September 2011 - FYI

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• Researchers from the University of Miami and the University of Heidelberg in Germany have developed a mathematical model to understand and predict the progress of a tumor.
• A 16-year study of 78,000 women − aged 55 to 74 and at moderate risk for ovarian cancer − showed that screening did not reduce the number of deaths from ovarian cancer.
• "Although dermoscopy* is a wonderful tool for sorting out benign from malignant melanocytic lesions, some lesions remain difficult to diagnose even with dermoscopy," says James M. Grichnik, M.D., Ph.D.
• Using CT scans to screen smokers for lung cancer cuts the risk of death from the disease by 20 %.

Cancer News

• Results from a nationwide research poll by the Colon Cancer Alliance and Quest Diagnostics show that 31% of men and women age 50 years and older have never been screened for colon cancer.
• Proton therapy is a precise form of radiation treatment that uses machines to generate beams that penetrate the body from outside and destroy cancerous tumors and cells, with minimal damage to surrounding tissue and organs. It is less toxic to the patient and reduces the amount of radiation treatment time to two weeks, instead of the typical seven weeks.
• Certain women at risk for developing melanoma, the most severe form of skin cancer, may cut the likelihood in half by taking vitamin D/calcium supplements, a new study suggests.
• A U.S. health advisory panel rejected the blockbuster cancer drug Avastin as an effective treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
• The discovery that a cellular enzyme switches on a gene that makes ovarian cancer cells resist the most commonly used chemotherapy drugs is being heralded as a significant breakthrough.
• Most of the 51,370 colon cancer deaths reported in 2010 could have been prevented through screening, UHealth/Miller News
• Holtz Children’s Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center is among the country’s elite, according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best Children's Hospitals rankings recently published online. High doses of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may increase the risk of diabetes, a new study says.
• The goal [of a trial HIV screening program] is to test, to link to care and then to treat," said Michael A. Kolber, M. D., director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Other

• Epigenetics researchers investigate the ways that environmental factors − pollution, emotional stress, physical trauma − can alter the DNA molecule.
• Excess abdominal fat, as opposed to fat elsewhere on the body, increases men's risk for health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
• The recently-approved drug Incivek, a protease inhibitor, is highly effective at treating hepatitis C'.