The Surgeon

There are many pathways that allow an errant gene to turn a cell cancerous, and a number of these pathways go through a single enzyme called the p21-activated kinase 1, or PAK1.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have now identified a molecule capable of shutting down PAK1 before the enzyme becomes active. Previous studies have linked PAK1 activity with breast cancer and have shown the enzyme is important in pathways involving the ras oncogene, which is thought to cause up to 30 percent of all cancers.
(more…)

As our population ages and senior citizens become a larger demographic, cancer researchers are focusing on the links between aging and cancer. Studies presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 12 – 16, highlight the biological aspects of aging that are key to greater risk and poorer prognosis, and surgical outcomes.
(more…)

Surgical management of symptomatic uterine fibroids can be accomplished cost-effectively with magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS), Canadian and British investigators report in the March issue of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.





(more…)

A connection between vitamin D level and the risk of developing breast cancer has been implicated for a long time, but its clinical relevance had not yet been proven.

(more…)

Researchers at the Duke School of Medicine apparently have solved the riddle of why cancer cells like sugar so much, and it may be a mechanism that could lead to better cancer treatments.

Jonathan Coloff, a graduate student in Assistant Professor Jeffrey Rathmell’s laboratory in the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, has found that the tumor cells use glucose sugar as a way to avoid programmed cell death.
(more…)

Before breast cancer surgery, a preoperative magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) scan should be standard to determine tumor staging, researchers told the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC) in Berlin, Germany today.
(more…)

A new type of bariatric surgery may eliminate the need for medication in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a study reported here at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons 2008 Annual Scientific Session and Postgraduate Course.
(more…)

A novel peptide vaccine was able to reduce the mortality rate in women with HER2/neu overexpressing breast cancer by about half, researchers report here at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2008 Annual Meeting.

“The numbers in this study are small but the concept is good,” commented William N. Hait, MD, PhD, president of the AACR and senior vice president of Worldwide Hematology and Oncology Research and Development at Johnson & Johnson. “It’s a good first step and we are cautiously optimistic.”
(more…)

A revolutionary cancer treatment using microscopic magnets to enable ‘armed’ human cells to target tumours has been developed by researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Research published online today in the journal, Gene Therapy, shows that inserting these nanomagnets into cells carrying genes to fight tumours, results in many more cells successfully reaching and invading malignant tumours. (more…)

The removal through endoscopy of tumours that affect only the superficial layers of the oesophagus can avoid complete extirpation of this part of the digestive tract. The technique, carried out at the University Hospital of Navarra for the last three years, was presented at the VI International Course on Therapeutic Endoscopy in the Digestive System, organized by the Digestive System Service at this hospital. Specifically, more than 90% of patients treated for this ailment at the University Hospital of Navarra have not needed the extirpation of the oesophagus.
400 specialists from ten different countries attended the course, focusing on the therapeutic possibilities of endoscopy in the digestive system. Treatment using digestive endoscopy, without having to carry out surgery, is increasing. These applications are less aggressive than surgical operations and are undertaken at out-patient clinics in about 99% of the cases, which usually enables the patient to go home after the walk-in/walk-out treatment, explained Doctor Miguel Ángel Muñoz Navas, Director of the Digestive System Service at the University Hospital of Navarra.
(more…)