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Mammograms showing a normal breast (left) and a breast with cancer (right). Credit: Public Domain ============================================================================================================== Cancer cells often devise ways to survive even in the presence of toxic chemotherapy. Now, a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found a way to attack a process that tumor cells use to escape the effects of standard cancer drugs. The discovery is published online today in the journal Nature Cell Biology. Cancer drugs are no longer limited to toxic chemicals that can cause significant side effects. Many are specially designed targeted therapies that seek out...

Israeli Researcher Finds Cure for Leukemia. British Doctors Campaign to Expel Israeli Physicians From World Body 1. A form of treating Leukemia pioneered by Israeli immunologist Zelig Esshar cured 94% of cases of Leukemia in a recent trial. Eshhar has been conducting T-cell research for over a decade, and in 2014 was recognized by leading industry publication Human Gene Therapy along with Dr. Carl June of the University of Pennsylvania for their work in the field. Their immune-based treatment is especially effective against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, the most common and once the most deadly childhood cancer, that only a few...

A precious 18 year-old girl, Lindsey Lourenco, has been battling Leukemia for years. But, after her long battle, she slipped into a coma. Her mother wrote a touching song for her daughter and sings it at her bedside, knowing she is in her final days. This is absolutely tear-jerking... God Bless you, Lindsey. (Find out more about Lindsey's story here.

A baby whom doctors thought almost certain to die has been cleared of a previously incurable leukemia in the first human use of an "off-the-shelf" cell therapy from Cellectis that creates designer immune cells. One-year-old Layla had run out of all other treatment options when doctors at Britain's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) gave her the highly experimental, genetically edited cells in a tiny 1-milliliter intravenous infusion. Two months later, she was cancer-free and she is now home from hospital, the doctors said at a briefing about her case in London on Wednesday. "Her leukemia was so aggressive that such...

Millionaire heir to the Frito-Lay chip fortune, 44, dies at home just two years after he won battle against leukemia Carter Lay, an heir to the Frito-Lay potato chip company and leukemia survivor, died on Thursday, aged 44. The father-of-two was found in his Los Angeles home after police received a call that there was an unconscious male at the residence. Police found Lay in his bedroom unresponsive. CPR was administered but unsuccessful and Lay was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy report is underway, but his death is not believed to be suspicious, according to TMZ.

A beauty queen from Pennsylvania is being stripped of her crown after she was accused of lying about having leukemia to benefit from fundraisers. Brandi Weaver-Gates has been the reigning Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International pageant winner. Online court records show the 23-year-old, of State College, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of theft by deception and receiving stolen property. Investigators in Centre County said events were set up to raise money for her medical bills. Police said Weaver-Gates took the money even though she didn’t have cancer. State police said an April bingo benefit raised $14,000. Police said Weaver-Gates went as...

Chris Squire—the bassist, vocalist, and founding member of Yes—died last night following his battle with leukemia, according to a statement from the band. Since he started the group with Jon Anderson in 1968 until he was diagnosed with Acute Erythroid Leukemia in 2015, Squire was the only constant member of the group. He was 67. Squire grew up in central London, where, in 1964, he was suspended from school for having long hair. He played in a few bands in the 1960s, including the Selfs, the Syn, and Mabel Greer's Toyshop. It was through that last band that he met...

A 12-year-old Michigan girl who just made it through the biggest fight of her life has been dealt another blow. In August 2012, Rose McGrath, of Battle Creek, was diagnosed with leukemia. But last week, her family received a letter from her school that would turn her world upside down. As CBS affiliate WWMT reports, the letter addressed concerns regarding Rose's attendance and academic performance, and stated that Rose had been dismissed from St. Joseph Middle School. "I didn't do anything wrong, but they still got rid of me," Rose said. screen-shot-2015-04-24-at-11-24-21-am.png Rose McGrath WWMT Rose has been with the...

"The evidence indicates that the tumor cells themselves are contagious -- that the cells can spread from one animal to another in the ocean," said researcher Stephen Goff of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Columbia University in New York City. "We know this must be true because the genotypes of the tumor cells do not match those of the host animals that acquire the disease, but instead all derive from a single lineage of tumor cells," Goff explained. The findings, published April 9 in Cell, suggest that cells can survive in seawater long enough to reach and infect a...

ORIGINAL TITLE: Ido Bachelet DNA nanobots summary with a couple of extra videos In a brief talk, Bachelet said DNA nanobots will soon be tried in a critically ill leukemia patient. The patient, who has been given roughly six months to live, will receive an injection of DNA nanobots designed to interact with and destroy leukemia cells—while causing virtually zero collateral damage in healthy tissue. According to Bachelet, his team have successfully tested their method in cell cultures and animals and written two papers on the subject, one in Science and one in Nature. Contemporary cancer therapies involving invasive surgery...

