition of the CK1 enzyme may be a new therapeutic target for the treatment of cancer cells formed as a result of a malfunction in the cell's mTOR signaling pathway. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-cancer-cell.html Cancer Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:23:02 EST news238436569 Brain tumor specimens taken from neurosurgery cases at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center has given scientists a new window on the transformation that occurs as healthy brain cells begin to form tumors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-cells-brain-cancers.html Cancer Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:11:36 EST news236441486 The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori is one of the biggest risk factors for the development of gastric cancer, the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. Molecular biologists from the University of Zurich have now identified a mechanism of Helicobacter pylori that damages the DNA of cells in the gastric mucosa and sets them up for malignant transformation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-stomach-bacterium-human-dna.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:27:52 EST news234534453 Telomeres, the complex structures that protect the end of chromosomes, of peripheral blood cells are significantly shorter in patients with familial breast cancer than in the general population. Results of the study carried out by the Human Genetics Group of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Javier Benitez, to be published in open-access journal PLoS Genetics on July 28th, reflect that familial, but not sporadic, breast cancer cases are characterized by shorter telomeres. Importantly, they also provide evidence for telomere shortening as a mechanism of genetic anticipation, the successively earlier onset of cancer down generations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-telomere-shortening-characterizes-familial-breast.html Cancer Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:20:01 EST news231130124 Neurofibromatosis (NF1) is a genetic condition which affects one in every 3,000 people. The severity of symptoms can range from benign 'cafe au lait' patches on the skin, through small tumors under the skin and deep plexiform neurofibromas, to malignant tumors of the nerve sheath. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Medicine shows that a simple blood test for the protein melanoma-inhibitory activity (MIA) could be used to indicate the presence of neurofibromas even if they cannot be seen. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-biomarker-mia-presence-neurofibromas.html Cancer Mon, 04 Jul 2011 02:54:06 EST news228966827