Neoplasms

Suffering from breast cancer increases risk of another tumor by 39 percent
Women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer are 39% more likely to develop a second cancer in a different part of the body. Such is the conclusion of a recent study, pioneered by female Spanish researchers. The study suggests that this increased risk could be due to the similar risk factors involved in both cancers, or to the side effects of the treatment received by breast cáncer patients. MedicalXpress

Outdoor Air Pollution Called a Leading Cause of Cancer Worldwide
After thoroughly reviewing the latest available scientific literature, the world’s leading experts convened by the IARC Monographs Programme concluded that there is sufficient evidence that exposure to outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer (Group 1). They also noted a positive association with an increased risk of bladder cancer. International Agency for Research on Cancer

Colon cancer screening guidelines may miss 10 percent of colon cancers
For people with a family history of adenomas (colon polyps that lead to colon cancer), up to 10 percent of colorectal cancers could be missed when current national screening guidelines are followed. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and the second deadliest.

In the largest population-based study to date, researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah made this finding based on nearly 127,000 individuals who underwent colonoscopy in Utah between 1995 and 2009. The results appear online in "Early View" of the journal Cancer. Eurekalert!

Exercise–libido link confirmed in prostate survivors
In a world first, researchers from Edith Cowan University's Health and Wellness Institute have established a link between exercise and sexual health in men with prostate cancer. Published this month in Nature Reviews Urology, the research by Doctor Prue Cormie and her team highlighted how exercise can counteract sexual dysfunction experienced by men undergoing prostate cancer treatment. MedicalXpress

A simple test may catch early pancreatic cancer
"We have mammograms to screen for breast cancer and colonoscopies for colon cancer but we have had nothing to help us screen for pancreatic cancer," says Nita Ahuja, M.D., an associate professor of surgery, oncology and urology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the study described online this month in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. "While far from perfect, we think we have found an early detection marker for pancreatic cancer that may allow us to locate and attack the disease at a much earlier stage than we usually do."

For their study, Ahuja and her colleagues were able to identify two genes, BNC1 and ADAMTS1, which together were detectable in 81 percent of blood samples from 42 people with early-stage pancreatic cancer, but not in patients without the disease or in patients with a history of pancreatitis, a risk factor for pancreatic cancer. By contrast, the commonly used PSA antigen test for prostate cancer only picks up about 20 percent of prostate cancers. Eurekalert!

Study: Metformin for breast cancer less effective at higher glucose concentrations
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published online this month in the journal Cell Cycle shows that breast cancer cell growth, motility and aggression is promoted by excess glucose, as experienced by patients with diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The study also shows that patients with high glucose may require higher doses of the drug metformin to achieve the same anti-cancer activity as patients with normal glucose levels. University of Colorado Cancer Center

Cancer wasting due in part to tumor factors that block muscle repair, study shows
A new study reveals that tumors release factors into the bloodstream that inhibit the repair of damaged muscle fibers, and that this contributes to muscle loss during cancer wasting. The condition, also called cancer cachexia, accompanies certain types of cancer, causes life-threatening loss of body weight and lean muscle mass, and is responsible for up to one-in-four cancer deaths. There is no treatment for the condition. The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center