Cancer-gene testing ramps up: Nature Newsin an approach that many doctors and scientists hope will form the medical care of the future,
and a half been offering people with cancer a novel diagnostic test. Instead of assessing tumours for a single mutation that will indicate
whether a drug is likely to work or not, the hospital tests patients for some 150 mutations in more than a dozen cancer-causing genes,
with the results being used to guide novel treatments, clinical trials and basic research. This form of personalized medicine tailors treatments on the basis of the molecular and genetic characteristics of a patient's cancer cells
Plans were unveiled this week to deploy broad genetic testing for selected cancer patients in Britain's government-run health-care provider, the National Health Service (NHS.
who heads the programme for Cancer Research UK, the charity that is leading the effort. As the NHS treats millions of people each year,
000 NHS cancer patients over two years, beginning in early 2011. By contrast, Massachusetts General has tested about 1, 600 patients,
which will look for several dozen mutations in about a dozen genes linked to cancer, will be carried out on people with lung, breast, colorectal, prostate or ovarian cancers,
or metastatic melanoma, who are being treated at six NHS hospitals. Therapies that target specific tumour-causing mutations have already been approved,
or are on the verge of approval, for most of these conditions, says Peach. Testing a clinical sample for so many mutations at once is a challenge in itself.
Because most existing clinical tests probe individual genes the NHS programme is working with the Technology Strategy Board, a government agency that supports technology development,
By genotyping patients for a broad array of cancer-causing mutations, the new tests will make it easier to assign subjects to clinical trials,
a geneticist who helps lead the hospital's cancer testing programme. For example, its broad genetic test detects a mutation in a gene called BRAF that is already known to be mutated commonly in metastatic melanoma.
Finding such mutations in people with lung and colon cancer made it possible to put them in a trial of an experimental treatment targeting that gene,
Ellisen explains. Basic research should also benefit from the NHS programme, says Peach. Researchers will have access to consenting patients'genetic data as well as to medical records of the outcomes of the treatment.
says Andy Futreal, a cancer geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK,
Peach hopes that the first phase of the cancer programme will pave the way for expanding genetic testing to more patients and other conditions, such as diabetes, AIDS and even psychiatric disorders.
Cancer offers a good testing ground for personalized medicine, because numerous targeted therapies already exist, but there's no reason why this should be restricted to cancer,
says Peach. Fabrice Andrã, who runs a similar cancer diagnostic programme that has so far been offered to about 100 patients at the Gustave Roussy Institute in Villejuif
France, says the NHS programme could point the way to implementing personalized medicine across an entire population. It can really change the landscape of how molecular testing is being done for cancer,
he says. If they succeed, then it's going to be a major step forward.
GM maize offers windfall for conventional farms: Nature Newsgenetically modified (GM CROPS can save farmers using conventional seeds even more money than those using the transgenic varieties,
He also examined a scientist just home from years in Myanmar who was told that he had lung cancer.
but harmless Asian worm that imitates lung cancer by triggering an immune reaction that produces tumour-like growths.
Sure enough, on closer inspection, the scientist has now been found to be cancer-free. It's one of the most valuable things
against several conditions, including multiple myeloma. But GSK, of London, has scuttled development of SRT501, it confirmed to the patient website Myeloma Beacon last week.
Instead, the company is focusing on other chemicals thought to activate the same biological pathway as resveratrol.
and poses cancer risks. Tuna quotas Fisheries regulators are showing little mercy to the Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus),
Arrivals include Nobel laureate Timothy Hunt (pictured), a biologist at the London Research Institute of Cancer Research UK.
Trend watch Even without the more expensive treatments for cancer that are to be adopted soon,
A team from the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, modelled predicted changes to US population, cancer incidence and survival rates for the initial,
Coming up 3 6 march The American Association for Cancer Research hosts a conference in Vancouver,
and cancer. go. nature. com/5lwqim 7 11 march Preliminary analysis of dust picked up from a distant asteroid last year by the Hayabusa spacecraft will be among highlights of the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science
focusing on regions important for freshwater resources and where pollution has had a negative impact on health such as villages with high rates of cancer or endemic diseases.
The bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens which can cause tumours on plants shuttled foreign genes into plant genomes.
of which has potential for use in fighting devastating diseases such as the potato cyst nematode and the potato blight pathogen Phytophthora infestans, famous for causing The irish potato famine of the 1840s.
The drug is approved already in many countries as a treatment for some forms of leukaemia and lymphoma, under the name Campath.
