A study led by the Methodist Hospital Research Institute indicates extracts from a tropical fungus called Phellinus linteus may combat breast cancer. Methodist Hospital’s results add to previous research suggesting the yellow mushroom is also effective for slowing lung, prostate and skin cancers. Phellinus linteus grows on the bark of mulberry trees and has been [...]

Research conducted by the National Cancer Institute indicates the function of T cells that regulate the body’s immune system is impaired when cancerous tumors are present. Findings from a mouse study reported by the NCI Center for Cancer Research indicate tumors reduce the expression of Treg cells, a specialized subset of T Cells responsible for [...]

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have begun Phase I clinical trials of a new drug designed to treat myeloproliferative diseases (MPD) that sometimes develop into acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have already used the new drug, an orally-administered compound known as TG101348, to successfully treat chronic blood cancers in [...]

Biologists at Boston College have developed a more effective mouse model for studying how cancer spreads through the human body. Boston’s team developed two cell lines which express all the major biological characteristics of human metastatic cancer only three weeks after being injected into healthy laboratory mice. In typical mouse models, researchers must transplant cancer [...]

An article published in the April 2008 edition of the American Medical Association News shows 3,170 pairs of prescription drugs have names that look or sound so much alike they can easily lead to serious medication errors. The report stems from a January 2008 drug review compiled by US Pharmacopeia (USP), a nonprofit organization based [...]

Cancer survivors know treatment side effects have a way popping up at inconvenient times and places — sometimes even at the airport. So what do you do if you’re stuck at the airline terminal and you suddenly start to feel ill? These days you might not need to leave the airport to get medical assistance. [...]

An alternative health company is asking citizens of the United Kingdom to support legislation which would include herbal supplements and other natural treatments in clinical trials comparing the effectiveness of investigational drugs against a placebo. Sweet Cures of York, a marketer of herbal products and natural remedies, has launched a campaign to gain public support [...]

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) has announced they’re discontinuing Phase III clinical trials on tremelimumab, an experimental treatment for melanoma. The company terminated the trials because their research indicates the developmental drug is no more effective than existing chemotherapies already approved to treat the potentially deadly skin cancer. A representative from Pfizer Global Research [...]

Researchers from Wake Forest University have completed a Phase I study that may help improve the survival rate for patients with appendix cancer or colorectal cancer that’s spread to their abdomen. Wake Forest’s study identified the maximum amount of a chemotherapy drug peritoneal cancer patients can successfully tolerate during Intraperitoneal Hyperthermic Chemotherapy (IPHC) treatments following [...]

A study conducted by researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) reports dopamine drugs currently used to treat patients with Parkinson’s Disease or heart attacks could also help cancer patients by slowing down tumor development. In a study of mice with soft tissue sarcoma, the Mayo-CNCI scientists found dopamine blocked [...]