Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would like to know if space travel increases an astronaut’s risk of developing leukemia. To find out, they are turning to scientists at Stony Brook University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Texas. The researchers will use mice and a $1.4M grant from NASA [...]

Each year, over 100,000 women in the United States undergo surgeries to remove cancerous lumps in their breasts. Although these lumpectomies can save the patient’s life, they also leave some of these women with uneven breasts or crater-like flaws in their breast tissue that are difficult to repair. But a new technique recently tested on [...]

A study conducted by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital shows chloroquine, a common prescription drug used to treat malaria, prevents certain types of cancers from developing. The Scripps and St Jude’s researchers used mouse models to test chloroquine’s impact on tumors. Their investigation revealed the drug blocked Burkitt [...]

Scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) BioMicroMechanical Systems (BioMEMS) Resource Center and the MGH Cancer Center have developed a new microchip-based device that can isolate circulating tumor cells (CTC) in a blood sample. The new CTC-chip is a business-card sized silicon chip covered with almost 80,000 microscopic posts smaller than a human hair. The [...]

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Mayo Clinic have performed a study showing an inherited gene that lowers levels of a key enzyme may indicate whether Tamoxifen treatments will effectively treat women with a common type of breast cancer. Tamoxifen is a Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (SERM) therapy prescribed to treat estrogen receptor [...]

Physicists from Columbia University and Lehigh University collaborated with cell biologists from Yale University to determine how single cells use tiny muscle-like rings to undergo cell division, a critical component in the developmental process of living creatures. Using time-lapse photography and computer models, the team analyzed yeast cells during the cell division process. Their investigation [...]

Want to get something practical for a loved one facing cancer treatments or a hospital stay over the holidays? Medical gift cards are now an option. VISA® has begun issuing prepaid healthcare gift cards that can be used to pay for health insurance deductibles, prescription co-pays, corrective lenses, elective surgeries, and an assortment of other [...]

A team of researchers at the University of Kentucky have genetically engineered a group of mice that are highly resistant to cancer. To accomplish this, the scientists introduced additional copies of tumor-suppressing genes called Par-4 into the fertilized eggs of mice and then implanted those eggs into cancer–prone surrogates. The genetically modified eggs produced offspring [...]

Scientists from the Imperial College London, the University of Missouri, and M-Scan Limited have been studying human sperm to find out how cancer spreads in the human body. The research is centered around sugar-based markers located on sperm cells. Scientists believe these markers protect sperm from being attacked by the female immune system during the [...]

Research conducted by the University of Minnesota shows women with diabetes are 50 percent more likely to develop colorectal cancer than non-diabetic women. To perform their study, the team analyzed data on over 45,000 women who participated in a large-scale breast cancer study conducted at 29 medical facilities during the 1970s. The records indicated females [...]