The chief executive of the nongovernmental cancer-control organization Cancer Council Australia, Ian Olver, says that the fact that the tobacco industry is opposed vehemently to the legislation is a good indication that the industry's market research has shown also that plain packaging will reduce its customer base.
and a 2009 report3 by the Western Australian Cancer Council estimated that tobacco use cost Australia more than $31 billion in 2004-05.
treatments for melanoma and lung cancer that were approved along with diagnostic tests to identify the patients that they are most likely to help.
Targeting cancer Efforts to create cancer therapies tailored to a patient's genetic make-up were boosted by promising clinical-trial results reported on 7 december (J. Baselga et al.
) The trial was conducted on women with advanced forms of breast cancer that involved mutations in the HER2 gene,
which drives about 20%of breast-cancer cases. Those given the experimental monoclonal antibody pertuzumab and the widely used drug trastuzumab (Herceptin), together with chemotherapy, gained an extra 6-month lull in disease progression compared with women receiving only chemotherapy and trastuzumab.
which can cause kidney and liver damage and bladder cancer. Medicinal use of the herb probably explains high rates of bladder cancer in Taiwan,
according to a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2. At least one of the four medicines that contained Aristolochia DNA also contained aristolochic acid.
and pharmaceutical laboratories, has bred so far about 275 Â pigs some with cystic fibrosis, others with heart disease, arrhythmia or cancer,
and genetically modifying plants to feed the world s population. go. nature. com/m128l22 August The governing board of the Cancer Prevention
Texas grant review The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in Austin has appointed a compliance officer to review
Cancer vaccine The biotech firm behind the first approved cancer vaccine will slash 41%of its workforce, after tepid sales of its Provenge (sipuleucel-T) therapy for some prostate cancers.
Horwitz (pictured) created AZT in the 1960s to combat cancer, but he shelved the drug after it showed little efficacy against the disease.
but he did go on to produce treatments for diseases such as cancer at the Wayne State university School of medicine in Detroit, Michigan,
Cancer ambitions A leading US cancer centre said last week that it will spend up to US$3 Â billion over the next ten years on a programme to significantly increase the odds of surviving eight cancers.
Under the Moon shots initiative, research teams at the MD Â Anderson Cancer Center in Houston,
Texas, will focus on cancer of the prostate, lung and ovary, and on a type of breast cancer as well as melanoma, two leukaemias and a related blood syndrome.
See go. nature. com/lrevbl for more. XMRV ruled out The retrovirus XMRV is linked not to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS
It reported that the rats developed higher levels of cancers had larger cancerous tumours and died earlier than controls.
The researchers have not conclusively identified a mechanism for the effect. The rats were monitored for two years (almost their whole life  span),
Other scientists point out that the Sprague-Dawley strain of rats used in the experiments has been shown to be susceptible to developing tumours spontaneously,
and that many fewer control rats developed tumours in middle age. The 90-day trial of Monsanto s NK603 maize used in its authorization also used Sprague-Dawley rats,
Subsequent epidemiological studies involving tens of thousands of people have looked for links between acrylamide and various forms of cancer in humans
among those who had smoked never, women consuming about 40 â°micrograms of acrylamide per day doubled their risk of developing cancers of the womb
Phones and tumours Italy s highest civil court has stated that mobile phones can cause brain tumours to the dismay of medical experts who say no study has proven a clear causal link between health risks
the court ruled in favour of a commerce manager who claimed his tumour was a consequence of the heavy phone usage demanded by his job.
saying that Geron s cancer therapeutics are a better investment. See go. nature. com/tihbe6 for more.
Roundup, showed increased incidences of cancer (G.-E. SÃ ralini et al. Food Chem. Toxicol. http://doi. org/jgq;
including Alzheimer s disease, cancer and muscular dystrophy. This work will be enriched by the discovery, reported in the genome paper,
including higher incidence of tumours and earlier mortality than controls. The review s conclusion that the study was designed"inadequately,
Mess in Texas The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) announced the freezing of an US$11-million commercialization grant to Peloton Therapeutics in Dallas on 29 november,
The finding comes on the heels of months of controversy about an $18-million unreviewed CPRIT grant to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (see Nature 486,169-171;
and BRCA2 gene variants linked to inherited breast and ovarian cancer. See go. nature. com/jbqdxl for more.
