Glasgow, UK: Twenty-nine per cent of health professionals would not recommend e-cigarettes to cancer patients who already smoke, according to research presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. While e-cigarettes may pose some health risks, evidence suggests they are much less harmful than smoking. Health bodies, including Public Health England and the Royal College of […]
Category: Cancer
Men with prostate cancer are willing to accept lower survival odds to avoid incontinence, impotence and repeat treatments
Glasgow, UK: Men who have been newly diagnosed with prostate cancer say they would trade some improvement in their odds of survival for improvements in side effects and quality of life, according to research presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of the disease in men […]
Patients with low risk thyroid cancer can receive lower doses of radiation treatment: new results from HiLo trial
Glasgow, UK: Thyroid cancer patients whose disease is at low risk of returning can be treated safely with a smaller amount of radiation following surgery, according to results from the world’s longest running trial to investigate this. Dr Jonathan Wadsley, a consultant clinical oncologist at the Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield, UK, and chair of the […]
Melanoma death rates are rising in men but static or falling in women
Glasgow, UK: The rate of men dying from malignant melanoma has risen in populations around the world, while in some countries the rates are steady or falling for women, according to research presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. Researchers studied worldwide data on deaths gathered by the World Health Organisation, focusing on 33 countries […]
Fluorescent marker can help guide surgeons to remove dangerous brain tumour cells more accurately
Glasgow, UK: A chemical that highlights tumour cells has been used by surgeons to help spot and safely remove brain cancer in a trial presented at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference. The research was carried out with patients who had suspected glioma, the disease that killed Dame Tessa Jowell, and the most common form of […]
Treatments for cancer and sickle cell disease deplete germ cells in young boys
Scientists have discovered that some treatments for cancer and sickle cell disease can destroy the germ cells that go on to develop into sperm in the testes of young boys. In some pre-pubescent boys, the treatment for sickle cell disease results in complete destruction of all their germ cells, which are called spermatogonia. The study, […]
Researchers map ‘family trees’ of acute myeloid leukaemia for the first time in patients treated with enasidenib
Paris, France: For the first time, a team of international researchers have mapped the family trees of cancer cells in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) to understand how this blood cancer responds to a new drug, enasidenib. The work also explains what happens when a patient stops responding to the treatment, providing important clues about how […]
Man against machine: artificial intelligence is better than dermatologists at diagnosing skin cancer
Researchers have shown for the first time that a form of artificial intelligence or machine learning known as a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) is better than experienced dermatologists at detecting skin cancer. In a study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1], researchers in Germany, the USA and France trained […]
Shorter courses of prostate cancer radiotherapy are safe and effective, and they could save patients’ time and reduce hospital waiting lists
Barcelona, Spain: Radiotherapy given in high doses over a shorter period of time is safe and effective for prostate cancer patients, according to research presented at the ESTRO 37 conference. The treatment, called ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy, involves hospital treatment every other day for two and half weeks, compared to every week day for eight weeks for […]
Targeted radiotherapy for breast cancer offers good quality of life and fewer side effects
Barcelona, Spain: Quality of life for women treated with a more targeted radiotherapy treatment – called accelerated partial breast irradiation – is at least as good as quality of life for women treated with standard radiotherapy, according to research presented at the ESTRO 37 conference and published simultaneously in The Lancet Oncology. The treatment uses […]