Since Memorial Day traditionally signals the beginning of summer, the American Cancer Society is greasing up its skin cancer awareness campaign. It started with "Don't Fry Day," observed on Friday. "One of the best parts of summer is being outside, either at the pool, lake, beach, etc. On Don't Fry Day, we hope to remind people of the simple things they can do to help prevent skin cancer in their lives," said local spokeswoman Sara E. Smith. Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime, and an estimated one American dies every hour from the disease, according to the society's 2008 Cancer Facts and Figures report. "It's perfectly natural for people to s...

LONDON and CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Antisoma plc announces that the journal Lung Cancer has published the results of a single-arm phase II trial of ASA404 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The trial included patients with both major histological forms of NSCLC: squamous and non-squamous. Positive data from this trial supported the progress of ASA404 into phase III trials in patients with NSCLC of all histologies. ASA404 is a Tumour-Vascular Disrupting Agent (Tumour-VDA) that destroys tumours by selectively collapsing the tumour blood vessels on which they depend to survive and grow. A randomised phase II trial of ASA404 in patients with previously untreated, advanced NSCLC was published recently in the British Journal of C...

So often, promising medical studies fan enthusiasm among people suffering from a vexing illness, only to leave them waiting months or years while the new drug or medical device clears regulatory hurdles. Not this time: A trio of drugs proved significantly better at slowing the growth of an aggressive type of breast cancer than the conventional drug regimen, according to a study led by Mayo Clinic Jacksonville researchers. And patients don't have to wait to try it. That's because the pharmaceuticals are already on the market; all doctors need to do is combine them. The trial mixed two chemotherapy drugs, called capecitabine and vinorelbine, and a drug called Herceptin, used to treat patients whose breast cancer is the aggressive HER...

After surgery to remove the head of the pancreas, invagination of the pancreas into the small intestine resulted in a lower rate of pancreatic fistula, according to researchers at the Jefferson Pancreas, Biliary and Related Cancer Center. The research was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. It was performed as a randomized trial the gold standard for studies. Removing the head of the pancreas, a procedure called pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), is a common treatment for benign and malignant pancreatic diseases. Pancreatic fistula, a leakage of pancreatic secretions, represents healing failure of the pancreatic reconnection. It is a common complication of PD, affecting approximately 20 percent of patients. The deve...

Researchers estimate that nearly one-third of cases of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, are diagnosed in women during their childbearing years. Since many women now are delaying pregnancy until their 30s or 40s, coupled with the fact that melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old, more women could be faced with developing melanoma before or during pregnancy. At the recent 67th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology, dermatologist Marcia S. Driscoll, MD, FAAD, clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, presented evidence concerning the prognosis for women who become pregnant after surviving melanoma and for those...

ORLANDO -- A medication that helps stop the growth of new blood vessels has produced dramatic benefits for some patients with aggressive thyroid cancer, research from Mayo Clinic indicates. At the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Mayo investigators report that cancer in about two-thirds of 37 patients with aggressive differentiated thyroid cancer treated with the drug pazopanib either stopped growing, or quickly shrank. The patient responses seen to date are promising, the researchers say, because all patients had fast-growing cancers that had spread to their lungs, with half involving lymph nodes and 39 percent also involving bones. "The benefits were striking in many patients to...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Combining two chemotherapy drugs with trastuzumab (Herceptin) to treat women who have metastatic HER2+ breast cancer may offer physicians another choice in their treatment options. At the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida report that using a combination of capecitabine, vinorelbine, and trastuzumab offers a treatment option that is at least as beneficial as other current options - and doesn't cause hair loss in patients. "This is a very well tolerated regimen. The combination is a good example of an excellent therapeutic ratio: good activity and low toxicity," says the study's senior investigator, Edith Perez, M...

LOS ANGELES -- Multivitamins might prolong life for women by preventing parts of their DNA from shortening, a new study has found. Researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) analyzed data on 586 women participating in the Sisters Study, which included women who had breast cancer and their cancer-free siblings, according to the HealthDay News on Monday. As part of that study, the women were asked about their use of vitamin supplements over a 12-year span. The researchers also took blood samples and tested DNA. "We found that multivitamin use was associated with longer leukocyte telomeres," said lead researcher Dr. Honglei Chen, head of the Aging & Neuroepidemiology Group at...

Cancer vaccines and targeted therapies are beginning to offer new treatment options following surgery for patients with early stages of lung cancer, experts said at the first European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO) in Lugano, Switzerland (1-3 May 2009). "Personalizing therapy is the key strategy for longer and better survival in lung cancer," said Prof Paris Kosmidis, head of the second Medical Oncology Department at Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. "This is particularly important for early stage disease when following surgery, decisions about preventive therapy are based on specific prognostic and predictive factors." Prof Walter Weder, head of thoracic surgery at the University of Zurich in Switzerland,...

MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. -- Immunomedics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer and other serious diseases, today announced that adding epratuzumab to rituximab and combined cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone chemotherapy (ER-CHOP) produced significant overall response including complete response in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Results of this final analysis were released by the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, on May 14 as part of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Epratuzumab is Immunomedics' proprietary humanized anti-CD22 monoclonal antibody that has been studied in over 500...