Tag: cancer treatments
-
Nation & World
Harnessing nature to beat cancer
Every year, more than 18 million people around the world are told, “You have cancer.” In the U.S., nearly half of all men and more than one-third of women will…
-
Nation & World
Using nanotechnology to improve a cancer treatment
Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers have devised a method that may allow clinicians to use higher doses of a powerful chemotherapy drug that has been limited because it is toxic not only to tumors but to patients’ kidneys.
-
Nation & World
Childhood cancer survivors may face shortened lifespan, study reveals
Although more children today are surviving cancer than ever before, young patients successfully treated in the 1970s and 80s may live a decade less, on average, than the general population,…
-
Nation & World
Treatment resistance in some cancer cells may be reversible
The ability of cancer cells to resist treatment with either targeted drug therapies or traditional chemotherapy may, in some cases, result from a transient state of reversible drug “tolerance.” In…
-
Nation & World
Genes linked to breast cancer drug resistance
Harvard researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a “gene activity signature” that predicts a high risk of cancer recurrence in some breast tumors that have been treated with…
-
Nation & World
First cancer vaccine to eliminate tumors in mice
A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, a team of Harvard bioengineers and biologists report…
-
Nation & World
Darkness with the light
Adult survivors of childhood cancer have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts, even decades after their cancer treatments have ended, according to a study led by Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber…
-
Nation & World
Study finds promise in combined transplant/vaccine therapy for high-risk leukemia
Two of the most powerful approaches to cancer treatment — a stem cell transplant and an immune system-stimulating vaccine — appear to reinforce each other in patients with an aggressive,…
-
Nation & World
Study supports DNA repair-blocker research in cancer therapy
Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have uncovered the mechanism behind a promising new approach to cancer treatment: damaging cancer cells’ DNA with potent drugs while simultaneously preventing the cells from…
-
Nation & World
Researchers discover chemical that kills cancer stem cells
A multi-institutional team of Boston-area researchers has discovered a chemical that works in mice to kill the rare but aggressive cells within breast cancers that have the ability to seed…
-
Nation & World
Postdiagnosis aspirin use reduces risk of dying from colorectal cancer
Regular use of aspirin after colorectal cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of cancer death, report Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In today’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study’s authors also find that the aspirin-associated survival advantage was seen…
-
Nation & World
An unusual collection: A brain tumor tissue bank
Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like…
-
Nation & World
Study pinpoints novel cancer gene and biomarker
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists’ discovery of a cancer-causing gene – the first in its family to be linked to cancer – demonstrates how the panoramic view of genomics and the…
-
Nation & World
After a century, link between chromosomal instability and centrosome defects in cancer cells is unraveled
In a new study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists disprove a century-old theory about why cancer cells often have too many or too few chromosomes, and show that the actual reason…
-
Nation & World
AML patients benefit from stem cell transplants
A stem cell transplant (SCT) from a compatible donor early in the course of disease is the best approach for the majority of young and middle-aged adult patients with acute…
-
Nation & World
DFCI cancer research highlights age-related treatment effectiveness, patient cost concerns
New research from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute highlights age-related responses to colon cancer treatment and patient attitudes toward cost of drugs to manage side effects. Research presented at the American…
-
Nation & World
Genetic testing for breast or ovarian cancer risk may be greatly underutilized
Although a test for gene mutations known to significantly increase the risk of hereditary breast or ovarian cancer has been available for more than a decade, a new study finds…
-
Nation & World
Cancer chemotherapy: An unfolding story
To launch his lecture on cancer chemotherapy, Luke Whitesell ’79, RI ’06 displayed an image of an origami crab: a double visual metaphor. The crab is the traditional symbol of…
-
Nation & World
A more direct delivery of cancer drugs to tumors
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) has demonstrated a better way to deliver cancer drugs…
-
Nation & World
HMS professor devises single test for cancers
Imagine visiting a doctor’s office five years from now and, as a routine part of your annual physical, getting an accurate test that can tell whether you have cancer long…
-
Nation & World
Breast cancer danger rising in developing world
Women in developing nations, once thought to have a small chance of contracting breast cancer, are increasingly getting the disease as lifestyles incorporate risk factors common in industrialized nations, panelists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) said Tuesday (April 14).
-
Nation & World
For cancer cells, genetics alone is poor indicator for drug response
In certain respects, cells are less like machines and more like people. True, they have lots of components, but they also have lots of personality. For example, when specific groups…
-
Nation & World
Angiogenesis inhibitor improves brain tumor survival by reducing swelling
The beneficial effects of anti-angiogenesis drugs in the treatment of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas appear to result primarily from reduction of edema – the swelling of brain tissue…
-
Nation & World
Banking of umbilical cord blood has little physician support
A survey of physicians has found broad support for the position that parents should not bank their newborns’ umbilical cord blood in a private blood bank unless another member of…
-
Nation & World
Implants mimic infection to rally immune system against tumors
Harvard bioengineers have shown that small plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin can reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. The research — which…
-
Nation & World
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer does not appear to increase cardiac deaths
Treating prostate cancer patients with drugs that block hormonal activity does not appear to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by Harvard Medical…
-
Nation & World
New strategy identified for improving effectiveness of cancer therapies
Manipulating levels of nitric oxide, a gas involved in many biological processes, may improve the disorganized network of blood vessels supplying tumors, potentially improving the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy. …
-
Nation & World
M. Judah Folkman, biomedical pioneer, dies at 74
One of Harvard Medical School’s (HMS) most forward-looking and innovative physician-scientists, M. Judah Folkman, died suddenly Monday (Jan. 14) after suffering a heart attack at the Denver International Airport in…
-
Nation & World
Microchip-based device can detect rare tumor cells in bloodstream
A team of investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems (BioMEMS) Resource Center and the MGH Cancer Center has developed a microchip-based device that can isolate, enumerate and…
-
Nation & World
Prostate cancer treatments often not matched to patient needs
More than a third of men with early prostate cancer who participated in a study analyzing treatment choice received therapies that might not be appropriate, based on pre-existing problems with…