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2021 - Cancer Currents Blog

  • Side by side illustrations of breast-conserving surgery and a simple mastectomy.
    • By Edward Winstead

    Women with early-stage breast cancer who had one or both breasts surgically removed (a unilateral or bilateral mastectomy) had lower scores on a quality-of-life survey than women who had breast-conserving surgery, a new study has found.

  • A medical professional performs an ultrasound on a patient's neck to examine the thyroid gland.
    • By Sharon Reynolds

    Women are far more likely than men to be diagnosed with small thyroid cancers that probably would have never caused problems during their lifetime, a new study finds. The results may help explain why thyroid cancer seems to be more common in women.

  • A process called spectral karyotyping shows widespread aneuploidy in a cell line of lung cancer.
    • By Nadia Jaber

    Aneuploidy—when cells have too many or too few chromosomes—is common in cancer cells, but scientists didn’t know why. Two new studies suggest that aneuploidy helps the cells survive treatments like chemotherapy and targeted therapies.

  • Diagram illustrates how HIF (Hypoxia-Inducible Factor) proteins respond to oxygen levels. Under hypoxia, HIF-1α and HIF-2α move to the nucleus, forming a complex at the HRE (Hypoxia-Responsive Element) site. HIF-2α inhibitors can block this process, affecting gene expression.
    • By Linda Wang

    FDA has approved belzutifan (Welireg) to treat adults with von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) who have tumors of the kidney, brain, nervous system, or pancreas. The drug may help these patients avoid or delay surgery by shrinking their tumors.

  • NCI Director Dr. Norman E. Sharpless with two campers
    • By Norman E. Sharpless, M.D.

    NCI Director Dr. Ned Sharpless discusses progress against childhood cancers, like CAR T-cell therapy and collecting more comprehensive data on children and adolescents with cancer, and the need to better address disparities in childhood cancer.

  • Multiple PET-CT scan images identifying a tumor recurrence in a person with lung cancer.
    • By Edward Winstead

    Quitting smoking after a diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer may help people live longer, a new study finds. The study, which included more than 500 patients, also found that quitting smoking delayed the cancer from returning or getting worse.

  • Image of many news article clippings with headlines involving bad information about cancer and how to help it
    • By Elia Ben-Ari

    Misinformation about cancer is abundant on social media, including stories that describe miraculous results from treatments that are unproven and potentially harmful. Researchers are studying misinformation and its impact on people with cancer.

  • A medical illustration of Candida sp. fungal organisms
    • By Sharon Reynolds

    New research suggests that fungi in the gut may affect how tumors respond to cancer treatments. In mice, when bacteria were eliminated with antibiotics, fungi filled the void and impaired the immune response after radiation therapy, the study found.

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