CHICAGO — In an aggressive disease known for poor response rates, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found patients with advanced colorectal cancer responded well to a combination therapy of the drugs vermurafenib, cetuximab and irinotecan. The Phase I trial, presented Saturday, May 31 in a poster discussion at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2014 Annual Meeting in Chicago, examines a specific mutation in the BRAF gene, which is present in 5 to 10 percent of colorectal cancer patients. Previous research identified this mutation ...

New Haven, Conn. — A multi-center phase I study using an investigational drug for advanced bladder cancer patients who did not respond to other treatments has shown promising results in patients with certain tumor types, researchers report. Yale Cancer Center played a key role in the study, the results of which will be presented Saturday, May 31 at the 2014 annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. The trial included 68 people with previously treated advanced bladder cancer, including 30 patients identified as PD-L1 positive. PD-L1 ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a head-to-head comparison of two Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for the treatment of relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), ibrutinib significantly outperformed ofatumumab as a second-line therapy, according to a multicenter interim study published in the OnLine First edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) is the first drug designed to target Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), a protein essential for CLL-cell survival and proliferation. CLL, the most common form of leukemia, causes a gradual increase ...

(New York – UNDER EMBARGO May 31, 2014) Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers will present several landmark studies at the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting May 30-June 3, 2014 in Chicago, including data on new treatment approaches for thyroid, head and neck, and recurrent ovarian cancers; and new biomarkers for bile duct cancers. Highlights of Mount Sinai research at ASCO: Phase II Trial on the Combination of Bevacizumab and Irinotecan in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer (Under Embargo Until SATURDAY, MAY 31, 8:00 – 11:45 AM) In a study ...

A new target that may be critical for the treatment of osteoporosis, a disease which affects about 25% of post-menopausal women, has been discovered by a group of researchers in The Netherlands and in Germany. Professor Brunhilde Wirth, Head of the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics tomorrow (Sunday) that new studies in zebrafish and mice have shown that injection of human plastin 3 (PLS3) or related proteins in zebrafish where PLS3 action has been suppressed can replace ...

Results from the first study of the clinical application of next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) in screening embryos for genetic disease prior to implantation in patients undergoing in-vitro fertilisation treatments show that it is an effective reliable method of selecting the best embryos to transfer, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear tomorrow (Sunday). Dr Francesco Fiorentino, from the GENOMA Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Rome, Italy, will say that his team's research has shown that NGS, a high throughput sequencing method, has ...

Exposing infants to a new vegetable early in life encourages them to eat more of it compared to offering novel vegetables to older children, new research from the University of Leeds suggests. The researchers, led by Professor Marion Hetherington in the Institute of Psychological Sciences, also found that even fussy eaters are able to eat a bit more of a new vegetable each time they are offered it. The research, involving babies and children from the UK, France and Denmark, also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked or given by stealth in ...

Boston, MA – The tangled highway of blood vessels that twists and turns inside our bodies, delivering essential nutrients and disposing of hazardous waste to keep our organs working properly has been a conundrum for scientists trying to make artificial vessels from scratch. Now a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has made headway in fabricating blood vessels using a three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technique. The study is published online this month in Lab on a Chip. "Engineers have made incredible strides in making complex artificial tissues such as ...

What should resource managers do when the eradication of an invasive species threatens an endangered one? In results of a study published this week in the journal Science, researchers at the University of California, Davis, examine one such conundrum now taking place in San Francisco Bay. The study was led by UC Davis researcher Adam Lampert. "This work advances a framework for cost-effective management solutions to the conflict between removing invasive species and conserving biodiversity," said Alan Tessier, acting deputy division director in the National Science ...

The new Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory satellite is now in the hands of the engineers who will fly the spacecraft and ensure the steady flow of data on rain and snow for the life of the mission. The official handover to the Earth Science Mission Operations team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on May 29, marked the end of a successful check-out period. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Its Core Observatory launched on Feb. 27, 2014, ...

Conservative fuel treatments designed to reduce fire severity while still providing forest cover and wildlife habitat worked equally as well as more intensive treatments in allowing for the protection of homes during the 2011 Wallow Fire, a study published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management has found. The distance into the treated area where fire severity was reduced varied, however, between these different thinning approaches where fuels were reduced. The findings suggest that there may be multiple paths to fuel treatment design around the wildland-urban interface ...

VIDEO: A coronal mass ejection burst off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014. The giant sheet of solar material erupting was the first CME seen by NASA's Interface... Click here for more information. A coronal mass ejection, or CME, surged off the side of the sun on May 9, 2014, and NASA's newest solar observatory caught it in extraordinary detail. This was the first CME observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, which launched in June 2013 to peer into ...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 30, 2014 – Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a global leader in molecular diagnostics, announced the presentation of new data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting this week that supports the clinical efficacy of its BRACAnalysis CDx™ and HRD™ tests in predicting platinum based therapy response for breast cancer patients. Additionally, the company is providing an update on key commercial milestones that underscore its commitment to the field of companion diagnostics. "Myriad is committed to advancing the science of companion ...

