Cancer News

Women who inherit one damaged copy of a gene called PALB2 have double the risk of developing breast cancer. And children who inherit two damaged copies have a newly identified serious disorder linked to childhood tumours, according to the findings from two papers published by scientists in Nature Genetics*.

A Cancer Research UK funded team at The Institute of Cancer Research looked for faults in the PALB2 gene in 923 women with breast cancer and a family history of the disease, not caused by the known breast cancer genes BRCA1 or BRCA2. The team also looked for faults in the PALB2 gene in 1084 healthy control women. Their discovery could eventually help identify women at greater risk of developing breast cancer. Understanding more about the specific genetic faults that lead to the disease will hopefully help with improving prevention, diagnosis and "tailor-made" treatment in the future.

THURSDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental drug prevented bone tumors in 50 percent of mice in a preclinical study, researchers report.

The results suggest this treatment may be able to prevent or treat metastatic tumors in bone, say scientists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

They determined the drug, known as VEGF121/rGel, stopped specialized cells within the bone from destroying material to make room for embedded prostate tumors. The drug may also inhibit the growth of blood vessels that feed bone tumors.

The findings appear in the current issue of Cancer Research.

Bone cancer patients in England are to be denied a life-prolonging drug which is available across the border, it has been reported.

Velcade was approved for use in Scotland in 1994 but according to the Daily Mail, the National Health Service's drug rationing body will announce next week that it is refusing to fund its use in England.