(Posted: 08/02/2013) - Deciphering the body’s complex molecular pathways that lead to disease when they malfunction is highly challenging. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute now have a more complete picture of one particular pathway that can lead to cancer and diabetes. In the study published by Molecular Cell, the scientists uncovered how a protein called p62 has a cascade affect in regulating cell growth in response to the presence of nutrients such as amino acids and glucose. Disrupting this chain may offer a new approach to treating disease.

(Posted: 08/01/2013) - Tomosynthesis, or 3-dimensional (3-D) mammography, significantly reduced the number of patients being recalled for additional testing after receiving a mammogram, a Yale Cancer Center study found. The study appears in the journal Radiology. Digital mammography is considered the mainstay for breast cancer screening. However, it is not a perfect test, and many women are asked to come back for additional testing that often turns out not to show cancer. These additional screening tests increase patient anxiety.

(Posted: 08/01/2013) - Surgery is not always necessary for women with a type of breast tissue abnormality associated with a higher risk of cancer, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. Researchers said that periodic imaging and clinical exam are effective in these patients when radiology and pathology findings are benign and concordant, or in agreement. The study was led by researchers from the Emory University School of Medicine (home of the Winship Cancer Institute) and the University of Virginia (home of the UVA Cancer Center) and colleagues.

(Posted: 07/25/2013) - Scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have provided evidence from preclinical experiments that a gene known as melanoma differentiation associated gene-9/syntenin (mda-9/syntenin) could be used as a therapeutic target to kill bladder cancer cells, help prevent metastasis and even be used to non-invasively diagnose the disease and monitor its progression.

(Posted: 07/25/2013) - Based on a comprehensive study that included more than half the Asian American population, scientists from the Cancer Prevention Institute of California (a partner of the Stanford Cancer Institute) have produced the first ever analysis of national trends in cancer incidence among the eight largest Asian American groups. The researchers examined cancer incidence data from 1990 through 2008 in 10 regions of the country, representing 54 percent of all Asian Americans. The eight groups studied in detail include Asian Indians/Pakistanis, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Kampucheans (Cambodians), Koreans, Laotians and Vietnamese.

(Posted: 07/24/2013) - Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and their colleagues have used digital versions of a standard molecular biology tool to detect a common tumor-associated mutation in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with brain tumors. In their report being published in the open-access journal Molecular Therapy – Nucleic Acids, the investigators describe using advanced forms of the gene-amplification technology polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to analyze bits of RNA carried in membrane-covered sacs called extracellular vesicles for the presence of a tumor-associated mutation in a gene called IDH1.

(Posted: 07/22/2013) - Protein production or translation is tightly coupled to a highly conserved stress response that cancer cells rely on for survival and proliferation, according to Whitehead Institute and MIT researchers.

(Posted: 07/17/2013) - Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that specific types of bacteria that live in the gut are major contributors to lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells that are part of the human immune system.

(Posted: 07/16/2013) - Although women who survived childhood cancer face an increased risk of infertility, nearly two-thirds of those who tried unsuccessfully to become pregnant for at least a year eventually conceived, according to clinical researchers at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Brigham and Women's Hospital. This is comparable to the rate of eventual pregnancy among all clinically infertile women.

(Posted: 07/05/2013) - Mothers commonly talk to their children about genetic test results even if they test positive for a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, which sharply increases a woman's risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. That is among the findings of a new study from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which also suggests mothers who don't discuss their test results are unsatisfied with that decision.