Cancer discovery news

A clinical trial into the most common form of adult leukaemia has established that patients taking an aggressive but effective drug combination can return to a normal quality of life once they complete treatment.

Scientists from the ICR's Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre have become the first to fully sequence the DNA of two breast cancers caused by a faulty BRCA1 gene. Surprisingly, changes in the genetic code of the two tumours looked almost entirely different from one another.

Finding out that you have cancer comes as a big shock to most people – but what if you are also pregnant? Do you delay treatment until the baby is born, carry on with treatment during pregnancy or have a termination? What impact does chemotherapy have on your unborn child?

The discovery of a new type of cancer drug, a PI3K inhibitor, by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research and collaborators is creating a stir in the cancer research community.

Scientists at the ICR and The Royal Marsden have shown that a specialist type of MRI scan can be used to predict which patients will respond to a targeted radiotherapy and monitor response to treatment.

Leading breast cancer experts are calling for women under 50 who are diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer to be offered testing for faults in the BRCA1 gene, according to a report published in the British Journal of Cancer today.

In the ICR’s mission to relieve suffering due to cancer, major strategies include both education and the furthering of knowledge through scientific advancement. The programme of postgraduate research and taught training at the ICR both reflects these strategies and forms part of a commitment to the current and future pursuit of excellence in the fight against cancer.

The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust have launched their Joint Annual Research Report for 2010/11, highlighting a year of significant achievements.

Patients with advanced prostate cancer who were given a new type of hormonal treatment called MDV3100 lived an extra 4.8 months compared to men taking a placebo, according to the full analysis of a Phase III trial.

Ovarian cancer patients who carry BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations are significantly more likely to survive the disease than women without these faulty genes, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A drug regimen found to cut a women’s risk of dying from breast cancer gives a higher risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, but this can be managed and does not persist once treatment has finished.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have shown how to prevent new cancers which can occur when malignant melanoma patients are treated with drugs known as BRAF inhibitors, in a Cancer Research UK-funded study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.