Latina women have a lower risk of breast cancer than European or African-American women generally, but those with higher European ancestry could be at increased risk, as per data reported in the December 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. "We need to study the possible factors that are placing Latina women of high European ancestry at greater risk," said Laura Fejerman, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of California San Francisco. "The increased risk could be due to environmental factors, genetic factors or the interplay of the two"........

Prostate cancer and perhaps other cancers promotes the growth of new nerves and the branching axons that carry their messages, a finding linked to more aggressive tumors, said scientists from Baylor College of Medicine in the first report of the phenomenon that appears today in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.......

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have discovered what could be a novel drug target for an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia. The researchers have identified a unique "signature" or pattern of a specific family of enzymes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of adult leukemia........

Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have observed that inactivating a specific biomarker for aggressive prostate cancer blocks the development of prostate cancer in animal models. Scientists say the upcoming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesnow available onlinemay lead to a novel cancer treatment for humans........

A colon cancer cell isn't a lost cause. Vitamin D can tame the rogue cell by adjusting everything from its gene expression to its cytoskeleton. In the Nov. 17 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Ordez-Morn et al. show that one pathway governs the vitamin's diverse effects. The results help clarify the actions of a molecule that is undergoing clinical trials as a cancer treatment........

The association of DM2 with solid tumors, and especially with HCC, has been long suspected and several studies have reported increased mortality rates for neoplastic diseases in patients with DM2. However, the temporal relationship between onset of diabetes and development of HCC, and the clinical and metabolic characteristics of patients with DM2 and HCC have not been well examined........

A multicenter team of researchers, including researchers from the University of Florida, has discovered a way to potentially block the growth of neuroblastoma, a type of cancer responsible for 15 percent of all cancer deaths in children. Working with human cell lines and tissue samples, scientists describe in Thursday's (Oct. 16, 2008) online issue of Nature how they were able to short-circuit genetic processes that apparently contribute to neuroblastomas tumors that arise from the developing nervous system in children and often appear in the abdomen, chest or neck........

A new analysis finds considerable disparities in survival correlation to race and socio-economic status among patients with head and neck cancer. Reported in the November 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that earlier diagnosis and greater access to therapy could improve outcomes for these cancers among African Americans and the poor........

Modern cancer care is critically dependent on imaging technologies, which are used to detect early tumors and guide their therapy or surgery. Molecular imaging technologies provide information about the functional or metabolic characteristics of malignancies, tumor stage and therapeutical response, and tumor recurrence; whereas conventional imaging technologies predominantly assess the tumor's anatomical or morphologic features including its size, density, shape, etc........

Boston Patients who are treated with proton treatment (a specialized type of external beam radiation treatment using protons rather than X-rays to treat cancer) decreases the risk of patients developing a secondary cancer by two hundred percent, in comparison to being treated with standard photon radiation therapy, as per a first-of-its-kind study presented September 22, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston........

Advances in understanding head and neck cancer over the last decade have led to more therapy options and improved quality of life for patients, as per a review published this week in the New England Journal (NEJM) The authors are Dong M. Shin, MD, Frances Kelly Blomeyer Distinguished Professor and associate director of Emory University School of Medicines Winship Cancer Institute, and Robert Haddad, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinical director of its Head and Neck Oncology Program........

The absence or inactivation of the RUNX3 gatekeeper gene paves the way for the growth and development of colon cancer, Singapore researchers report in the Sept. issue of the journal Cancer Cell Prior studies have shown that RUNX3 plays a role in gastric, breast, lung and bladder cancers. The inactivation of RUNX3 occurs at a very early stage of colon cancer, as per the Singapore scientists' studies with human tissue samples and animal models........

One-fifth of British adult survivors of childhood cancers are current smokers, and nearly a third have been regular smokers at some point in their lives, as per a research studyin the July 29 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute Adult survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, lung problems, and second malignancies, relative to the general public. These increased risks are due to long-term effects of the original cancer and its therapy, as well as to genetic conditions that predispose the survivors to multiple cancers. Smoking would be an additional source of risk for this population........

A study performed by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with scientists at the Instituto de Biologa Molecular of the CSIC, reveal a mechanism that controls the movement of cells in a tissue by regulating cell adhesion. This same mechanism may be defective in diseases such as cancer and its metastasis, when tumour cells lose their adhesion to neighbouring cells and migrate through the organism. The results of this research have been published in this week's Nature Cell Biology.......

Scientists at Rhode Island Hospital have identified two potential molecular markers that may predict outcomes for patients with stomach cancer, one of the most common and fatal cancers worldwide. As per the study, reported in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, patients who had poor outcomes following surgery for stomach cancer also had extremely low amounts of two proteins, known as gastrokine 1 and 2 (GKN1 and GKN2), which are produced by normal stomach cells........

Early laboratory research has shown that resveratrol, a common dietary supplement, suppresses the abnormal cell formation that leads to most types of breast cancer, suggesting a potential role for the agent in breast cancer prevention. Resveratrol is a natural substance found in red wine and red grapes. It is sold in extract form as a dietary supplement at most major drug stores........

Cancer starts when key cellular signals run amok, driving uncontrolled cell growth. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine report that lowering levels of one cancer signal under a specific threshold reverses this process in mice, returning tumor cells to their normal, healthy state. The finding could help target cancer chemotherapy to tumors while minimizing side effects for the body's healthy cells........