Widespread Flaws Found in Ovarian Cancer Treatment
New York Times
(Posted: 03/12/2013) - Most women with ovarian cancer receive inadequate care and miss out on treatments that could add a year or more to their lives, a new study has found...The National Cancer Institute took a rare step, one it reserves for major advances. It issued a “clinical announcement” to encourage doctors to use the IP treatment, and to urge patients to ask about it.

BRAF inhibitor treatment causes melanoma cells to shift how they produce energy
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/11/2013) - A multi-institutional study has revealed that BRAF-positive metastatic malignant melanomas develop resistance to treatment with drugs targeting the BRAF/MEK growth pathway through a major change in metabolism. The findings, which will be published in Cancer Cell and have been released online, suggest a strategy to improve the effectiveness of currently available targeted therapies. In about half the cases of malignant melanoma – the most deadly form of skin cancer – tumor growth is driven by mutations in the BRAF gene. Research by investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center (a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and elsewhere has shown that treatment with drugs that block BRAF activity temporarily halts tumor growth.

Study finds aspirin reduces risk of melanoma in women
NCI Cancer Centers logo
(Posted: 03/11/2013) - In the largest study ever to explore new ways to prevent melanoma, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine (home to the Stanford Cancer Institute) have discovered that women who took aspirin on a regular basis reduced their risk of developing this skin cancer. Results also showed that the longer women took aspirin, the lower their risk.

Clinical trial comparing combination therapies for advanced head and neck cancer shows no improvement
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/08/2013) - In the case of head and neck cancer, one of the great questions of the current day is whether or not addition of multiple drugs to radiation therapy is superior to the current standard of care therapy with one drug and radiation. In particular, physicians have wondered if the addition of the more tolerable targeted biologic therapy to chemotherapy results in improved patient outcomes. Unfortunately, the data suggest that it does not. Institutions participating in the clinical study were: the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle; Multicare Health Systems in Covington, Washington; University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston; the University of Miami in Florida; Coastal Carolina Radiation Oncology in Wilmington, North Carolina; and the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

A cancer-promoting protein is found to also suppress cell growth
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/08/2013) - Some cellular proteins have multiple, and occasionally opposing, functions. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory demonstrate in a paper published online in Molecular Cell that the oncogenic protein SRSF1 can also trigger a stop in cell growth and prevent cancerous proliferation by stabilizing p53, the powerful tumor-suppressor protein.

Disease knowledge may advance faster with new gene probing tool
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/08/2013) - Scientists at UC San Francisco (home to the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center) have found a more precise way to turn off genes, a finding that will speed research discoveries and biotech advances and may eventually prove useful in reprogramming cells to regenerate organs and tissues. The strategy borrows from the molecular toolbox of bacteria, using a protein employed by microbes to fight off viruses, according to the researchers, who describe the technique in the current issue of Cell. Turning off genes is a major goal of treatments that target cancer and other diseases.

Colonoscopy screening reduces risk of advanced colorectal cancer
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/07/2013) - A new study led by a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (home to the Abramson Cancer Center) adds support to current medical recommendations stating that screening colonoscopy substantially reduces an average-risk adult’s likelihood of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) in either the right or left side of the colon.

Inhibiting protein prevents melanoma metastasis to lungs in mice
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/07/2013) - Researchers have identified a critical protein role in the metastasis of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. Inhibition of the protein known as adenosine diphosphate ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) reduces the spread of melanoma to the lungs in mice, according to a study published in the March 5 issue of Science Signaling online, suggesting that targeting ARF6 may be an effective approach to preventing melanoma metastasis. The study was led by researchers at the University of Utah, home of the Hunstman Cancer Institute.

Biomarkers may help predict progression of Barrett's esophagus to esophageal adenocarcinoma
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/07/2013) - A series of microRNA expression signatures that may help to define progression of the precancerous condition Barrett's esophagus into esophageal adenocarcinoma was reported recently in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.

Scientists make mouse model of human cancer, demonstrate cure
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 03/07/2013) - UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists report the first successful blocking--in a mouse model--of the development of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs), a cancer currently considered incurable in humans. UT Southwestern is home to the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center. The study included researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine.