Articles

Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who have mutations in the CREBBP gene are more likely to relapse according to a team of researchers with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the National Cancer Institute. The CREBBP gene produces CREB binding protein, an enzyme involved in cell growth and division. According to the investigators, CREBBP also regulates genes essential to normal blood cell development.

 

Patients with lung cancer who received daily fish oil supplements experienced greater tumor shrinkage during chemotherapy and longer overall survival (OS) and were less likely to lose weight than patients taking placebo. The study was led by Vera Mazurak, PhD, an expert in nutrition and metabolism with the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional science at the University of Alberta in Canada.

 

Chemotherapy might contribute to balance problems in postmenopausal women with breast cancer, according to researchers from the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University. They enrolled 59 breast cancer survivors (average age, 58 years) and compared their incidence of falls with the annual reported rate for historical controls living in a community setting.

 

ORLANDO, FL— The news was promising regarding several drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer at the recent ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium held February 17-19, 2011 An extension-phase study of degeralix, approved by the FDA in 2008, confirmed the efficacy of this drug versus leuprolide. Other positive studies focused on drugs in various stages of development, including abiraterone, cabozantinib, and MDV3100.

 

Data published in the Lancet this week support the effectiveness of eribulin mesylate (Halaven)—a microtubule inhibitor—in women with advanced breast cancer that has progressed after several treatments. The FDA approved eribulin in November 2010 for metastatic breast cancer patients treated with at least two chemotherapy regimens (an anthracycline and a taxane). Read More ›