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........

Eating one or more portions of broccoli every week can reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and the risk of localised cancer becoming more aggressive. For the first time, a research group at the Institute of Food Research led by Professor Richard Mithen has provided an explanation of how eating broccoli might reduce cancer risk based upon studies in men, as opposed to trying to extrapolate from animal models. Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer for males in western countries. The research has provided an insight into why eating broccoli can help men stay healthy........

A simple blood test may help doctors better predict whether prostate cancer will recur or spread in patients who have undergone surgery for the disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have found. As per a research findings reported in the June 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, UT Southwestern researchers identified a panel of seven biomarkers that can predict with 86 percent accuracy which patients with prostate cancer will experience a recurrence and progression of the disease. Biomarkers are proteins circulating in a patient's blood that are specific to a disease........

Researchers at the Institute of Food Research have detected subtle changes that may make the bowel more vulnerable to the development of tumours. With support from the Food Standards Agency and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council they are investigating whether diet could control these changes and delay or reverse the onset of cancer........

HOUSTON - Efforts to protect the tumor-suppressor p53 could just as easily shelter a mutant version of the protein, causing cancer cells to thrive and spread rather than die, as per research by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center published in the current issue of the journal Genes and Development........

OHSU pancreas cancer expert Brett Sheppard, M.D., and his colleagues in the OHSU Oregon Stem Cell Center, have developed antibodies that recognize pancreas cancer; Sheppard is presenting these findings this week during Digestive Disease Week in San Diego. This week scientists in the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Oregon Stem Cell Center and the OHSU Digestive Health Center are shining a new ray of hope on patients with pancreas cancer. They've developed new reagents, or antibodies, that can recognize this often lethal disease. This important discovery may one day lead to earlier detection and therapy........

A poster session presented today by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the Oncology Nurses Society 33rd Annual Congress, observed that early nursing intervention and implementation of effective strategies can lead to a decrease in the occurence rate of lymphedema, better management of chronic lymphedema and improved quality of life in patients with breast cancer........

While researching new ways to stop the progression of cancer, scientists at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, have discovered a compound that has shown to prevent cancer in the laboratory. The compound, which still faces several rounds of clinical trials, successfully stopped normal cells from turning into cancer cells and inhibited the ability of tumors to grow and form blood vessels. If proved to be successful tests continue, scientists eventually hope to create a daily pill that would be taken as a cancer preventive........

Tumor cells living in the cross hairs of radiation or chemotherapy may be able to escape death because their self-destruct mechanisms are jammed, say University of Florida researchers writing in a recent issue of Developmental Cell. Researchers studying fruit fly cells discovered that slight changes in the protein scaffolds that support the genes reaper and hid aptly named for their roles in triggering cell death cause the cells to become naturally resistant to X-rays during early development........

Using a common virus as a tool for investigating abnormal cell proliferation, a team led by researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has succeeded in clarifying an intricate series of biochemical steps that shed light on a way that cancer can begin. The team's findings are the latest in a long and distinguished line of research at CSHL involving adenovirus, a type of virus that causes the common cold in people, but whose genome contains known oncogenes -- genes whose expression can promote cancer under certain conditions........

EdmontonNew research supported by the Canadian Cancer Society shows that a number of cancer survivors in Canada are overweight and inactive, which could put them at risk for health problems, including their cancer returning. These findings tell us that we need to look at ways to better support cancer survivors to become more active and to maintain a healthy body weight, says Dr. Kerry Courneya, professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and affiliated scientist with the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation. We know that physical inactivity and obesity are risk factors for developing cancer. These are also risk factors for the recurrence of cancer. Lifestyle is just as important after diagnosis........

A new fundamental mechanism of how tumour cells communicate has just been discovered by the team of Dr. Janusz Rak at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in collaboration with Dr Guha from the University of Toronto. The cancer cells are able to communicate with their more healthy counter-parts by releasing vesicles. These bubble-like structures contain cancer-causing (oncogenic) proteins that can trigger specific mechanisms when they merge into non or less-cancerous cells. These findings could change our view on how malignant tissues work and lead to major clinical innovations. They were published on April 20 in the on-line edition of Nature Cell Biology........

A revolutionary cancer therapy using microscopic magnets to enable 'armed' human cells to target tumours has been developed by scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Research published online today (17 April) in the journal, Gene Therapy, shows that inserting these nanomagnets into cells carrying genes to fight tumours, results in a number of more cells successfully reaching and invading cancerous tumours........

Scientists at Emory University are learning how vitamins and minerals in the diet can stimulate or prevent the appearance of colon cancer. Emory researchers will present their findings on biological markers that could influence colon cancer risk in three abstracts at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Diego........

Scientists at Boston College have developed the first laboratory mouse model that mimics cancers spread through the human body. Using their novel cell line, the team discovered one of the bodys primary defensive cells plays a role in cancers attack. The development of a new animal model a line of cancer cells injected into a laboratory mouse that displays the full spectrum of systemic metastatic cancer in humans removes a "scientific stumbling block" in advancing cancer research and potential therapys, as per Boston College Biologist Thomas Seyfried, whose findings appear this week in the online version of the International Journal of Cancer and will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research in San Diego........

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and his colleagues at Merck Serono Research in Gera number of have observed that two drugs bind to receptor sites on some tumors in different places at the same time, suggesting the possibility of a new combination treatment for certain types of cancer........

Scientists at the National Sun Yat-Sen University and Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan have revealed a new mechanism by which nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) attenuate tumor invasion and metastasis. The research, would be reported in the April 2008 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, provides new insights for the understanding of the anti-cancer effects of NSAIDs........