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A single course of low-dose radiation therapy may provide a safe and effective alternative treatment option for people with painful knee osteoarthritis according to a new randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The study showed patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis reported significant reductions in pain and improved physical function in the four months after receiving the low dose of radiation, which was just a small fraction of what's used to treat cancer. The study included a control group with simulated treatment. Low-dose radiation is regularly used for joint pain in European countries such as Germany and Spain. The doses were...

A study has found that a surgical technique developed to protect vision in patients with uveal melanoma, a rare cancer that arises inside the eye, may also lower the risk of the disease spreading and improve survival.. The study followed 37 patients who were treated for uveal melanoma. Most received targeted radiation, known as plaque brachytherapy, combined with a specialized procedure that replaces the eye's gel-like interior with silicone oil, a technique designed to shield healthy parts of the eye from radiation damage while allowing the tumor to receive the full cancer-killing dose. Over a median follow-up of more than...

The technique, known as IORT, has numerous benefits, surgeons say, but it generates less money for hospitals and radiation oncologists.It’s not uncommon for breast cancer patients in the rural South to travel hundreds of miles to reach the medical practice run by Dr. Phillip Ley, a cancer surgeon in Jackson, Mississippi. For those who are good candidates, Ley recommends a therapy that delivers a single, targeted radiation dose to a patient’s breast tissue immediately after surgery to remove a tumor. Known as intraoperative radiation therapy, or IORT, it costs patients less in both time and money than traditional radiation treatments,...

Colorectal cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death, with incidence rising among older adults. One of the most pressing clinical questions has been whether elderly patients should receive oxaliplatin, a standard component of adjuvant chemotherapy that is known to cause serious side effects. To address this, Dr. Jun Woo Bong conducted a large-scale population study. The team examined health records from more than 8,500 patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer who underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy between 2014 and 2016. Patients were divided into two groups: those treated with oxaliplatin-based combinations, and those given standard chemotherapy alone....

A team of researchers explored the cellular and molecular interactions revealing how lymph nodes play a crucial role in the fight against chronic infection and cancer. The research showed that lymph nodes provide the right environment for stem-like T cells, an important type of immune cell, to survive, multiply and produce killer cells that can fight cancer or viruses. In other immune organs, such as the spleen, these cells don't develop or proliferate as effectively, making lymph nodes essential for a strong immune response and successful immunotherapy. Professor Axel Kallies said the findings have important implications for cancer therapy. "Lymph...

Listen to this story IN THE POPULAR imagination, cancer starts with a mutation in the DNA of a normal cell. That mutation allows the cell to multiply uncontrollably, circumventing the body’s usual quality-control checks. Eventually, a tumour forms and breakaway cells spread to other parts of the body. But in the past few years scientists have been finding something surprising—so-called cancer-driver mutations are also common in healthy tissue. Such mutations appear in around a quarter of healthy skin cells. When a person is middle aged more than half the surface of the oesophagus and nearly 10% of the lining of...

Researchers have identified a new way to treat certain blood cancers using existing drugs, by turning a once-dismissed part of our DNA into a therapeutic target. The study focused on myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These cancers often have mutations in two key genes, ASXL1 and EZH2, which normally control the activity of other genes by switching them on or off. When these genes are damaged, cells lose control of their ability to create new cells, resulting in abnormal cell growth. Nearly half of human DNA is made up of repetitive sequences called transposable elements (TEs), once...

Intense light therapy after surgery can increase a critical protein that protects heart tissue while lowering levels of troponin, a protein indicating heart damage that's linked to higher mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, according to a study. The results add to a growing body of evidence showing that intense light has a healing effect on the heart and blood vessels, a finding that could help reduce the number of cardiac events that happen after surgery. Myocardial Injuries in Noncardiac Surgeries (MINS) occur in about 20% of patients and significantly increase one-year mortality rates. "The risk of myocardial injury goes...

One of the cruellest and most devastating diseases – Huntington's – has been successfully treated for the first time, say doctors. The disease runs through families, relentlessly kills brain cells and resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease. An emotional research team became tearful as they described how data shows the disease was slowed by 75% in patients. It means the decline you would normally expect in one year would take four years after treatment, giving patients decades of "good quality life", Prof Sarah Tabrizi told BBC News. The new treatment is a type of gene therapy...

In 2023, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, 613,349 Americans died of cancer. That number is projected to increase to over 618,000 this year. As a result, medical research has been focused on the development of cancer treatment protocols for decades for all types of cancer.The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Trials Support Unit (CTSU) and the National Institute of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov website list hundreds of active protocols, with 457 NCI-supported protocols noted in clinical trial databases for various cancer types and stages.For example, there are approximately a dozen known treatment protocols for Stage 4 prostate cancer that focus...

