Researchers in Houston have discovered that higher levels of two specific proteins increase ovarian cancer survival rates.

Doctors from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center looked specifically for the Drosha and Dicer proteins in 111 women diagnosed with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

Women who had ovarian tumors with high levels of the proteins survived a median of 11 years, while those with lower levels survived for a median of approximately 2.6 years.

Both proteins play a key role in RNA interference, a naturally occurring cell system that turns genes on and off.

CNN reports that the study is the largest to link RNA interference with cancer survival rates, and that researchers also found that higher levels of Dicer protein meant higher survival rates for breast and lung cancer patients.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

This week the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced the 12 major advances in 2008 that affected cancer treatment and prevention.

As reported by WebMD Health News, here are this year's 12 advances:

1. Erbitux for Lung Cancer
2. Gemzar for Pancreatic Cancer
3. Treanda for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)
4. Avastin for Metastatic Breast Cancer
5. Long-Term Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer
6. Zometa for Breast Cancer
7. Pegylated Interferon for Melanoma
8. Targeted Erbitux for Colon Cancer
9. Birth Control Pill Cuts Ovarian-Cancer Risk
10. HPV Vaccine May Cut Oral Cancers
11. Oncologist Shortage
12. Caring for Childhood Cancer Survivors

The list was developed by 21 cancer specialists on the ASCO editorial board. 

 

Though cancer mortalities are declining, the disease is still expected to become the leading cause of death worldwide by 2010.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced The World Cancer Report at a national event called Conquering Cancer: A Global Effort.  According to that report, from 1975 to 2000 the burden of cancer doubled. By 2020 it's expected to double again and by 2030 it should triple.

China, Russia and India are seeing the largest global increases, which the report attributes to the adoption of many Western habits, such as diets higher in fat.

During the event, The American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure discussed six action steps for decreasing the worldwide cancer burden.  One of the six steps the American Cancer Society helped identify is an increased need for federal funding of cancer research and early detection measures in the U.S.

 

A university professor has created two new compounds that could kill breast cancer tumors, reported ScienceDaily earlier this month.

James Turkson, Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida created two compounds that have disrupted the formation and spread of breast cancer tumors in mice. No adverse effects were observed in the mice, which effectively had the two compounds break up cancer causing proteins called STAT3.

When the STAT3 protein becomes abnormally active it supports breast cancer cells by creating a network of blood vessels to feed cancer cells, reports ScienceDaily, adding that the protein eventually promotes the spread of cancer to the blood, bones and organs.

Turkson's compounds prevent STAT3 proteins from binding, thus preventing the proteins from staying abnormally active.

Turkson's research has been published in the academic journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and ACS Chemical Biology. ScienceDaily also notes the professor has patents for both compounds.

 

The American Cancer Society - the nation's largest non-governmental entity funding cancer research - has awarded its Medal of Honor to four Americans who have made outstanding contributions to the fight against cancer.

This award is the cancer society's highest honor and was presented to Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy for cancer control, Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D., for research, Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., for clinical research, and John M. Huntsman for cancer philanthropy.

Visit the ACS website for more information about this year's Medal of Honor winners.

The Medal of Honor, originally called the American Cancer Society Award, was first awarded in 1949.

Increased cancer risk from computed tomography (CT) for cardiovascular disease is lower than previously published conclusions reported, according to researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).

Different researchers, in previously published studies, concluded that cancer risk from radiation exposure during CT was about 1 in 114. However, the new study suggests the risk is closer to 1 in 1000.

MUSC researchers U. Joseph Schoepf, M.D., and colleagues claim these previous studies used unreliable models to assess lifetime risks of cancer from radiation in cardiac CT scans.

According to ScienceDaily, MUSC researchers studied 104 patients, mostly male, with a median age of 59 and weight of 202 pounds. Each patient underwent 64-slice cardiac CT.  Organ radiation doses were converted into risk by using previously published and validated measures. In addition, researchers used a patient's weight, sex and age to adjust cancer risk.

