chemotherapy

Scientists have identified a way to predict very early in the treatment process the outcome of radiation and chemotherapy for cervical cancer patients -- based on oxygen levels within the tumor.

(IDIBAPS - Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer) IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS researchers have demonstrated that the increase of cholesterol concentration in the mitochondrial membrane makes the action of chemotherapy difficult in cellular hepatocarcinoma.

According to these results, drugs such as statins could sensitise cancer cells against chemotherapy since they diminish the level of mitochondrial cholesterol.

Counting the number of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer can accurately predict how well they are responding to treatment, new results show.

Researchers showed that changes in the number of circulating tumor cells predicted the outcome after chemotherapy in this hard to treat cancer.

Because of the way solid tumors adapt the body's machinery to bring themselves more oxygen, chemotherapy and radiation may actually make these tumors stronger.

By targeting and disabling a protein frequently found in melanoma tumors, doctors may be able to make the cancer more vulnerable to chemotherapy, according to a new study.

Although this study was done in laboratory rats, a clinical trial applying the same concept to humans has already begun at four comprehensive cancer centers nationwide.

New findings show a link between micronutrient supplementation and reduced risk of recurrence during tuberculosis chemotherapy, according to a new study.

There is a biological distinction between breast cancers that depend on hormones and cancers that do not, according to new research.

Scientists previously thought that hormone dependent breast cancers, which usually require treatment with surgery and anti-hormone drugs, originated from the same biological pathway as hormone independent breast cancers, which are treated with surgery and chemotherapy.

New, long-term results from a clinical trial show that MAGE-A3 ASCI, an immune-boosting treatment for lung cancer patients, reduces the risk of relapse after surgery -- to the same extent as chemotherapy but without the side-effects of chemotherapy.

A commonly used chemotherapy drug causes healthy brain cells to die off long after treatment has ended and may be one of the underlying biological causes of the cognitive side effects -- or "chemo brain" -- that many cancer patients experience.

Researchers have identified, characterized and cloned ovarian cancer stem cells and have shown that these stem cells may be the source of ovarian cancer's recurrence and its resistance to chemotherapy.