Tag: cancer treatments
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Nation & World
Obesity protects against breast cancer
Being overweight or obese from adolescence to menopause reduces a woman’s chances of getting breast cancer, researchers at Harvard Medical School have found. The earlier in life that the researchers…
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Nation & World
Prostate cancer treatment increases risk of diabetes, heart disease
A treatment mainstay for prostate cancer puts men at increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to a large observational study published in the Sept. 20, 2006, Journal of…
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Nation & World
Advances in chemotherapy improve outcomes in select breast cancers
Recent advances in chemotherapy have significantly reduced the risk of disease recurrence and death in breast cancer patients whose tumors are not hormone sensitive, according to a study by researchers…
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Nation & World
Complete breast is grown from single stem cell
A complete, functioning breast has been grown from a single stem cell, by researchers in Australia. It was done in a mouse, but experts believe it won’t be long before…
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Nation & World
HMS creates first known library of breast cancer proteins
In research that could significantly advance the pace of drug discovery in the fight against breast cancer, Harvard Medical School (HMS) investigators announced in Wednesday’s (Feb. 8) online Journal of…
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Nation & World
Low-dose chemotherapy plus antiangiogenesis drug has activity in advanced breast cancer
Chemotherapy given in low, frequent doses – a novel strategy called “metronomic” delivery – achieved partial shrinkage of disease in some advanced breast cancer patients when given concurrently with an…
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Nation & World
New cancer detector developed that’s fast, sensitive, reliable
Cancers and many other diseases often reveal themselves by the presence of proteins absent or inactive in people who do not suffer from such ailments. Researchers are finding new biomarkers,…
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Nation & World
A new way to identify cancers is found
Scientists are surprised and delighted that a recently discovered group of small molecules show an unexpected potential for easily distinguishing healthy cells from tumors and one type of cancer from…
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Nation & World
Exercise shown to promote breast cancer survival
Exercise plays a role in preventing breast cancer, and research strongly suggests that breast cancer patients who are more physically active improve their self-esteem and body image. Now, a landmark study from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) finds that exercise after diagnosis may help breast cancer patients live longer.
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Nation & World
Aspirin use may protect against colon cancer recurrence, reduce risk of death
“Our data are intriguing because they showed that aspirin use notably reduced the risk of recurrence in patients with advanced colon cancer, but more research is needed before any treatment…
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Nation & World
Vitamin B6 fights cancer
Vitamin B6 is involved in approximately 100 reactions in the body, including protein and red blood cell metabolism. The nervous and immune systems also need it to function efficiently. In…
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Nation & World
Removal of both breasts reduces elevated risk of breast cancer
Women with a moderately elevated risk of breast cancer who underwent surgery to have both breasts removed reduced their risk of getting the disease by about 95 percent, a recent…
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Nation & World
Weight and weight gain may predict breast cancer survival
The study included 5,204 women with invasive breast cancer who were between the ages 30 to 55 when enrolled in the study in 1976. The researchers found that women who…
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Nation & World
Researchers discover why we go gray
People turn gray, Harvard scientists found, when certain adult stem cells gradually die off. The stem cells provide a continuous supply of other, pigment-producing cells that give your hair its…
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Nation & World
Quality of life continues to change long-term after treatment for prostate cancer
Researchers compared outcomes for men who had undergone surgery or radiation in the first study to look at the effects of prostate cancer treatment on quality of life beyond five…
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Nation & World
Study suggests more cancer patients receiving aggressive care at end of life
Researchers reviewed the records of 28,777 Medicare-eligible patients aged 65 and older who died within one year of being diagnosed with lung, breast, colorectal, and other gastrointestinal tumors between 1993…
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Nation & World
Minimally invasive prostate cancer treatment works as well as traditional techniques
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men and the cause of approximately 29,000 deaths a year. Currently, the most common treatments for prostate cancer include radical prostatectomy…
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Nation & World
New cancer drug wins FDA approval
When he was a first-year student at Harvard Medical School, Alfred Goldberg, now a professor of cell biology, wondered why the body destroys its own proteins, which are so vital…
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Nation & World
Scientists discover gene “signature” for tumor’s tendency to spread
Most cancer deaths are caused not by the original or primary tumor but by the metastasizing of tumor cells to other organs. Until now, cancer specialists have viewed the development…
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Nation & World
Study predicts risk of prostate cancer death
Researchers followed 381 people to “identify predictors of time to prostate specific death following external radiation therapy.” “The results of this study give us a better understanding of what form…
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Nation & World
Food pathogen vector shows promise against cancer
For the past four decades, researchers have poked and prodded Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes – the basic science trade names of sometimes deadly bugs – to discover how they…
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Nation & World
Researchers isolate key part of cells’ ‘death’ signals
In the cover article of the September 2002 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reported that peptide subunits of cell-signaling “BH3” proteins could out-maneuver opposing…
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Nation & World
Resistance mutation found for Gleevec
The drug Gleevec was stunningly successful in treating patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) at early stages of disease, but quickly stopped working in most patients with more advanced forms…
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Nation & World
Sea squirt cancer drug under test
In the United States, researchers at three Harvard University-affiliated hospitals — Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — have been testing a powerful drug on…
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Nation & World
Diagnosis by database shows promise
A relatively new approach to researching cancer involves looking at the actions of thousands of genes in cancer tumors. This technique just recently became possible because, using new applications of…
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Nation & World
New study provides mixed report card on informed consent to cancer clinical trials
According to a study that appeared in the Nov. 24, 2001, issue of The Lancet, nearly one quarter of cancer patients who participate in clinical trials do not realize that…
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Nation & World
New drug dissolves stomach tumors
Since July 2000, Harvard and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researcher George Demetri and his colleagues have treated 148 patients with a rare, lethal stomach cancer known as GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor).…
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Nation & World
Researchers see better treatments for cancer
“Before the development of insulin, diabetes was as deadly as many cancers are today,” says Harvard researcher Joseph Paul Eder, who is testing Endostatin on patients with advanced cancers. “In…
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Nation & World
New cancer vaccine being tested
In studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, tumors were eliminated in 25 percent of patients with widespread kidney and lethal skin cancers who…