Here are a few newsworthy items in the world of cancer research

• The largest study to date of a condition known as “chemo brain” shows that women with breast cancer report it’s a substantial problem after chemotherapy for as long as six months after treatment. Using a tool called FACT-Cog, a validated measurement of cognitive impairment, investigators from the University of Rochester Medical found that compared to healthy people, breast cancer patients exhibited a higher percentage of impairment. Read more on their findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
• Medical Researchers with the support of the National Foundation for Cancer Research have developed a new pharmacological agent to treat glioblastoma multiforme. The agent has been tested and found to have significant survival benefits in pre-clinical models. For more, see PNAS.
• Scientists at the University of Basel recently reported on the potential of treating cancer with drugs for diabetes and hypertension. The research found that combining the type 2 diabetes drug metformin with the antihypertensive drug syrosingopine could represent a surprising new approach to fighting cancer. The findings are detailed in Science Advances.
• The American Cancer Society Annual Report, Cancer Statistics 2017, revealed that the cancer death rate in the United States has dropped by 25 percent since its 1991 peak, resulting in 2 million fewer cancer deaths than if the rate had stayed the same, while also reporting significant disparities of the cancer burden by gender and race. The full report has been published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Here are a few newsworthy items in the world of cancer research:

• A recent post on the NIH Director’s Blog, provided details of Dr. Roger Tsien’s (Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry in 2008) innovative imaging method to infuse electron microscopy with color. For more, see article in Cell Chemical Biology.
• Scientists at Dana Farber have found a potential explanation as to why younger cancer patients are more vulnerable to treatment toxicities. They report in Cancer Cell that tissues in developing organs are more susceptible to cell death when exposed to chemotherapy and radiation.
• Bioinformatics sheds light on new combination therapies to fight breast cancer. The analysis was conducted by researchers at the Institute for Research of Biomedicine in Barcelona.  An exhaustive assessment of the pairing of 64 therapies allowed scientists to identify 10 new combinations previously untested that may have potential for breast cancer treatment.  More in Cancer Research.
• Addressing the matter of diversity and inclusion in cancer clinical trials was the topic of a recent New York Times article by Denise Grady. While more innovative treatments like immunotherapy are taking off, most patients benefiting from these therapies are mainly white. A major obstacle facing people of color include less awareness of medical studies.  Researchers are very aware of the issue and are trying to rectify it.

Surfing the web, I uncovered these news items worth sharing

• As part of a clinical trial, doctors at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences successfully injected a cold virus into a woman’s brain tumor in an effort to eradicate it, making her the first person in the United States to participate in a clinical trial using this method, which incorporates immunotherapy.
• A recent post on the NIH Director’s Blog, shared details of new research published on epigenetic patterns in glioblastoma with emphasis on a paper published by researchers at Dartmouth. The findings were first reported in Nature Communications.
• Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified specific genomic changes that are significant to the development of testicular cancer. Read more on their findings in Nature.
• A recent study published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences on adenoma prevalence in two Latino subgroups, specifically Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, revealed the prevalence of adenomas, advanced adenomas, and proximal neoplasia was high among both subgroups. These findings have implications for CRC screening and surveillance among the increasingly growing Latino population in the USA.