Leukemia is a neoplastic diseases of the bone marrow in which unrestrained proliferation of white blood cells occurs, usually accompanied by anemia, impaired blood clotting, and enlargement of the lymph nodes, liver, and spleen.
New tool illuminates connections between stem cells and cancer — 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – Researchers have a new tool to understand how cancers grow — and with it a new opportunity to identify novel cancer drugs. They’ve been able to break apart human prostate tissue, extract the stem cells in that tissue, and alter those cells genetically so that they spur cancer.
First successful use of expanded umbilical-cord blood units to treat leukemia – Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have cleared a major technical hurdle to making umbilical-cord-blood transplants a more widely-used method for treating leukemia and other blood cancers.
Johns Hopkins researchers say vaccine appears to ‘mop up’ leukemia cells Gleevec leaves behind — Team cautions that results are very preliminary and they cannot yet rule out other reasons for success – Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers say preliminary studies show that a vaccine made with leukemia cells may be able to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients taking the drug Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec).
Researchers find first evidence of virus in malignant prostate cells in prostate cancer — XMRV retrovirus is associated with more aggressive tumors of prostate gland. – XMRV (Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) — a type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells.
Limited data suggest possible association between Agent Orange exposure – A new report from the Institute of Medicine finds suggestive but limited evidence that exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War is associated with an increased chance of developing ischemic heart disease and Parkinson’s disease for Vietnam veterans.
Researchers find possible environmental causes for Alzheimer’s, diabetes — Call for reducing nitrate levels in fertilizer and water, detoxifying food and water. – Increased levels of nitrates in our environment and food increases disease risks including Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson’s disease, revealed by researchers.
A new weapon in the war against HIV-AIDS: Combined antiviral and targeted chemotherapy – HIV-AIDS could be treated through a combination of targeted chemotherapy and current Highly Active Retroviral (HAART) treatments, revealed by researchers.
Study IDs benefit of donor SCT for adults with acute myeloid leukemia – A stem cell transplant (SCT) from a compatible donor early in the course of disease is the best approach for the majority of young and middle-aged adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a new analysis of two dozen clinical studies.
LIN28, which maintains cell ‘stemness,’ is abundant in advanced cancers and transforms cells to cancerous state – A protein abundant in embryonic stem cells is now shown to be important in cancer, and offers a possible new target for drug development, report researchers from the Stem Cell Program at Children’s Hospital Boston.
Combined stem cell-gene therapy approach cures human genetic disease in vitro – A study led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has catapulted the field of regenerative medicine significantly forward, proving in principle that a human genetic disease can be cured using a combination of gene therapy and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology.
