(Posted: 10/16/2012) - Matt Hansen holds a small rounded flask of bubbling gold chloride solution that turns from yellow to crimson. On a table beside him, a similar solution slowly turns from clear to purplish-black. The vials hold potentially billions of gold nanoparticles -- each one thirty-thousandth the width of a strand of hair -- the building blocks in an emerging science that is allowing cancer researchers to break new ground in how they treat the disease... With nanotechnology, researchers in the lab -- which is part of the National Institutes of Health and run by federal contractor SAIC-Frederick -- are harnessing ways to reduce side effects and improve the efficacy of cancer drugs by giving scientists more control in targeting treatments, said Dr. Scott McNeil, lab director.

(Posted: 09/27/2012) - Sixteen years ago, right before her 42nd birthday, Jane Baker Segelken was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was small, and she was told that if the cancer didn't return within five years after treatment, her chances for long-term survival were good... Dr. Catherine Alfano, deputy director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, says that of the women diagnosed with breast cancer today, 90 percent will be alive in five years compared with 63 percent in the 1960s. "I think the main point about survival rates being much better now is that more people than ever are living with the effects of cancer for many years after their diagnosis and treatment," she says, "which means that doctors and researchers are turning attention to helping survivors understand what the long-term effects of cancer might be, and how to prevent or minimize those."

(Posted: 09/24/2012) - Scientists announced Sunday that they have finished mapping virtually all of the genetic mutations in breast cancer, an effort that could soon change the way patients are treated and eventually help researchers develop better treatments... Among the most striking findings: One of the most lethal types of breast cancer is genetically closer to a kind of ovarian cancer than it is to other breast tumors, according to the paper, published online today in Nature.

(Posted: 09/18/2012) - Cancer has become the leading cause of death among U.S. Latinos, nosing past heart disease in 2009. For most demographic groups — and for the country as a whole — heart disease is the top killer, claiming a total of 599,413 American lives in 2009... The American Cancer Society undertakes its analysis of cancer in Latinos every three years, compiling data from the National Cancer Institute, the CDC and other government sources.

(Posted: 09/13/2012) - Proscar (finasteride), a drug used to treat an enlarged prostate, does not reduce the quality of life of men who use it for a prolonged period of time, found a new study funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Published Sept. 12 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the research involved men aged 55 and older enrolled in a seven-year randomized clinical trial looking at the drug's possible use for prostate cancer prevention.

(Posted: 09/11/2012) - [Subscription Required]: For its latest recommendations, the panel relied heavily on a large (NCI-sponsored) study published last year in The Journal of the American American Medical Association of 78,216 women ages 55 to 74. Half were screened and half were not, and they were followed for 11 to 13 years. The screening consisted of ultrasound exams and blood tests for elevated levels of a substance called CA-125, which can be a sign of ovarian cancer. There was no advantage to screening: the death rate from ovarian cancer was the same in the two groups.

(Posted: 09/10/2012) - [Subscription Required]: The first large and comprehensive study of the genetics of a common lung cancer has found that more than half the tumors from that cancer have mutations that might be treated by new drugs that are already in the pipeline or that could be easily developed. For the tens of thousands of Americans with that cancer — squamous cell lung cancer — the results are promising because they could foretell a new type of treatment in which drugs are tailored to match the genetic abnormality in each patient, researchers say.

(Posted: 08/27/2012) - [Subscription Required]: Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan stared at a printout of gene sequences from a man with cancer, a subject in one of his studies. There, along with the man’s cancer genes, was something unexpected — genes of the virus that causes AIDS... In laboratories around the world, genetic researchers using tools that are ever more sophisticated to peer into the DNA of cells are increasingly finding things they were not looking for, including information that could make a big difference to an anonymous donor.

(Posted: 08/21/2012) - Studies have long shown an increased risk of breast cancer in women whose breasts are considered "dense," or less fatty. So some doctors say they were surprised by new research showing that breast cancer patients with dense breasts were no more likely to die than other patients in the study. Yet women with less dense breasts were more likely to die of their breast cancers if they also were obese, according to the study, involving more than 9,000 women, in today's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

(Posted: 08/20/2012) - The National Institutes of Health provides 24-7 medical care, including chemotherapy and other intensive treatments, and a fully equipped emergency room. With the help of 60 volunteers and nearly 70 medical staffers, campers are able to safely participate in a variety of activities.