News for Africa Doc

(University of Alabama at Birmingham) Magazine's special cancer edition focuses on a pair of University of Alabama at Birmingham doctors because of their research into a field call viral gene therapy, or virotherapy. The two were optimistic of the promise; "We envision a substantial role for viruses -- that is, therapeutic viruses -- in 21st-century medicine," they said.

(American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Happiness and optimism may play a role against breast cancer while adverse life events can increase the risk of developing the disease, according to a study by Professor Ronit Peled at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

(American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) Researchers have uncovered a big clue as to why some of the bacteria that cause stomach ulcers pose a greater risk for serious problems like stomach cancer than others; it turns out these bacteria can exploit the surrounding stomach cells to protect them from the immune system.

(Vanderbilt University Medical Center) New research may explain why breast cancer tends to be more aggressive in women with denser breast tissue.Breast cancer cells grown in dense, rigid surroundings step up their invasive activities, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators report in the Sept. 9 issue of Current Biology.

(Society of Nuclear Medicine) SNM and the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology will cosponsor a symposium this fall examining the impact of translational advances on radiation oncology and cancer imaging. The two-day meeting, which takes place Oct. 17-18, will bring together some of the world's leading experts and young investigators in the emerging field of molecular imaging.

(Medical College of Wisconsin) In a landmark study, Medical College of Wisconsin researchers in Milwaukee report that drugs used to inhibit a specific fatty acid in rat brains with glioblastoma-like tumors not only reduced new blood vessel growth and tumor size dramatically, but also prolonged survival. The study is the featured cover story of the August 2008 Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism.

(Weber Shandwick Worldwide) The Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation is pleased to inform patients that the US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the label for Vidaza (azacitidine) to include data from the AZA-001 trial, which found that Vidaza is the only agent that extends survival in MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes) patients. Vidaza was also shown to delay progression to acute myelogenous leukemia in patients with MDS. Roughly 30 percent of patients diagnosed with MDS will progress to AML.

(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) Although post-reproductive life in humans is often associated with decline and a loss of powers, an analogous state in certain cells -- called senescence -- is proving to be one of ironic potency. Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory today reported that a particular class of senescent liver cells orchestrates a sequence of events in living mice that can limit fibrosis, a natural response of the liver to acute damage.

(University of Rochester Medical Center) Some of the drugs given to many men during their fight against prostate cancer can actually spur some cancer cells to grow, researchers have found. The findings were published online this week in a pair of papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(New York Stem Cell Foundation) The New York Stem Cell Foundation will hold its third annual Translational Stem Cell Research Conference Oct. 14-15 in New York City.

(Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) Researchers identify a previously unrecognized problem faced by mTOR inhibitors when it comes to attacking cancers.

(BioMed Central) Feelings of happiness and optimism play a positive role against breast cancer. Research published today in the open access journal BMC Cancer suggests that while staying positive has a protective role, adverse life events such as the loss of a parent or close relative, divorce or the loss of a spouse can increase a woman's risk of developing the disease.

(Journal of Clinical Investigation) This release contains summaries, links to PDFs and contact information for the following newsworthy papers to be published Aug. 21, 2008, in the JCI: "Antitumor effects are enhanced by inhibiting 2 pathways rather than 1"; "Molecular insight into one form of the bleeding disorder von Willebrand disease"; and "Insight into the physiologic role of the blood protein Factor XII finally revealed."

(Journal of Clinical Investigation) Two independent research groups have found that simultaneous inhibition of two signaling pathways -- mTOR and MAPK signaling pathways -- results in substantially enhanced antitumor effects when compared with inhibition of either pathway alone in mouse models of prostate and breast cancer.

(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Cancer cells are deadly traitors, good cells gone bad. They evade the body's defense systems, passing themselves off as organisms that pose no threat.

(Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) New findings define a pathway that maintains PTEN in the nucleus and offer a novel target for enhancing this gene's tumor suppressive function.

(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) A surprise discovery -- that calorie-burning brown fat can be produced experimentally from muscle precursor cells in mice -- raises the prospect of new ways to fight obesity and overweight, report Dana-Farber scientists. They demonstrated that a previously known molecular switch, PRDM16, regulates the creation of brown fat from immature muscle cells. They also determined that the process is a two-way street: Knocking out PRDM16 in brown fat cells can convert them into muscle cells.

(Harvard School of Public Health) The cost-effectiveness of vaccination in the US against human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, will be optimized by achieving universal vaccine coverage in young adolescent girls, by targeting initial "catch-up" efforts to vaccinate women younger than 21 years of age, and by revising current screening policies, according to an analysis by Harvard School of Public Health researchers in NEJM.

(Ohio State University) Turning up the heat on the red tomato during processing has the potential to give the popular garden staple added disease-fighting power. Scientists have found that lycopene molecules in tomatoes that are combined with fat and subjected to intense heat during processing are restructured in a way that appears to ease their transport into the bloodstream and tissue. The tomato is the primary food source of lycopene, a naturally occurring pigment linked to the prevention of cancer and other chronic diseases.

(Monell Chemical Senses Center) According to new research from the Monell Center, odors from skin can be used to identify basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. The findings, presented at the 236th meeting of the American Chemical Society, may lead to development of new methods to detect basal cell carcinoma and other forms of skin cancer. Earlier work identified almost 100 different chemical compounds coming from skin.