Lawsuit settlement Cancer researcher Philippe Bois has settled a lawsuit against the US Department of health and human services (DHHS) over scientific misconduct, according to an announcement on 18 Â April.
such as the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and the herbicide Agent orange, can cause diseases such as cancers, neurological disorders, reproductive dysfunction and birth defects.
last year regulators shot down another such drug, dapagliflozin, citing cancer concerns. Source: US National Snow and Ice Data Centera record low in the extent of sea ice in the Arctic last September has been followed by a record refreezing of uncovered ocean surface,
and"the increasing dominance of first-year ice in the Arctic. 6-10 april Discussions on mapping the epigenomes of cancer take place at the American Association for Cancer Research s annual meeting in WASHINGTON DC. go. nature. com
Li Bocordgrass has been spreading there"like a cancer, says reserve director Tang Chendong, so far consuming more than 10%of the wetland.
the company has sued two competitors for infringing different patents on tests for the cancer-related genes BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Hua Jun Zhao, from China, had been under investigation for allegedly stealing patented cancer-research material,
Myriad, a medical diagnostics company in Salt lake city, Utah, sued Ambry in July for infringing patents that Myriad holds on tests for cancer-associated mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
) Cancer cash On 21 september, philanthropists Phil and Penny Knight announced that they would donate US$500 million to cancer research at Oregon Health
The money would support science at the university s Knight Cancer Institute, to which the couple gave a $100-million donation in 2008.
Study linking GM maize to rat tumours is retractedbowing to scientists'near-universal scorn, the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology today fulfilled its threat to retract a controversial paper claiming that a genetically modified (GM) maize causes serious disease in rats,
The known high incidence of tumours in the Sprague-Dawley strain of rat cannot be excluded as the cause of the higher mortality
The study found that rats fed for two years with Monsanto s glyphosate-resistant NK603 maize (corn) developed many more tumours
It also found that the rats developed tumours when glyphosate (Roundup), the herbicide used with GM maize,
and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on 13 Â November a breakthrough therapy to treat a rare blood cancer called mantle-cell lymphoma.
3 february The World health organization releases its Third world Cancer Report, six years after its previous publication. The latest report will include updated trends in cancer incidence,
prevalence and mortality. go. nature. com/x39hvk
Plant killers protect rainforest diversityvoracious pests may be foes of individual plants, but they can benefit forests.
and is being tested at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New york city to help physicians decide how to diagnose
Cancer donation Six US research centres have received a combined donation of US$540 Â million from the estate of late shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig.
Harvard university, the Massachusetts institute of technology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford university and the University of Chicago. Announced on 6 Â January,
the donation brings the total contribution to cancer research by Ludwig and his estate to $2. 5 Â billion.
and cancer progression. go. nature. com/rs9oyb15-17 january The 8th Human Amyloid Imaging meeting in Miami,
concluded that the evidence that smoking causes lung cancer and other illnesses was overwhelming. The Surgeon general is a spokesperson for the US Department of health.
Physician Michele Bloch, chief of the Tobacco Control Research Branch at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, calls the study by Levy and colleagues"powerful
The European commission and Cancer Research UK made the most links, according to an analysis by the publication Scibx.
Maybe we should stop spending money on cancer programs as many different types of cancers have had very little success in curing them.
but might be present on one-to 10-year timescales âÂ#Âarguably important enough to be a concern in terms of skin cancer rates Tarduno said.
That cosmic radiation blasting the Earth's surface could cause genetic mutations and cancers. Yet when palaeontologists scoured the fossil records looking for signs of mass extinctions
despite the fact that it has been linked to cancer heart disease and birth defects. Al Mauroni director of the USAF counterproliferation center in Alabama and author of Chemical Demilitarization:
inducing more cancer deathes and mutations. Here comes the MUTANTS! HERE COMES THE MUTANTS S
-when-it-was contaminated-with-cancer-virus. htmlknowing now what we know about vaccines and medicine you think our previous attempts at vaccines are full proof?
In a human they often end up in the brain forming cysts that cause a disease called neurocysticercosis.
and others exposed to Roundup the weedkiller used with it developed tumours liver damage and digestive problems. www. english. rfi. fr/americas/20120920-monsanto-gm-maize-may-face-europe-ban-after-french-study-links-cancersincerely-Joewww. joesid. compoor rats...
and have a high tendency to get cancer over their lifespan under normal conditions. One study shows over 80%of males and 70%of females get cancer during their lifetimes.
In other words SÃ Â ralini is accused of scientific malpractice for not including a high enough sample of rats in the study to control for naturally occurring tumors and cancers.
Next study TANGSTEN? TANGSTEN you may have missed the comment at the top of the article in the second link you provided:
The GMO-fed mice were also four times more likely to develop tumors. GMO-eating females developed more mammary tumors as well as pituitary gland and hormonal abnormalities.
