(Posted: 05/22/2013) - Trends in Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) and smoking explain a significant proportion of the decline of intestinal-type noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma (NCGA) incidence in U.S. men between 1978 and 2008, and are estimated to continue to contribute to further declines between 2008 and 2040. These are the conclusions of a study from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health (an affiliate of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) in Boston, published in PLOS Medicine, that suggest H. pylori and smoking trends together accounted for almost half of the observed decline in intestinal-type NCGA between 1978 and 2008.

(Posted: 05/21/2013) - A new measure of the heterogeneity – the variety of genetic mutations – of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer. In the May 20 issue of the journal Cancer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary describe how their measure was a better predictor of survival than most traditional risk factors in a small group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

(Posted: 05/21/2013) - Discovering that mouse hair has a circadian clock -- a 24-hour cycle of growth followed by restorative repair -- researchers suspect that hair loss in humans from toxic cancer radiotherapy and chemotherapy might be minimized if these treatments are given late in the day. The researchers, from Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the University of Southern California (home of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center) and the University of California, Irvine, worked out the precise timing of the hair circadian clock, and also uncovered the biology behind the clockwork -- the molecules that tells hair when to grow and when to repair damage. They then tested the clock using radiotherapy.

(Posted: 05/20/2013) - Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed a promising method to distinguish between pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis — two disorders that are difficult to tell apart. A molecular marker obtained from pancreatic "juices" can identify almost all cases of pancreatic cancer, their study shows. The findings were being presented at Digestive Disease Week 2013 in Orlando, Fla. Pancreatic cancer and chronic pancreatitis both produce the same signs of disease in the pancreas, such as inflammation, but cancer in the organ is a life-threatening disorder that must be treated immediately and aggressively.

(Posted: 05/17/2013) - Most cancer patients would like to talk about the cost of their care with their doctors, but often don't because they fear the discussion could compromise the quality of their treatment, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report. Yet many patients who do broach the subject of finances believe it helps decrease costs. The study is slated for presentation June 3 at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

(Posted: 05/17/2013) - Women in their 40s continue to undergo routine breast cancer screenings despite national guidelines recommending otherwise, according to new research from Johns Hopkins (home of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center). In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that while women ages 50 to 74 should continue to undergo mammograms every two years, those between the ages of 40 and 49 without a family history of breast cancer should discuss the risks and benefits of routine screening mammography with their physicians to make individual decisions. The researchers expected to find fewer women in their 40s getting routine mammograms. Instead, they found no impact on mammography rates among younger women.

(Posted: 05/17/2013) - Imaging scans following treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma do little to help detect a relapse, a Mayo Clinic study has found. The overwhelming majority of patients with this aggressive lymphoma already have symptoms, an abnormal physical exam or an abnormal blood test at the time of relapse, the researchers say. The findings will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting May 31-June 4 in Chicago.

(Posted: 05/16/2013) - People who have non-melanoma skin cancer may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, according to research carried out by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (home to the Albert Einstein Cancer Center). Their findings were published in the May 15, 2013 online issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

(Posted: 05/16/2013) - Continuous infusion of a novel agent not only halted the progression of Ewing sarcoma in rats, while some tumors also regressed to the point that cancer cells could not be detected microscopically, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Their study, which will be presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, provides pre-clinical evidence necessary to initiate a clinical trial.

(Posted: 05/16/2013) - A clinical trial has shown that patients were willing to undergo an additional cancer biopsy, to seek out the best treatment for their tumor type through analysis to find and target genetic mutations that drive the cancer. Results of the study, CUSTOM, begun at the National Cancer Institute and completed at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, are being presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University also participated.