Cancer News

HealthDay - TUESDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- In recent years, doctors have learned that they need to adjust the results of blood tests to properly diagnose prostate cancer in obese men, but now researchers think they know why.

HealthDay - TUESDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) scans three months after cervical cancer patients have completed therapy can help determine whether they're cancer-free or require further treatment, U.S. researchers say.

Reuters - Doctors reading the results of a blood test widely used to screen for prostate cancer can be fooled into thinking obese men are disease-free, researchers said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Researchers looking at immune systems in healthy people have discovered an interaction between two types of cells that may help explain why the body's natural defenses fail to detect and fight tumors.

HealthDay - MONDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The Bayer anticancer drug Nexavar (sorafenib) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat the most common form of liver cancer that can't be surgically removed, medically called unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the drug maker said Monday.

HealthDay - MONDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A non-toxic, non-psychoactive compound in marijuana may block the progress of metastatic breast cancer, according to a new study by researchers in California.

American Cancer Society - The number of adult smokers in the United States has remained constant since 2004, according to a report published this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

American Cancer Society - There's good news for advanced breast cancer patients who haven't responded to current chemotherapy drugs.

American Cancer Society - Some of the most basic psychological and social issues affecting cancer patients aren't being adequately addressed, according to a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers believe they're on the way to solving a major question about breast cancer: Which women have a type of lesion in their breast duct that will progress to invasive disease?

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Nov. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Ultrasound exams are better than blood tests at identifying whether ovarian tumors are benign or malignant, a team of international researchers reports.

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A highly targeted biologic drug called cetuximab (Erbitux) is the first to extend the survival of patients with advanced colon cancer who have otherwise proved resistant to conventional chemotherapy, Canadian researchers confirmed.

Reuters - Among postmenopausal women receiving adjuvant therapy for early breast cancer, exemestane is associated with fewer hot flashes than is tamoxifen, but it also causes more sleep problems, according to a study published the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. scientists say they've have uncovered a biological "switch" for key genes in cancer cells.

HealthDay - TUESDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) -- A new study is questioning the conventional wisdom of checking on the health of 12 lymph nodes after colon cancer surgery.

Reuters - Using ultrasound images may be a better way than blood tests to determine whether a woman's ovarian tumor is benign or malignant, European researchers said on Tuesday.

HealthDay - MONDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- In another sign that too much weight spells health problems, new research suggests that fat men are twice as likely to die after being diagnosed with prostate cancer than men of normal weight.

HealthDay - FRIDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Women taking oral contraceptives are at a slightly increased risk for developing cervical cancer, but a decade after stopping the pill even this very small risk disappears, a new British study suggests.

AP - Women taking the birth control pill have a slightly higher risk of cervical cancer, but that risk disappears a decade after they stop taking it, scientists say.

Reuters - Women who take oral contraceptives run a higher risk of developing cervical cancer, but this risk is transient and reverts to normal about 10 years after they stop, British researchers said on Thursday.