GMO-eating males developed significantly more cases of liver damage liver failure and severe kidney malfunctions. 4. Profit Pro a crop analysis
Deficiencies in these vital nutrients are associated with increased rates of osteoporosis cancer and other diseases.
depression autism infertility cancer and Alzheimer s disease. ÃÚ à The glyphosate-resistance of GMO corn has encouraged such an over-abundance of glyphosate-based herbicides to be dumped into the environment worldwide that nature has started to respond in kind with the evolution of âÂ#Âoesuperweeds.
GMO corn contains an extremely high level of formaldehyde a chemical linked to adverse health effects and various forms of cancer.
From characterization of materials to cancer therapy including energy production. Associating nuclear research to weapons is naã Â ve.
Bioprinters could build organs with tumors so that surgeons could practice. At Stanford researchers have tried to get around this problem by breeding mice with livers made up mostly of human cells.
whether a painkiller an anti-inflammatory or a new cancer pill must pass a liver tox.
but when it comes to procedures like cutting out cancer nothing matches the real experience. Rather than printing healthy tissue bioprinters could build organs with tumors
or other defects so that surgeons could practice before entering an operating room. Whole transplantable organs that function properly will be the ultimate challenge
I don't want anymore ALTERED FOODS being made we have enough people dying of CANCER & other processed food ailments for a lifetime?
and the greatest maladies we face are used ones people to never live long enough to get such as cancer and Alzheimer's.
and SV40 has been proven to cause cancer in animals. Okay that's just old news fair enough let's pretend everything is safe now.
and broccoli have lower rates of cancer. If grocers maintained day-night cycles for their wares they might maintain more healthful chemicals for shoppers to consume the biologists wrote.
I wonder if there might be side effects like an increased potential for cancer...I wonder how long it would take to regrow such a large appendage...
when it interacts with cancer. I do wonder if there are a relative unlimited amount of the stem cells in your bone marrow
but in reality those levels could never be reached. http://www. druglibrary. org/schaffer/library/mj overdose. htmmarijuana also doesn't cause cancer. http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25
In this transit period radiation cancer deaths will multiply into the 100k yearly for humanity. See these links:
And at the same time they have managed to dump it into our environment anyway slowly poison us all as the fluorosis of our bones teeth organs causes many many medical conditions that we simply write off as unfortunate cases of cancer arthritis allergies old age etc..
Cancer-causing radiation such as Iodine-131 Cesium-137 Tritium Krypton Strontium...2. A NEW Gallup Poll says over 70%of Americans want more WIND
and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima in which the amount of cancers caused by radiation in our food
The total amounts of deaths birth defects miscarriages heart attacks cancers etc. due to nuclear radiation is in the millions upon millions;
Fukushima is expected by Dr. Helen Caldicott M d. to cause at least 1 million deaths by cancer due to radioactivity already released.
If a Magnitude 8 earthquake strikes Japan before a fuel pool dangling 100 feet in the air is secured the resulting radioactivity is expected to be at least 40 times that of Chernobyl causing untold millions of cancers across the Northern hemisphere.
Dr. Yablokov found ONE MILLION deaths due to Chernobyl. 5. Dr. Wing found that lung cancers rose dramatically in people exposed to the Three Mile Island radiation plume. 6. Dr. Gould
coast. 9. Dr. Gofman did studies on the increases of breast cancer due to nuclear radiation. 10.
Even the pro-nuclear World health organization says breast cancer and leukemia will increase after Fukushima and predicts a 70%increase thyroid cancer risk in females exposed to Fukushima radiation as infants. 11.
It's not just cancers and death that nuclear radiation causes. Dr. Wertelecki found teratomos conjoined twins mocrophthalmia NTD microcephaly horrible birth defects and a decrease in cognitive skills due to Chernobyl.
This is just a TINY example of the cancers deaths birth and health effects caused by nuclear radiation.
Again I highly recommend everyone watch the speakers at the Fukushima Symposium to learn more. www. totalwebcasting. com/view/?
/id=hcfthe doctors at the Symposium have spent decades studying the effects of nuclear radiation and their grim analysis is in their presentations.
http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nuclear and radiation accidentsthe*4000 cancer number associated with Chernobyl is the number of cancers--not deaths--attributed to Chernobyl.
thyroid cancers in children and adolescents. Thyroid cancer is highly treatable and the average 5-year survival rate is about 97%.
%If it's caught early as is likely in the Chernobyl-affected area where intensive monitoring has been ongoing the survival rate is virtually 100%.
Although radiation may cause cancer at high doses and high dose rates public health data do not absolutely establish the occurrence of cancer following exposure to low doses and dose rates âÂ#Âbelow about 10000 mrem (100 msv).
