Tag Archives: pancreatic cancer

New method of drug delivery may be safer and more effective against pancreatic cancer

UCLA researchers use nanoparticles to send chemotherapy drug directly to the tumor site, reducing damage to healthy tissues

The overall five-year survival rate for people with pancreatic cancer is just 6 percent, and there is an urgent need for new treatment options. More than 80 percent of pancreatic cancer diagnoses occur too late for surgery, making chemotherapy the only possible treatment. (more…)

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Credit card-sized device could analyze biopsy, help diagnose pancreatic cancer in minutes

Pancreatic cancer is a particularly devastating disease. At least 94 percent of patients will die within five years, and in 2013 it was ranked as one of the top 10 deadliest cancers.

Routine screenings for breast, colon and lung cancers have improved treatment and outcomes for patients with these diseases, largely because the cancer can be detected early. But because little is known about how pancreatic cancer behaves, patients often receive a diagnosis when it’s already too late. (more…)

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Bacteria May Signal Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Pancreatic cancer is highly lethal and difficult to detect early. In a new study, researchers report that people who had high levels of antibodies for an infectious oral bacterium turned out to have double the risk for developing the cancer. High antibody levels for harmless oral bacteria, meanwhile, predicted a reduced pancreatic cancer risk.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A new study finds significant associations between antibodies for multiple oral bacteria and the risk of pancreatic cancer, adding support for the emerging idea that the ostensibly distant medical conditions are related.

The study of blood samples from more than 800 European adults, published in the journal Gut, found that high antibody levels for one of the more infectious periodontal bacterium strains of Porphyromonas gingivalis were associated with a two-fold risk for pancreatic cancer. Meanwhile, study subjects with high levels of antibodies for some kinds of harmless “commensal” oral bacteria were associated with a 45-percent lower risk of pancreatic cancer. (more…)

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Gene Mutations Cause Massive Brain Asymmetry

Discovery could help lead to prevention of radical surgery for rare childhood disease

Hemimegalencephaly is a rare but dramatic condition of infancy in which half the brain is malformed and much larger than the other half. Its cause is unknown, but the current treatment is radical: the surgical disconnection and removal of the diseased half of the brain.

In a paper published in the June 24 online issue of the journal Nature Genetics, a team of doctors and scientists says mutations in a trio of genes that help regulate cell size and proliferation are likely culprits in causing the disorder, though perhaps not the only ones.

These mutations, known as de novo somatic mutations, are genetic changes in the cells of the brain. Because they are in non-sex organs, the mutations are not transmitted to the child by either parent. (more…)

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Leakage of Private Information from Popular Websites is Common, New Study Finds

*Co-Authored by WPI Computer Science Professor Craig Wills, Study Shows that Existing and Proposed Safeguards Against Leakage and Linking of Private Information are Inadequate*

A study of more than 100 popular websites used by tens of millions of people has found that three quarters directly leak either private information o r users’ unique identifiers to third-party tracking sites. The study, co-authored by Craig Wills, professor of computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), also demonstrated how the leakage of private information by many sites, including email addresses, physical addresses, and even the configuration of a user’s web browser—so-called browser fingerprints—could permit tracking sites to link many disparate pieces of information, including browsing histories contained in tracking cookies and the contents of searches on health and travel sites, to create detailed profiles of individuals. (more…)

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