A Light Touch in Cancer Treatment
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been a topic of research for almost two decades, but now the treatment is coming of age. It's a combination therapy, involving both a drug and light. The patient is given a light-sensitive drug (a photosensitiser) which permeates the entire body, including the diseased tissue. The doctor then shines low power red light onto the tumour area and this activates the drug, ...

Angels on the Web: Free Flight for Patients in Need
Click here to read the entire article (requires registration): http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/440785?mpid=3769

Blood Thinner Weakens Cancer Cells
Scientists have discovered how the popular blood-thinning drug heparin prevents tumor cells from spreading in mice, a development that could lead to a new weapon in the fight against human cancers. But researchers are far from recommending the drug to cancer patients, and one expert warned that its tumor-fighting powers may be severely limited. Heparin is used mainly in hospitals to thin the blood ...

Breast Cancer Expert Collaborates with Dalai Lama's Doctor
October 07, 1999 News Office: Abby Sinnott (415) 885-7277 Faced with advanced breast cancer, hundreds of women worldwide have sought treatment from Yeshi Dhonden, one of the foremost living authorities on Tibetan medicine who was the Dalai Lama's personal physician for two decades. Now, in an unprecedented clinical trial, Dhonden and breast cancer experts at UCSF are putting traditional Tibetan ...

Cancer Drug Glivec May Have To Be Taken For Life
Disease: Soft Tissue Sarcoma Source: Reuters News Publish Date: 07/06/2001 Review Date: 07/10/2001 LONDON, Jul 06 (Reuters Health) - Novartis' anti-cancer agent Glivec shows great promise in treating a type of gastrointestinal cancer, but it may have to be taken for life, presenting new challenges to financially-pressed health services, a British researcher said on Thursday.

Cancer Pill Speeds Through Testing
EAST HANOVER, New Jersey (CNN) -- It could be one of the fastest drug approvals ever: a pill, called Glivec, that's shown astonishing results in patients with a common form of leukemia. Pharmaceutical company Novartis is filing for marketing approval with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after only three years of study and development. The process usually takes an average of five to seven years. ...

Cancer Research -- Table of Contents Alert
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/vol63/issue8/index.shtml?etoc

Cancer Studies Favor New EntreMed Drug
New test results for a closely watched cancer drug indicate that it does not harm patients and it appears to stabilize or shrink some cancers, researchers announced yesterday at a scientific conference in Amsterdam. ... Click here to read the entire article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A54582-2000Nov9&notFound=true

Cancer Treatment Breakthrough
Scientists have developed a test that can tell if cancer patients are likely to respond to the most common drug treatment. ... Click here to read the entire article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1010195.stm

Clinicopathologic Re-Evaluation of 100 Malignant Fibrous Histiocytomas: Prognostic Relevance of Subclassification PURPOSE: Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) has been regarded as the most common soft tissue sarcoma (STS) in adults. Yet its true nature and the validity of this diagnostic concept have increasingly been questioned. Available data suggest that most patients with MFH can be subclassified into specific STS types, but the clinical relevance of such categorization has been argued. In a retrospective ...

Directing Radiation At Tumors, Sparing Healthy Tissue
University of Florida scientists have developed new technology to more precisely target radiation beams at cancerous tumors of the body's internal organs, an advance they hope will improve cure rates and result in fewer side effects. ... Click here to read the entire article: http://unisci.com/stories/20013/0709013.htm

Garlic 'protects against cancer'
Scientists have uncovered fresh evidence that garlic can protect against some forms of cancer. ... Click here to read the entire article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/954275.stm

High-Grade Extremity Soft Tissue Sarcomas: Factors Predictive of Local Recurrence and its Effect on Morbidity and Mortality
Objective To identify patient characteristics associated with the development of local recurrence and the effect of local recurrence on subsequent morbidity and mortality in patients with intermediate- to high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcomas. Summary Background Data Numerous studies on extremity soft tissue sarcomas have consistently shown that presentation with locally recurrent disease is ...

Limbs saved by cancer pioneers
A revolutionary technique which could prevent some cancer patients losing whole limbs has been tried for the first time in the UK. ... Click here to read the entire article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1246231.stm

New Perspectives on Soft Tissue Sarcomas
The Scripps Cancer Center Conference is unique among annual Hematology-Oncology conferences for featuring many clinically oriented presentations on nonmalignant hematology topics. These, as well as more traditional updates on blood and solid tumors, will be highlighted in this conference coverage. Soft Tissue Sarcomas Dr. George Demetri,[1] Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical College ...

New Standard of Care for Painful Bone Metastases
Feb. 4, 2003 -- Single-fraction radiotherapy for painful bone metastases was equally efficacious and less expensive than multiple-fraction therapy, according to the results of a randomized societal cost-utility analysis published in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The investigators suggest that this should be the standard of care for palliation. "Although single- ...

Nutrition and Physical Activity During and After Cancer Treatment: An American Cancer Society Guide for Informed Choices
The text is available at: http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/reprint/56/6/323

Oral Oncology Products: Barriers to Successful Adoption
Introduction Pharmaceutical manufacturers are focusing their attention on developing oral forms of chemotherapy. The endeavor to offer drugs that can be delivered more easily has yielded both new oral agents and oral forms of drugs traditionally administered by IV. The magnitude of the movement toward oral agents is best demonstrated by the fact that between 20 and 25 percent of the 400 new antineoplastic ...

Researchers Developing Technology To Outsmart Metastasized Cancers
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ? News that a malignant tumor has spread to other parts of the body seems like a death knell to the ears of many cancer patients. But Endocyte Inc. and Purdue University researchers are developing treatment methods that ultimately may cure some cancers, even those that have reached an advanced stage. Many types of cancer cells have a great affinity for folate ? a form of water-soluble ...

Stereotactic Radiosurgery Improves Survival in Patients With Brain Metastases
Oct. 7, 2002 -- Adding stereotactic radiosurgery after whole brain radiation therapy (RT) significantly improved both quality and quantity of life in patients with brain metastases, according to a presentation on Oct. 7 at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meeting held in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Based on [the quality of life] findings alone, whole brain RT followed ...

Survey highlights 'taboo' cancer
If spotted early, bowel cancer is more likely to be cured Britons dread discussing bowel problems with their GPs, a survey shows - yet colon cancer kills thousands in the UK each year. The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) released the survey to coincide with "Bowel Cancer Month", a drive to raise awareness of the symptoms of the disease. If discovered early, bowel cancer is far more treatable ...

Synovial Sarcoma
Synovial sarcoma, also called synovioma, is a rare cancer that begins in synovial tissue. Synovial tissue can be found in tendons (tissues that connect muscle to bone), bursae (fluid-filled, cushioning sacs found in spaces between tendons, ligaments, and bones), and the cavity (hollow enclosed area) that separates the bones of a freely movable joint, such as the knee or elbow. Synovial sarcomas occur ...

Tabletop Laser Promises Gains For Cancer Treatment
A tabletop laser source that could bring the latest cancer therapies into hospitals everywhere is being developed by physicists at Glasgow University, working in collaboration with colleagues at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford and Imperial College, London. At present, cancer diagnosis using positron emission tomography (PET imaging) and treatment using irradiation by protons is available ...

Tailoring cancer treatments, using genetic code
NEW ORLEANS - The prospect of personalizing cancer treatment according to genetic profiles is creating a buzz of excitement at a conference in New Orleans this week. INDEPTH: Human Genome Project The best and the brightest medical scientists in the world, about 13,000 in all, are comparing notes at the huge gathering. An audience member and a slogan seen at the conference At the heart of ...