Cancer Research: Less-toxic cancer drug may work as well as chemotherapy ♦ To stop cancer: Block its messages ♦ Cancer-targeting mechanism under development

Panel predicts whether rare leukemia will respond to treatment Patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia have limited treatment options, and those that exist are effective only in fewer than half of patients. Now, a new study identifies a panel of genetic markers that predicted which tumor samples would likely respond to treatment

Cancer-targeting mechanism under development Researchers are developing molecules that bind to more than 60 types of cancer. Several are being tested in early-stage clinical trials, including one for brain cancer. These custom-made molecules can carry either a "flag" that shines brightly in standard medical scanners or a bit of radiation to kill the targeted cancer cells.

Fasting and less-toxic cancer drug may work as well as chemotherapy Fasting in combination with chemotherapy has already been shown to kill cancer cells, but a pair of new studies in mice suggests that a less-toxic class of drugs combined with fasting may kill breast, colorectal and lung cancer cells equally wel

To stop cancer: Block its messages A potential drug molecule has been discovered that stops cancer cells, but not healthy ones, from getting their 'mail.' The average living cell needs communication skills: It must transmit a constant stream of messages quickly and efficiently from its outer walls to the inner nucleus, where most of the day-to-day decisions are made. But this rapid, long-distance communication system leaves itself open to mutations that can give rise to a "spam attack" that promotes cancer, the researchers say.