MUSC researchers recently presented their findings at the American Heart Association's meeting in New Orleans.

 

Researchers are one step closer to understanding how cancer cells metastasize, thanks to a new method for viewing individual breast cancer cells over a period of several days.

In a study published recently in Nature Methods, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University provide details of their method for viewing breast cancer cells entering the metastatic phase of cancer.

While prior methods only allowed for viewing cancer cells over a period of several hours at a time, researchers say that a longer viewing window during the early stages of metastasis may help in the development of more effective cancer therapies.

Findings of the study suggest a direct connection between the presence of blood vessels during this stage, which researchers say strengthens the theory that blood supply is critical to metastasis.

The American Society of Cell Biology in San Francisco plans to highlight the study during its 48th annual meeting next month.

 

Cornell researchers say common allergy symptoms may help prevent some cancers, including: colon, skin, bladder, mouth, throat, uterus, cervix, lung and gastrointestinal tract.

Sneezing, coughing, watery and itchy eyes - all common allergy symptoms - may prevent cancers directly involving organs that are subject to external environmental elements, says Paul Sherman, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior, who led the study.  

Researchers analyzed 646 studies on allergies and cancers that were published within the past 50 years. They say doing this produced a comprehensive database on allergies and cancers.

Findings of the study suggested environmentally exposed tissues have a strong relationship to cancer and allergies. That same relationship seldom exists, says Sherman, with cancers of tissues not directly exposed to the environment, such as breast, prostate, myelocytic leukemia and myeloma.

Sherman explained that allergies may protect against certain cancers because the allergies promote the expulsion of toxins and carcinogen-carrying antigens. His findings, he says, are consistent with studies that say people with allergy symptoms are less likely to have toxic chemicals in their body.

 

A new technique that hopes to understand the genetic changes of breast cancer just received monetary support.

ScienceDaily reports the University of Nottingham received £15,000 from the charity Breast Cancer Campaign, which carried out a study by top breast cancer experts to identify gaps in research.  Identifying the undiscovered genes thought to be involved in the early stage of breast cancer was deemed one of those gaps.

The charity's grant was awarded to Ian Ellis, Professor of Cancer Pathology, and is part of £2.3 million awarded to 20 projects around the United Kingdom, according to ScienceDaily.

Scientists know that breast cancer can develop when the genes in breast cells change, reports ScieneDaily. Defects in genes account for 5% to 10% of all breast cancers, though the article notes that all forms of breast cancer have acquired gene defects in early development of the disease. Many of these genes are undiscovered, and these defective genes can cause physical changes in the breast to cause cancer.

A flat atypical epithelial (FEA) cell is one of the earliest physical signs that a normal breast cell has turned cancerous, reports ScienceDaily. Professor Ellis will study the genes in the FEA cells to target cells involved in those earliest stages of breast cancer.

 

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have successfully created a molecule that simultaneously attacks two separate molecules appearing on a cancer cell's surface, reports ScienceDaily.

The antibody-like molecule, nicknamed "ALM" by Fox Chase researchers, may slow cancer progression, or become a guidance system for delivering more aggressive drug therapies directly to cancerous cells, researchers told ScienceDaily. Their research findings appear in this month's British Journal of Cancer.

Most naturally occurring antibodies bind only to one specific target at a time, but researchers say ALM attaches simultaneously to two separate targets. ALM's specific targets are signaling proteins, ErbB2 and ErbB3, which researchers say connect to form a growth-promoting complex on the surface of many different cancer cells.  This growth-promoting complex is often found in head and neck cancer along with drug-resistant breast cancer.

ALM was created by taking the "active anti-ErbB2 portion from one antibody and linking it with the anti-ErbB3 portion from another," reports ScienceDaily.  Researchers, who like to refer to ALM as a delivery system and not a "warrior," say the molecule preferentially targets tumors cells with excess receptor complex over normal cells.

Rather than kill cancer cells, ALM is better suited to deliver cancer-killing drugs, researchers told ScienceDaily.