Strengthening The Intestinal Barrier May Prevent Cancer In The Rest Of The Body from Medical News Today

A leaky gut may be the root of some cancers forming in the rest of the body, a new study published online Feb. 21 in PLoS ONE by Thomas Jefferson University researchers suggests.

It appears that the hormone receptor guanylyl cyclase C (GC-C) - a previously identified tumor suppressor that exists in the intestinal tract - plays a key role in strengthening the body's intestinal barrier, which helps separate the gut world from the rest of the body, and possibly keeps cancer at bay. Without the receptor, that barrier weakens.

A team led by Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Jefferson and director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center, discovered in a pre-clinical study that silencing GC-C in mice compromised the integrity of the intestinal barrier. It allowed inflammation to occur and cancer-causing agents to seep out into the body, damaging DNA and forming cancer outside the intestine, including in the liver, lung and lymph nodes.

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Drug Combo Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells from Medical News Today

Combining gemcitabine with MRK003, an experimental drug, triggers a chain of events leading to pancreatic cancer cell death, researchers from Cambridge reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The researchers explained that when the two drugs are combined, the effect of each one is multiplied, thus intensifying the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells.

Professor David Tuveson, from the Cambridge Research Institute, UK, and team demonstrated in animal studies that MRK003, an experimental medication, when combined with chemotherapy medication gemcitabine, set off a domino effect which ultimately destroyed the malignant cells.

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Cancer Treatment With Minor Side Effects from Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Jan. 6, 2012) — Side effects are currently the biggest problem with any cancer treatment. A Norwegian biotech company is drawing closer to the goal of creating a treatment which kills only cancer cells, leaving other cells unaffected.

It is not difficult to find a drug that destroys cancer cells. The problem lies in the fact that a drug's active substances kill not only diseased cells but also other cells in the body. This is why the side effects accompanying traditional cancer treatment are often so severe.

Trying to eliminate side effects

The dream of any cancer researcher is to come up with a medication that works solely against a cancerous tumour -- without adversely affecting the rest of the body.

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Cancer Deaths - Enormous Drop Over Last 20 Years, USA fro Medical News Today

Over the last twenty years, more than one million deaths from cancer have been avoided, researchers reported in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Death rates for the most common cancers, including colon, breast, prostate and lung cancers have been dropping steadily year after year. However, some rarer cancers, such has kidney, thyroid, liver and pancreas cancers have seen death rates and total incidences rise.

In its annual report, titled "Cancer Statistics 2012", plus an accompanying article "Cancer Facts & Figures 2012", the authors estimate how many new cancer diagnoses and cancer deaths there will be this year in the USA.

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Improving Cancer Care Via Patient Empowerment And System Transformation from Medical News Today

Physicians can use medical records to track the quality of cancer care and determine whether their patients are receiving the right treatments at the right time. Yet the patient is the only one who ultimately can evaluate the quality of his or her experience while receiving treatment.

In "Quality Measurement and System Change of Cancer Care Delivery," published in the Regenstrief Conference supplement to the December 2011 issue of the journal Medical Care, investigators from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine explore current cancer care quality measurement and discuss new ways to empower patients and promote system transformation to improve quality of care.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease in the United States. However, the federal government and health care quality organizations have fewer reporting requirements for quality of cancer care than for treatment of many other diseases.

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Cancer Vaccine Significantly Reduces Tumor Size from Medical News Today

An experimental cancer vaccine has been found to reduce tumor size by an average of 80%, researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Georgia reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their animal experiment, mouse models that mimic most human pancreatic and breast cancer cases had dramatic reductions in tumor size - even among those that had not responded to standard treatments.

Tumors that share the same distinct carbohydrate signature may be especially treatable with this new vaccine, say the authors. This includes various cancers such as colorectal, ovarian, breast, pancreatic and some others.

Co-senior author Geert-Jan Boons, wrote:

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NIH panel urges research on treating early prostate cancer from USA Today

The treatment may be worse than the disease itself in a growing percentage of men diagnosed with prostate cancer, so there is an "urgent need" for more research into the role of delaying treatment or avoiding it altogether, a panel of experts convened by the National Institutes of Health concluded Wednesday.

Next to skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in U.S. men. This year, more than 240,000 are expected to be diagnosed, and 33,000 are expected to die from it. Surgery or radiation can cure prostate cancer, but the treatments leave many men with erectile dysfunction and/or urinary incontinence.

Before PSA screening was introduced in 1987, most prostate cancers were detected at a more advanced stage. Men either had symptoms from advanced disease or their doctor felt a growth in the gland during a rectal exam.

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Studies: New drug combinations slow down metastatic breast cancers From CNN

(CNN) -- A new combination of treatments can help battle some forms of metastatic breast cancer and slow down the spread of the disease, according to two separate studies.

The new studies show that the combinations of treatments significantly overcome or reduce drug resistance in the metastatic phase. That phase is when the cancer has spread beyond the breasts and lymph nodes, doctors said.

Results from the two clinical trials also revealed combining two targeted therapies can slow the progression of the cancer. Scientists presented the research at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Wednesday in Texas.

About 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer a year, according to Dr. Ben Ho Park, an associate professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

"These two studies address about 80% of breast cancers in the metastatic setting," said Park, who is not involved in the trials.

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Lower Antioxidant Level Might Explain Higher Skin-Cancer Rate in Males from ScienceDaily

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — Men are three times more likely than women to develop a common form of skin cancer but medical science doesn't know why. A new study may provide part of the answer.

Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC -- James) have found that male mice had lower levels of an important skin antioxidant than female mice and higher levels of certain cancer-linked inflammatory cells.

The antioxidant, a protein called catalase, inhibits skin cancer by mopping up hydrogen peroxide and other DNA-damaging reactive-oxygen compounds that form during exposure to ultraviolet B light (UVB), a common source of sunburn and cancer-causing skin damage. Studies by others have linked low catalase activity to skin cancer progression.

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Cancer Flourishes On Recycled Cell Waste from MNT

Cancer cells flourish on recycled cell waste, and preventing their access to this natural "Pac-Man" process appears to stop tumors growing and spreading. This remarkable finding is the result of a new study from researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York who write about their work in the 16 November issue of Science Translational Medicine.

We have known for a while that in order to fuel their abnormally accelerated and greedy growth, cancer cells need stacks of energy in the form of glucose or sugar. However, what hasn't been so clear is how and where they get it from: until now.

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