cancer

The first national breast cancer tissue bank in the UK has opened its vaults of precious breast cancer tissue to all researchers in the UK and Ireland, providing a massive boost to breast cancer research. The bank is a unique collaboration of four leading research institutions and the NHS. Donor's breast tissue samples, blood samples, as well as data about the donor's breast cancer are all stored in this revolutionary new bank... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Authors: Minot DM, Voss J, Rademacher S, Lwin T, Orsulak J, Caron B, Ketterling R, Nassar A, Chen B, Clayton A Abstract Image analysis of the HER2 immunohistochemical (IHC) stain can help determine which breast cancer patients may benefit from HER2-targeted therapy. We studied the concordance of HER2 IHC and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as well as reproducibility of surgical pathologist (SP) and cytotechnologist (CT) interpretations using manual and image analysis methodologies on 154 IHC cases. Concordances with FISH were good for IHC negative (0, 1+) cases (range, 97%-100%) and positive (3+) cases (range, 87%-100%). Image analysis had fewer equivocal (2+) results (10.4%) than CT (14.9%) and SP (16.2%) manual methods, with higher concordances to FISH (31%, 26%, and 20...

A new study has found traces of parabens in breast cancer tumors. Do they play a role in the development of cancer? Medscape Medical News (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)

Avastin's approval for treating breast cancer was revoked by FDA in November, 2011 (Source: Health News: CBSNews.com)

Halaven® (eribulin) improves survival for women with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer (Source: Pharmacy Europe)

Kyrgias G, Theodorou K, Zygogianni A, Tsanadis K, Zervoudis S, Tzitzikas, Koukourakis M (Source: Vascular Health and Risk Management)

According to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and prostate expert Marc B. Garnick, MD, physicians who advise PSA tests for men being screened for prostate cancer must base their decision more on available evidence when recommending screening, biopsies and treatments, instead of holding on to long held beliefs that PSA-based testing benefits all... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Surprising results from two new studies may reopen debate about the value of Avastin for breast cancer. The drug helped make tumours disappear in certain women with early-stage disease, researchers found. (Source: CTV Health)

This study confirms a lower cancer risk among people with Parkinson disease. Increased risks for malignant melanoma, non‐melanoma skin cancer and breast cancer might be due to shared risk factors with Parkinson disease. (Source: International Journal of Cancer)

Breast cancer survivorship continues to rise, but the long-lasting psychosocial and quality-of-life changes that occur after treatment need to be studied, as treatment outcomes can lead to negative side effects that outlast the treatment. (Source: Cancer Network)

Nature Reviews Cancer 12, 79 (2012). doi:10.1038/nrc3209 Author: Gemma K. Alderton This paper maps oestrogen receptor-α (ERα) binding to chromatin in frozen samples of breast tumours to identify changes in ERα-mediated gene expression, which are modulated by FOXA1 and which correlate with prognosis. (Source: Nature Reviews Cancer)

Avastin and Sutent, two breast cancer drugs, do not lead to longer survival, probably because they encourage an increase in the number cancer stem cells in breast tumors, according to a study carried out on mice by researchers from the Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (early edition). Even though Sutent (sunitinib) and Avastin (bevacizumab) do shrink breast cancer tumors and slow down the rate at which the cancer develops, their effects are short-lived - the cancers starts growing again and metastasizes (spreads)... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

We describe a case of cutaneous silicone granuloma in the breast exhibiting unusual growth mimicking breast cancer after a ruptured implant. (Source: Clinical and Developmental Immunology)

Surgeons are able to make more informed decisions about nerve-sparing procedures in men with prostate cancer if they use preoperative MRI, a study suggests. (Source: Nursing Times Breaking News)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Robot-assisted surgery for prostate cancer has been heavily hyped, and a new study suggests that men's expectations of the surgery may be too high. (Source: Reuters: Health)

CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic antibiotics administered preoperatively reduce the risk of SSI in patients undergoing surgery for breast cancer. Further studies involving patients undergoing immediate breast reconstruction are needed as studies have identified this group as being at higher risk of infection than those who do not undergo immediate breast reconstruction. PMID: 22258962 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews)

(Queen's University) Researchers at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada have identified a possible cause for the loss of a tumor suppressor gene that can lead to the development of more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)

Women treated at young ages with supradiaphragmatic radiotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) have a highly increased risk of breast cancer. For personalized advice and follow-up regimens for patients, information is needed on how the radiotherapy-related risk is affected by other breast cancer risk factors. Genome-wide association studies have identified 14 independently replicated common single nucleotide polymorphisms that influence breast cancer risk. To examine whether these variants contribute to risk of radiation-associated breast cancer in HL, we analyzed 2 independent case-control series, from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, totaling 693 HL patients, 232 with breast cancer and 461 without. rs1219648, which annotates the FGFR2 gene, was associated with risk in both series (com...

(John Theurer Cancer Center) The Breast Cancer Division of the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, one of the nation’s top 50 cancer centers, will recap and explain research from the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium on Friday, Feb. 17 from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. during its ninth annual Northern New Jersey Breast Cancer Conference. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)

The contribution of CXCR7 to the tumor microenvironment has introduced a new level of complexity to CXCL12 signaling in breast cancer. In the previous issue of Breast Cancer Research, Hernandez and colleagues delineate the roles of CXCR4 and CXCR7 in tumor invasion and metastasis. The authors demonstrate that co-expression of CXCR7 and CXCR4 results in inhibition of CXCL12-mediated invasion, reduced intravasation of tumor cells into the vasculature, and fewer lung metastases compared with parental tumors. The results of this study suggest the combination of small molecule inhibitors of CXCR4 and CXCR7 could dramatically reduce invasion, intravasation, and metastasis and could be highly beneficial for the treatment of invasive breast cancer. (Source: BioMed Central)