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Pancreatic cancer is a formidable disease, often diagnosed too late for effective treatment. However, new research represents a promising step toward identifying biological signals or biomarkers that may aid in early detection. By tracking changes in body composition and metabolism, researchers are working to identify high-risk patients who could benefit from selective screening for the disease. "If we catch them early, at stage 1A, their five-year survival rate can be as high as 80%," says Yan Bi, M.D., Ph.D. "Detecting the cancer earlier is the best way to improve survival." Dr. Bi teamed up with Derk Klatte, M.D., Ph.D. to...

An international academic consortium has identified 13 biomarkers that significantly improve the ability to accurately predict cardiovascular disease risk in people with type 2 diabetes. The analysis, conducted by 23 experts from 11 countries, was led by The Johns Hopkins University in the United States, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, and Lund University in Sweden. Although people with type 2 diabetes are two times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those without diabetes, it is a challenge for clinicians to predict who in this population is most at risk. Traditional risk scores, which reflect risk...

For the first time, a researcher has determined that the naturally occurring dietary supplement known as nicotinamide riboside (NR) can enter the brain. The discovery was made by Christopher Martens and Dr. Dimitrios Kapogiannis. The finding is significant because it supports the idea that NR, upon reaching the brain, can alter the metabolism of relevant biological pathways involved in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Upon consumption, NR is readily converted into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is critical to cellular repair and the repair of damaged DNA. "NAD+ is gradually lost as we get older or develop chronic diseases. Loss of...

A combination of chemotherapy with an immunotherapy meant to unleash the anticancer capacity of the immune system was effective against one of the hardest targets in cancer care, pancreatic cancer, in a national, randomized clinical trial. The researchers found that in 34 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer randomized to receive the immunotherapy nivolumab with two chemotherapy drugs, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine, had a one-year survival rate of 57.7 percent, significantly greater than the historical average of 35 percent with chemotherapy alone. The findings also included the identification of immune system biomarkers associated with better outcomes. A ray of hope has come...

Tumor-Specific Antigens Could Positively Impact Diagnosis, Imaging, and TherapyThe medical literature abounds with examples of the benefits of early cancer detection. Cure rates are always dramatically higher before the tumor has spread and while surgery is still an option. For example in cervical cancer, detection at the earliest stages of the disease is associated with a 99% five-year survival rate. Similarly encouraging statistics may be found for cancers of the breast, ovaries, colon, skin, and other sites. Cancer detected through physical examination or medical imaging is usually too advanced for hope of a cure, which has led to an explosion...

Jill Doimer's mother died in 2002 from ovarian cancer, detected too late to be effectively treated. So Ms. Doimer is eagerly awaiting the introduction of a new test that holds the promise of detecting early-stage ovarian cancer far more accurately than any test available now, using only blood from a finger prick. Not only does she plan to be tested, but an advocacy group she helped found, Ovarian Awareness of Kentucky, also intends to spread the word to women and doctors. "If it's going to happen to me or anyone I know, I want it to be caught at an...