Smokers Continue Habit After Being Diagnosed With Cancer
According to a study published January 23 online in Cancer, many smokers do not drop the habit after being diagnosed with colorectal or lung cancer. The study by Elyse R. Ph.D., M.P.H.and her team at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston involved 3, 063 patients with colorectal cancer and 2, 456 with lung cancer. The patients were seen at the time of diagnosis, and also five months later. The researchers set out to determine what was driving them to continue smoking. Park states: "These findings can help cancer clinicians identify patients who are at risk for smoking and guide tobacco counseling.
For Brain Cancer - A Thought-Provoking New Therapeutic Target?
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common of all malignant brain tumors that originate in the brain. Patients with GBM have a poor prognosis because it is a highly aggressive form of cancer that is commonly resistant to current therapies. New therapeutic approaches are therefore much needed. Joanna Phillips, Zena Werb, and colleagues, at the University of California, San Francisco, have now identified a potential new therapeutic target for the treatment of GBM. A substantial proportion of GBMs show evidence of abnormal activation of signaling pathways triggered by a cell surface protein known as PDGFR-alpha, and this is thought to drive the tumor.
Protein Structures Offer Clues To Breast Cancer, Alzheimer's Treatment, Prevention
Using some of the most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance equipment available, researchers at the University of California, Davis, are making discoveries about the shape and structure of biological molecules - potentially leading to new ways to treat or prevent diseases such as breast cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The findings appear in the latest issues of the journals Nature and Journal of Biological Chemistry. "These are exquisite three-dimensional objects, and the structures really give insight into how they function in the cell, " chemistry professor James Ames said.