Cancer In The News - Cancer Research UK

News digest – inherited cancer genes, beta-blockers, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and more

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Henry Scowcroft

Read our news digest

Here’s a round-up of this week’s cancer news:

A new research programme announced this week will lay the foundations for routine testing for inherited cancer genes in patients with the disease. Read more in our news story and on the BBC.

Our researchers discovered that cancer survivors are no more likely to stop smoking, cut down on alcohol, or exercise more often than the general population, according to research published on Wednesday. This press release and the Nursing Times have more detail.

US scientists have devised a strategy to block a key cancer molecule called NF-kappaB. We covered the preliminary but promising work on our news feed.

Widely used blood pressure drugs called beta-blockers could enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, according to Australian researchers (press release).

Cancer Research UK scientists – led by Nobel-Prize winner Professor Sir Paul Nurse – produced the first map of the genes that coordinate the division and growth of yeast cells. Read our news story to find out what this has to do with cancer.

Our new figures showed that non-Hodgkin lymphoma survival has doubled since early 1970s thanks to improved diagnosis and treatment (press release).

The coverage of Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy continued this week, and we spotted three particularly good pieces:

This BBC piece about breast cancer risk is well worth reading.

The Guardian had a thoughtful article on Ms Jolie’s decision not to have her ovaries removed.

And The Atlantic wrote about the looming US Supreme Court decision over BRCA gene patents.

Back to cancer research itself, and a small study, reported on Boots WebMD, suggested a link between heartburn and throat cancer but, according to experts we spoke to, the finding wasn’t ‘statistically significant’ and needs confirming. (Long-term, persistent heartburn is, however, linked to oesophageal cancer).

Researchers in East Anglia are starting to unravel why high levels of a protein called MMP8 seem to lead to better breast cancer outcomes, according to the BBC.

The Daily Mail this week asked “are e-cigarettes really as safe as they claim”?

Whereas the BBC asked “what kind of NHS can Britain afford?”

Happy birthday to our colleagues across the pond – the American Cancer Society, ‘official sponsor of birthdays’, celebrates 100 years itself. The Washington Post has this timeline and slideshow

And finally

We enjoyed this Wired Science article that looked at cancer from an evolutionary perspective. Our own Professor Gerard Evan has written about this before on this blog.

Olly

News digest – Angelina Jolie, clinical trial transparency, testicular cancer and more

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Oliver Childs

The latest cancer news

Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer, after she learnt she carried the BRCA1 gene, resulted in blanket coverage across the media this week. You can read about her reasons for undergoing the surgery in this courageous New York Times piece. We also answered some of the frequently asked questions about inherited breast cancer risk and the BRCA1 gene.

We spotted several excellent comment pieces in response to Ms Jolie’s news. She’d “done something extraordinary”, according to Hadley Freeman in the Guardian, a sentiment broadly echoed by Lisa Markwell in the Independent, who has had breast cancer herself.

The Guardian’s data blog took a look at the bigger picture of breast cancer worldwide.

We also published this moving article about a personal experience of being told you have the BRCA1 gene.

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Angelina Jolie, inherited breast cancer and the BRCA1 gene

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Henry Scowcroft

Actress Angelina Jolie has had surgery to prevent breast cancer

The news today is full of reaction to US actress Angelina Jolie’s decision to have surgery to reduce her chances of breast cancer.

She made this difficult decision because, having lost her mother to ovarian cancer, she discovered she carries a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene – which put her at very high risk of getting both forms of the disease.

If you haven’t read her brave and thoughtful piece in the New York Times, it’s worth doing so.

But in the light of the considerable interest, and the fact that many people will undoubtedly have questions, we wanted to pull together a few quick thoughts and facts on the topic of inherited breast cancer generally, and the BRCA1 gene specifically.

