(Posted: 11/13/2012) - Among patients with the most common form of kidney cancer, whites consistently have a survival advantage over blacks, regardless of patient and tumor characteristics or surgical treatment. That is the conclusion of a new University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center study published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The study's results suggest that additional efforts are needed to prolong the survival of all patients with kidney cancer.

(Posted: 11/13/2012) - A hormone-like substance produced by the body to promote inflammation can cause an aggressive form of leukemia when present at high levels, according to a new study by researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. The study shows that high levels of interleukin-15 (IL-15) alone can cause large granular lymphocytic (LGL) leukemia, a rare and usually fatal form of cancer, in an animal model. The researchers also developed a treatment for the leukemia that showed no discernible side effects in the animal model.

(Posted: 11/13/2012) - In the first broad genetic landscape mapped of a Burkitt lymphoma tumor, scientists at Duke Medicine (home to the Duke Cancer Institute) and their collaborators identified 70 mutations, including several that had not previously been associated with cancer and a new one that was unique to the disease. Findings from the genetic sequencing of Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of lymphoma, could be used to develop new drugs or aim existing therapies at mutations known to be susceptible. The researchers published their findings online Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012, in the journal Nature Genetics.

(Posted: 11/13/2012) - Research led by the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified a fusion gene responsible for almost 30 percent of a rare subtype of childhood leukemia with an extremely poor prognosis. The finding offers the first evidence of a mistake that gives rise to a significant percentage of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) cases in children. AMKL accounts for about 10 percent of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The discovery paves the way for desperately needed treatment advances.

(Posted: 11/13/2012) - A novel miniature diagnostic platform using nuclear magnetic resonance technology is capable of detecting minuscule cell particles known as microvesicles in a drop of blood. Microvesicles shed by cancer cells are even more numerous than those released by normal cells, so detecting them could prove a simple means for diagnosing cancer. In a study published in Nature Medicine, investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Systems Biology demonstrate that microvesicles shed by brain cancer cells can be reliably detected in human blood through a combination of nanotechnology and their new NMR-based device. Massachusetts General is a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

(Posted: 11/09/2012) - A study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggests that body mass index (BMI)—the most commonly used weight-for-height formula for estimating fatness—may not be the best measure for estimating disease risk, and particularly the risk of certain types of cancer. The study was published in the online edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology. The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is home to the Albert Einstein Cancer Center.

(Posted: 11/08/2012) - UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have developed an innovative model for predicting the progression of skin cancer in patients. In a new study published today in Science Translational Medicine, Stage III human melanoma cells from 20 patients were implanted into specially selected mice with compromised immune systems. Using this xenograft model, in which tissue is transplanted from one species to another, the institute’s team observed reproducible differences in the rate at which the cancer spread in the mice, or metastasized, that correlated with clinical outcomes in patients. UT Southwestern is home to the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center.

(Posted: 11/08/2012) - Colon cancer survivors whose diet is heavy in complex sugars and carbohydrate-rich foods are far more likely to have a recurrence of the disease than are patients who eat a better balance of foods, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers indicates. The connection is especially strong in patients who are overweight or obese, the authors write. More than 1,000 patients with advanced (stage III) colon cancer participated in the study, one of the first to examine how diet can affect the chances that the disease will recur.

(Posted: 11/08/2012) - At the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, researchers from a multi-center study reported that a new drug that specifically targets a protein found on the surface of prostate cancer cells has performed well in a phase I clinical trial, and a phase II trial has started. The drug reduced levels of circulating tumor cells and levels of prostate specific antigen, a marker for tumor activity, in patients who had already failed previous chemotherapy and hormone treatments.

(Posted: 11/08/2012) - Cancer patients with mutations or variations in two genes -– PIK3CA and PTEN -– who have failed to respond to several standard treatments, respond significantly better to anti-cancer drugs that inhibit these genes' pathways of action, according to research from the MD Anderson Cancer Center presented at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland.