DENVER — Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may be a promising alternative, noninvasive source of tumor materials for biomarker assessment, according to data presented at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development. "The basic idea is that CTCs can provide real-time information about a patient's current disease state, acting as a 'liquid biopsy,'" said Siminder Kaur Atwal, Ph.D., senior research associate at Genentech. "They are much less invasive than tumor biopsies because they can be detected from a blood draw and ...

DENVER — Researchers in England say they have discovered a set of biomarkers that can distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostate disease and healthy tissue with 90 percent accuracy. This preliminary data, if validated in larger ongoing studies, could be developed into a serum protein test that reduces the number of unnecessary biopsies and identifies men who need treatment before symptoms begin. The researchers, from Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) and its subsidiary, Sense Proteomic, Ltd., presented their findings at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular ...

DENVER — Using a novel aptamer-based proteomics array technology, researchers and collaborators have identified biomarkers and protein signatures that are hallmarks of cancer at an early stage for two of the most aggressive and deadly forms of cancer — pancreatic and mesothelioma. This technology would enable better clinical diagnosis at an earlier stage and may provide insight into new therapeutic targets, said Rachel Ostroff, Ph.D., clinical research director of Somalogic Inc. "Currently these cancers are detected at an advanced stage, where the possibility of cure ...

DENVER — African-American patients with non-small cell lung cancer are just as likely to display an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation in tumors as Caucasians, which suggests they are as likely to benefit from targeted therapies such as erlotinib. "This study has immediate implications for patient management. Patients with EGFR mutations have a much better prognosis and respond better to erlotinib than those who do not," said Ramsi Haddad, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory of Translational Oncogenomics at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, and assistant ...

DENVER — Researchers believe there may be a way to predict, based on individual tumors, those patients that are more likely to respond to the investigational new drug tivozanib. This is possible, the researchers from AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. said, because they have used a new way of creating animal tumor models that mimic tumor variation seen in human. Based on the results of these studies, they have found a single biomarker that may predict resistance to tivozanib, an oral, triple VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) receptor inhibitor. Tivozanib is in an ...

DENVER — A novel technology can make nanoscale protein measurements, which scientists can use in clinical trials to learn how drugs work. "We are making progress toward the goal of understanding how drugs work in different individuals," said Alice C. Fan, M.D., instructor in the division of oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. "Using new technologies makes it possible to measure effects of therapeutic agents in tumor cells and different cell populations within our patients. Now that we can make these measurements, we are one step closer to being able to ...

DENVER — Scientists may have discovered a way to diagnose bladder cancer at its earliest and, therefore, most treatable stages by measuring the presence or absence of microRNA using already available laboratory tests. "Measuring expressions of microRNA in bodily fluid represents a very promising tool with widespread implications for screening," said Liana Adam, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in urology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Adam presented her findings at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic ...

DENVER — Targeting c-Met may be a promising personalized treatment method for approximately 45 percent of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have c-Met-positive tumors, according to study results presented at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development. HCC is the most common primary malignant tumor of the liver; c-Met is a receptor for hepatocyte growth factor that appears to drive liver cancer growth, invasion and metastasis. "Current therapies for HCC patients are 'one size fits all.' We propose ...

Detection of acute HIV infection (the stage of disease immediately after HIV acquisition but before HIV antibodies are detectable) with pooled nucleic acid amplification testing (that detects the presence of HIV genetic material in the blood before antibodies are detectable) is feasible but not cost-effective in all settings. Rather, pooled nucleic acid amplification testing after testing for antibodies with third-generation enzyme immunoassays (which can detect the first antibody to appear after infection) or rapid testing is only cost-effective when targeted to settings ...

In research published this week in PLoS Medicine, Vincent Gajdos and colleagues report the results of a randomized trial conducted among hospitalized infants with bronchiolitis. The researchers enrolled nearly 500 children aged 15 days to 2 years who were admitted to seven French hospitals for a first episode of acute bronchiolitis. Their results show that a physiotherapy technique (increased exhalation and assisted cough) commonly used in France does not reduce time to recovery in this population. The researchers conclude "Our results did not support the recommendation ...

Biologists from The University of Texas at Arlington have uncovered virus fragments from the same family of the modern Hepatitis B virus locked inside the genomes of songbirds such as the modern-day zebra finch. The article, publishing next week in the online, open access journal PLoS Biology, marks the first time that endogenous hepadnaviruses have been found in any organism. An endogenous virus is one that deposits itself or fragments of itself into the chromosome of an organism, allowing it to be passed from generation-to-generation. Previously, most of these known "fossilized" ...

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sept. 28, 2010 — The loss of a gene known as INPP5A could predict the onset, and track the progression, of an aggressive type of skin cancer, according to a study published today by the Arizona Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). Targeting INPP5A could provide physicians with better ways to prevent and treat cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, or SCC, a skin cancer that often spreads to other parts of the body, according to a scientific paper published today in the journal Cancer Prevention Research. "Loss ...

WASHINGTON, DC – September 28, 2010 -- Now that the H1N1 influenza pandemic is officially over, what will happen to the virus? In a perspective article published today in the online open-access journal mBio®, scientists from the National Institutes of Health delve into history and explore the fates of other pandemic influenza viruses in order to speculate on the future of the most recent pandemic virus. "While human influenza viruses have often surprised us, available evidence leads to the hope that the current pandemic virus will continue to cause low or moderate mortality ...

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Sodium gets a bad rap for contributing to hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Now biologists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have discovered that sodium also plays a key role in initiating a regenerative response after severe injury. The Tufts scientists have found a way to regenerate injured spinal cord and muscle by using small molecule drugs to trigger an influx of sodium ions into injured cells. The approach breaks new ground in the field of biomedicine because it requires no gene therapy; can be administered after ...

In this week's PLoS Medicine, the Editors argue that drug companies should be held much more accountable for their human rights responsibilities to make medicines available and accessible to those in need. Despite decades of advocacy on the part of the access to medicines movement, and human rights guidelines developed in 2008 for pharmaceutical companies that make clear that their responsibilities go beyond stakeholder value to encompass human rights, there is inadequate accountability, say the Editors. "At the same time that the 825 billion dollar global pharmaceutical ...

Whither pandemic H1N1 virus? In a new commentary, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, review the fates of previous pandemic influenza viruses in the years following a pandemic and speculate on possible future courses for the 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) virus during the upcoming flu season and beyond. The authors estimate that at least 183 million Americans (about 59 percent of the total U.S. population) have some immunity to pH1N1 because they were exposed to related viruses or vaccines ...

Average C-reactive protein (CRP) values vary in diverse populations — possibly impacting how doctors estimate cardiovascular risk and determine statin treatment, according to a new study in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, a journal of the American Heart Association. CRP is a marker of inflammation, and high levels of it in the blood have been associated with a higher risk for heart disease. But it's uncertain if the association is causal. Statins are a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that reduce heart risk and CRP. Researchers aren't certain if CRP-lowering contributes ...

DURHAM, N.C. – The yellow monkeyflower, an unassuming little plant that lives as both a perennial on the foggy coasts of the Pacific Northwest and a dry-land annual hundreds of miles inland, harbors a significant clue about evolution. Duke graduate student and native northern Californian David Lowry had become interested in how a single species could live such different lifestyles. He set out to find a gene or genes that would account for the monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) being a lush, moisture-loving, salt-tolerant perennial on the coast, but a shorter, faster-flowering, ...

Healthy people who caught swine flu during the 2009 pandemic may have been protected against developing radiographically (x-ray) confirmed pneumonia by taking the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), concludes a study of cases in China published on bmj.com today. The researchers also show that oseltamivir treatment was associated with shorter duration of fever and viral RNA shedding (the period when a virus is contagious), although they stress that their findings should be interpreted with caution. In 2009, pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus spread rapidly, resulting ...

DETROIT – The old saying, "never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear," couldn't be truer for a patient who experienced vertigo and severe hearing loss after a cotton swab perforated her eardrum and damaged her inner ear. But what makes this patient's case unique is that otolaryngologists at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit were not only able to alleviate her vertigo with surgery, but restore her hearing – an extremely rare occurrence. "This case is rare because the goal of surgery is not to recover hearing, but to improve vertigo," says case report lead ...

Playing white noise in class can help inattentive children learn. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Behavioral and Brain Functions tested the effect of the meaningless random noise on a group of 51 schoolchildren, finding that although it hindered the ability of those who normally pay attention, it improved the memory of those that had difficulties in paying attention. Göran Söderlund from Stockholm University, Sweden, worked with a team of researchers to carry out the experiments at a secondary school in Norway. He said, "There was significant ...

Intrauterine devices, originally developed as contraceptives, can also be used to treat and cure cancer of the endometrium according to new research published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday 29 September). The finding opens the way for young women with the disease, which affects the lining of the womb, to be treated without the need for a hysterectomy, thus preserving their fertility until they have had all the children they want. Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide. In 2008 there were an estimated ...

In mice, early weaning and separation from their mothers promotes long-lasting hyperactivity and anxiety . Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience describe the development of this new behavioral model, which they hope to use to investigate the long-term effects of early childhood neglect in people. Arthur Simen and a team of researchers from Yale University School of Medicine, USA, tested their 'Maternal separation with early weaning' (MSEW) model in a group of 80 male mice. He said, "Childhood adversity, in the form of abuse and neglect, is prevalent ...

The protein could provide a target to develop new treatments for the disease or enable earlier diagnosis, say the researchers from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers due to its lack of symptoms in the early stages, late diagnosis and its resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The research – funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund – found that nearly three quarters of pancreatic cancer tumours had high levels of a protein known as P110γ. In laboratory experiments, when ...

BOSTON, Mass. (September 29, 2010) — Crowdsourcing, the act of contracting out problems to large groups rather than tapping individual experts, has solved puzzles in fields such as marketing, engineering and computer software. But can the wisdom of crowds help cure disease? A large, multidisciplinary panel has recently selected 12 pioneering ideas for attacking Type 1 Diabetes, ideas selected through a crowdsourcing experiment called the Challenge in which all members of the Harvard community, as well as members of the general public, were invited to answer the question: ...