Next time you spot an earthworm sliding through fresh dirt, take a closer look. What you're seeing is an organic movement called peristaltic locomotion that has been meticulously refined by nature. Jarod Gregory, an undergraduate student in the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science, used a worm's contracting and expanding motion to provide a way for gels to swim in water. This is a product of work by the interdisciplinary team consisting of Jarod Gregory, a chemical engineering major, and his two advisers, Lilit Yeghiazarian, assistant ...

MAYWOOD, Ill. (May 30, 2014) – Among young women treated for breast cancer, one of the most distressing side effects of chemotherapy is early menopause. But a major clinical trial has found that the risk of early menopause can be significantly reduced by adding a drug called goserelin to the chemotherapy regimen. Also, women who took goserelin and wanted to have children were more likely to get pregnant and deliver a healthy baby. Results were released during the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology 50th Annual Meeting in Chicago. Kathy Albain, MD, of Loyola University ...

Results presented today at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and June 6 at the European Association of Palliative Care Research Conference show that stopping statins for cholesterol management in the late stages of cancer or other terminal illnesses may offer quality-of-life and even life-extending benefits. The results highlight the larger question of when, if ever, it is appropriate in patients with life-limiting illnesses to discontinue medications prescribed for other conditions that will likely not lead to their death. Researchers ...

CHICAGO – Women with metastatic breast cancer to the bone may be able to receive bisphosphonates, the bone-targeting class of drugs like zoledronic acid, less often after the first year of monthly administration. With that practice change, women may also reduce their risk of serious side effects, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The research was presented today on the press program of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2014 Annual Meeting by MD Anderson's Gabriel Hortobagyi, MD, professor, Breast Medical ...

A study presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) describes the results of a phase I clinical trial of the investigational agent DMOT4039A against pancreatic and ovarian cancers. In this early clinical trial with the goal of identifying possible risks and defining likely dosages, the drug was well tolerated and in some patients showed initial evidence of anti-cancer activity. The drug is in fact a combination of a chemotherapeutic agent with an antibody, technically called an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Just as cells ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Three genetic changes can predict whether a patient will benefit from chemotherapy before surgery to remove bladder cancer, according to new findings presented by Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. During the study, 36 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer received chemotherapy before surgery, consisting of an accelerated regimen of methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin, and cisplatin (AMVAC). By the time surgery rolled around, 14 patients appeared cancer-free. ...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The gap between stem cell research and regenerative medicine just became a lot narrower, thanks to a new technique that coaxes stem cells, with potential to become any tissue type, to take the first step to specialization. It is the first time this critical step has been demonstrated in a laboratory. University of Illinois researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Notre Dame University and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, published their results in the journal Nature Communications. "Everybody knows that for an embryo ...

CHICAGO, IL (May 30, 2014)—Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer often benefit from chemotherapy before surgery to remove the tumor, but a test of one regimen by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center was halted when too many people experienced serious side effects such as heart attacks and blood clots in the legs and lungs. All of the 31 patients included in the study received a combination of gemcitabine and cisplatin, two drugs normally administered for 12 weeks before surgery to remove the tumors. This became the standard of care after one study looked back, ...

Structural biologists have made important progress towards better understanding the functioning of the circadian clock. The circadian or inner clock coordinates the sleep-wake rhythm and many other body processes that regulate, for example, metabolism, blood pressure, and the immune system. A research team led by Professor Eva Wolf, recently appointed Professor of Structural Biology at the Institute of General Botany of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Adjunct Director at the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB), has for the first time identified the molecular ...

STANFORD, Calif. — For many scientists, the clinical promise of stem cells has been dampened by very real concerns that the immune system will reject the transplanted cells before they could render any long-term benefit. Previous research in mice has suggested that even stem cells produced from the subject's own tissue, called iPS cells, can trigger an immune attack. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that coaxing iPS cells in the laboratory to become more-specialized progeny cells (a cellular process called differentiation) before ...

Dr Mwenza T. Blell of the University of Bristol interviewed 257 British Pakistani women aged 39-61 living in West Yorkshire and found that the standard checklist approach to studying menopause symptoms, which ignores women's understanding of their own experience, leaves researchers and clinicians with gaps in their knowledge of the 'true' symptoms of menopause. Many previous studies into the menopause have relied on standardised checklists, such as the Blatt-Kupperman index and the Menopause Symptom Checklist, that were derived from the clinical experiences of women living ...

HOUSTON-Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and other institutions have applied a newly developed software tool to identify genetic mutations that contribute to a person's increased risk for developing common, complex diseases, such as cancer. The research is published in the May 2014 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology. The technology, known as pVAAST (pedigree Variant Annotation, Analysis and Search Tool), combines two different statistical methods used for identifying disease-causing gene mutations. This combination approach outperforms ...