Studies of occupational workers who are exposed chronically to low levels of radiation above normal background have shown no adverse biological effects. http://www. nrc. gov/about-nrc/radiation/health-effects/rad
-exposure-cancer. htmlhere's a graphic comparison of different levels of radiation dosages: http://xkcd. com/radiation/And here's an MIT study from 2012 which suggests that the established long-term radiation dosage limits may be 10 times too conservative due to the way the cancerous effects are measured;
and are not cancer causing and create jobs with medical benefits! People with good paying skill jobs pay taxes too and the government needs it taxes
Without mutations there would be no cancer. While most mutations result in the untimely death of the organism some organism survive these mutations
Coffee may also lower the risk of liver cancer by around 40%(26 27. Bottom line:
Coffee appears to be protective against certain liver disorders lowering the risk of liver cancer by 40%and cirrhosis by as much as 80%.
Our planet has about a 30 percent chance of getting hit by a Tunguska-sized 40 meter asteroid in the next 100 years--compare that to the 23 percent chance an American has of dying of cancer.
Based on the idea that our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't suffer from the pains of obesity cancer gout
âÂ#Âoebased on the idea that our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn't suffer from the pains of obesity cancer gout
The contamination was so widespread that experts have estimated between 4000 and 93000 extra cancer deaths have occurred
At the time Thomas Platts-Mills and Scott Commins both allergy specialists at the University of Virginia Health System were trying to understand why some of their patients had developed a severe allergic reactions to cetuximab an intravenous cancer-fighting drug.
One frequently cited study published in 2012 by researchers from the University of Caen in France claimed that one of Monsanto's corn GMOS caused tumors in lab rats.
and when you burn them you get a whole cocktail of cancer-causing stuff. Puckett estimated that just more than half of the material processed in Guiyu actually got recycled judging from the tons of plastic leaded glass and burned circuit boards discarded near waterways and in open fields.
In 2010 The Economist honored him with one of its awards for energy and the environment (along with Steve jobs and Harald zur Housen a Nobel-winning cancer researcher).
and even breast cancer cells and possess anti-malaria and antibacterial properties. The study found that chemicals isolated from fungi in three-toed sloths were deadly for parasites that cause malaria and Chagas disease (Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi respectively.
Several of the chemicals isolated from the fungi also showed strong activity against human breast cancer cells. a
#100 Years Of Smoking Studies In Popular Sciencefifty years ago tomorrow then-U s. Surgeon general Luther Terry held a press conference announcing that among other ills smoking caused lung cancer.
the number of scientific studies the U s. surgeon general's advisory committee examined before declaring that smoking caused lung cancer laryngeal cancer and chronic bronchitis17. 7 million:
A chain-smoking doctor among Terry's expert report authors was diagnosed with lung cancer within a year of the surgeon general's announcement NPR reports.
Fast-forwarding to the years preceding the 1964 surgeon general's report scientists were gathering more rigorous evidence that smoking causes various illnesses including lung cancer.
The U s. Public health Service for example has reported that among veterans who died from lung cancer over a certain period about 10 times as many had been smokers igarette smokers s nonsmokers.
After a 20 percent plunge immediately following the lung cancer warning tobacco sales were back to normal it reported.
Cancer therapies similarly are dependent on the availability of effective antimicrobials. Ordinary infections will kill otherwise healthy people.
when epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) the major extractable polyphenol in green tea and the most biologically active when diluted in skim milk or other milk complexes remains bioactive and continues to reduce colon cancer cell proliferation in culture
Tea polyphenols have been shown to inhibit tumor formation reduce cancer cell proliferation increase normal cell death (apoptosis)
and/or suppress the formation of new blood vessels feeding tumors (angiogenesis). For several reasons tea catechins have poor bioavailability
#Diet rich in tomatoes may lower breast cancer riska tomato-rich diet may help protect at-risk postmenopausal women from breast cancer according to new research accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal
Breast cancer risk rises in postmenopausal women as their body mass index climbs. The study found eating a diet high in tomatoes had a positive effect on the level of hormones that play a role in regulating fat and sugar metabolism.
while she was a postdoctoral fellow with Electra Paskett Phd at The Ohio State university Comprehensive Cancer Center--Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
and vegetables would promote breast cancer prevention in an at-risk population. The longitudinal cross-over study examined the effects of both tomato-rich and soy-rich diets in a group of 70 postmenopausal women.
Researchers originally theorized that a diet containing large amounts of soy could be part of the reason that Asian women have lower rates of breast cancer than women in the United states
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