Forskolin, a natural compound derived from a plant, could significantly improve treatment outcomes for an aggressive form of leukemia, known as KMT2A-rearranged Acute Myeloid Leukemia (KMT2A-r AML), according to a new study. The study shows that not only does forskolin directly stop the growth of leukemia cells, but it also enhances the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs. Researchers from Surrey found that forskolin activates Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and stops the expression of several cancer-promoting genes (MYC, HOXA9 and HOXA10). The research also shows a significant and unexpected finding, as forskolin was found to substantially increase the sensitivity of KMT2A-r AML...

A groundbreaking hybrid protocol using repurposed drugs and nutrients left one man cancer-free after Stage 4 prostate cancer—at a fraction of standard treatment costs. In 2023, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, 613,349 Americans died of cancer. That number is projected to increase to over 618,000 this year. As a result, medical research has been focused on the development of cancer treatment protocols for decades for all types of cancer. The National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Trials Support Unit (CTSU) and the National Institute of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov website list hundreds of active protocols, with 457 NCI-supported protocols noted in...

Cutting-edge technology could one day transform treatment for Down syndrome, as researchers have successfully deleted an extra chromosome in lab-grown cells. Down syndrome - which occurs when a person has three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two - alters brain development and can cause intellectual disability, learning difficulties and other health challenges. It affects about one in 700 births in the US, with an estimated 250,000 people living with the condition. Scientists from Mie University in Japan have used CRISPR-Cas9, a DNA-editing tool often described as 'molecular scissors,' to cut away the surplus chromosome in cells. Their system was...

Explore the latest guide by Dr. Paul Marik and Dr. Justus Hope on cancer stem cells—the hidden drivers of relapse and metastasis. Cancer treatment often succeeds—until it doesn’t. A tumor shrinks. A scan looks clean. The patient goes home hopeful. And then… the cancer returns. But why does it come back? And sometimes more aggressive than before? The answer lies with a small population of cells that most standard treatments ignore. Cells that don’t just survive chemotherapy and radiation but adapt and return. They’re called cancer stem cells (CSCs), and they may be the single most overlooked driver of relapse,...

A medication developed in the 1950s to treat Parkinson's disease may offer a powerful new tool in the fight against tuberculosis (TB), according to new research. The study found that benztropine can dramatically reduce levels of TB-causing bacteria by boosting the body's natural immune response. TB is the world's deadliest infectious disease. Treatment requires a months-long regimen of multiple antibiotics, which can have serious side effects and is increasingly challenged by the emergence of drug-resistant bacterial strains. Tuberculosis is particularly difficult to treat because the bacteria responsible, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is able to infect and survive within the very immune cells...

In A Nutshell A new bladder cancer device called TAR-200 delivers chemotherapy directly into the bladder over time, avoiding long treatment sessions. In a clinical trial, over 8 in 10 patients with a specific type of bladder cancer (carcinoma in situ) saw their cancer disappear after treatment. Many patients stayed cancer-free for more than a year, and most were able to avoid bladder removal surgery during the study period. Side effects were mostly mild urinary symptoms that cleared up within weeks, with serious problems being uncommon. ================================================================= LOS ANGELES — For bladder cancer patients whose tumors stop responding to standard...

By sparking the immune system into action, radiation therapy makes certain tumors that resist immunotherapy susceptible to the treatment, leading to positive outcomes for patients, according to new research. In the study, investigators dove deep into the molecular biology of non-small cell lung cancer to pinpoint what happens on a cellular and molecular level over time when the cancer is treated with either radiation therapy followed by immunotherapy or immunotherapy alone. They found that radiation plus immunotherapy induced a systemic anti-tumor immune response in lung cancers that do not typically respond to immunotherapy. The combination therapy also yielded improved clinical...

Pharmaceutical scientists, clinicians, nurses and pharmacists have shown that a reduced dose of abiraterone acetate is potentially as effective and safe as the standard regimen for prostate cancer patients. Prostate cancer remains one of the most common malignancies among men. The current standard treatment involves a 1000 mg daily dose of abiraterone acetate (AA), a drug that targets hormone pathways driving cancer progression. However, this high dose can lead to unwanted side effects and high treatment costs. The study investigated whether a 500 mg daily dose of AA, taken on an empty stomach, could achieve comparable therapeutic outcomes. In their...

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting are among the most distressing side effects of anti-cancer treatment. A new study examined whether a 5 mg dose of olanzapine taken at home after chemotherapy could reduce nausea and vomiting in patients with breast cancer while minimizing the sedative effects associated with the standard 10 mg dose. This phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled 500 female patients with breast cancer in Japan receiving outpatient anthracycline plus cyclophosphamide-based chemotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either olanzapine 5 mg or placebo in combination with standard triplet antiemetic therapy (palonosetron, dexamethasone, and an NK-1 receptor antagonist). The...

Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecologic cancers worldwide and continues to be a leading cause of cancer-related death in women. While early detection through screening has improved outcomes, treatment options for advanced or recurrent disease remain limited. The five-year survival rate for late-stage cervical cancer is still less than 20%, underscoring the urgent need for better therapies. The disease is most often linked to high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, but other factors also contribute to tumor progression—such as changes in the immune system, abnormal cell survival signals, and increased blood vessel formation that supports tumor growth. Current...