The Surgeon

This research study led by Dr. Javed Yakoob from Aga Khan University, Karachi, has determined that a gastric juice polymerase chain reaction test for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection has greater sensitivity compared to histology when commonly used potent acid-reducing drugs such as proton pump inhibitors are being used. The use of the gastric juice PCR test can be recommended to confirm H. pylori status in patients taking PPIs.
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Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body’s immune defense system and—like tiny anti-cancer missiles—home in on tumors.

Their discovery, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Advanced Materials, is reminiscent of the 1966 science fiction movie, the Fantastic Voyage, in which a submarine is shrunken to microscopic dimensions, then injected into the bloodstream to remove a blood clot from a diplomat’s brain.
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A specially coated metal tube, no larger than a cigarette, could be the key to developing an artificial pancreas to help millions of people with diabetes avoid insulin injections, according to an article scheduled for the May 5 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.

Using a combination of a targeted cancer-fighting agent called DFMO and a low dose of an anti-inflammatory drug, UC Irvine researchers have reduced the risk of reoccurring colorectal polyps, an early sign of colon cancer, by as much as 95 percent with fewer toxic side effects.

The study marks a breakthrough in the effort to combat colon cancer, the third leading cause of cancer in men and fourth in women, according to Dr. Frank L. Meyskens Jr., the Daniel G. Aldrich Chair at UC Irvine and director of its Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Hormones produced by the heart eliminated human pancreatic cancer in more than three-quarters of the mice treated with the hormones and eliminated human breast cancer in two-thirds of the mice, according to researcher David Vesely, a doctor at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa and a professor at the University of South Florida (USF).

Credit: iStockphoto

The lesson learned in eradicating dandelions from your yard could apply in treating breast cancer as well, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

“It’s not enough to kill the dandelion blossom and stalk that appear above ground,” said Dr. Michael Lewis, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology and a faculty member in the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Cancer Center at BCM. “You have to kill the root beneath the soil as well.”
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A high consumption of lignans is associated with better survival in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Although the dietary intake of lignans did not have any effect on breast cancer survival in premenopausal women, postmenopausal women with a high intake of plant lignans were approximately 70% less likely to die from their breast cancer, according to study data presented here at the American Association for Cancer Research 2008 Annual Meeting.
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Starving the body of food for a couple of days could help in the fight against cancer, according to new research.

Scientists have discovered that a 48-hour fast seems to protect the body’s healthy cells against the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.

The breakthrough could provide a solution to a problem that has confounded cancer experts for years – how to target chemotherapy so it destroys cancer cells but leaves healthy ones intact.
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Not a day goes by without a new story about the environment. Although we often consider the environment on a global scale, cells in our body also have to contend with environmental factors. New studies from a team of researchers from the Research Institute of the MUHC and McGill University show that the environment surrounding breast cancer cells plays a crucial role in determining whether tumor cells grow and migrate or whether they fade away. Their study is the first to identify the genes behind this environmental control and correlate them with patient outcome. Their findings are published in this week’s issue of Nature Medicine.
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Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researchers published a study in The American Journal of Human Genetics identifying the hereditary components of colorectal cancer (CRC.) “Identification of Susceptibility Genes for Cancer in a Genome-wide Scan: Results from the Colon Neoplasia Sibling Study” is the first large linkage study of families with CRC and colon polyps in the country. Because only five percent of CRC cases are due to known gene defects, this NIH-funded study is designed to identify the remaining CRC-related susceptibility genes. The team built on a previous study which identified a specific region on chromosome 9q that harbors a CRC susceptibility gene. Upon review of a whole genome scan of all chromosome pairs in 194 families, the researchers were able to identify additional CRC gene regions on chromosomes 1p, 15q, and 17p.
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