Cancer Research:Multi-gene test enables some breast cancer patients to safely avoid chemotherapy ♦ Significant genetic differences between breast cancers that relapse and those that do not:

Primary surgery is linked with survival benefit in patients with advanced throat cancer

Patients with cancers of the mid- and lower throat may have higher survival rates if their initial treatment includes surgery..

Cabozantinib improves survival in patients with advanced kidney cancer Patients with advanced kidney cancer live for nearly twice as long without their disease progressing if they are treated with cabozantinib, a drug that inhibits the action of tyrosine kinases -- enzymes that function as an 'on' or 'off' switch in many cellular processes, including cancer.

Significant genetic differences between breast cancers that relapse and those that do not: Researchers have taken an important step towards understanding why some primary breast cancers return while others do not. The European Cancer Congress will hear that genetic factors driving the cancers that recur are different from those found in the cancers that do not. This discovery could enable doctors to identify patients at high risk of their cancer returning and to target the genes responsible for recurrence when the cancer is first diagnosed in order to prevent its return.

Attacking acute myeloid leukemia A team of researchers has demonstrated that a molecule isolated from sea sponges and later synthesized in the lab, can halt the growth of acute myeloid leukemia cells and could open the door to a new treatment for leukemia.

Multi-gene test enables some breast cancer patients to safely avoid chemotherapy The best evidence to date has been provided that suggests that a 21-gene test done on the tumor can identify breast cancer patients who can safely avoid chemotherapy.

Brain Research: Call for help to killer cells improves cancer rejection ♦ Bringing anti-cancer technology to market ♦ Death-associated protein' promotes cancer growth

Call for help to killer cells improves cancer rejection Many tumors are infiltrated by cells of the innate immune system called eosinophils. Immunologists are now the first to show that eosinophils do, in fact, improve the body's defense against cancer. By releasing special agents, they attract killer T cells into cancerous tissue; the T cells then attack the cancer cells. This finding may help develop more effective cancer immunotherapies

Radiation experts unite to streamline cancer clinical trials Regulations on radiation exposure have been a critical bottleneck in starting up new cancer trials, but now radiation experts are pioneering a new streamlined system to reduce the time taken to set up clinical trials involving radiotherapy and other forms of ionising radiation, such as PET scans

Bringing anti-cancer technology to market New technology involves use of an antibody-based cancer therapy that down-regulates a plethora of pathways associated with resistant disease. The approach could advance treatment for patients with many forms of cancer, including breast, colorectal, lung, skin, and other epithelial-derived cancers.

Deaths attributable to cigarettes for 12 smoking-related cancers Researchers estimate that 48.5 percent of the nearly 346,000 deaths from 12 cancers among adults 35 and older in 2011 were attributable to cigarette smoking

Death-associated protein' promotes cancer growth in most aggressive breast cancers Although traditionally understood to induce death in cancer cells, researchers have discovered that the DAPK1 protein is actually essential for growth in breast and other cancers with mutations in the TP53 gene. This discovery indicates DAPK1 may be a promising new therapeutic target for many of the most aggressive cancers.

Cancer Research: Switch that might tame most aggressive of breast cancers ♦ new blood test to detect colorectal cancer ♦ Natural extract shows promise for preventing breast cancer,

Switch that might tame most aggressive of breast cancers

So-called 'triple-negative breast cancers' are two distinct diseases that likely originate from different cell types, researchers have found. They have also found a gene that drives the aggressive disease, and hope to find a way to 'switch it off'.

Bio-marker set forms the basis for new blood test to detect colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths. The chance of a cure is high if the cancer is detected early. Researchers have identified biomarkers that can be incorporated in a simple blood test. This should make it possible to detect colorectal cancer early.

MRI based on a sugar molecule can tell cancerous from noncancerous cells Imaging tests like mammograms or CT scans can detect tumors, but figuring out whether a growth is or isn't cancer usually requires a biopsy . Now results of a study suggest that MRI could one day make biopsies more effective or replace them altogether by noninvasively detecting telltale sugar molecules shed by the cancerous cells.

Natural extract shows promise for preventing breast cancer, study suggests In a new study, the extract from rose hips — the fruit of the rose plant — significantly reduced the growth and migration of cells from a type of breast cancer known as triple negative. This particularly aggressive form of cancer does not respond to most available treatments and tends to affect young women