After a chance observation in the lab, researchers found a method that can force dangerous leukemia cells in the lab to mature into harmless immune cells called macrophages. Mar 16 2015 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that when a certain aggressive leukemia is causing havoc in the body, the solution may be to force the cancer cells to grow up and behave. After a chance observation in the lab, the researchers found a method that can cause dangerous leukemia cells to mature into harmless immune cells known as macrophages. The findings are described in a...

"Sam" was 8 years old, and he had become quite a grouchy, old cat. He was still gentle and wanted petting, feeding and watering, but he acted like he had a tooth ache and he had bad breath. The vet said there was no known cure for the virus infection, Feline Leukemia and that it was VERY infectious to other animals. Her said that he probably got it in a fight with another infected cat, or that it could be caught by drinking or eating from the same water bowl or feed bowl that another infected animal used. I...

The Philadelphia Eagles, in conjunction with Ronald McDonald House, have made the day for Colin Delaney, a 15-year-old battling leukemia. The Eagles gave the former middle school fullback a one-day contract and invited him to sit on the bench for Sunday night's game with the division rival New York Giants. Delaney was given his contract by Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, who presented the teen with a No. 1 jersey with his name on it.

Isabela Munoz of Oakley, Calif., left, talks with her sister, Jasmine, about an upcoming trip to Rome. Isabela donated her bone marrow to help Jasmine survive leukemia. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jasmine will realize a dream when she and her family travel to Rome in April to see the Vatican and attend Pope Francis' general audience. (CNS photo/Jose Luis Aguirre, The Catholic Voice)OAKLAND, Calif. - Jasmine Munoz could have met Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, gone to a beach or taken a cruise, but the 12-year-old leukemia survivor would rather see the Vatican and meet Pope Francis. Thanks to...

Delaney "Laney" Ann Brown died on Christmas from complications from leukemia, five days after her 8th birthday. It was on her birthday, Dec. 20, that Brown made headlines when she received a phone call from Taylor Swift, who had heard about Brown's struggle with leukemia through Make- A-Wish America. Brown lived in West Reading, Pennsylvania, just down the road from Reading, where Swift was born. The pair had a conversation via Facetime, so they could see each other while they spoke; and judging from a post on Facebook, fulfilling the "bucket list" item put a smile on the young girl's...

A recent series of spectacular medical cases has electrified researchers around the world—cases in which therapy has allowed the HIV patient to permanently keep the virus under control. In 2009, doctors at Berlin’s Charité Hospital reported on a HIV-positive man named Timothy Ray Brown, known as the Berlin patient, who received a bone-marrow stem-cell transplant as treatment for leukemia. The donor was, thanks to genetics, immune to HIV—and the immunity seemed to have passed to Brown, who no longer needed antiretroviral therapy to control the HIV. Doctors eventually declared him cured. In 2013, doctors at Harvard Medical School reported similar...

WITHIN just eight days of starting a novel gene therapy, David Aponte's "incurable" leukaemia had vanished. For four other patients, the same happened within eight weeks, although one later died from a blood clot unrelated to the treatment, and another after relapsing. The cured trio, who were all previously diagnosed with usually fatal relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, have now been in remission for between 5 months and 2 years. Michel Sadelain of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, co-leader of the group that designed the trial, says that a second trial of 50 patients is being readied,...

Genetically engineered immune cells can drive an aggressive type of leukaemia into retreat, a small clinical trial suggests. The results of the trial — done in five patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia — are published in Science Translational Medicine1 and represent the latest success for a 'fringe' therapy in which a type of immune cell called T cells are extracted from a patient, genetically modified, and then reinfused back. In this case, the T cells were engineered to express a receptor for a protein on other immune cells, known as B cells, found in both healthy and cancerous tissue. When...

Emma Brooke-Whitehead had undergone extended chemotherapy without success when doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia decided to try the groundbreaking new treatment about eight months ago. "This treatment was really her only chance," pediatric oncologist Stephen Grupp told ABC News. The treatment works by using a disabled version of HIV to retrain a patient's disease-fighting white blood cells to kill cancer cells.

A gene therapy that uses infusions of patients’ own T cells genetically engineered to attack their tumors enjoyed its first successful and sustained demonstration of clinical-trial success in nine of 12 leukemia patients—two of whom have been in remission for more than two years. The therapy was pioneered by the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, whose researchers will present latest results from the study today at the American Society of Hematology (ASH)'s Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta.According to Penn Perelman, the results pave the way for a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of these types of...