As more is learned about how cancer develops, scientists have begun designing new drugs that directly target cancer cells, leaving healthy ones intact. Having fewer side effects, some of these drugs work by blocking growth signaling processes within cancer cells, while others enlist the body’s immune system to recognize and mount an attack against the cancer cell. But regardless of how they work, most of these drugs are designed to treat a specific cancer and cannot be used to treat other tumor type

Research led by scientists at the U of T and Caprion Pharmaceuticals have uncovered the basis for a diagnostic, immunotherapy and vaccine, providing a way to detect and treat the brain-wasting damage of infectious prions like those found in mad cow disease and its human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Dr. Neil Cashman, a principal investigator at U of T’s Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and professor in the Department of Medicine (neurology) and a Caprion founder,

An experimental cancer drug named bevacizumab (trade name Avastin) is the first “anti-angiogenesis” drug to prove that it can shrink tumors and extend survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to a national clinical trial led by researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Bevacizumab is known as an anti-angiogenesis drug because it blocks the formation of blood vessels in tumors (a process called angiogenesis) and thus inhibits their growth.

Patien

Researchers at the Breast Care Center at Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital have developed a new test to predict which breast cancer tumors will respond to chemotherapy, potentially reducing unnecessary treatment for women with breast cancer, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago.

Using novel DNA array technology, the study identified differences in the gene patterns from tumor samples that predict which patients

Study results presented at the 39th annual meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) by Chandra P. Belani, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh and co-director, Lung Cancer Program, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), demonstrate that a new therapeutic radiation strategy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) – the most common form of the disease – leads to improved survival for lung cancer patients with locally advanced disease.

n the study

By combining genes from three separate organisms into a single bacterial factory, University of California, Berkeley, chemical engineers have developed a simpler, less expensive way to make an antimalaria “miracle” drug that is urgently needed in Third World countries.

The drug, artemisinin, is one of the most promising next-generation antimalarials because of its effectiveness against strains of the malaria parasite now resistant to front-line drugs. It is now too expensive for broad use i