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News digest – tobacco disappointment, genetic ‘fine tuners’, vaccine cost drop, and more

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Oliver Childs

The latest cancer news

Wednesday was a sad day for public health. The worrying rumours we’d heard last week – that the government had scrapped plans to introduce plain, standardised tobacco packaging in the Queen’s speech – turned out to be true. This BBC article has more info. We wrote about why this is a blow in the fight against cancer.
Our scientists found that genetic ‘fine tuners’ known as microRNAs control the body’s own attack against breast cancer. Read more in our press release
US scientists uncovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are often more likely to develop aggressive tumours that spread. This NewsWise article has more info.
Also across the pond, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine identified a group of proteins that are faulty in about one-fifth of all human cancers. Science Daily covered the story.

Pharmaceutical companies agreed a substantial discount on the cost of cervical cancer vaccines for the developing world. The New York Times and the Guardian have more detail.

And finally

We were dismayed this week by several headlines like this: “Sun’s blood pressure benefits may outdo cancer risks”. The study in question only looked at the blood pressure of 24 volunteers who sat beneath tanning lamps. It didn’t directly look at skin cancer risk and also hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet. Overexposure to UV radiation from the sun or sunbeds is the main cause of skin cancer, so we advise everyone to enjoy the sun safely.

A sad day for public health – standard packs and the path ahead

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Chris Woodhall

The 2010 film The King’s Speech was a national triumph. So at Cancer Research UK we’re dismayed to have to report that we’re not exactly rolling out the red carpet for yesterday’s Queen’s Speech.

In fact, quite the opposite.

The Queen’s Speech – which outlined the Government’s focus for the next year – has, shockingly, left plans to put tobacco products in plain, standardised packaging, on the cutting room floor.

The government has thus failed to deliver on a policy that would help protect children from a product that has no safe level of consumption.

So today, nine months since its consultation closed in August 2012, we’re left hanging, still waiting for the government to make a clear statement of its intentions.

In that time more than 150,000 children have started smoking – the beginning of an addiction that kills half its long-term users.

In light of this disappointing decision, we wanted to outline, clearly and simply, which organisations support this measure. Also we thought it worth exposing the vested interests of its opponents. This is all worth knowing, because this fight isn’t over; this is not “The End”.

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News digest – breast cancer rates, worrying tobacco rumours, genetic maps and more

Posted on May 4, 2013 by Oliver Childs

It’s time for our round-up of the week’s headlines

Breast cancer in women under 50 has reached 10,000 a year for the first time, according to figures we released this week. But the good news is that more women in this age group are surviving their disease. Here’s our press release, and the Telegraph’s front page coverage.

In other breast cancer news, tamoxifen and similar oestrogen-blocking drugs have been found to reduce breast cancer rates by more than a third in women at high risk. Our press release and blog both have more detail. We also liked this Telegraph piece about tamoxifen.
Several papers (including the Guardian) covered research about a possible link between cosmetic breast implants and a greater chance of dying from breast cancer. The research does not suggest implants cause cancer, but they may cause a delay in diagnosis. As this excellent NHS Choices analysis says, larger studies are needed to understand this link.

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New tricks for old drugs – blocking oestrogen to prevent breast cancer

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Hazel Nunn

Can drugs like tamoxifen be used to prevent breast cancer?

Tamoxifen is one of the mainstays of breast cancer treatment. Since the early 1980s, it’s been given to women who’ve had breast cancer to try to stop the disease returning.

As a result, it’s saved the lives of millions around the world, and some regard it as the most important cancer drug ever developed.

But today this old drug returns to the spotlight, with a new study showing that tamoxifen and other oestrogen- blocking medicines can reduce the chances of healthy women developing breast cancer.

We’ve blogged before about the discovery of tamoxifen, and Cancer Research UK’s role in its development.

But until now it’s not been clear whether tamoxifen and related drugs might have benefits for healthy women. Today’s finding, by an international team led by Cancer Research UK-funded researchers, provides the best evidence yet that these drugs could be used to help prevent breast cancer in women at average and above-average risk of the disease.

This is hugely significant. If benefits are shown to outweigh the risks, offering women at high risk of breast cancer a drug to lower their risk, could potentially prevent many thousands of breast cancer cases in the UK alone.

Let’s look at their findings, and at what happens next.

Continue reading →